MEDIATHE CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF JOURNALISTS • SUMMER 2013 • VOLUME 15, NUMBER FOUR

MEDIA A PUBLICATION OF THE CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF JOURNALISTS

EDITOR LEGAL ADVISOR ART DIRECTION and DESIGN David McKie David McKie Peter Jacobsen, Bersenas Jacobsen Chouest Thomson CONTRIBUTORS EDIOTORIAL BOARD Blackburn LL P Glen McGregor, Tim Bousquet, Alison Motluk, Joseph Chris Cobb ADVERTISING SALES Loiero, Lynne Robson, Steve Buist, Darryl Dyck, Jim Bronskill, Catherine Ford Jon Wells, Marc Ellison, Scott White, Tyler Anderson, Heather Michelle MacAfee David McKie Scoffield, James Bagnall, Barb Sweet, Ed Kaiser, Peter Power, Lindsay Crysler 1-613-290-7380 Catherine Porter, Mark Wanzel John Gushue Rob Cribb Rob Washburn

PHOTO AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE: HOLD ON!: Traffic in the north bound lanes comes to a halt as members of the Barrie Police struggle to rescue a man hanging from the Dunlop Street Bridge. Mark’s Wanzel’s photo was the National Newspaper’s 2012 news photography winner. Find out how the rescue attempt turned out on page 69. PHOTO CREDIT: MARKWANZEL/THE BARRIE EXAMINER/QMI

COVER PHOTO: TROUBLE AT THE POLLS: A demonstrator holds a sign in , Sunday, March 11, 2012, protesting the ‘Robocall’ election fraud scandal. The robocolls story won awards in each category featured in this special editiion, including the 2012 Governor General’s Michener Award. Read Glen McGregor’s account on page 11 of he broke the story with Stephen Maher. PHOTO CREDIT: /Graham Hughes

2 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 • VOLUME 15, NUMBER FOUR SUMMER 2013 • VOLUME 15, NUMBER FOUR http://www.caj.ca/?p=391 http://www.caj.ca/?p=391

MEDIA 29 SCOOP – The Canadian Press – ’s torture memos – Jim Bronskill – It had seemed that the federal government learned valuable lessons after the detainment and torture of Maher Arar. Jim Bronskill used access- Table of contents to-information requests to obtain documents that raised doubts about what, if anything, CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF JOURNALISTS AWARDS EDITION the government truly learned. 31 DAILY EXCELLENCE – Sun – Brazen killing may be gang retaliation/Sandip Duhre 7 FIRST WORD - The Robocalls story was this year’s big winner. was shot to death – Kim Bolan

9 COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER and DON MCGILLIVRAY AWARD – The Coast – A trust betrayed 33 PRINT FEATURE – Hamilton Spectator – “He sang with all his heart” – Jon Wells – – Tim Bousquet’s story that took home the CAJ’s grand prize had all the hallmarks of a classic investigative Chris Skinner’s story was already well-known by the time Jon Wells was assigned to piece: Trips to the court house, manila envelopes, early morning meetings with a reluctant source, culminating write about the teenager’s death. Still, he told his readers about aspects of with a confrontation with the unrepentant perpetrator – the former Halifax mayor. Skinner’s life that they had never read.

11 OPEN NEWSPAPER/WIRE SERVICE AWARD – The Citizen and Postmedia News – 35 JHR / CAJ AWARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTING – CBC News - The National – Seeking Robocalls and their impact on voting - Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher – Glen McGregor explains how the Safety – Nahlah Ayed, Diane Grant – The Roma face persecution in Hungary. The CBC team, two political reporters learned about, and pursued a story that still resonates on . with the help of Ed Ou, documented one family’s journey from Hungary to Canada.

13 MAGAZINE – Maisonneuve Magazine - Is egg donation dangerous? – That’s a question Alison Motluk 37 CAW CANADA / CAJ AWARD FOR LABOUR –Briarpatch – tried to answer after interviewing several women. Interns, unite! (you have nothing to lose -- literally) – Greig de Peuter, Nicole Cohen and Enda Brophy – 15 OPEN TELEVISION (UNDER FIVE MINUTES), CTV News – XL Foods investigation – It was the The three academics write about efforts to combat largest beef recall in Canadian history that exposed weaknesses in Canada’s food-safety system. unpaid internships.

17 OPEN TELEVISION (MORE THAN FIVE MINUTES) – CBC News - Investigative Unit – 39 CAJ / CNW GROUP STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE - - Carleton University - Fatal Deception –The asbestos industry used research from McGill University to prove the product’s safety. The Girls of War - Marc Ellison - It was a simple question that forced Marc Ellison to think differently about Joseph Loiero and his crew dug into evidence that challenged McGill’s research. former child soldiers in Northern Uganda. The answer became his story’s focus.

19 REGIONAL TELEVISION – CBC North - Maamuitaau – Breaking the mold – Melissa Brousseau - Af- NATIONAL NEWSPAPER AWARDS ter much complaining about the mold in their homes, it was the image of ten-month old Joe Ray, his face cov- ered with hard black scabs, that finally got people’s attention. Lynne Robson of theMaamuitaau team explains 41 MULTIMEDIA FEATURE – The Canadian Press – for a census project that looked at how they convinced the Cree community to open up about its moldy homes that were making many people sick. Canada’s changing society – Scott White got the idea to use census data to tell stories after a conversation that got him thinking. 21 OPEN RADIO NEWS/CURRENT AFFAIRS – CBC Radio/The Sunday Edition – Wanted: Egg donor in good health – Alison Motluk read lots about infertile women receiving eggs, but precious little about the donors. 43 NEWS FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY – National Post – for a photo of a worker snoozing in the back What she found was surprising. during a mayor speech at a Toronto Real Estate Board gathering – Tyler Anderson – With controversy surrounding the Toronto mayor, the award-winning photo represented the 23 DATA JOURNALISM – Hamilton Spectator – Condition Critical – Steve Buist – Building on success calm before the storm for Tyler Anderson. from the previous Code Red series, Steve Buist used his science background to rate ’s 14 Local Health Integration Networks. 45 BEAT REPORTING – The Canadian Press – for stories on Aboriginal affairs – Heather Scoffield – It’s a juxtaposition of worlds. A vast mining development in the James Bay 25 PHOTOJOURNALISM – The Canadian Press – portfolio – Darryl Dyck calls it storytelling photojour- region of Northern Ontario poised to deliver billions in profits, and the nine nalism. This art form requires a lot of skill, including composition, character development – and luck. communities struggling with addiction and poverty. It was a story that Heather Scoffield thought she’d never be able to tell.

3 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 4 47 EXPLANATORY WORK – The – for the story behind the coverage of the criminal trial – James Bagnall – The deeper James Bagnall probed allegations that three former Nortel executives cooked the company’s books, the more he realized that his assumptions were wrong.

11 POLITICS – The Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News – for a look at robocalls and their impact on voting – Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher – Glen McGregor explains how the two political reporters learned about, and pursued a story that still resonates on Parliament Hill.

49 SHORT FEATURES – Free Press – for a piece on a Scanterbury resident who built a giant red chair to honour the community’s ditch wavers – Lindor Reynolds

51 LOCAL REPORTING – St. John’s Telegram – for the enduring fallout of the sexual abuse tragedy at the Mount Cashel orphanage – Barb Sweet – She interviewed the survivors – and the cop who claimed cover up. 67 LONG FEATURES – The Toronto Star – for a story on the life and death of an 53 PRESENTATION – Toronto Star – The paper experimented with a graphic ordinary woman who led a magical life – Toronto Star team – novel of reporter Katie Daubs’ two-week stay indoors, and in Family and friends shared their memories of Shelagh Gordon Toronto’s underground PATH system – with The Star journalists. Catherine Porter tells us how the newspaper’s project unfolded. Spencer Wynn, Nuri Ducassi, Raffi Anderian, Katie Daubs 69 NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY – Barrie Examiner – for a dramatic shot of a police officer 55 SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY – – for a photo of trying desperately to hold on to a man attempting to jump from an overpass joyous soccer star Christine Sinclair at the Olympics – Ed Kaiser – on to a busy highway – Mark Wanzel – His photograph captured the pain and joy of winning the bronze medal in the face The Examiner photographer unexpectedly captured the life-and-death struggle on camera. and gesture of a central figure. 70 EDITORIALS – – for an editorial on former Ontario premier, Dalton Mc- 57 BUSINESS – – for stories of the power struggle at – Guinty’s perilous route to a failed majority government – John Roe Jacquie McNish, Brent Jang, Sean Silcoff 71 SPORTS – Toronto Star – for a series on high-tech hockey sticks – Dave Feschuk 59 COLUMNS – The Globe and Mail – for an editorial that exposed France’s contradictory attitudes on the economy – Doug Saunders 73 INTERNATIONAL REPORTING – La Press (Montreal) – for a story of the toll the Syrian war is taking on its citizens – Michèle Ouimet 60 EDITORIAL CARTOONING – La Press (Montreal) – for an editorial that tied the fortunes of Toronto mayor Rob Ford to his disgraced counterparts in 75 BREAKING NEWS – La Press (Montreal) – for stories of Luka Magnotta, the man accused Montreal, Laval and Mascouche – Serge Chapleau of killing and dismembering a Montreal student – Gabrielle Duchaine, Vincent Larouche, Daphné Cameron, Isabelle Audet, Jean-Thomas Léveilleé 61 INVESTIGATIONS – Toronto Star – for an investigation into why Toronto police knowingly lie – David Bruser and Jesse McLean 77 PROJECT OF THE YEAR – La Press (Montreal) – for a project on alternative healers – La Press team

63 ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT – The Globe and Mail – for a story of a Canadian adult entertainment 11 THE GOVERNOR GENERAL’S MICHENER AWARD – The Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News – star’s success in Bollywood – Stephanie Nolen for a look at robocalls and their impact on voting – Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher

65 FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY – The Globe and Mail – for a photo of a woman PHOTO AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE – PROUD TO BE CANADIAN: Adrian Pernalete, left, and his wife Virginia Pernalete, right, embrace at a palliative-care hospice embracing a social worker during the final their children; 10-year-old Andrea, bottom centre, and 13-year-old Adrian as they leave the stage after being sworn in as Canadian hours of the woman’s mother – Peter Power – citizens during a special Canada Day citizenship ceremony for 60 people in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday July 1, 2012. The family is origi- The Globe photographer explains the challenges of dealing with death. nally from Venezuela. See this photo and Darryl Dyck’s other award-winners on page 25. PHOTO CREDIT: Darryl Dyck

5 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 6 From Canadian striker Christine Sin- We also have a first in this awards year: As the first data-journalism award re- clair’s anguished celebration after winning the data-journalism category, renamed cipient, Steve Buist of the Hamilton Spec- FIRST WORD the bronze medal at last year’s summer from computer-assisted reporting. As Fred tator embodies an excellent example of Olympics, to a former Halifax mayor Vallance-Jones, a pioneer who created this inclusivity, combining social science, being caught trying to rob a trust fund of the CAR award, explained in last year’s graphics, solid reporting and storytelling which he was in charge, to the Canadian awards edition, data journalism reflects the to rank Ontario’s 14 Local Health Inte- Robocalls take the top award porn porn star who unexpectedly found broader variety of techniques and skills gration Networks, a methodology more mainstream acceptance in India, this edi- journalists now use to spin narratives journalists should consider tackling. tion has it all. online: everything from the use of applica- After reading Steve’s write-up, one real- By David McKie The journalists take us behind the tion programming interfaces (APIs), to ity becomes clear: data-journalism, like its scenes, explaining how they got their sto- the interactive multi-media projects such computer-assisted reporting predecessor, ries, the obstacles they faced, and perhaps as the one The Canadian Press used to tell is still cutting-edge and poised to push most important, valuable lessons that stories behind the numbers in the 2011 the storytelling boundaries to yet-to-be others wanting to pursue similar stories census. determined limits. may learn. When I asked CAJ president, Hugo But at the end of the day, the story These awards editions have become Rodrigues to explain why the change is king. And this edition is full of great must-reads for working journalists, jour- was made, he echoed Fred’s conclusion stories told by men and women at the top nalism students and the men and women that “data journalism was a more inclu- of their game. who teach them at our universities and sive term, one used more often now than So enjoy, learn and be inspired. I know I t was no doubt the story of 2012. Now affair. Guelph was the key riding where Docs, as Glen explained to me one day colleges. CAR.” did putting this edition together. IRobocalls has the awards to prove it: residents identified as non-conservative over coffee. the National Newspaper Award politics voters were told to go to the wrong polling What is most impressive about the category winner; the Canadian Association station by someone pretending to be from reporting and MUST serve as a reminder of Journalists open newspaper/wire ser- Elections Canada. Such is not only un- to all of us, is the pursuit, follow-up, and vice winner; and, of course, the Governor democratic and deceitful, it’s illegal under the willingness to stay on top of develop- General’s Michener Award. the Elections Canada Act. ments, large and small. All too often, we The series of initial story and the many, And, of course, every great story abandon our own stories, or those from many follow-ups featured robocalls, those needs a central protagonist: in this case, other outlets, a tendency that more than automated messages political parties of all the pseudonymous and mythical Pierre one journalist in this awards edition re- stripes use to connect with voters; that is, Poutine. As Glen and Stephen reported minds us is one we should break. of course, if using a recorded voice to pass the initial story based on court documents, So, a key lesson from the robocall story: along instructions in an age of low-voter journalists from other outlets were forced do the follow-ups. Granted, this may be turnout can truly be considered a form of to match them. more difficult for broadcasters than print citizen engagement. There would be no ignoring election reporters, but with the advent of online Up until the point when the Ottawa shenanigans this time. I recall many a platforms, there is no excuse for neglect- Citizen’s Glen McGregor and Postmedia morning having to go on CBC Television’s ing to follow our stories. News’ Stephen Maher began investigating News Network to report on the latest Broadcasters, for instance, can use their the tips they were receiving, the Conserva- development contained in a McMaher websites to do updates, and use copy in tives seemed to have dodged a few bullets story. McMaher was shorthand moniker their broadcasts to push people to the fresh after stories had already emerged about our newsroom used to identify this duo. online content. Journalists can also use questionable campaign shenanigans from Impressive as the robocalls stories were, their blogs to delve into developments and previous electoral battles. this duo had teamed up before. provide context, something that some of The so-called in-and-out scandal that They mapped out the Conservatives’ our award winners do regularly. The more Glen had reported on extensively never stimulus spending – literally -- and con- we follow up, the more difficult it be- seemed to catch fire with the Parliamen- cluded that the federal cash disproportion- comes for politicians and decision-makers tary press gallery. Perhaps the story was ally benefited Tory ridings. I’m proud to to evade accountability. too complicated. Maybe stories about say that my computer-assisted reporting There are many fine stories in addition election campaigns already waged held students at Algonquin College helped with to robocalls featured in this edition, which little intrigue. Or it could have been that much of the data work. As an added bo- for the second year is a combination of too much time had passed between the nus, they got to share the 2009 Canadian award-winners for the National Newspa- story’s emergence and the party’s eventual Association of Journalists CAR award (as per Association, the Canadian Association mea cupla of sorts. Whatever the reason, it was then called, but more on that later) of Journalists and the Michener. In short, the story seemed to die the kind of natural with Glen and Stephen. with this special edition, you have some death that is all too typical on the Hill. So by the time Robocalls came along, of Canada’s finest journalists explaining But, as Glen explains in his write-up for they had working together down to an art, how they got the stories that captivated us, Media’s special awards edition, there was even taking turns writing elements within forced change, made us think, or simply something different about the robocalls the same story in a document on Google entertained.

