Nicholas Moreau wrote:
Currently, Wikimedia Canada doesn't exist. There's no official spokesperson for the organization, or board of trustees, so we're technically all on the same level. By that point, if anyone speaks as Wikimedia Canada, and say something stupid, is as if it's the official opinion or statement of Wikimedia Canada itself.
(I'm a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Communications Committee, but despite the title, when I speak to the press, I speak as a random volunteer that happens to do something that most volunteers don't do, not as a rep of Wikimedia.)
If you speak to the press, speak for yourself, as Andrew has done.
Once we get Wikimedia Canada up and running, we can actively court the media with our own press releases about content agreements with museums and archives, reviews and contributions to articles and other content by local professional organizations, whatever kind of projects we have.
And the latter would still be only as spokesman of Wikimedia Canada, not as a spokesman for the WMF.
Ideally almost all press communications would be as individuals, but it is easy to be mistaken as speaking for an organization even when you deny that you have that capacity. Unless the press can cut these corners it has difficulty composing snappy sound bites. Official spokesmen are frequently misquoted and misinterpreted.
What it often comes down to when someone falsely represents his role in Wikipedia is that there is no practical way of dealing with them.
Ray