This is a joint byline for the Ryerson Review of Journalism. All content is produced by students in their final year of the graduate or undergraduate program at the Ryerson School of Journalism. The Earth According to Suzuki
Testing the methods of a scientist turned journalist turned environmental activist
“This used to be a forest,” says David Suzuki, standing in a wasteland of tangled roots and jagged stumps near Tofino Creek on Vancouver Island. Walking towards the camera, he continues: “It’s a typical example of clear-cut logging, that accounts for well over 90 percent of all trees cut in British Columbia. It’s crude and […]
The True North
Strong and free and ignored
A: Toronto B: Calgary C: Baker Lake, NWT. You’d be right only about the centre of Canadian insularity if you chose A. But we are trying to pinpoint the geographical centre-the exact heart of our nation. If you guessed Baker Lake, NWT, you win this round. And if you already knew that Baker Lake is […]
Paved with good intentions
When I first meet Peter Armstrong, he’s sitting at his desk eating chocolate-chip cookies. “I’ve got about 10 extra pounds of chocolate on me,” he says, laughing. “Do you want one?” As a recovering alcoholic, Armstrong is all too familiar with how one addiction can replace another. In fact, this idea is central to the […]
The Snooze at Six
...and seven, and eight and what sometimes seems forever on Newsworld
Right off, an ugly problem stood between me and my assignment to write a piece on CBC Newsworld, “the all-news channel for Canadians.” I would have to watch it. Try it sometime. While you yawn your way through another Capital Report or Ontario Update you get a small dose of what it must be like […]
Looking Back on a Legend
Ralph Allen 1913-1966
Ralph Allen was angry. You could tell by the way his face changed color, and it was now a deep shade of red. The staffers of Maclean’s magazine, all sitting at tables in a private room of a Bay Street restaurant, shifted uneasily in their seats. The 1950s were drawing to a close, and Maclean’s […]
Call of the Wild
Elliptic, eclectic, esoteric, ecological, Whitney Smith's Journal of Wild Culture is as unpredictable as it is unprofitable
Leafing through Harper’s one day last year, I was struck by one stunning photograph called “The General’s Wife.” In the harsh light of what appeared to be an official assembly room, a grotesque, heavyset woman in a bright blue dress shot through with gold threads sat amid a group of Honduran military officers and glared […]
A Tough Act To Follow
Under the Broadcasting Act, the CBC was asked to be something it couldn't be: the glue to hold Canada together
In CBC newsrooms, February 1, the day the new Broadcasting Act finally lumbered through the Senate, was just another hectic day of keeping up with news from the Middle East. In the end, the controversy over Bill C-40 fizzled out like a wet firecracker, virtually unnoticed amidst the thundering of weapons in the Gulf. It […]
A Star Was Born But Nobody Noticed
The TV-jeebies of an ex-sportswriter
One thing that has eased my transition from newspaper work to television is the fact that nobody knows I’ve done it. For instance, last fall I was sitting on a bench at the Toronto island ferry dock, waiting to embark for Hanlan’s Point, when the captain of the good ship Thomas Rennie strode over. He […]
Showtime for Science
To make it on TV news, scientists must step out of character: If the role is wrong, so is much of the coverage
Every thing about the clamor for a new particle accelerator by physicists at the University of British Columbia appealed to the reporter in Eve Savory. The accelerator would produce subatomic particles – kaons, which have important medical and industrial uses-in unprecedented quantities. The kaon factory story, Savory tried to explain to her supervisors at the […]
Federal Budget, Native Deficit
As the lights dim in the auditorium of Halifax’s Micmac Native Friendship Centre, a chanter breaks into song. It’s graduation for 24 native adult students. Anita Martell, a 32-year-old mother, is one of them. Graduation, after years away from school, is a significant achievement. It’s an event that would have been well covered and widely […]
