Investigating Harvey
Accused of inventing a scandal, Harvey Cashore of the fifth estate stubbornly stuck with the Airbus story for 13 years, flummoxing skeptics who couldn't understand his obsession. Inside the mind of a dogged investigative reporter
On an August night in 2007, Luc Lavoie lounges in the shadows on the back patio behind a Montreal old boys’ club. The then-spokesperson for former prime minister Brian Mulroney cuts an ominous figure in the dark, his face half-illuminated by the glow of the club’s lights. He puffs on a cigarette in one hand […]
The Outsider
The trend among political columnists is to be more provocative and, increasingly, incendiary. Not Chantal Hébert
Chantal Hébert wasn’t ready the first time she arrived at Parliament Hill as a news writer in the fall of 1977. Her press card said Radio-Canada, but amid all the balding, wrinkled white men, she feared she was too much of a “baby face.” She was 23 at the time. “I felt like I suddenly […]
Sects and Violence
A year ago hardliners attacked Jawaad Faizi in the driveway of his editor's Mississauga, Ontario home—not the first time his writing had made him a target. The reason: his loud criticisms of certain Muslim clerics. A stirring example of journalistic integrity? Or something not nearly so noble?
Last April, at 8:50 p.m. on a quiet night, Jawaad Faizi picked up his ringing cellphone with his right hand while clutching the wheel of his car with his left. It was the voice of Amir Arain, his editor at Mississauga’s Pakistan Post, telling him he had just received an anonymous warning on his office […]
The Anderson Mystique
"As a young biracial woman, I'm struck by how journalists my age are oblivious to Doris Anderson's accomplishments. It is only because of such early feminists that my generation can do whatever we want, free of social constraints. We owe her a lot"
Doris Anderson had an impeccable manicure. The editor of Chatelaine from 1957 to 1977 loved the high-lacquer look. “When you would go into her office,” says Marjorie Harris, who wrote for the magazine in the early 1970s and was later associate editor, “she would get out her polish and start doing her nails. The smell […]
25 Years
25 Years of Watching the Watchdogs
Journalists have long been democracy’s watchdogs. The job of a good reporter, editor or producer is to monitor the powers that be and shine a light on issues and events that deserve scrutiny. Since the launch of the Ryerson Review of Journalism, we’ve followed a simple premise: monitor the watchdogs and shine a light on […]
Bloody Choices
When a school shooting spree occurs, TV news execs must make quick judgements on how much to show. A year after the Virginia Tech massacre, three Canadian broadcasters reflect on their decisions. Which one got it right?
On April 16, 2007, at 7:15 a.m., Cho Seung-Hui killed two students in West Ambler Johnston Hall, his coed residence at Virginia Tech, before returning to his dorm room, changing his clothes and deleting his school email account and computer hard drive. At 9:01 a.m. he mailed a package containing an 1,800-word essay; photographs of […]
Disputed Land, Failed Coverage
When conflict over a First Nations' land claim erupted in Caledonia, it divided a community and, sadly, the local papers, too
Karen Best relaxed at a rental cabin outside Quebec City with her family, taking a well-deserved break in July 2006. She’d spent most of the previous four and a half months covering a land claim dispute that had divided her normally peaceful home of Caledonia, Ontario, along racial lines and garnered national media attention. As […]
Heart Transplant
Open Medicine aims to restore editorial vitality and credibility to medical journals by cutting out pharmaceutical ads and paid subscriptions. But will this bold operation improve its chances of survival?
On a wet morning in late November, Anita Palepu, co-editor of Open Medicine (OM), tries to connect her laptop to the overhead monitor in the boardroom at the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation inside the Toronto General Hospital’s R. Fraser Elliott building. About 30 OM board members mingle around her, introduce themselves to one another […]
Family Planning
The Success of Today's Parent has delivered a baby boomlet of new competitiors. Cute kids and Q-Tips around, but where's the adult journalism?
It’s a windy Saturday afternoon and hundreds of families are sweeping in and out of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the annual Today’s Parent Baby and Toddler Show. They cruise along the aisles, checking out booths advertising the latest toys, baby food, diapers, camcorders and even designer baby slings. Some parents take a break, […]
London Calling
Budget Cuts and Editorial Neglect at The Free Press: A cast Study in How Newspapers are Losing Readers—and Respect
The London Free Press lobby is airy and, like the rest of the building, created out of warm autumn-brown bricks imported from Pennsylvania. There is a winding staircase leading to what used to be the publisher’s office and radio rooms. Behind the long front desk, the receptionist sits and answers the phone. After finishing a […]