7 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 8 CAJ Award Winner: Community Newspaper & Don McGillivray Award The second envelope was the proof I needed: Mary Thibeault’s bank records, including copies of the cheques Kelly had written to himself, The Coast – Halifax, NS – A trust betrayed – Tim Bousquet electronic transfers and ledgers to both Thibeault’s personal account and the estate account. Bingo. It was a story Tim Bousquet couldn’t let go. The deeper he probed, the more he discovered about the shenanigans of a mayor who should have known better. with him. with the provincial probate court David asked for one or two very after someone dies. All the docu- minor changes. The student found one mentation related to the estate— last typo. But then “A trust betrayed” the appointment of the executor, was okayed for publication. I needed notification of heirs, an inventory of only one more thing: to give Kelly the the deceased’s property, any court opportunity to respond. David bought orders—will be found in the same ublication of “A Trust Betrayed” went on to list a series of questionable reveal any identities. After 45 minutes, a round. We toasted. probate court file. Pin February 2012 changed Halifax actions by Kelly. The file also showed that the source handed me a manila envelope That night there was a council meet- That’s also where you’ll find any history. The Coast article detailed popular even after being reminded by a court of- beneath the table. ing. The city was then in the midst of communication related to settling three-term Mayor Peter Kelly’s problemat- ficer, it took a court order to prod Kelly to That envelope contained documents out- a transit strike, and after the meeting a the estate—between heirs and the ic role as executor of an estate of a family take care of simple preliminary paperwork lining the gist of the story, showing how dozen or so reporters from competing executor, between the court and the friend, a woman named Mary Thibeault, for the estate. Kelly had taken money from the estate. news outlets scrummed Kelly to ask executor, etc. Additionally, if the who died in 2004. That month, I wrote an article headlined What it did not contain was proof. for updates on the strike. deceased owned any real estate, and The 5,000-word piece explained how “Peter Kelly’s failure of will,” about Kel- Thus began two months of conversa- I couldn’t figure out how to corner that real estate is part of the estate, Kelly had secretly removed more than ly’s failure to settle the estate, even though tion with the source. I had to build trust. him alone, and at one point I just about the will also becomes part of the $160,000 from the estate, at one point at that time more than six years had passed We communicated, sometimes on the gave up, thinking I would have to property record, documenting the writing himself a cheque for $100,000 since Thibeault’s death. I didn’t know why phone but mostly through email, with long go sit on the mayor’s car and wait to chain of ownership. from the dead woman’s personal bank ac- Kelly had so much trouble resolving what back-and-forths, often beginning at 4 am. confront him when he went to drive As for sources, all I can say is count, and another $15,000 cheque made was a fairly simple estate that should’ve Finally, the source called me. We had a home. But then the city’s communica- like all people, they are unique and out to his son, Craig. been settled in just a few months, but I second face-to-face encounter, this time tions director appeared, and I told her I complex. I try to respect them as Then Kelly filed documents with the was able to document his failure. Kelly in a janitor’s office in the basement of an needed to speak to Kelly privately. She full people, and not just a vehicle probate court that failed to account for the refused to comment, saying the estate apartment complex. There was a second relayed the message, and Kelly left for my own purposes. six days later, Kelly’s office issued a money he had transferred to himself. As was “a personal matter.” In the article, I manila envelope. the scrum to talk to me in a city hall Especially with reluctant sources, statement saying he would not run for re- a result of Kelly’s shenanigans, the estate speculated that the delay may have been The second envelope was the proof I hallway. Remarkably, none of the other the point is to establish a full relation- election in the October contest. was still not resolved in 2012, and five connected to the development potential of needed: Mary Thibeault’s bank records, reporters followed. ship, not one of friendship, necessarily, Two weeks after “A trust betrayed” charities named in Thibeault’s will had not the Kearney Lake property. including copies of the cheques Kelly had “We’re going to print serious allegations but certainly of mutual understanding. was published, Kelly repaid $145,000 to received hundreds of thousands of dollars To my surprise, “failure of will” went written to himself, electronic transfers and about your involvement in the Thibeault Only then can you press a bit, to get more the Thibeault estate bank account. In the to which they were entitled. nowhere. No other media outlet picked up ledgers to both Thibeault’s personal ac- estate,” I started to explain. But Kelly information. months since, several of Thibeault’s heirs I first discovered Kelly’s role as execu- on the story. count and the estate account. Bingo. made it easy. He interrupted me, telling My primary source contacted and con- successfully petitioned the court to have tor of the Thibeault estate in March, 2011. Still, the unanswered questions nagged But even then it took nearly another two me it was a personal matter and he refused gratulated me after winning the Canadian Kelly removed as executor. Thibeault’s will was attached to a deed at me. I couldn’t let the story go. I at- months to write “A trust betrayed.” It is a to comment. He referred all further ques- Association of Journalists’ Don McGil- One of the petitioners eventually re- that named Kelly as having an ownership tempted to contact each of the heirs. I complicated story, with lots of detail about tions to his lawyer. livray award. Truth be told, this means placed him. In December, the new execu- interest in a small piece of land in the talked with various people who knew probate, an arcane area of law. Just figur- I called the lawyer Wednesday morn- more to me than the award itself. Human tor made more demands of Kelly, arguing woods behind Kearney Lake, an area that Thibeault when she was alive. I scoured ing out how to tell the story in a readable ing, and he likewise declined to comment. connections always trump hardware. that he should pay back taxes, interest and was potentially included in a multi-billion public records both here in Canada and in fashion was a monumental chore. Well, I had given them both the oppor- Looking back, I consider myself other costs the estate incurred because of dollar development proposal. two U.S. states, where Thibeault wintered. My editor, Kyle Shaw, was immensely tunity. I inserted a couple of paragraphs extremely fortunate to have stumbled Kelly’s inaction. The will was a public document, easily I interviewed probate lawyers, and learned helpful. Then there was the legal over- explaining as much, and got those ap- upon this story in the first place; as with Those issues were settled out of court. found by anyone simply dropping Kelly’s more about probate law than any sane sight; I went through eight re-writes with proved by David as well. We went to print most investigative work, I discovered or Finally, after more than eight years, the es- name into a computer database at the person should ever have to. I shook every David Coles, the lawyer who vetted the Wednesday night, with the paper hitting invented the reporting techniques needed tate has been resolved. The charities have property office. At the probate court, the tree I could find, hoping that something piece. the streets Thursday morning. to crack the story as I went along. been paid in full. court file for the Thibeault estate (another would fall out. On Tuesday, February 14, 2012, Valen- Twitter was abuzz by mid-morning. That, I suppose, is my ultimate advice: Incredibly, the police never investigated public document) included letters from Finally, one source connected me to a tine’s Day, Kyle and I met with David for Kelly immediately went into hiding. He first, trust your judgment. If something Kelly’s involvement in the Thibeault heirs complaining to the court about Kelly. second source. We had one of those classic a review of my final draft. David had been cancelled all public appearances, refused doesn’t pass the smell test, pursue it. And estate. “Let alone Peter Kelly’s blatant disregard investigative reporter encounters, meeting in court all day, and was wearing his court to talk to the media and failed to show shake those trees. With enough hard work, I’ve been asked if I have any tips for for fulfilling the duties of an Executor, his in the dark corner of an obscure North End dress when we met at the Hart and Thistle up at the following Tuesday’s regularly never letting go, you’ll find the way into other reporters. The mechanics of probate arrogance towards all of us beneficiaries Halifax restaurant. The source was ner- pub, overlooking the Halifax Harbour. He scheduled city council meeting. Finally, the story. are fairly straight forward. Wills are filed really angers me,” read one letter, which vous, wanting assurances that I wouldn’t was accompanied by a student articling 9 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 10 TIME TO SPEAK UP: Demonstrators gather in Montreal, Sunday, March Michener Award - CAJ Open Newspaper Award - NNA Politics Award 11, 2012, protesting the ‘Robocall’, election fraud scandal. PHOTO CREDIT: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen – Robocalls and their impact on voting – Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher

It was arguably the juiciest political story to hit Parliament Hill since the sponsorship scandal brought down ’s Liberal government in 2006. Robocalls became part of the regular lexicon. ’s Conserva- tives endured unprecedented scrutiny. Opposition politicians, pundits, advocacy groups, citizens and editorialists questioned the propriety of automated calls par- ties – of all stripes -- use to engage, or disengage voters. And, of course, who could forget the pseudonymous Pierre Poutine, the yet- in Guelph. Elections Canada had visited his offices, detective fiction than election law. to-be identified central character in the robocalls affair. Glen McGregor, also a The agency, the source told us, had but denied he had known at the time that As our stories rolled out, Elections Media magazine columnist, explains how he teamed up with Postmedia’s Ste- tracked the Guelph calls to a voice- his service had been used for the mislead- Canada was deluged by calls and emails phen Maher (pictured in the photo to the right of Glen) to uncover details about broadcasting company in Edmonton called ing calls. The Conservative campaign in from people who claimed that they, too, Poutine and the Elections Canada investigator whose dogged pursuit left a trail RackNine. Elections Canada records Guelph, meanwhile, told us their contact had received misleading calls. Within a showed that the company had done a bit with RackNine was only to send out a call few months, the agency had begun inves- of invaluable court documents. of legitimate work during the election, warning supporters to disregard the fake tigating more than 1,300 complaints from making promotional “robocalls” on behalf Elections Canada calls. 200 ridings across the country. of several campaigns -- Harper’s among In the weeks and months that followed, With the “robocalls scandal” dominating them -- but there was nothing linking them we began learn even more about what political news last year, the Conservative to the Conservative campaign in Guelph. happened in Guelph. As Al Mathews con- government promised it would, within n the days leading up to the election volunteers, voters and candidates. Sue Campbell, the wife of the local Green A few months earlier, Steve and I had tinued his investigation, he left a trail of six months, introduce new legislation to Ion May 2, 2011, the intense coverage A fuzzy pattern began to emerge that Party candidate. On the morning of elec- made photocopies of telephone bills sub- court records that described what he knew keep up with the Voice-over-IP and other of the election campaign was interrupted seemed to show a concerted campaign of tion day, she had just returned home after mitted by all the Conservative campaigns and what he needed to find out. By swear- technologies that could be used for elec- by sporadic media reports of people re- telephone calls -- some from live callers, voting when she heard the phone ring. The in ridings where there had been reports of ing out these statements, called Informa- tion trickery. ceiving unusual telephone calls. others recorded -- to discourage, annoy, recorded message, in a woman’s voice, strange calls. tion to Obtain (ITOs), Mathews was able As parliament broke for the 2013 sum- These stories, from ridings across harass and in some cases even trick voters claimed to come from Elections Canada At the time, few reporters knew that get court orders compelling phone and mer break, that legislation still hadn’t been the country, described how some voters who were likely to be unfriendly to Con- and told her that her polling location had anyone could make an appointment with Internet companies to hand over records tabled. reported calls that claimed to come from servative candidates. moved. Elections Canada to view the actual re- he used to trace the Guelph calls. A public-interest group, the Council of Liberal or New Democrat campaigns at The more we researched, the clearer it Campbell knew it was a trick and called ceipts each campaign turned in with their Steve and I were hunched over the Canadians, tried to have the results of the odd hours with rude phone operators. became that the riding of Guelph, Ont., Elections Canada to complain. A few financial reports. Most of these were dog- fax machine one afternoon in February election tossed out in six closely-contested Some reports detailed complaints of had been the target of the most audacious days later, Campbell told us, she had sat eared printouts of bills for gas, campaign as our colleague, Ryan Cormier of the ridings. The judge declined, but found automated calls with misleading messages effort to suppress non-Conservative voters. down for an interview with a mustachioed signs or pizza to feed campaign workers. Edmonton Journal, sent out the ITO that there was evidence of fraud and that the about poll locations. Others described how One of the voters we spoke to there was former RCMP officer named Al Mathews, But many campaigns also included their allowed Mathews to get records from Conservative Party’s vaunted CIMS data- a few Jewish constituents spoke of taking phones bills with, sometimes, itemized RackNine. We read each line intently as base of voters was likely used. annoying calls from the local Liberal can- CALLS FOR ACTION: Protesters take part lists of calls billed to the campaign. it was printed out and then -- the gods of To date, Elections Canada has laid one, didate on the Sabbath. in a robocall protest on Parliament Hills We had poured over the Rogers bills journalism smiled on us -- the fax printed single charge over the Guelph calls against After election day, these stories of tele- in Ottawa on Monday, March 5, 2012. submitted by the campaign of Guelph off the section where Mathews described Michael Sona, a young campaign worker phone trickery faded as journalists turned Conservative Marty Burke several times, a disposable cellphone registered in the who insists he wasn’t involved and blames their attention to what Stephen Harper’s PHOTO CREDIT: THE CANADIAN tracing back each call to see who the cam- name of one Pierre Poutine, of Separatist the Conservative Party for scapegoating first Conservative majority government PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick paign was speaking with. Oddly, we had Street in Joliette, Que. him. No trial date has been set. would mean for the country. missed the two calls on election day made We continued to work our sources and The investigation into calls in other rid- My colleague Stephen Maher and I to Edmonton, one to RackNine, the other learn more about the electronic chase for ings continues. talked about revisiting the strange stories who was heading up an investigation. to the company’s owner. documents, thanks largely to the ITOs that For their coverage of the robocalls of misleading calls. However, it wasn’t un- Campbell, we learned, was one of more Those two strings digits on the phone Mathews continued to swear out as the story, Glen McGregor of the Ottawa til December, eight months after the vote, than 7,000 people who received the same bill were our breakthrough -- a clear followed the thread from Virgin Mobile Citizen and Stephen Maher of Postmedia that we began pursuing the story seriously. call in a ten-minute period. link from the Conservative campaign in to Paypal, Gmail, RackNine and finally to News won the 2012 Canadian Association We began by re-interviewing people For weeks, we couldn’t find out much Guelph to the company that, our source an Internet address at the Burke campaign of Journalism Award (Open Newspaper), who had been quoted in local media more about who was behind the calls. Fi- told us, was the origin of the election-day headquarters. The narrative that emerged the National Newspaper Award (Politics), months earlier. We built a database of nally, Steve connected with a source who calls. was one of “burner” phones, throw-away the Canadian Hillman Prize, the Cana- ridings and began entering information he learned had some useful information With this information, we interviewed credit cards and proxy servers to mask dian World Press Freedom Award and the passed on by dozens of campaign workers, about the Elections Canada investigation RackNine owner Matt Meier. He admitted Internet addresses that read more like Governor General’s Michener Award. 11 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 12 CAJ Award Winner Magazine A few, like Anna, suffer from a condition known as ovarian hyper- Maisonneuve Magazine – Is egg donation dangerous?– Alison Motluk stimulation syndrome, or OHSS— an unfortunate side effect of stimu- lating the ovaries to produce extra eggs. Doctors don’t seem to take them seriously. The women Alison Motluk interviewed suffered in silence from ovaries that became so swollen and painful that, in some cases, they had to be removed. Ironically, these women got sick after donating their eggs to infertile women. BAD ADVICE: In summary – with the medications used today, the chance of an egg donor developing OHSS is very unlikely. -- Source: The Victoria Fertility Clinic

