It was difficult enough that the Vancouver Canucks were grieving their former player Rick Rypien, who died suddenly on Monday at 27 after a history of depression. Imagine their feelings when they saw a quote from the Toronto Star’s obit on Rypien that seemed to show GM Mike Gillis calling Rypien “crazy.”

— via “Canucks enraged by Toronto Star gaffe,” a report from the Globe and Mail.

Here’s the full apology:

An Aug. 16 article about the death of former Vancouver Canuck Rick Rypien misquoted Canucks general manager Mike Gillis as having referred to Rypien as “crazy” in an interview with the Vancouver Sun last November when Rypien took a personal leave from the Canucks. In fact, Gillis never said that. What he said in an interview with Vancouver Sun columnist Iain MacIntyre was: “When you come to know somebody and realize they’re a really good person, who has their heart in the right place and wants to do the right thing not only for themselves but for others, you have to support them. You don’t only support them when they’re at the top of their game and doing everything you want. You support them when they’re not feeling good about things or have other issues they have to deal with.” The Star apologizes for this error.

Thanks, K!

Thanks, John!

It’s been fixed.

In fact the gates were named for Edward, Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VIII, and his brother Prince George, not his brother Prince Albert, who became King George VI.

In a recent column, we advised a motorcyclist who experienced a vehicle fire while travelling in New Mexico that he could notify the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of this event since it occurred in the United States.

Subsequently, a reader requested a correction be printed because “the fire occurred in New Mexico, not the U.S.A.”

With all due respect to our reader, New Mexico is indeed a member state of the United States of America.

Congress admitted New Mexico as the 47th state in the Union on Jan. 6, 1912.

As a Canadian, I hang my head in shame.

Thanks, Tony!

… The Star published 328 corrections in 2010, down slightly from 347 in 2009. While no journalist is ever pleased about any errors, that’s less than one identified published error for every day the Star publishes. Not a bad track record given that we publish the equivalent of a book daily.

On the accuracy front, last year proved to be a substantial improvement over past years. We published 425 corrections in 2008; 497 in 2007 and the all-time high of 512 corrections in 2006.

Still, there were some doozies in 2010. As detailed in my May 22 column, a May 18 article reported a name of a young man gunned down in a gang murder. But the high-school student named in the Star had nothing to do with the incident and was very much alive — much to the relief of his mother, who informed me of this egregious error.

In June, while reporting on G8 security measures in Muskoka, the Star told readers that a local man “has a gun at the ready should protesters get by the army of police and soldiers scouring the brushes.” In fact, what the man had said in a jovial way was: “I’ve got an Easton 32 in the house.”

As reported in our immediate correction, the Easton 32 is a baseball bat, not a gun. The Star apologized to the man for this misunderstanding on the part of an embarrassed reporter who has some familiarity with baseball bats, having once swung a few for the Star’s team …

– via Our year in ‘misteaks,’ a column by Toronto Star public editor Kathy English.

It should be easy for you to tell us when we have erred.

– via English: Now, readers are fact checkers, a column by Toronto Star public editor Kathy English. She writes about the Report an Error Alliance and quotes me. The Star is one of the founding members of the Alliance.

Thanks, @PhilMoscovitch!