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The Globe and Mail is a serious newspaper, which generally treats facts and evidence with respect.

But one has to ask who was checking the facts when, earlier this week, it printed a series of howlers about the current state of climate science by columnist Margaret Wente.

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According to the Globe and Mail, or at least one of the five apparently like-minded individuals interviewed recently by the newspaper's "national food reporter," the Chinese government's concerns about the quality of Canadian canola seed is "simply a political trade issue that the Chinese have chosen to push forward. It's not based on science."

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I have never met or spoken to David Walmsley, who is editor of The Globe and Mail. But in many ways I admire the way he has set his paper's course in what are troubled times for the newspaper industry.

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At the bottom right-hand corner of the page her column usually occupies every Saturday, a note in The Globe and Mail yesterday said "Margaret Wente will return."

Just that. There may be no column by her today, or perhaps next week, but she will definitely return.

That should tell us several things about how Canada's most respected newspaper is handling Wente's current bout with allegations of plagiarism.