n the fall of 2011, I was an invited With only 18 women and their collec- And these are just the events that un- Ispeaker at the annual meeting of the tive 52 donations, I could not hope to folded after I began interviewing them. Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society, provide statistics on how often women Many women shared with me their an advisory body to the country’s fertility were harmed in the process. But what I did correspondence with doctors, lawyers and specialists. I was asked to speak about the try to bring out is how, even in this small brokers, their journal entries and blogs. trade in human eggs, which had been the group of mostly pro-donation women, ad- Many also shared their medical records. I subject of a feature I had written for The verse events were surprisingly common. It combed through them page by page and Walrus a year earlier. wasn’t that women were seeking me out to they proved to be a rich source of informa- I raised concerns about the safety of egg complain about negative past experiences, tion. As I say in the Maisonneuve article, donation in the country, as did another but rather, that I kept watching as they there are cases where all the evidence panelist, Jennifer Lahl, who had made the went through successive donations and points to a problem caused by egg dona- film Eggsploitation. The third panelist after they retired from donating altogether. tion, but a doctor minimizes it or passes it gest that numbers of people with homes and dogs and children was a renowned fertility doctor, Robert And it turns out that as I kept watching, I off in hospital notes as something else: in eggs must be kept low of their own. Stillman, whose topic was supposed to be kept finding. one instance, blaming eating “a bunch of and donor women I felt there was a great deal of nuance cross-border reproductive care. Instead, he I started interviewing “Anna,” for in- chocolates.” should be monitored and detail that I had yet to report and it spent his allotted time trying to demolish stance, as she entered her fourth donation. Reporters writing investigative medical closely after retrieval. just wasn’t possible outside of print. I the talks and reputations of his two fellow She was upbeat, but ended up with severe stories will find medical records to be a Many of the problems approached Maisonneuve after noticing speakers. ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, and in very rich source of information. Not only I chronicle in my that the magazine produced a surprising Even more than his attack, which was hospital for four days. What made it worse do they officially confirm details -- dates, work could have been number of high-calibre, long-form investi- mostly just unprofessional, it was the was that, although the donation was in weights, numbers of blood transfusions extreme care in copying, storing, trans- prevented if only the gative pieces. response of the audience, made up mostly Toronto, she had to fly home, ill, to a small -- they also provide clues as to what was porting and quoting from them. I did help doctors had treated donors as real patients I knew the pay would be low, but I of people in the fertility industry, which city in , where ER staff going on. with the paperwork and the fees, both of in their own right, rather than just the could never have imagined how low. Even deeply disturbed me: the applause thun- had to manage her care. I discovered that medical records from which can be onerous. means to help their paying clients. though my egg donor work had been dered on for several long minutes. In the months after this donation, Anna’s private fertility clinics (unlike hospitals) I also told them they could change their The research for this story was paid subsidized, and even though at the time I That experience spurred me on to write menstrual cycles did not resume. Another were very often incomplete, and had to be minds after seeing the records and decide for by a Canadian Institutes of Health began writing for Maisonneuve, I already the piece which was published in Maison- woman has also ceased to have normal requested multiple times. Few doctors in- not to share them with me. No one did that Research journalism grant. As a freelancer, had all my research in hand, I definitely neuve magazine. menstrual cycles. Three other women cluded details about how many eggs were in the end. If I had a tip about medical I’m always thinking about how my mate- lost money doing it. Doctors like Stillman dismiss individual suffered many months of uncontrollable retrieved or, remarkably, about the surgical records, I would say: read them over and rial can be used in different stories. I’m glad I did it, but I can’t afford to do donors’ stories as “anecdote.” That is a bleeding. To put an end to it, one of those procedure in which that happened. over. Then read them again. I keep a running list of possible topics this very often. Investigative journalism word often used in medicine and science women had a hysterectomy and another Even after making very specific re- These individual stories may be isolated and outlets. My radio piece on egg donor is time-consuming and expensive. I worry to denigrate certain case studies, to sug- has been advised to get one; yet another quests, pieces of the files were sometimes events. But even if these cases represent health had aired February 19, 2012, before about a society that’s not willing to pay gest they are unsubstantiated or so rare opted for a uterine ablation. It is not missing. This is an egregious breach of a all the adverse events ever related to egg I even pitched the magazine piece, and it for it. as to be misleading. But case studies also clear if this bleeding is related to having physician’s obligation. One fertility doctor donation in this country (and I know for a covered some of the same territory. Alison Motluk has been freelancing for sometimes give hints about what may be a donated, but these women were all young emailed to tell me he had forwarded the fact that they do not), I would still argue But radio has different strengths: it al- 14 years. She writes for The Walrus, The wider phenomenon. I wanted the people in -- in their twenties or early thirties -- and article to the College of Physicians and that they are unacceptable. lows people to hear the personalities of the Economist, New Scientist, CBC Radio, that industry to know that the stories I was had either donated multiple times or had Surgeons of Ontario. These women’s experiences, and the women, to hear the emotion behind their and others. She is based in Toronto. You highlighting were not just those of donors suffered severe ovarian hyperstimulation Only the patient can request these rec- limited scientific literature available, sug- words, to get a sense that they were real can reach Alison at [email protected] trying to settle scores. syndrome. ords, of course, and journalists must use 13 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 14 CAJ Award Winner Open Television (under five minutes runtime)

CTV News – XL Foods investigation – Robert Fife, Philip Ling

It was the largest beef recall in Canadian history, and a mere three years after the worst recall in Canadian history killed at least 23 Canadians, many of them frail seniors. The XL Foods beef recall forced the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the minister in charge of it, to once again answer tough ques- tions about the country’s food safety system and the affects budget cuts would have. The CTV investigation was a crucial part of a conversation that played out on the floor of the House of Commons. The following is an edited version of the submis- sion Bob Fife (left) and Philip Ling made to the CAJ judges.

L Foods ran the massive meat on both sides of E.Coli infected animals. memo written by a Canadian Food Inspec- Xpacking plant in Brooks, Alberta, So were the problems recent, or was tion Agency meat hygiene supervisor in- that has been linked to at least 18 cases there a pattern to the problems at XL structed inspectors stationed at one of the of E. coli infection in four provinces and Foods? plant’s final inspection stops to give extra is the source of the largest beef recall in The CTV News investigation was scrutiny to carcasses shipped to Japan, Canadian history. revealed though documents obtained from but to ignore visible fecal and intestinal The Nilsson brothers who own XL the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Ca- contamination on meat for Canadians. Foods remained largely silent throughout nadian authorities refused to answer those The backlash over beef was fast and this case. They refused to answer phone questions or provide documents). sharp after CTV’s exclusive report, with calls from media. They never held a news American authorities had repeatedly critics saying Canada had a two-tier food- conference. warned the Canadian Food Inspection safety system where products shipped And as XL’s E. coli recall spread from Agency and XL Foods about safety prob- outside Canada were held to a much ground beef to whole meat products and lems at the Alberta meat packer. For more higher standard. Opposition parties said led to the plant shutdown, the Agriculture than a decade, U.S. authorities detailed there needs to be a public inquiry into the Minister and the Canadian Food Inspec- deficiencies they had found at XL Foods E. coli outbreak and called on the auditor- tion Agency weren’t forthcoming either. plants, including sloppy record-keeping, general do an audit. Union officials even They refused to answer basic questions equipment held together by duct tape and, went as far as asking RCMP to be called about why it was that the U.S. authorities in one case, a gruesome scene of animal in to investigate CFIA’s actions as possible had closed the border to products from blood dripping into edible meat products. criminal negligence. Brooks, days before Canadian consum- XL Foods plants have also been shut out CTV stories brought to light issues fac- ers were advised and a product recall was of the U.S. market numerous times since ing the Canadian food inspection process launched in Canada. 2001. and the safety at XL Foods that were They refused to even explain what was The union representing plant workers otherwise unknown, despite the fact that wrong in the plant to cause the E. coli says it didn’t know about the scale of the this one plant processes fully one-third of outbreak, until after CTV News reported deficiencies until our story aired. Canada’s beef – because what it comes what the Minister didn’t want Canadians CTV News also learned that federal beef down to is public safety and every single to hear: the plant at the center of this recall inspectors were ordered to turn a blind consumer has to know whether the food had poor sanitation, a deficient E.Coli eye to contamination on carcasses being they’re eating is safe. tracking system, broken rinse nozzles in processed for sale to Canadians, a direc- the carcass wash area; and most troubling tive that was imposed by the inspectors’ Direct URL:http://www.ctvnews.ca/ – it had failed to destroy suspect carcasses supervisors lasting four years. The 2008 video?clipId=858838 15 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 16 SOUNDING THE WARNING: Dr. David Egilman is a professor at Brown University, health CAJ Award Winner Open Television (over five minutes runtime) activist and longtime industry critic. Here, he is pictured visiting Thetford Mines, Que., on Oct. 22, 2011. Dr. Egilman was also the original person who raised concerns about asbes- tos research at McGill. PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Shprintsen/CBC CBC News – Investigative Unit, Fatal Deception – Gil Shochat, Alex Shprintsen, Joseph Loeiro

Fatal Deception examined decades of scientific literature funded by the asbestos industry, much of it generated by a small group of scholars from one of to raise capital from Canadian private Tips Canada’s top schools, McGill University. For years, the asbestos industry used funders to re-open the Jeffrey Mine fell For journalists investigating the asbes- through. tos industry, or any industry with a long McGill’s work to downplay the health risks associated with asbestos. Joseph As well, a group of international scien- history and dense material with scientific Loeiro explains how McGill’s questionable research came to light. tists sent McGill an open letter shortly af- grounding, time and diligence are of the reading scholarly papers. ter the documentary aired questioning the utmost importance. We compared what the McGill scien- asbestos industry funded McGill science. Do not rush the research. Learn the tists claimed with what other scientists in “These studies denied harm caused history. Mine the content. Understand the the field found. This required a rigorous by chrysotile asbestos and were used science. analysis of decades’ worth of literature to promote the marketing and sales of In regards to studies, read them numer- – comparing different studies and re- asbestos…In light of this questionable ous times if necessary in order to under- searching the reasons for the variance in background, we believe that McGill has a stand their conclusions, relevance to your the study’s results. We read the scien- particular obligation to show intellectual research and the impact they have had on tific literature closely, produced detailed and ethical integrity and to sever all ties the field you are examining. Compare the ur research came at a time when diseases, including the Von Paelleskes journal by the McGill researchers in 1997. chronologies of the various studies and with the asbestos industry,” the letter read results from different studies against each the Quebec and Federal govern- whose mother, father and daughter were That study has been used for years to interviewed dozens of experts around the O in part. other and try to understand the contra- ments were about to reopen the asbestos touched by the disease. promote the asbestos industry’s “safe-use” world about the apparent inconsistencies Approximately six weeks after the piece dictory conclusions and why there are mine in Quebec, thus reviving an indus- Our investigation asked why the policy of continued exports to the Third between the various asbestos studies. aired, the newly elected PQ government differences. Seek outside opinions on the try that had gone dormant. Many public McGill-funded research appeared to be World. Fatal Deception also shone a light on announced that it would not support the material and get experts to explain content health experts expressed outrage at this quite different from much of the other the decades-old connections between the reopening of the asbestos mine in Quebec. that is difficult to understand. move. According to the United Nations, academic work on the topic. Other studies How we got the idea industry itself and the asbestos-disease What’s more, the Harper government We consulted experts ranging from more than 100,000 people die annually of raised many more serious concerns about After writing an article in The Walrus on science. We showed the financial links backed off, saying it would no longer op- lawyers, doctors, scientists, epidemiolo- asbestos exposure worldwide. the toxic effects of asbestos. a different group of McGill academics, Gil between the asbestos industry and McGill. pose putting warnings on asbestos when gists and public health officials to best One World Health Organization expert We discovered that over the years a Shochat was contacted by David Egilman, This involved tracking down disparate it was exported under the auspices of the understand the scientific material we were predicted a ‘tsunami’ of asbestos-related number of epidemiologists and academ- an American professor and public health documents dating back to the 1920s that United Nation’s Rotterdam Convention. researching. This proved paramount in un- deaths would sweep Asia in the coming ics questioned the work that came out of expert. He made what at the time seemed had come out in the US, the UK and (Prior to our story, the Canadian govern- derstanding the material and its relevance decades. The Canadian asbestos exported McGill, suggesting that the university- like controversial claims about a group Europe. to Asia would likely have contributed to based research pointed to other “culprits” of McGill asbestos researchers: Egilman ment had repeatedly blocked international to our story. Our research enabled us to efforts to place restrictions or warnings on report the scientific and medical informa- deaths there. for the disease amongst asbestos miners believed their science was deeply flawed. Effect the story had the export of this deadly mineral.) As well, tion confidently and accurately. In Canada, asbestos has historically and millers, other than chrysotile itself. He spent years trying to debunk it and Our documentaries had a major impact, the Chrysotile Institute, the lobby arm for Also, finding experts who know the been one of the biggest industrial killers. Specifically, critics questioned a particular published his results in a peer-reviewed setting off a firestorm of debate across the asbestos industry, closed its doors in industry you are investigating is helpful. We told the stories of victims who lost watershed study published in a scientific scientific journal in 2003. Canada. A few days after our documentary the aftermath of our broadcast in February They can prove to be a wealth of informa- their family members due to asbestos- ran, it was widely cited in Parliament, and 2012. tion and a key source of documents due related Obstacles we encountered in the months after our report aired, efforts Fatal Deception took eight months to to their prior work in the field. Establish research and produce. The main challenge who has done significant work on the topic and contact them as part of your research. FLAWED SCIENCE: Dr. John Corbett was combing through scientific studies WAITING TO DIE: Doreen von Paelleske They are likely going to be willing to help MacDonald was a McGill University and journals and documents dating as washed her husband’s asbestos-tainted due to their passion for the subject matter. scientist and an asbestos industry re- far back as the 1920s. The subject mat- clothes in a bathtub for years. Wolfgang Joseph Loiero was the associate pro- searcher whose science was said to ter was highly technical and difficult. We died of mesothelioma at the age of 79. ducer on the asbestos piece. http://www. be flawed. The McGill School of Oc- also tried to understand the history of the Doreen suffered the same fate and died cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/02/01/ cupational Health received almost industry’s involvement in the research, shortly after this picture was taken in July asbestos-study-mcgill.html He’s a member $1,000,000 from 1966 to 1972. looking into the health effects of asbestos. 2011. of the CBCs Special Investigations Unit. PHOTO CREDIT: McGill University This meant spending hundreds of hours PHOTO CREDIT: CBC NEWS Archives interviewing scientists and experts and

