Breaking faith: are religious newspapers reporting or preaching?
Why Christian outlets are now PR arms of the churches they once held accountable
By Luc Rinaldi I don’t have a story. That’s my first thought as I emerge from a downtown subway station on an overcast October afternoon in 2011. I’m on assignment to cover a pro-life rally for The Catholic Register, a Toronto-based religious weekly, but the small turnout—two dozen picketers line the sidewalk—hardly constitutes news. As I […]
Why conservative columnists can’t live up to Peter Worthington
In May 1976, three Mounties walked into Peter Worthington’s glass-walled Toronto Sun office with a search warrant. They wanted a leaked RCMP letter that contained information about Canadians charged with espionage and treason, which the Sun editor had recently mentioned in a column. He refused to hand it over. When they pleaded for a hint, […]
Cottage Life 2.0
From tabletops to laptops, Canada's most rustic magazine goes digital
Walking into the Cottage Life offices—located in a repurposed house in downtown Toronto—you are immediately greeted by two large Muskoka chairs. Sitting in these chairs encourages you to lounge back, relax and take in all of the products surrounding you. Everything from Cottage Lifesweaters, towels and baseball hats to cottage-themed chess sets, decks of cards and […]
Rob Ford: Professor of Journalism
What the Toronto Mayor's reign of error has taught me about difficult municipal politicians and the people who cover them
[Text contains three clarifications to original article as published in the RRJ print edition:] When I started my journalism studies at Ryerson University, I naively thought I would be learning how to be a good reporter from the professors and practitioners visiting my classroom. Boy was I wrong. It isn’t the classroom that provides the answers to how to […]
Fixated
What drives a little-known investigative journalist from Ottawa to expose a massive cheating scandal at the heart of worldwide pro soccer?
We begin in Germany during the 2006 World Cup of soccer. There are thousands of fans inside the main stadium at Dortmund, watching Brazil take on Ghana for a berth in the quarterfinals. The majority support Brazil. They won’t be disappointed; within six minutes the South Americans are up 1–0. The stadium erupts as fans dressed in yellow, […]
The media diet
Why the wellness beat has become an unappetizing blend of sensational headlines, mixed messages and unhealthy reporting
Few shoppers here are in a hurry. It’s a hot, late-August afternoon, and Carrot Common is dappled with shade. Two young women sit outside with organic takeout boxes, their feet sporting charity-chic Toms shoes. To their left, a bulletin board advertises holistic nutritionists and alternative health therapies. To their right, a juice bar churns out murky green detox smoothies and blood-red beet juice. At […]
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 […]
Fed up and craving change
South Asians seeking open discussion of controversial community issues finally find what they're looking for
STEPPING INSIDE A GOLDEN GROCERIES IN BRAMPTON, ONTARIO, on a Thursday evening in October, visitors are greeted with the scent of Indian spices and a song from a famous Hindi movie soundtrack playing over the PA. Shoppers at the Indian chain select their Haldiram snacks and Parle-G biscuits along with their tomatoes and soda. Many of the patrons here also come […]
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 […]
