Arielle Piat-Sauvé was the Spring 2015 Senior Editor of the RRJ In memoriam
A young muslim journalist discovers that when it comes to the coverage of honour killings in Canada, truth is often the first casualty
It’s May 2012, and I’m visiting my grandparents in Karachi, Pakistan. Though it’s spring, the city has been hit with a heat wave. Luckily, there haven’t been any power outages in the past few hours; my hair is off my neck in a loose bun at the top of my head, and I can feel the light breeze from a ceiling […]
Silence of the labs
Why the federal government's attempt to muzzle its scientists hinders public knowledge and damages science discourse in Canada
ENVIRONMENT CANADA SCIENTIST David Tarasick helped identify the largest ozone hole in the Arctic, and Postmedia reporter Mike De Souza has finally secured an interview in late October 2011, after almost three weeks of bureaucratic delays. Towards the end of the conversation, De Souza asks why the phone call took so long to set up. “Have you been extremely busy and […]
In transition
When even Canada's top LGBT publication struggles to find the right words, will journalists ever accurately reflect the complexities within the trans community?
Elisha Lim, a well-known Canadian queer activist, graphic novelist and celebrated artist, hoped the transition into living as gender queer—an identity that rejects the limitations of the binary female and male, and trades “she” for “they” and “her” for “their”—would be relatively easy. The pronoun change was quickly becoming a contemporary trend in Lim’s community: many of their acquaintances were already […]
The Mission
The 180-year-old United Church Observer remains a shining light among religious publications. As congregations dwindle, however, how long can it continue to tackle controversy and wrestle with the meaning of faith?
After a Sunday service in December, about 70 people from the Bloor Street United Church congregation gather in McClure Hall for their monthly luncheon. Barb Janes, Pat Janes, Bev Peters and two other churchgoers sit at a table, munching from plates piled with vegetarian lasagna, salad and dessert treats. Their conversation swerves from the federal […]
Rookie of the Year
The challenge for new Toronto Life editor Sarah Fulford: rejuvenate a tired product. The result: a fresher, brasher approach that often generates more heat than enlightenment
Sarah Fulford had too much to drink last night. Or so she says. Though she claims she’s a little hungover from her “celebration and debauchery,” she shows her usual poise. It’s early evening, November 5, less than 24 hours since Barack Obama made history and Toronto is still abuzz with excitement. But on the second […]
What about Bob?
Robert Hurst's decisions at CTV News have consequences. A Liberal leader stepped down. Viewers saw a killer's manifesto. A network revitalized its populist appeal. A case study in aggressive editorial leadership
Stéphane Dion, looking tired in his stiff charcoal suit, and Steve Murphy, six-o’clock-news anchor for atv Halifax, sit in upholstered chairs in a downtown hotel room as the light on the camera clicks red and the tape begins to record. After an exchange of pleasantries, Murphy asks the then Liberal leader, “The economy is now […]
The Man Who Flipped Off Trudeau
Québec journalist Michel Vastel was the troublemaker politicians feared, colleagues revered and readers cheered. The fight was his edge
It was an interminable sermon, everyone agreed. And then a scream. It’s 1988 and Pierre Trudeau has returned to Parliament Hill to dissuade a Senate committee from backing the Meech Lake Accord. He speaks ever deliberately, ever persuasively-and almost entirely in English. But a cry cuts short the spiel in the high-ceilinged room. Michel Vastel […]
Barbed Relations
Does the military try to co-opt journalists? Of course it does. Do journalists push the limits? Of course they do. Our writer reports from the front lines of hide and seek
On an eerily quiet May 2008 afternoon, a Canadian soldier shows us around the deserted, boxy homes of this Kandahar terrain. Dressed in Afghan garb and military wear-a purplish-brown tunic and pants, contrasted by a sand-camouflage vest and black reflective sunglasses-he directs our attention to an open field where an old car sits. A Taliban […]
One Powerful Union Tactic
The inside story of the labour-management conflict at Le Journal de Québec
$5 Million 40,000 Daily Copies 317 Editions 137 Locked-Out Employees 115 Striking Staffers 15 Months 12 Replacement Workers 1 Powerful Union Tactic The inside story of the labour-management conflict at Le Journal de Québec A burly security guard lifts a panel of metal fencing, carries it a couple of feet, and sets it down next […]
Missing Links
There’s a divide between what we should know about science and what we learn from most newspapers. Why Anne McIlroy is one of the few journalists bridging the gap between the dinosaur era and the 21st century—and beyond
From her desk overlooking the Parliament Buildings and beyond to Gatineau, Anne McIlroy is secretly collecting shiny objects. Little pieces of information that, by themselves, are not particularly significant. They slide innocuously into plain brown folders and remain hidden from the world until she can find the unifying concept that will consolidate them into a […]
