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Now emails obtained through an access to information request show how ARF’s vague communications with Parks Canada kept its fellow searchers in the dark for a week.

They also show that Parks Canada (the lead federal agency) reacted to news of the find with public enthusiasm, while behind the scenes it was trying to figure out if ARF had broken the law.

ARF found the wreck sitting quietly upright in fairly shallow water. The group has acknowledged it didn’t tell any government people for eight days, arguing there was no protocol in place for informing Parks Canada.

Now the emails show that ARF let Parks Canada believe its ship was sitting in port much of this time.

“We will plan on meeting you in the Northern Search Area for Thursday,” someone at ARF wrote to Parks Canada on Sept. 6. (Thursday was Sept. 8). Parks Canada inferred that the Bergmann would be rejoining the search. In fact, the Bergmann wouldn’t be searching for anything up north because it had already discovered the wreck to the south. It spent most of that week examining the wreck.

On Sept. 8 ARF sent another email: It said the Bergmann was delayed by the need to install a new starter. Parks Canada figured the Bergmann was in Cambridge Bay — more than 200 kilometres from the wreck site.

There was more delay on Sept. 9; ARF wrote that Bergmann had been directed (by someone whose name is blacked out in the email) “to support another priority for one day.” Parks Canada later said the Bergmann was “pursuing a priority for Jim Balsillie.”