17 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 18 CAJ Award Winner Regional Television

CBC North – Maamuitaau, Breaking the mold – Melissa Brousseau

The housing conditions were appalling, but it was ten-month old Joe Ray Happyjack, his face covered with hard black scabs caused by exposure to mold, that finally got people’s attention. Lynne Robson, the unit manager of the team that produced Breaking the Mold, takes us to the First Nation’s community where Joe Ray lives. TEAM WORK: The Maamuitaau crew (LtoR) THE EFFECTS OF MOLD: Joe Ray’s mother, Tiffany, admires his bright Diane Icebound, Robert Choma, Flora Weistche, eyes and dark hair. Hard, dark scabs covered half his face, scalp, arms Melissa Brousseau and legs. It was the worst case of eczema we’d ever seen. PHOTO CREDIT: Isabelle Barzeele/ CBC North

puffer. It’s as if everything turns into personal problems. Other reporters will be Happyjack says he has less than half that he idea for the documentary Break- grows in 20% of their homes. You can On the day our crew visited Waswanipi, asthma”, she says. shown the success of the Cree nation: the amount, and not enough staff trained to do Ting the Mold originated with a identify mold-infected homes by the wads Henry Gull was moving the family And if it’s not puffers, it’s skin reaction large new offices; the lovely new museum. the work. phone call from someone in Waswanipi. of laundry-freshener sheets tucked into furniture into a storage pod on the front to the mold. The Maamuitaau crew showed a more The Maamuitaau documentary trig- She felt that she had exhausted all means corners, a popular local method to mask lawn. He showed us how few posses- Joe Ray complete portrait of the Cree reality, in- gered reaction. Some of the people most to get action for her family’s home and the smell. sions would be stored. When mold seeps As testament to how successful we cluding high levels of addictions, suicides affected by mold infestation, including turned to Maamuitaau, CBC North’s Our TV documentary team wanted to into everything you own, you think twice were in developing that relationship with and substandard services. Tiffany Happyjack and her son, saw their weekly Cree-language magazine of news know why the Gulls and many families before putting it in storage. Only the hard the families The one young mother even So, for a reporter to get Cree people to home improved immediately after our and current affairs unit, for help. We like them are obliged to live in condi- surface furniture will be kept. Everything decided to let us photograph her badly in- talk about their moldy homes and display item aired. visited the community which has a long- tions that most Canadians would consider else might be left behind or burned. The fected child. The fact that she chose to put the effects mold has had on them, is show- Same thing for Annette and Henry Gull. standing reputation as having a housing unacceptable. There are many poor First Gulls are taking drastic steps to improve her sick child that presented a chronic skin ing Canadians a view of the Cree they are They are back in their home. All major problem. But, it wasn’t until we visited Nations reserves in Canada; communities their health. infection on camera goes against the grain not likely to get otherwise. repairs have been done. Annette no longer a few particular band-owned houses that without the money or political clout to Everyone’s getting sick of Cree culture. That’s when we knew we Our crew wanted to know why the stuffs laundry sheets into corners because we realized how dire the situation was for fight for better homes. In the last few years, Annette watched as had a story that would have an impact. wealth of the Grand Council hasn’t trick- there is no moldy smell to cover up. But some. We asked the Band Council why But that is not the situation in Waswani- her family fell ill, one after the other. “The This is what lead our TV crew to led down to help people with sick homes best of all she says, her family that was the situation was as so serious. We met pi. It is a Cree settlement, one of the nine first was our grandchild. He was at the ten-month old Joe Ray Happyjack. His and sick children? forced apart to avoid the mold, is together the same lack of information and help. At Cree communities along the James Bay. hospital every few weeks with problems mother, Tiffany, admires Joe Ray’s bright The Band Council in Waswanipi knows again. Parents, children and grandchildren that point, we decided to do a short docu- These are the Cree who, back in the mid in his lungs. We were asked if the house eyes and dark hair. Everyone else looks about the mold. It bought air exchang- sleep in a healthy home. mentary about some of the families and 1970’s, signed ground-breaking deals with was damp. They said it was making my at Joe Ray with alarm. Half his face was ers and dehumidifiers for many homes. The last year brought two important consequences of mold in homes. the Quebec government. The Cree got bil- grandson sick.” covered in hard, dark scabs, so were his But humidity in the homes is so high the changes to Maamuitaau. After 30 years Annette Saganash and Henry Gull keep lions of dollars, in exchange for access to Next, it was her son who slept in scalp and arms and legs. It’s the worst case equipment has to run non-stop which it on air, the show now runs on CBC’s a pristine home. Yet the first thing our TV their land for hydro development. the basement. He developed a chronic of eczema most of us had ever seen, and it isn’t designed to do. The equipment breaks main channel outside of Quebec; and is crew noticed when they first visited a year The mighty rivers were dammed. The cough. Then, Henry developed asthma. is caused by mold, according to the local down, and isn’t replaced. produced in English as well as Cree. The ago was the smell: a damp, musky odour. Grand Council of the Cree grew rich. He was a vigorous man just a few years nurse. The situation is exacerbated by the Cree new accessibility means our stories about Annette and Henry rarely invited people They built schools, medical clinics -- and ago, but with every box he moved to the “He was five months old when it population “explosion”. It is the fastest- the culture and challenges of the people of into their home. homes. Unfortunately, many of those storage bin, Henry stopped to catch his started to show on his skin”, explains growing segment of the Quebec popula- the James Bay region reach a much wider “It’s not that we don’t like having homes are as leaky as an old hydro dam. breath. Tiffany. “The only thing they give me tion. The housing authority in Waswanipi audience. We are thrilled to be recognized people visit; it’s just that we don’t… Water projects have made the Cree rich. The Gulls decided to abandon their is cream, cream, and cream after cream. and other communities can’t keep up with for our work. want them to think that’s how it really is Mold is making then them sick. moldy house. Some of the grandkids But it doesn’t go away”. When we met demand. “There are at least 100 families Ours is a small, hard-working team: here. We try to keep our house nice and The primary challenge in shooting a moved in with relatives with mold-free them, Joe Ray had just been released from who need homes,” says Band Council Melissa Brousseau is the show’s producer. clean and still, it smells.” story like this is that Cree people don’t homes. The rest of the Gulls moved to hospital, where he was treated for many Deputy Chief Marcel Happyjack. Flora Weitshe is our interviewer/reporter. Their home was infested with mold. like to talk about their difficult and un- the family camp where they slept in tents. infections. He spent days on oxygen. But The results? Over-crowding. Mold. Put Diane Icebound is technical producer Annette pointed out the clusters of tiny happy situations. They’re very private Lack of running water and electricity was once declared healthy enough, he was sent 20 people in a home designed for six or and Robert Choma, the editor. Pakesso black dots - mold, growing at the corner outside of their family circle. They’re better than a “modern” home contami- back home, surrounded by the mold that eight, and you get extra humidity; more Mukash did the on-camera intro. Writing of windows, along the baseboards, in the also afraid that if they talk, they will be nated with mold. made him so sick. people showering, more dishwashing. the item was a collaboration lead by unit cupboards. Everywhere. punished by the local band council and put Eventually, the Gulls and everyone else This is where the Maamuitaau crew re- More mold. manager, Lynne Robson. She wiped the black dots away every at the bottom of the list of houses needing with mold-related illnesses winds up at ally showed its audience something new. “We would like to accommodate people Maamuitaau produces 26 episodes few days. They always came back. repair. While the families were willing the local clinic. Nurse Catherine Carmona The Quebec Cree are a proud people who who are in need of a house,” says the per year and airs on Sundays at differ- In this community of 360 homes, the to show us their homes, we had to work says the mold makes even ordinary ail- like to laugh and don’t like to share their Deputy Chief. “We would like to repair all ent times across the North and in Que- state of the Gull’s house is typical. Resi- hard to develop the trust to let us in and ments colds harder and more expensive problems with others. It is part of the the homes that need mold removed. But bec. http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/ dents in the community estimate mold interview them. to treat. “A simple cold requires a steroid Cree culture to avoid public discussion of that would cost over a million dollars”. Shows/More+Shows/Maamuitaau/ 19 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 20 I had written and broadcast about the CAJ Award Winner Open Radio News or Current Affairs science and social fallout from

CBC Radio – The Sunday Edition, Wanted: Egg donor in good health - Alison Motluk reproductive medicine for several years before deciding to look intensely at egg donor health… I was curious to know whether the problems While there have been many stories about the health of women receiving do- were similar or different in Canada, nated eggs, precious little was written about the donors. Alison Motluk set out to change that in her exploration of their plight. What she found was disturbing. where… we have almost a black market for human eggs.

