The Feminine Mistake
When the Women's Television Network needed to increase its ratings, it brought in Rhoda and Mary Tyler Moore and cancelled a promising public affairs show that represented everything WTN claimed it wanted to be
The commercial break is over. A camera pans the studio of the current affairs program POV: Women and then pulls in tight on host Sylvia Sweeney’s face as she begins her introduction. She tells us that her next guest is Carol Camper, a woman of mixed race and author of Miscegenation Blues. Sweeney turns to […]
The Little Gay Paper that Grew
Xtra! is as sexually and politically provocative as ever. But that hasn't stopped mainstream advertisers from wanting a piece of the action
The green neon words that throb out into the street are the most noticeable part of the Carlsberg Light billboard that hangs on the red brick wall above Novack’s Drug Store. “Great Pride Makes a Great Beer” it reads in an obvious reference to the gay pride that fills the neighbourhood, the corner, the people […]
Character Study
East meets west: the cultural evolution of Toronto's three Chinese dailies
On October 11, 1995, Toronto’s Sing Tao newspaper changed the face of mainstream Canadian journalism forever. At a lavish event held on the Board of Trade floor inside First Canadian Place, a large crowd ate hors d’oeuvres, drank from an open bar and applauded when the editor of one of the country’s premier publications took […]
In the line of fire
Corporal Daniel Gunther was 2 when he was killed in Bosnia. Why did it take so long for the truth about his death to come out? An investigation into military coverage.
On a narrow road in the hills of Bosnia, Daniel Gunther, a Canadian infantry corporal, sat in the turret hatch at a white armoured vehicle. The midday sun blazed down on the parked carrier as he surveyed the landscape ahead through a bulky pair of binoculars that he held just under his light blue United […]
Why Did the Journalist Cross the Road?
To get to the PR side and put a fresh spin on a stale career
It is June 1975 and Sally Barnes is climbing the red-carpeted stairs to the press gallery at Queen’s Park, home of the Ontario Legislature, as she has done almost every day for the past five years. This day, however, isn’t like the others. Barnes has just made one of the most difficult decisions of her […]
Boosterism: 1 Journalism: 0
In the rush to prevent the Jets from leaving town, fans worked themselves into a frenzy while the Winnipeg media was caught offside
FIRST PERIOD On Saturday April 15, 1995, Hockey Night in Canada host Ron Maclean invited Winnipeg Free Press sports columnist Scott Taylor to be his guest during the second intermission. That night, fans in Western Canada and Ontario watched as the Toronto Maple Leafs battled the Jets in Winnipeg. The score was 2 to 1 […]
Missing the Boat
Project Censored Canada's mandate is to shine light on under-reported stories. But to do that successfully, it has to do a better job of illuminating itself
I have never seen Carl Jensen, but as I listen to him speak over the phone from his home in Cotati, California. I picture a joyous, reassuring grandfather, a buoyant Papa Smurf of a man. “You have to remain optimistic when you do what I’ve been doing for 20 years,” he tells me in his […]
Someone’s in the Kitchen with Rona
When Rona Maynard became editor at Chatelaine, she called her magazine Canada's biggest kitchen table. Her intention was to serve up food for thought. But right now, we're getting too many leftovers
On this crisp autumn Sunday, Rona Maynard is right where I want her—in the kitchen. Her north Toronto house sits on the edge of a tree-gilled ravine, and the bright red, orange and yellow leaves beyond the sliding doors infuse warmth into the modern room. On the wall by the round, wooden kitchen table hangs […]
Sympathy for the Devil
In which our correspondent confronts John Haslett Cuff, perhaps the most hated man in Canadian TV, and figures out the nature of his game
I am sitting on a dark green leather love seat while John Haslett Cuff towers above me, stretching out his arms and gripping a bottle of champagne in his right hand. “DOM PERIGNON, 1985! A HUNDRED-DOLLAR BOUQUET OF FLOWERS!!!” he yells, cradling his arms to hold the imaginary floral arrangement. “They were sent to me […]
Courtroom Trauma
Burnout on the Bernardo beat. How three reporters lived with a monster
Barbara Brown squats close to the pavement outside the Ontario Courthouse, General Division, at 361 University Avenue in Toronto. Her left arm is straight up in the air, clutching her Sony microcassette tape recorder. Her arm is aching beyond belief. Brown, 43, who describes herself as a “tough-chick crime reporter,” has been on the crime […]
