Obstacle Course
Why are there so few disabled journalists? Physical barriers are just one part of the answer
Even if you don’t remember Jeff Adams’s name, you probably remember what he did last fall. On September 26, 2002, he climbed the 1,760 steps of the CN Tower staircase – in a modified wheelchair. What you probably never knew was why he did it. Media coverage of the Toronto event came close to saturation […]
Dead in its Tracks
Shift seemed to have as many lives as a cat. Or at least it did, until Multi-Vision Publishing put it out of its misery
It’s a cold, mid-November night, but inside at Shift‘s annual “State of the Net” party, things are heating up. The scene: the vast open space of the Guvernment, a Toronto nightclub, where the thump, thump, thump of the bass is pounding so forcefully that it feels like a second heartbeat in your chest and where […]
Watered Down
Staying afloat is no easy task in the tiny publishing world of Atlantic Canada. The surest way to smooth sailing? Don't make waves
Coastlife magazine was conceived in November 1998 around a coffee table laden with a pot of tea, mugs and bowls of hummus and chips. Kyle Shaw, Christine Oreskovich, Catherine Salisbury and Heidi Hallet had gathered at Shaw and Oreskovich’s Halifax home for the fall board meeting of The Coast, at the time a five-year-old weekly […]
Apocalypse Bob
"An eco-shitstorm is coming," says Citytv ecology specialist and Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter. Out to save the world, he's partisan, pissed off and proud of it
It’s 4:30 a.m. Bob Hunter turns off his alarm clock, steps into his slippers and selects a robe from one of nearly a dozen in his closet. In the bathroom, he gathers his long, thin, greying hair and ties it back into a ponytail, splashes cold water on his face and hooks his dark-rimmed glasses […]
Bad Boys, Booze and Bylines
The rise and demise of the Toronto Press Club
The press club door had a buzzer in those days. You had to ring the buzzer and then wait for the door to open. On this night, someone is leaning on the buzzer. Inside, as the door opens, turned heads watch with surprise-and no surprise-as Duncan Macpherson falls through to the floor. He’s drunk, with […]
The Outsiders
Down in the back alleys of Canadian publishing, three feisty and rebellious cultural magazines are ready to rumble
Stephen Osborne can be an intimidating guy. Even some long-time members of his own staff think so. Maybe it’s the beard. With his greying whiskers, a steely, confrontational stare and a manic twinkle behind his wire-rimmed spectacles, the founding editor and publisher of Vancouver’s Geist magazine conjures a cross between the ghosts of Rasputin and […]
Scandalous Behaviour
When journalists find themselves in the gossip columns, the knives come out
December 19, 2002: Despite his insider status, even gossip columnist Shinan Govani can get shut out. At Toronto’s trendy King Street lounge, Mint et Menthe, the National Post‘s “Scene” columnist was turned back from the Next modeling agency’s private Christmas party. “This is a Nelly Furtado moment!” declared Govani’s gal-pal, journalist and art afficionado Si […]
Writers’ Block
Why too many journalists get crunched by numbers—and why their stories often don't add up
The Kansas City Star spent more than four years researching the prevalence of AIDS in the priesthood and 18 months interviewing experts and priests, and examining church documents and death certificates to ensure that what it was putting out was accurate journalism. In January 2000, the Star published an 11-article series built around the “fact” […]
Dances with Journalists
A Mohawk writer on media racism
“And everyone laughed. It was so preposterous, as if I said to you that the world is flat. People don’t realize how unanimous and overwhelming the conventional wisdom was.” – Michele Landsberg, recalling an incident in the 1950s as a first-year student at the University of Toronto. She had told a group of students that […]
Tune in, turn on, print out
It's time Canadian journalists tap into computer-assisted reporting
Journalism has seen many evolutions-advocacy, gonzo, investigative and new journalism have all made their impact. But it’s precision journalism which may bring about the biggest change. Any journalist can join the movement. All it takes is a computer. Finding the unfindable is one goal of precision journalists. Adept statisticians, they are motivated by calculating precise […]