he 30-minute radio documetary, The donor women too, spoke of their own about drug use, family disease history and TWanted: Egg Donor in Good experiences in their own voices. mental health. Yet from several years of Health, tells the stories of young women Karin Wells, my producer at The Sunday following women who had donated eggs, who have helped infertile Canadians to Edition, was masterful at finding ways I knew that while donor women may enter have children. to weave these quite disparate elements the process healthy, they didn’t always My goal in this piece was to let the together. It was wonderful to work with leave that way. No one seemed to care reality of egg donation speak in its own someone who cared as much as I did about much about that, and I was struck by the words. From the top, I used real pleas this story and getting it just right. incongruity. posted online by real Canadian would-be As far as possible, I tried to use the This work was largely funded through parents. (Stand-ins read the words) The language used by the industry: I used the a Canadian Institutes of Health Research American testimonial and the promo video word “donor” even though many women journalism grant. The funding allowed on how to become an egg donor are both are paid, and the term “egg retrieval” even me to advertise that I wanted to interview the records and decide not to share them concerns might be. Because there’s little FOR BEING AN EGG DONOR. If asked, real, too, and can be seen on YouTube. The though a woman’s eggs aren’t really in women over many months by visiting and with me. No one did that in the end. knowledge, these women cannot be truly you only receive reimbursement for your instructions from brokers on how to break need of rescuing from her own body. (The recording them in their own homes. The If I had a tip about medical records, I informed about the risks, and so cannot expenses.” (no emphasis added.) would say: read them over and over. Then really give informed consent. It alarms me I have no reason to think that any- If I had a tip about medical records, I would say: read them over and read them again. that medical professionals are not deeply thing I’ve written or broadcast about egg I had written and broadcast about the troubled by this. donation has made any difference to the over. Then read them again. science and social fallout from reproduc- Another tip I would offer to others is to practice here in Canada. Purely by coin- tive medicine for several years before gather and use primary sources whenever cidence, just a week after this show first deciding to look intensely at egg donor possible. It’s one thing for a journalist aired, the RCMP raided the offices of Leia health. I had spoken to dozens of U.S. egg to say, for instance, that agencies coach Picard, who runs a Canadian egg donation Canadian laws were authentic instructions, one exception is that I used the word “bro- grant also covered the substantial costs of donors while preparing a more wide-rang- women to lie to border officials, but it’s and surrogacy brokerage in Ontario, and which had been included in a pamphlet ker” rather than euphemisms like “con- getting copies of their medical records. ing documentary for IDEAS, so I had a another thing altogether to quote directly a year later. The police laid charges a year given to a woman who donated here. The sultant” which are regularly employed to Reporters writing investigative medical hunch that there may be more to the story from the advice a real woman was actually later. It was the first time anyone has been reassuring words from doctors that appear deflect from the potentially illegal nature stories will find medical records to be very than fertility doctors were telling us. I was given. charged under the 2004 Assisted Human in clips at the end, saying, for instance, of this match-maker work.) I tried as far rich sources of information. Not only do curious to know whether the problems “Included in this packet is a letter from Reproduction Act. Ironically, Picard’s that there was almost no chance that a do- as possible to use their language because I they officially confirm details -- dates, were similar or different in Canada, where, the doctor stating why you are travel- voice is among those in my show’s intro- nor would get sick, were also taken from wanted to show that, no matter how gently weights, numbers of blood transfusions rather than an open market, we have al- ing to Canada. Inform the immigration duction and conclusion, describing her authentic handouts and websites provided you label these experiences, there can be -- they also provide clues as to what was most a black market for human eggs. officer that you are coming to Canada for own hospitalization and health conse- by actual Canadian doctors to donors (but serious adverse consequences. A hospital- going on. I learned that, as in the U.S., there is medical treatment -- NOT THAT YOU quences. read by stand-ins). The clip of one doc- ization is a hospitalization. A hysterectomy Only the patient can request these almost no follow-up for young women ARE AN EGG DONOR (this would lead Alison Motluk lives in Toronto and has tor (read by a stand in) claiming that no is a hysterectomy. records, of course, and journalists must who donate eggs, despite the fact that they to more questions and delays at Immigra- been a freelance journalist for 14 years. woman has ever had a bad experience at I chose the title because so often I saw use extreme care in copying, storing, are healthy young women going through tion) -- and show the supplied letter and She writes for The Walrus, The Econo- his clinic was deliberately juxtaposed with ads from parents seeking donors “in good transporting and quoting from them. I did potentially dangerous medical procedures itinerary. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE mist, New Scientist, CBC Radio, and that of a real donor who was hospitalized health.” Prospective parents are very help with the paperwork and the fees, both for the benefit of other people. Because INFORM ANYONE INCLUDING THE others. Alison can be reached at alison@ after donating at his clinic. The doctors interested in whether donors will provide of which can be onerous. I also told them there is no follow-up, there is very little CLINIC’S STAFF THAT YOU ARE BE- motluk.com. To read some of her work, identified by name spoke for themselves. them with healthy eggs, and are concerned they could change their minds after seeing knowledge about what the real health ING FINANCIALLY COMPENSATED please visit: http://motluk.com 21 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 22 entire province. This was a way to high- CAJ Award Winner Data Journalism light those performances that were either well above or well below the provincial average. It was also a way to go through the Hamilton Spectator – Condition Critical – Steve Buist 266 different variables and quantify how many times an LHIN was either much better or much worse than the provincial In an effort to get beyond the anecdotal, he-said-she-said formula that underlies many average. stories, Steve Buist used his science background to develop a method of rating Ontario’s Once the 266 variables were gathered, 14 Local Health Integration Networks in an awards category where the term computer- input and tabulated, I divided them into seven broad categories, which included: assisted reporting has been replaced by the name data journalism. * Wait times (32 variables); * Long-term care/home care (37 vari- ables); * Chronic diseases (51 variables); * Cancer (32 variables); * Cardiovascular (35 variables); * Emergency departments/access to ometimes the best stories are sitting primary care/resources (32 variables); Sright under our noses, just waiting * Healthy behaviour/reproductive for anyone to take interest. health/harm prevention (47 variables). To a certain extent, that’s precisely the The cumulative rankings for all 266 case with Condition Critical, a week-long variables were then calculated for the 14 series that examined the performances LHINs to provide an overall ranking. of Ontario’s 14 Local Health Integration Once the categories were established, Networks, or LHINs. I found the human faces to tell the story. The idea was simple enough: How is the Dry statistics can only take you so far. Hamilton-area LHIN performing and how So, for instance, one of the faces was does it measure up against the other 13 Dr. Robert Lafontaine, the only ortho- LHINs in the province? pedic surgeon in Timmins. He covers an It would be easy to come to a subjec- area roughly the size of all of southern tive conclusion, based on anecdotes and Ontario. When he talks about being the interviews. only orthopedic surgeon in a remote part But I wanted this to be an objective of northern Ontario, it’s easy to see why analysis, and that requires data. Lots of it. the average wait time for a knee or hip Luckily, I discovered that mountains replacement in Timmins is more than a of data on the performance of Ontario’s year. LHINs already existed in a variety of Or the story of Linda Chaplin, CEO of forms. a long-term care home in Ottawa, which What I also discovered is that even has tremendously long waiting lists for though this data was publicly available a bed in a long-term care facility. She and open to all, no one had ever attempted the LHINs from 1 to 14. specialist at least once over a two-year pe- In total, I found and input a total of 266 riod, by sex and Local Health Integration bluntly stated that some of the people on to gather it all together in one place. the waiting list will get a spot in a cem- That’s just the kind of challenge I enjoy. different variables measuring the LHINs Network (LHIN), in Ontario, 2005/06- across a variety of health areas. 2006/07; etery before they get a chance at a bed in My academic background is in science her facility. - I have a B.Sc. in human biology - so I The variables were gathered from the * Age-standardized rates of hospitaliza- 2011 Ontario Health Quality Report; the tion for congestive heart failure (CHF) per We broke the series into five parts - enjoy approaching health issues with a the first four days reported on the broad scientific mindset. POWER Study published by the Institute 100,000 adults aged 25 and older, by sex, for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Octo- neighbourhood income and Local Health categories. The final day looked ahead at I began gathering all of the variables I possible solutions. could find that measured health outcomes ber 2011; performance indicators included Integration Network (LHIN), in Ontario, in each LHIN’s 2009/10 annual report; and 2006/07. I reported on the issues at a provincial at the LHIN level in Ontario. level but to keep the series relevant to I created a master Excel spreadsheet and data from Ontario’s 2011 Cancer System In addition to the rates and rankings, I Quality Index. applied a statistical test to each variable to readers, I always reported on where our input all of the variables and results by LHIN ranked in relation to the rest of the hand, one by one. Here are a couple of examples of the determine the significance of the rates. types of variables included in the analysis: The test determined which results for province. It was a long, painstaking process just to Veteran Hamilton Spectator reporter assemble all of the data. * Age-standardized percentage of adults each variable were above and below one aged 20 and older with diabetes who saw a standard deviation from the mean for the Steve Buist has won multiple national For each variable, in addition to the awards for investigative reporting. actual results for each LHIN, I also ranked

23 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 24 TEARS FOR HIS BROTHER: RCMP Cnst. Ben Oliver wipes away a tear dur- CAJ Award Winner Photojournalism ing a regimental funeral for his twin brother Cnst. Adrian Oliver in Langley, B.C., on Monday November 20, 2012. Cnst. Adrian Oliver died November 13 after his unmarked police cruiser collided with a transport truck in Surrey, The Canadian Press – Portfolio – Darryl Dyck B.C.

Darryl Dyck tells the stories behind the award-winning photographs he has selected to display on these pages, what motivates him to take pictures, and why the iPhone can be his profession’s worst enemy.

n the 15 years I have been working since graduating from the Southern Alberta Institute of ITechnology, this is the second time I have been honoured with the Canadian Association of Journalists photojournalism award. I am also honoured to have been named The Canadian Press Photographer of the Year twice and I’m also proud of my two National Newspaper Award nominations. I don’t like to settle for the ordinary. Most of the time just observing what is happening will lead me to be in a place where I can make an image that tells a story. I like to spend time observing what is going on and then thinking where the best possible image might be. This doesn’t always work out in my favour, but it is an approach that most times will yield a photograph I am happy with. Then there are times where it can just come down to one simple thing – luck. I take a tremendous amount of pride in my sports photography – I want to be able to make photos that have impact and are creative HOW I GOT THE SHOT: Cnst. Adrian Oliver wiping away a tear with his gloved thumb was a touching moment from a funeral for at every opportunity. With everyone having cameras that shoot action at eight or 10 or 12 frames per second, I try to also see and his brother, also an RCMP officer who passed away while on the job a week earlier. The job runs in the family -- their father is a capture the moments away from the regular action or provide photographs that have visual elements that are not the usual sports ac- high-ranking RCMP officer. This was an especially difficult event to cover as photographers were not allowed to take pictures of the tion photos. I try to tell the story of the game or event in single or multiple photographs if possible. That means making sure to have memorial service in the arena. The opportunity to gather images was limited to outside, dramatically reducing the possibility of captured the important plays or reactions along the way. coming away with a storytelling photograph. In the end, the rain drops dotting his Stetson and the touching moment of wiping away With all the restrictions, barriers and not to mention “Average Joes” (yes, and reporters) getting in the way with their iPhones, pho- his tears with the gloved hand combined to provide a moment that accurately reflected the grief of this family that is so engrained tojournalists have the ability to keep a cool head and assess a situation. Seeing and delivering the best creative and storytelling image in the police force. Access to these events like this humanizes tragedy. Months later their father contacted me. He was touched by as quickly as possible will always set us aside from the citizen photojournalists of the world. Our ethics and storytelling ability is what the coverage and requested photos to remember the day. is valued, and I strive to continue to do the best possible job every single day.

OOPS: Vancouver Whitecaps’ goalkeeper Brad Knighton is pushed into the back of the net by Real Salt Lake’s REST IN PEACE: People gather around a beached Jonny Steele as he retrieves the ball after Salt Lake’s humpback whale that died during low tide in White Nat Borchers, not pictured, scored a goal during the Rock, B.C., on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. A young hump- second half of an MLS soccer game in Vancouver, B.C., back whale found entangled in fishing net has died on Saturday August 11, 2012. after grounding itself on White Rock beach, south of Vancouver. Department of Fisheries and Oceans marine mammal co-ordinator Paul Cottrell said the severely emaciated young whale was first spotted as water receded from the sandy, tidal flats early Tuesday morn- ing.

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I wanted to make a photograph of this dead beached whale that showed the environment and told the story of the people who gathered to watch, pay their respects and take photographs. I set the timer on the camera to fire after 10 sec- HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I had setup a remote camera behind the soccer goal in the hopes of making an interesting image from a dif- onds and quickly raised it up into the air on a monopod to capture an image. I took a rough guess on the angle and height and after a ferent angle. The camera is fired remotely by a trigger in my left hand while the camera in my hands is triggered normally with my dozen or so attempts I was able to make this image. Seeing how far out the tide is, the large crowd gathering around, and the flow- right index finger. Netcams are commonplace in the hopes of providing another angle. On this day, I set the camera straight on at ers left on the whale all come together to sum up the story nicely in a single image. the back centre of the net, and then left the lens set much wider than I normally do because it is hard to see anything beyond what is close to the camera lens. It was one of those extremely lucky moments when the goalkeeper fell right into the back of the net after being pushed and actually made contact through the net with the camera – there is a frame where the camera, which sits on a support plate, and ball head actually tipped back and moved due to the contact. I didn’t have a good angle on it as it happened from my primary camera in my hands, but triggered the remote camera with my left hand in the hopes that it would work out. I had to wait until the end of the game to retrieve the camera from the field and find out that it had actually worked out. 25 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 26 REMEMBERING THOSE WHO SERVED: Annie Johnson burns sweetgrass and sage during a National Aborigi- nal Veterans Day ceremony at the Victory Square Cenotaph in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday November 8, 2012. The ceremony is held to remember Aborigi- nal, Metis and Inuit men and women who served in the Canadian Forces.

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I looked for an angle that would highlight the smoke that was blowing into Annie Johnson’s face. Luckily the sun was coming from behind and a building that was in the shade provided a dark background to highlight the smoke, making an im- age that I am pleased with.

PROUD TO BE CANADIAN: Adrian Pernalete, left, and his wife Virginia Pernalete, right, embrace their children; 10-year-old Andrea, bottom centre, and 13-year-old Adrian as they leave the stage after being sworn in as Canadian citizens during a special Canada For more exclusive content, stories, inter- Day citizenship ceremony for 60 people in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday July 1, 2012. The family is originally from Venezuela. views about journalism turn to Media by visiting http://www.caj.ca/?cat=4 You can also find issues that go back to the spring of 1998

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I’m extremely proud that I was able to capture this moment and convey the absolute beaming joy these fam- ily members were experiencing when they received their Canadian citizenship during a Canada Day ceremony. I had stepped away from the ceremony to an area away from the stage in the hopes of making a photograph away from the handshakes and flag waving that was taking place. I waited in this area for quite a while and suddenly heard this utter joy over my shoulder as the family all ran towards each other after officially receiving their documents. One-by-one they all met in this area away from the stage before returning to their seats. I was overjoyed to see everything come together almost perfectly – you can see the mom’s documents and the expressions on the faces of every family member, dad kissing his daughter and all four embracing to celebrate what they accom-

Darryl Dyck graduated from Journalism program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology with a Photojournalism speciality in 1998. He freelanced for a number of years and filled in for injury and maternity leaves before taking a staff job withThe Edmonton Sun in 2005 where he was employed until 2008. Dyck then decided to leave, move to Vancouver and freelance once again – this time for The Canadian Press and The Globe and Mail. You can see he work at www.darryldyck.ca and http://blog.darryldyck.ca . And you can contact him on Twitter at @DarrylDyck

27 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 28 CAJ Award Winner Scoop REDEMPTION: Maher Arar bows his head at a news conference discussing the federal government’s apology and compensation package, in Ottawa Friday Jan. 26, The Canadian Press – Canada’s torture memos – Jim Bronskill 2007. Arar was wrongfully deported to, detained, and tortured in Syria.

Jim Bronskill explains how he uncovered the torture memos which forced the PHOTO CREDIT: Canadian Press/Tom Hanson government to answer questions about how much it had really learned from the Arar affair.

