The Thin Blue Line
Nick Pron is convinced he's found the balance between being too friendly with the cops and too critical of them. Judging by the number of cops and journalists who no longer speak to him, he's succeeded
I first meet Nick Pron outside the police tribunal room at Toronto Police Headquarters. He is dressed in black and his six-foot-seven frame towers above me. He has intense green eyes and buzzed silver hair and he smiles an easy smile. We introduce ourselves and he tells me to turn off my cellphone, joking, “to […]
The Wrong Arm of the Law
How three investigative reporters, Stevie Cameron, Andrew McIntosh, and Juliet O'Neill, got so close to the story that they became the story
When Juliet O’Neill’s garbage went missing from the curb one Wednesday morning in January 2004, theOttawa Citizen reporter suspected something was up. The night before, like every Tuesday night, she had placed her garbage by the street for the next day’s pickup. When she left for work on Wednesday morning, her garbage was gone – but […]
At a Loss for Words
More visuals, fewer words: the new artistic renaissance in Canadian magazines and newspapers
On a late wintry afternoon, Dave Donald zigzags through the magazine aisles at the Indigo bookstore in downtown Toronto. Chatelaine‘s former senior associate art director points to New York magazine. “There’s a lot of buzz around this,” he says. Then he looks for Chatelaine and Canadian Living, commenting, “Must be in family mags.” Sure enough, he twirls around and finds both […]
Back When the Scoop was King
And nobody cared much about journalistic ethics. Jocko Thomas's 60 years on the police beat
In 1942, Gwyn “Jocko” Thomas went to Cobourg, Ontario, to cover the murders of a private detective named William Wallace Cunningham and his assistant, Agnes Fardella. The detective specialized in staging adulterous events for clients who wanted divorce papers. The pair had been shot in the middle of the night on the side of Highway […]
The Conscience of Nunavut
After 25 years with the Nunatsiaq News, some would say Jim Bell is too hard on the troubled territory. Others say he's just what it needs
In Inuktitut, the word used for news is pivalliajut. Its literal translation is “things that are gradually developing.” For Jim Bell, editor of the weekly Nunavut newspaper, Nunatsiaq News, things always seem to be developing too gradually. This early November morning, for instance, he is fed up with the persistence of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in the […]
Anatomy of a Libel
Mark McQueen versus the National Post—no one leaves the room smiling
It was a quiet Sunday evening early in May 2002 at the McQueen home in the Annex in downtown Toronto. Mark and his wife had just settled at the table, ready to enjoy their prime rib dinner, when the phone rang. It was the National Post‘s chief business correspondent, Theresa Tedesco. She was calling to advise […]
Growing Old Disgracefully
In order to fend off the National Post, the Old Lady of Front Street tarted herself up. Should she have bothered?
Edward Greenspon stands in front of a class of 25 journalism students. Dressed in a yellow shirt, striped tie, and jacket, he is dwarfed by the bulky wooden podium before him. It’s late 2004 and he is here to speak about newsroom leadership. Although he is the editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, Greenspon seems uncomfortable […]
After Honderich
Giles Gherson stands in the middle of the sprawling and bustling Toronto Star newsroom. He’s waiting for a photographer from his former paper, The Globe and Mail, to take his picture. It’s early October and Gherson finds himself in the rather uncomfortable position of making the news, rather than being among the legions who write and edit it. […]
Distrust, Disdain, Deceit
The rocky relationship between journalists and activists: why it doesn't work—and how it can
“Cover the riots,” instructed Lisa Gregoire’s editors. Her bosses at the Edmonton Journal had a clear idea of the stories they expected to see from the 2002 G8 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. But when there were no riots to cover, Gregoire started producing articles with headlines such as “Calgary March Proves Critics Wrong,” and “G8 […]
Tech War
In Iraq, on the strangest "stakeout" of my career: a report from the front lines of technology and journalism
A red-hot email alerted me: my CBS television news team had to mobilize fast. We left Baghdad in a convoy of SUVs, with the all-important satellite truck, SAT phones, and laptops heading for Tikrit, where Saddam Hussein had been captured. Only a few hours later, our genius satellite truck operator got us on the air […]