RECOMMENDING WAYS TO AVOID FUTURE INJUSTICES: Justice Dennis O’Connor holds up a copy of his final report ne of the benefits of covering government agencies including the request for the document — and after relating to the Maher Arar inquiry, at a news conference in Oa beat for a number of years is RCMP enacted numerous changes a short wait the directive was released Ottawa Tuesday Dec 12, 2006. the relative ease with which one can to how they collected and shared without redactions. spot noteworthy shifts in government information in cases where torture My Feb. 7, 2012, story revealed PHOTO CREDIT: Canadian Press /Tom Hanson policy and place those changes in may have been a factor. details of the letter from Public Safety context. In fact, the government claimed Minister Vic Toews to the Canadian That was really the key to to have implemented all 23 Security Intelligence Service, directing uncovering and writing about recommendations from Justice Dennis the spy agency to use information pos- Canada’s torture memos — the story O’Connor, who led a federal inquiry sibly derived through torture in cases that captured the Scoop category at into the Arar file — including his call where public safety is at stake. the CAJ Awards. for policies to include specific direc- The order represented a reversal The Canadian government’s stand tions “aimed at eliminating any pos- of policy for the Conservative on torture was shaped in the middle of sible Canadian complicity in torture, government, which once insisted the last decade by the sobering Maher avoiding the risk of other human rights that CSIS would discard information the process for deciding whether to zone on torture is deeply wrong.” torture and we will return the favour by Arar affair. abuses and ensuring accountability.” if there was any inkling it might be share information when there is a Lorne Waldman, a lawyer who accepting and using your information.” Arar, as many know, was brutalized There were indications in briefing tainted. “substantial risk” that doing so might represented Arar, said the information- Pursuing these stories reinforced in a Damascus prison after being notes released under the access law Toews had quietly told CSIS the result in someone in custody being sharing directives showed the govern- my belief that making the time to file shipped to Syria by the Americans in 2010 that CSIS had quietly em- government now expected the spy abused. ment hadn’t learned anything about Access-to-Information requests and -- very likely because of shoddy braced an approach to information use service to “make the protection of life The ministerial instructions sparked shunning brutality. keeping an eye out for releases to information from the RCMP. that clashed with the O’Connor recom- and property its overriding priority.” staunch Conservative defenses, drew “It’s extremely disappointing that other applicants can pay solid divi- My story — actually a series of mendations. The story reverberated, touching off fiery denunciations from Opposition after all of these years, and after all of dends. After all, the majority of those pieces published throughout 2012 — Maclean’s columnist Aaron Wherry a national debate about Canada’s re- MPs in the House of Commons, stirred the effort, we’re not any further ahead who seek records under the informa- has deep roots in the Arar tragedy pointed out in a September 2011 spect for human rights and compliance outrage among human-rights groups than we were.” tion laws are not journalists and have and the cases of three other Arab- column that a report on Afghan detain- with international law. and prompted concern on the part of Arar was also dismayed. no intention of writing about what is Canadians — Abdullah Almalki, ees by the Canadian Security Intel- I produced several follow-up stories the United Nations Committee Against In a blog posting on the initial federal released. Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed ligence Service watchdog noted the — also using information requested Torture. directive, he said that instead of The process also reminded me that Nureddin — also tortured in Syria. existence of a new federal directive on under the access law by myself or An April seminar at the University of clarifying Canada’s position on the use sometimes the biggest clues can be Those who oppose torture say information sharing, issued the previ- others — that laid bare the contents Ottawa was devoted to discussion of of information obtained under torture, found in the tiniest footnotes, and that it is not only a barbaric violation ous December. of a fuller follow-up directive to CSIS, the memos. the document “adds confusion to an we should follow the stories of others, of fundamental human rights but From what he could glean without looked at the workings of an internal In a Feb. 8, 2012, editorial, “Torture already ambiguous and polarized as well as our own. also a highly unreliable method of seeing the full text of the directive, spy agency committee on interpret- is always wrong”, the Ottawa Citizen debate. Jim Bronskill is an award-winning intelligence-gathering because people Wherry concluded it signalled an ing the directive, and showed that said, “At a time when a torturous “One thing is also sure: this reporter at The Canadian Press, specializ- being abused will often say anything to openness to using information tainted the Mounties and the federal border regime is massacring its own people in directive is sending the wrong ing in security and intelligence, the RCMP make the pain stop. by torture. agency were given similar instructions. Syria, Canada’s acceptance of a grey message to dictatorial regimes; you and justice-related issues. As a result of the Arar bungling, I sent off an Access-to-Information These later directives outlined 29 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 30 CAJ Award Winner Daily Excellence

Vancouver Sun – Brazen killing may be gang retaliation/Sandip was shot to death – Kim Bolan

Kim Bolan is one of the bravest journalists in the country. She covers crime in Vancouver, work- ing contacts and living with the reality that the people about whom she wirtes settle scores with guns. She has also written extensively about the Air India bombing and the death of Canadian journalist, Tara Singh Hayer, the still-unsolved murder we’ve covered in Media magazine. Bolan endures threats to her personal safety and that of her family, yet continues to dig, write and then write some more. The following is what this award-winning journalist and author submitted to the Canadian Association of Journalist judges in describing her stories.

n my crime beat, I specialize with context, some thoughts from Oin gangs and organized crime Duhre himself, about the dead-end and have great insight into the many life, and a link to a shooting just a factions battling it out for control of few days later. B.C.’s lucrative drug trade. The violence has gotten so ex- This is the second year in a row treme in recent years that as soon as Kim has won this category. In 2011, someone is killed, I can draw on my she won for her story about gangster knowledge of what’s been going on Jonathan Bacon. to provide exclusive details to readers He was shot outside a Kelowna about the conflict and those involved hotel in that same year. An award- in it. winning crime reporter whose career I did that in early January 2012 spans nearly 30 years, Kim also when Duhre, who I had known for wrote a book about the Air India years, was shot to death in the lobby bombing in 2005 called Loss of of a five-star hotel in front of shocked Faith: How the Air-India Bombers patrons. Got Away with Murder. Her blog, The And in subsequent follows that Real Scoop peels back the veil of her week, I was able to provide the public crime beat.

To download this form, please visit the CAJ website .

31 MEDIA SPRING 2013 32 where the youth incongruously lay. CAJ Award Winner Print Feature Down the street, into the old village, beside the creek and train tracks, the The Hamilton Spectator – “He sang with all his heart”– Jon Wells wind howled through the cemetery and a hard rain fell. This is where Christopher Brian Skinner’s story ended, after the mu- sic and laughter and possibility had dis- How do you tell people something new about a teenager whose death had been al- solved into a blur of tears and questions, ready making headlines? This dilemma is one that faces many journalists assigned to fear and anger, memorials and tattoos. cover events such as coroners’ inquests that investigate how the person died and what The rest of the piece was rolling back the narrative to Chris’s childhood and lessons can be learned. Finding something new was Jon Wells’ challenge, one that his road to death. I exchanged detailed frankly he dreaded. But his account teaches us valuables lessons about effective sto- emails with his mother. She had, as rytelling: argue for time away from the daily grind; get out of the office; talk to people I predicted, not wanted to speak to a who can tell stories about the subject of your profile. reporter. I convinced her to do the email thing. I asked questions, she answered, I followed up with more, and still more. I felt her loosening up, trusting me, she n editor approached and said she pertinent to the story, feeling the vibe, and the school. He was a tremendous inter- quoted from Chris’s journal (“I will fulfill wanted me to write a profile about perhaps using it as a scene. I was hoping view, breaking down his sense of Chris. A my potential,” he had written.) I attended Chris Skinner, a teenager who had died that place would be Chris’s high school. Now I could see and hear the teenager. a few days of the inquest, not so much for two years ago after a night of binge drink- My high school days many years ago at As I was leaving the school, I watched the content of the proceedings, but to see ing. bustle in the hallways, stu- Chris’s mom, dad, and sister in person, to I write long features for The Hamilton dents leaving for the day. just watch. Spectator. One might think I would relish Then I saw a boy sitting I heard that Chris’s old band was play- tackling an assignment like this; painting a on the steps in the atrium ing at a tiny bar in Hamilton. I debated portrait of a youth who had died tragically, strumming a guitar, with going. I had enough detail already, didn’t essentially by his own hand. a girl sitting beside him. I? It was a freezing Saturday night. I To me big profile pieces fall into two The atrium was where didn’t want to go, but I did. I interviewed categories – either the subject is well- Chris used to hang. And his bandmates, heard and felt their music. known to most readers or is unknown. The Chris played guitar in a Later, I emailed one of the guys and latter category is typically an easier story band. I stood watching the asked about songs they played and lyrics to craft – the subject may be excited about scene for a few moments they sang. I was hoping Chris had written receiving attention from a reporter, his or then returned to my car or inspired the last song. And it was true. her family and friends might be willing to and scribbled in my note- Chris wrote the words: “I’ll wake up participate. You have a blank canvass to pad what would essen- craving the new day, inhaling the fresh work with; you are introducing the public tially become the lede for air, pumping through my veins. I won’t to a character. my story. I felt the shiver stop, I can’t stop now / Cause we are all But the Skinner piece was in the former go through me that I feel raised in the fall / We learn our lessons category. The teenager’s story received on those occasions where in the spring / Waiting on the summer to plenty of coverage in the media, both a lede or turn of phrase change everything.” when he died, and during a public inquest rings true with me. When I read the words I felt the shiver into his death that had just begun when I The other afternoon, a again. It is a theme I have returned to in was assigned the piece. Friday, teenagers flowed my work. What are the permanent things In one sense the story was there on a in all directions, a jumble in a life? A boy with everything before platter: previously reported details of his of hoodies and cellphones him had died and gone. But some things death, more details coming out of the and backpacks and water last forever. inquest, some quotes here and there from bottles, headed for the The surviving band did not write the friends and teachers about who Chris had weekend and the rest of lyrics to that last song. To conclude the been. their lives. Most students feature, I wrote: The words belong to But I felt anxiety about the piece. My had gone when a boy with Chris Skinner, and always will. goal was to write a story that had not short hair and fair skin End of story. been told, to take it deeper and broader. I A.B. Lucas in London, Ont. were the best sat down near the top of the pale blue was given about a week to research and of times, playing football, girls, hanging coloured steps in the atrium of Waterdown Jon Wells writes features for The write. Were readers tired of the Skinner with the boys. It was all so fresh to me District High School. Another student used game. This boy used to sit on the steps in windy and raining. I took notes at the plot Hamilton Spectator. You can read his story? Could I find new sources? I was not still. to sit at that spot all the time; a lanky boy the natural light and just watch, taking in where teens had left mementos. Contrast story at: http://www.thespec.com/news- optimistic. After contacting a couple of Chris’s in a black leather jacket, nursing a coffee, his world. His name was Chris Skinner. the scene of life and light inside the high story/2235155--he-sang-with-all-his- As I have so often discovered, the key is teachers I found the one who I was told splaying out his legs like a basketball Then I drove to the cemetery where school where Chris once loomed large, heart-/ going somewhere, being in a place that is knew him best. I met Nathan Tidridge at player on the bench waiting to enter the Chris is buried. It was a cold February day, with the cold and dark at the cemetery 33 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 34 HAPPIER TIMES: Members of the Bologh family JHR/CAJ Award Winner Human Rights Reporting celebrate with beers after making it safely to Toronto as asylum seekers on Nov. 4, 2012.

CBC News: The National – Seeking Safety - Nahlah Ayed; Diane Grant PHOTO CREDIT/REPORTAGE: Ed Ou

Then-federal immigration minister, Jason Kenney, had made examples of them. Supposedly, the Roma symbolized all that was wrong with the immigration system: it was too easy for people with bogus safety claims to“game the system”, in the words of the influencial cabinet minister. Reporters dutifully covered his news conferences. Some media outlets even dug deeper to profile this community, its struggles in Hungary, and why certain members wanted out. But the story cried out for a different treatment, one that would follow a person`s or a family’s journey from Hungary to Canada. This is what Nahlah Ayed and Diane Grant accomplished. The following is an edited silent, but she listened to our plans to go felt that her life was in danger because she Hungary was swift. Within hours of version of their submission to the judges. back to Hungary and decided to help. She knew too much. It was a challenge trying broadcast, numerous Hungarian news or- responded to emails asking for help and to corroborate her story and we had several ganizations were publishing excerpts from advice. She also visited Roma community conversations with (former and current) our story. Viktoria Mohasci has since neighbourhoods in Toronto to find out diplomats, politicians and activists to get given several interviews to the Hungarian Seeking Safety” UNCERTAIN FUTURE: Claudia if there were any families willing to go to the heart of her claims. Eventually, press. “began with a simple public. One day she connected us with we managed to find a Hungarian history The Roma Community Centre‟s execu- question – why are so Balogh (middle) hugs a relative, as her husband Miklos (left) looks on a family members in Hungary who had professor in Ottawa who was eminently tive director, Gina Casngi Robar, has been many Roma of Hungar- booked their tickets for Canada and were qualified to talk about the Hungariangov - presenting our documentary in Toronto el- ian origins ending up as in their home in Budapest, Hunga- ry, Oct. 22, 2012. A family of musi- willing to have us record their preparations ernment’s penchant for state secrets and ementary schools and recently to students refugees in Canada? to leave, and then follow them on their repression. at U of T. She recently wrote: “It is a great In 2011, more than cians, they are planning to flee the country to Canada after incidents voyage to Canada. Our visit to Hungary revealed the extent educational tool that I will use for years to 4000 Hungarian Roma In Budapest, we met the family and of the segregation, intolerance and misery come! arrived, seeking asylum. where they were attacked by anti-Roma thugs, making them feel spent some time with them discussing which Hungarian Roma must endure. In We believe perhaps the greatest change The Canadian govern- their plans, and interviewing them. Then addition to numerous accounts of the vio- this documentary produced was simple ment expressed con- unsafe in their own country PHOTO CREDIT/REPORTAGE: Ed Ou photojournalist, Ed Ou, jumped at the lence Roma must live with that we heard, awareness among Canadians, as evidenced cern, and Immigration opportunity to spend a few days with we also saw and reported about their hor- by emails and calls we received from minister, Jason Kenney them recording one of the most important rible living conditions on the hundreds of many people at many levels who simple described many of the decisions they had ever made – to leave settlements they call home. said “I had no idea.” claimants as “bogus”. the country of their birth and venture into We met and interviewed members of the Leading up to the passage of the bill Despite numerous refu- Parliamentary MP Viktoria Mo- unknown territory – Canada. extreme right wing party that singles out which declared Hungary a safe country, gee claims asserting that to be deported back to Hungary. Both All along, Diane had attempted to per- Roma as the root of all of Hungary’s ills. Mr. Kenney visited, and tweeted and spoke Roma were the targets of racial violence, hacsi, an outspoken Roma politician scenarios proved difficult. Distrustful of and activist who had suddenly disappeared suade Mohacsi to talk to us. On one of our We attended a rally for this party, at which about what he saw and discovered there the government and many members of the authorities, no Roma wanted to expose final shoot days in Toronto, just before we Nazi material was being sold openly on the about Roma people’s experiences. But Immigration and Refugee Board consid- from the limelight and hadn‟t given media themselves in this way. They were afraid interviews for more than a year. Fortu- headed over to Hungary, Mohacsi decided streets. Canadians were not getting the full picture. ered Hungary to be a “safe” and democratic to show their intentions before leaving to give us an interview. She knew that she Our visit to the area of Miskolc, where Our documentary provided that. country. The government introduced a new itously, Diane unexpectedly bumped into Hungary and those about to be deported her at the RCC. When we met her, she was putting herself at risk, but decided most of the claimants to Canada come immigration bill that would formalize that didn’t want the authorities in Hungary to that she needed to speak out about what from, revealed the tension between ethnic Credit List: status by putting Hungary on a list of safe had been in Canada for several months know that they had failed. It was being with her three young children. She was she felt was an intolerable situation in and Roma Hungarians which the latter Reporter: Nahlah Ayed countries, which would effectively make it reported that Hungarian local authori- Hungary, a situation which might one day seek to escape. Producer: Diane Grant near impossible for its citizens to seek asy- volunteering at the community centre, ties were targeting failed refugees and translating for the hundreds of Roma seek- lead to civil war or even worse, a second One Jobbik party representative made it Photojournalist: Ed Ou lum here. Is Hungary a safe country for its threatening to withhold social services Holocaust, as she describes it. plain that returning Hungarians were not Assoc. Producer: Tashauna Reid significant Roma population? We decided ing help with their refugee applications – a when they returned. Most wanted to do so daunting task, since most refugees from Viktoria‟s Mohacsi’s story described welcome. Another said that criminality Camera: Pascal Leblond; Peter Zin to visit Hungary and see for ourselves. quietly. police cover-ups and alleged secret service was a trait Roma could not help. A family Editor: Sheldon Beldick We determined that the best way to tell Hungary speak no English. Producer Diane Grant spent weeks at the Ironically, she too was seeking asylum involvement in a number of high-profile that had been sent back from Canada, had our story was to spend time with a Roma Roma Community Centre (RCC) in To- serial killings, in Romani communities in to once again endure life on a settlement, You can see the story at: http://www. family about to leave Hungary to seek from Hungary. ronto to no avail. In the meantime, we had Mohacsi had received numerous death Hungary, culminating with the government with their girl attending class in a room cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/roma/ asylum in Canada, to learn of their motiva- decided to pursue known Roma activists in at the time declaring the incriminating evi- marked C, for “cigan”. index.html tions, and to find Roma who were about threats back in Hungary and had politi- Hungary, the main one being ex-European cal and personal reasons for remaining dence a state secret for 80 years. Mohacsi The response to our documentary in 35 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 36 DESPERATE FOR A JOB:``Our CAW/CAJ Award Winner Labour Reporting article, the cover story of Briarpatch magazine’s 2012 labour issue, takes a Briarpatch – Interns, unite! (you have nothing to lose - literally) – Greig de Peuter, Nicole Cohen, Enda Brophy deeper look at the internship phenome- non, but begins from the pressing ques- tion: what should be done?``

PHOTO CREDIT: Vaikunthe Banerjee/ The Peak: student newspaper of Simon Fraser University

According to Statistics Canada, 14.3 percent for youths aged 15 to 24 were unemployed in 2012. This percentage is more than twice the unemployment rate for so-called “core-age adults aged 25 to 54. These figures neglect to take into account young people who have given up looking, those who are under-employed or toiling away in precarious jobs. With dismal statistics such as these, it`s no wonder that employers, including many media outlets, have no trouble recruiting young workers to toil for free. As the title of the Briarpatch article suggests, young people literally have “nothing to lose”. The following is an edited version of the explanation that the Nicole Cohen, Enda Brophy (pictured in the middle) and Grieg de Peuter submitted to the judges.

We wanted to understand how the important role in facilitating that voice: the Recomposition of Labour Politics in an labour movement is responding to the rise article has been widely shared on social Age of Precarity (2011-2014).” of an army of unpaid interns that performs media, including Facebook and Twitter, Enda Brophy teaches in the School of ver the past year, Canadian me- work that, in many cases, used to be and garnered us an invitation to speak Communication at Simon Fraser Univer- PAY ME: This was one of the more dia has paid growing attention performed by paid employees. Our article about the issue at the Canadian University sity. He received his PhD in 2008 from colourlful slogans scrawled on a sign to unpaid internships and their tracks the growing efforts by current and Press’s NASH 75 conference in January the Department of Sociology at Queen’s O at the peak of the Occupy movement. effects on young workers. former interns, their allies, cultural work- and on Redeye, a syndicated program on University, and more recently completed a Held up by young people who stand to Media accounts raise questions about ers and other organizations to challenge Vancouver Cooperative Radio. Social Sciences and Humanities Research lose large from financial-crisis fallout, the legitimacy and legality of internships unpaid internships, in Canada and beyond. Our aim in writing this article was to Council postdoctoral fellowship in the placards like these are refreshingly and the mounting pressure young workers We interviewed four organizations di- spark an important conversation about Department of Political Science at York frank refusals of the mantra that we feel to accept unpaid internships as a first rectly involved in intern organizing, drew the challenges of unpaid labour in today’s University. His areas of research interest must be willing to do “more for less” step to full-time employment. on interviews we had conducted with other economy, and this article is proving to include the political economy of communi- nowadays. Excerpt from INTERNS, What began in the Middle Ages as ap- labour organizations in the cultural indus- continue to fuel the conversation. cation; communication and social change. UNITE! (you have nothing to lose – prenticeship training to bring young work- tries, and spent months reviewing articles, Nicole Cohen recently completed her You`ll find their story at: http://briar- literally!) ers up into a system of paid employment research, and commentary on the issue. PhD in the Graduate Program in Com- patchmagazine.com/articles/view/interns- has become a way for companies to cash The piece emerged out of a three-year munication and Culture at York Univer- unite-you-have-nothing-to-lose-literally PHOTO CREDIT: http://www.tumblr. in on young workers’ passion for their project studying responses to precarious sity and is an assistant professor at the com craft or desire to secure meaningful—or employment by workers in the cultural, Institute of Communications, Culture and Related links: any—employment. media, and creative industries. Information Technology at the University Canadian Intern Association It is no longer surprising to read of The challenge of writing a piece like of Toronto Missassagua. She is the co- https://www.facebook.com/CanadianIn- unemployed workers in their 50s forced this is finding interns to interview, as many founder of Shameless magazine. ternAssociation to accept internships, or of people bidding do not want to risk damaging their reputa- Greig de Peuter teaches and studies in for internships in auctions to pay for the tion or the promise of a future reference, the department of communication studies Desperate graduates work for free: Goar privilege of working for free. Amid rising which is often the only payment for doing at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is col- Within the last five years, unpaid intern- youth unemployment and crushing student an internship. laborating with Enda Brophy and Nicole ships have proliferated, lowering the floor takes a deeper look at the internship low-paid internships. The bulk of media debt, internships have become an urgent Although difficult to include in our Cohen on a Social Sciences and Humani- of the job market. phenomenon, but begins from the press- coverage to date focuses on enumerating labour issue. piece, interns’ voices of dissent are ties Research Council-supported research http://www.thestar.com/opinion/com- ing question: what should be done? What the problems with internships. Our article Our article, the cover story of Bri- becoming louder via social media and in project called “Flexible Workforces mentary/2013/03/11/desperate_gradu- makes our article unique is its focus on shifts the conversation to how young arpatch magazine’s 2012 labour issue, their daily lives. This article has played an Respond to the Creative Economy: The ates_work_for_free_goar.html youth-driven opposition to unpaid and workers are fighting back. 37 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 38 TELLING THEIR OWN STORIES: CAJ/CNW Award Winner Student Award of Excellence Mary Achege, a former child soldier, tries out a digital camera that helped her docu- ment the reintegration challenges she faces. Toronto Star/Carleton University – The Girls of War – Marc Ellison PHOTO CREDIT: MARC ELLISON

Marc Ellison’s story about the struggles former female child soldiers in North- ern Uganda still face, began with a simple, but vexing question. The answer provided the focus for the story that he was seeking.

Why should I talk to you? asked Jen- WHY SHOULD I TALK “nifer, a former child soldier with the TO YOU?: Jennifer Apio Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). I had to did eventually talk. Here, she answer this question numerous times by takes a break from the inter- the 40 ex-combatants I interviewed during view to feed her newborn son” the summer of 2011. Frankly, Jennifer’s overlapping and multiple: provider, porter, but one that was all the more difficult to oneself in a community for extensive question was difficult to answer. PHOTO CREDIT: MARC mother, fighter, “wife.” address considering my empathy. periods of time, and as part of this seek- A great deal has been written about the ELLISON I also wanted to show that life after the Another obstacle I faced in covering this ing out the insights of community-based 30,000 children abducted by the LRA in LRA often is not necessarily an improve- story was challenging the over-simplistic organizations and civilians whose perspec- a conflict that ravaged Northern Uganda ment. Many of the women I interviewed notion of the child soldier as victim. tives are often overwhelmed or silenced for more than two decades. These children said life was better with the LRA, while Women like Alice from The Star piece, by the agendas of international media and were forced to kill friends and family others consider suicide every day. unabashedly took great pride in having non-governmental organizations. members, to loot and to terrorize. Lastly, I told her I wanted to give her been a soldier because it gave them an To this end, don’t be afraid to chal- Since their escape from the LRA, these else is telling, look into the challenges But these challenges are am- the ability to help tell her own story. This elevated social status they now miss. lenge popular stereotypes and to embrace former child soldiers have been inter- facing female child soldiers struggling to plified for female ex-combatants in what “anthropographic” approach led to Jen- “In the bush, you can get what you want a journalism of attachment if the story is rogated by journalists who parachuted in reintegrate into their post-conflict com- is a highly patriarchal society. Fewer job nifer and four other participants receiving from people because you have a gun — reflective of the everyday experiences of seeking juicy, sensational, murder- and munities.” options are open to them, and unlike the digital cameras to document the daily but here I do not have a gun. In the bush, the people with whom you’re working. rape-centric, headline-grabbing stories, This was to become the topic for my former male soldiers, they have to come challenges they are negotiating. we were free to do anything we want never to be seen again by the participants. Masters thesis and, bolstered by The back to more responsibility, including chil- But in addition to research fatigue, there without much control. You could ambush Marc Ellison is an award-winning So given this context and researcher International Development Research dren to support. were other obstacles to investigating this vehicles, you could loot,” she said. data- and photojournalist who has fatigue, why should women like Jennifer Centre journalism award, I conducted So I told Jennifer that I wanted to ad- topic. It was difficult to come to terms with worked in Canada, Uganda and South have spoken to me? field research in Uganda for three months dress the West’s misconceptions about Working closely with these women for this complex victim-perpetrator relation- Sudan. He has an MSc in Computer The answers I gave Jennifer were to un- in 2011. My thesis became an online mul- child soldiers. months and witnessing the difficulties they ship, but doing so ultimately led to a more Science and has just completed his derpin the message of “The Girls Of War” timedia project. We’ve absorbed the media image of a face as civilians challenged my journalist’s nuanced understanding of child soldiers. MA in Journalism at Carleton Univer- article that I was to write for The Toronto Even before I left for Northern Uganda, child soldier as a teenage boy gripping a notion of objectivity. I quickly realized But how has a 3,000-word feature sity. Ellison has produced work for 60 Star in the spring of 2012. I learned that even though the guns have Kalashnikov, a necklace of bullets draped that writing these types of stories force transformed the lives of these female ex- Minutes, The Toronto Star, The Globe In my first year of Carleton University’s been silent there for years, life for these around his narrow shoulders, sky-high on you to adopt a viewpoint, disregarding combatants? The publicity from the piece and Mail, CBC, iPolitics, The Vancou- Masters of Journalism program, I wrote former child soldiers is still incredibly a cocktail of drugs and booze. And yet, Olympian objectivity. helped in auctioning off my photographs ver Sun, OpenFile, Canadian Geo- an assignment about former child soldiers difficult: they continue to face stigmati- more than a quarter – or approximately However, I still had to try and retain to and the women women’s photographs. The graphic, Radio Miraya (South Sudan), immigrating to Canada, and the issues zation from their communities and their 8,000 - of the children abducted by the certain journalistic principles, namely fact- money helped them pay their children’s and Mega FM (Uganda). You can they faced upon their integration here. Fol- own families; they have missed out on an LRA were girls. checking, triangulating and corroborating school fees and start small businesses, al- reach him at marc.e.ellison@gmail. lowing an interview with the Child Soldier education; they suffer from severe post- And contrary to another common the women’s stories. Some of them embel- lowing them a degree of financial security. com , his twitter handle is @marceel- Initiative’s deputy director, Tanya Zayed traumatic stress disorder; and they need misconception, female child soldiers were lished their stories, or simply told me what For (student) journalists wanting to do lison, and you can see his work at confided in me. more counseling and vocational skills more than just bush wives and sex slaves. they thought I wanted to hear. This was similar work: I’ve found that some of the http://www.marcellison.com/. “If you really want to tell a story no-one training programs. Women’s roles in the LRA are fluid, not only an obstacle attached to my craft, best journalism comes from embedding 39 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 40 SEEING IS BELIEVING: One of the key components of The Canadian Press’ NNA Award Winner Multimedia Feature NNA-winning multimedia presentation of the 2011 census was how data was mapped, in some cases as detailed as the neighbourhood level. The Canadian Press created a The Canadian Press – Telling Canadians about Canadians – the multimedia team map for all of Canada, allowing people to zoom in as close as they wanted. PHOTO CREDIT: CP interactive graphic artist Jeremy Agius

When Statistics Canada rolls out the results of its census every five years, media outlets produce a steady stream of predictable stories. But the digital universe has placed more THE EVOLVING FAMILY: The latest demands on our storytelling, forcing media outlets to think creatively. That’s exactly 2011 census data illustrates a very different what The Canadian Press did in its multi-media coverage which dug into the data and version of Canada than the one that was told the tales behind the numbers. And as Scott White explains, the idea began germinat- familiar a half-century ago. The family ing after a serendipitous conversation. photo of mom, dad and their 2.1 kids is now crowded with foster kids, grandpar- ents living in the family home, same-sex couples and moms going it alone. PHOTO CREDIT: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Leigh Tynan

We showed how the country’s chang- vintage clothes and Mad Men-style hair wanted. The Canadian Press’ interactive n the winter of 2001, I was sitting figured if they saw and heard news stories artists and videographers who accepted the ing demographics had shifted the political and makeup – to do a video and photo graphic artist Jeremy Agius explains how Ion a bus in Florida reading a copy of about the census and how it related to their 2012 NNA for Multimedia Feature. fulcrum to Western Canada; how immigra- shoot that showed how the family unit had he did it: the Orlando Sentinel. The paper had an communities, they would see the value of But getting access to a deep dive of tion was the core reason for population evolved over 50 years. We used a few different tools for map- entire special section – rich in detail, with filling out a census form. I told him that numbers was just part of the CP census growth but that it was almost exclusively James McCarten, CP’s Ottawa News ping. The open source QGIS was used to comprehensive stories and vivid graph- CP had the reach to deliver local census project. We also devoted tremendous an urban phenomenon; and how “Brady Editor, was the journalistic ringmaster who prep, process and combine the boundary ics – devoted to the release of data from stories to hundreds of newspaper, radio, journalistic resources to figuring out what Bunch” families were becoming part of brought the stories and concepts together files provided by Statistics Canada leading the 2000 U.S. Census. It broke down the TV and online newsrooms across the the numbers really meant. What did the the norm of society, even though Statcan from our reporters across the country for up to the project. demographic data right down to the neigh- country – if, and only if, Statistics Canada statistics tell us about a society that was didn’t start measuring stepfamilies until every release of census data. Following that, we relied on the Map- bourhood level. I thought, ‘Why we don’t was willing to provide unprecedented co- changing before our eyes? What was the 2011. Graeme Roy, director of news photogra- box platform. TileMill was used to merge do this in Canada?’ operation. impact of the changes? Was government We asked respected demographer David phy, worked with our amazing photogra- data with boundary files and to visualize When I got home, I checked the CP I was skeptical, but Sheridan and his policy adapting to reflect the needs of a Foot, author of the “Boom Bust & Echo” phers and video team to produce compel- the data for each release. database to see what kind of coverage we team delivered. Starting with the 2001 new Canada? series of books, to write an essay on why ling images. This was then exported as ‘mbtiles’ – a had given the census in past years. I found census, and continuing in 2006 and 2011, The CP census project examined some Canadian governments and corporations CP artists Jeremy Agius and Sean Vokey single file containing bitmap tiles rep- one superficial story from the 1996 census The Canadian Press was able to obtain fundamental issues facing the country. should rethink the very concept of retire- did the maps, interactives and graphics. resenting the country at multiple zoom that focused only on the country’s popu- customized databases for thousands of “New census data shows Canada now ment to allow older Canadians to be both Developers Dave Campbell, Les Daviau levels and some associated data. This was lation. Other media had given it similar communities. This allowed us to create has a higher proportion of seniors than employed and retired at the same time. and Rushdeep Singh created the databases uploaded to Mapbox servers for hosting treatment. I knew Canadians were about to localized stories, graphics and mapping ever before — a development that has “Changing demographics occur very with special help from Statcan IT staff following each lockup. fill out their census forms in May of 2001 – right down to the neighbourhood level crept up on society with far-reaching slowly, and we’ve moved increasingly Mary-Lynne Reid, Paul Schwets and Lyle These map layers are then linked up to and thought we could do better. in the major urban centres – for the many implications for health, finance, policy towards short-term incentives in the politi- Sather. the user interface – written in html/javas- Before I could reach out to Statistics clients that CP serves. and everyday family relationships,” CP cal system and in the economic system,” My main task was to bring Red Bull and cript. When users interact with the map, Canada, however, a totally serendipitous The moment the overnight census social affairs reporter Heather Scoffield wrote Foot. assorted bags of junk food to the midnight embedded IDs are used to query additional thing happened. I got a call out of the blue lockups ­end at 8:30 a.m., CP transmits wrote. (Editor’s note: Scoffield has been “Our politicians are elected for three census lockups at Statistics Canada HQ in data from a separate database. from Mike Sheridan, Statcan’s assistant hundreds of customized stories for our since named as CP’s Parliamentary bureau or four-year terms, so they only have a Ottawa and let this great CP team work its Because users only ever have to down- chief statistician. In what would prove to subscribers. We do it by writing a single chief) couple of years in the middle to make multimedia magic. load enough tiles to cover a single screen be the first of many pleasant, surprisingly “template” story and then developing a “At the same time, the latest tranche of a difference. Well, demographics don’t You can see many of the components of at a time – roughly nine small images – un-bureaucratic discussions with Statcan program that allowed the customized data- 2011 census information shows a surpris- change much in a couple of years. In the CP’s census project here: http://thecanadi- performance is much quicker than layering bureaucrats, Sheridan was blunt: it upset base we received from Statistics Canada to ing 11-per-cent resurgence of toddlers — a private sector, we give our senior execu- anpress-census.ca/ complex vector boundaries over a base him that the census received so little me- essentially “fill in the blanks.” burst of growth in the under-five popula- tives annual bonuses, so they’re basically map. dia coverage. It was the first time CP’s editorial and tion that is a complete reversal of trend thinking one year at a time. Mapping the census: How we did it See the interactive CP census map here The government spent millions collect- IT departments had worked together on lines a decade ago and is rejuvenating So senior decision makers are not think- One of the key components of The and take a “tour” of some of Canada’s ing all this information about Canadians such a project and it had amazing effect every region of the country.” ing long-term — and demographic change Canadian Press’ NNA-winning multime- most demographically interesting com- and yet the public hardly heard about it, he of bringing our two worlds together. I was Other stories on the census release on is long-term.” dia presentation of the 2012 census was munities: http://thecanadianpress-census. said. Sheridan admitted his reasons were so proud to see Dave Campbell, CP’s IT age examined the growing problem of age- And we had some fun. For the census how data was mapped, in some cases as ca/?graphics=communities-interactive- selfish: Statcan was seeing more and more Development Manager, standing on the ism – and the push back from baby boom- release on families, we worked with Tynan detailed as the neighbourhood level. CP map people refusing to fill out census data, stage at the Canadian War Museum as part ers who once famously warned: “Never Studio in Toronto to turn actors into a created a map for all of Canada, allow- Scott White is The Canadian Press’ especially in rural parts of the country. He of the team of editors, reporters, graphic trust anyone over 30.” “typical” 1961 family – complete with ing people to zoom down as close as they Editor-in-Chief. 41 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 42 NNA Award Winner News Feature Photography

National Post – for a photo of a worker snoozing in the back during a mayor Rob Ford speech – Tyler Anderson

It could have been a boring photo of a Toronto mayor giving a dull speech, the kind of assignment that news photographers dread. But then Tyler Anderson spot- ted something behind the curtain that made that boredom seem laughable, given the controversy that dogs Rob Ford.

t times working as a newspa- safe and standard pictures of the tiable. In other words, a news photog- Aper photographer, can feel like mayor speaking from the podium. rapher’s dream. Groundhog Day. At no point is this It is always important to have a walk It’s interesting how quickly things more true than when you’re covering around and look at things from differ- can change. This image is even more local politics. ent angles and try to find something compelling, and amusing, to me now, The City Hall beat in Toronto means fresh and unique so with the safe given recent events. It represents the staid press conferences, council meet- pictures out of the way, I took a look calm before the storm. To me, this TIME FOR A POWER NAP: A staffer dozes off behind a black curtain as Toronto mayor Rob Ford speaks during a Toronto Real Estate ings and formal luncheons. For variety, behind the backdrop. The service photograph also represents the impor- Board luncheon in Toronto, Ontario, Friday, June 1, 2012. photo-ops may feature oversized gold staff had finished serving lunch and I tance of having a second, or deeper scissors, new shovels, red ribbons and found a man taking a quick nap. He look at any situation. In a culture of held handshakes. was sitting on a banquet chair, his fast consumption, where images are It is an exercise in making some- hands clasped in his lap and his head snapped and shared in seconds via BECOME A MEMBER thing from nothing — a skill at which slumped almost to his shoulder. He cellphones, tablets, etc., taking time to most Canadian newspaper photogra- looked as if he were about to fall from explore a subject or a story can be a Newspapers Canada is a joint initiative of the Canadian Newspaper Association (CNA) phers excel. his seat. gift and separates professional photo- However, covering Rob Ford, To- Though he never woke up, his col- journalists from the rest. and the Canadian Community Newspapers Association (CCNA). Each association offers ronto’s 64th mayor, has been different league sitting next to him shot me a The public is bombarded with different membership options for newspapers, organizations and individuals affiliated from day one. He is a larger-than-life look that he was unimpressed with my manufactured and controlled imagery character with a big personality and a sense of humour. In truth, it was an — carefully curated Facebook pho- with the industry. distinct physical presence. He is often uninteresting speech and like me, this tos, photo-shopped magazine ads. For newspapers: dogged by controversy; so it seems man was less then entertained. As photographers, we could provide Canadian Newspaper Association (CNA) - Full Membership there is always a story to tell and a It is almost impossible to imagine the public with another picture of the cast of characters to help you tell it. being able to take this picture now. No- mayor standing in front of a screen, Canadian Community Newspapers Association (CCNA) - General Membership But even the most dramatic political body sleeps when Rob Ford speaks. emblazoned with the city’s logo. Or we For industry suppliers, individuals and newspapers ineligible for full or general member- term has its share of the dull. Behind In Toronto these days, journalists and can dig around for something more every storied life are the ordinary, the public wait with baited breath to meaningful. ship: perhaps tedious moments that we take hear what the mayor might say or do There is a story behind every photo Newspapers Canada– Sustaining/Associate Membership for granted. next. Ford’s mayoralty has become a — and another story behind that. Canadian Community Newspapers Association - Fellowship On May 1, 2012, I was assigned to circus, embroiled with allegations of Tyler Anderson is a staff pho- photograph Ford while he spoke to the crack-cocaine abuse and association tographer with the National Post. Not sure if your newspaper is a member? Click here to search for your newspaper and Toronto Real Estate Board at Sheridan with Somali drug dealers; it has all of You can see some of his work view its membership status. Hotel. As he addressed the business the trappings of a Lindsay Lohan-type at: tylerandersonphoto.com and con- lunch crowd and talked about city celebrity scandal, along with a public tact him at tyanderson@nationalpost. For more information on becoming a member, contact Newspapers Canada at 1-877-305- taxes and “city gravy,” I took some that is hungry for information and insa- com. 2262, visit it’s website or email at [email protected]. 43 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 44 POVERTY AND DESPEAR: In Fort Hope, NNA Award Winner Beat Reporting also known as the Eabametoong First Na- tion, Phillip Wapoose lives in a crumbling house with his ill wife Lizzie, his The Canadian Press – for stories on aboriginal affairs – Heather Scoffield 13-year-old son Leroy and his 31-year-old daughter Liza (in the picture). There has been a lot of talk about economic development and the ability of First Nations Around them, the signs of poverty are to share in the wealth. Nowhere is that discussion more important than in a 500-square everywhere. Wapoose wants his children kilometer area in Northern Ontario’s James Bay region called the Ring of Fire. Nine to find a way out of the tough conditions and into the world of paid em- communities are poised to benefit from the multi-billion dollar economic development. Or ployment. He sees a potential answer in are they? And if so, how much? Heather Scoffieldexplains why she visited some of those the Ring of Fire (map to the bottom left). communities -- and how the whole trip almost never happened. PHOTO CREDIT: THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Ryan Remiorz

ost of the stories I wrote over the to the airport, one of the social workers It was tempting to cancel the whole Mcourse of last year about the First passed me a photo copy of a letter some of thing, since there were snowstorms in Nations struggle to find prosperity and the Grade 6 children had written to their the offing. But there was no refund on Nations leaders about how they will turn a peace of mind very nearly didn’t happen. parents. In black and white, they listed the plane tickets either. So I made a final disenfranchised population into a produc- My first trip up north was in the spring, the pain and anguish addictions had piled effort, calling everyone I knew to open tive work force. But the happy ending of a last-minute decision by The Canadian upon their families and their daily life. The doors for me and salvage my trip. I was this saga is nowhere in sight. Press to accompany chiefs on a tour of story basically wrote itself. told repeatedly that no media goes there Heather Scoffield is the Ottawa bureau isolated reserves that were being crushed We decided to visit the same region alone, on their own timing. I needed a chief for The Canadian Press. She has by addictions to OxyContin and other again last winter, this time to write about guide. At last, the chief of Marten Falls devoted her career to covering policy of prescription drugs. Had the story been Stephen Harper’s “responsible resource said we could come. There was no hotel, one sort another, touching on trade, indus- told already? After all, the world knew development” agenda at work. The story and we should bring our own food. So we try, monetary policy, fiscal policy, health, full well there were plenty of addictions was supposed to be about the lengths packed our sleeping bags, some snacks labour, environment, aboriginal peoples problems among remote First Nations. governments and companies were going and our equipment, and left. and wealth distribution over her 16 years But chiefs were telling me prescription to, to foster support among First Nations Our luck turned. We skirted the snow watching Ottawa. She has won or been drug abuse was tearing apart their com- for massive mining development across storms, found a place to stay, and were nominated for several National Newspaper munities in ways alcohol never did. The Northern Ontario. welcomed in every community. The story Awards as well as an Amnesty Internation- drugs were easily smuggled in; and their I wanted to go to a couple of communi- however, was a difficult one to tell. The al award for human rights reporting. After costs were so high that families were go- ties when mining companies were coming intricacies of global commodities markets, earning an international relations degree ing without food, selling their furniture to town so that I could document how they environmental assessments and domestic at York University and an MA in journal- and turning to crime just to buy enough to reached out and how they were received. politics were playing themselves out on ism at the University of Western Ontario, stave off the horrific effects of withdrawal. So the company Christmas parties set up reserves that were reeling from decades Heather worked for The Canadian Press So we made the call to take the trip, and in a chain of First Nations seemed ideal. of poor education, overcrowding, mental and before going to The Globe uncovered a human tragedy that extended I lined up invitations from the various health challenges and rampant addiction. and Mail for 12 years. She returned to CP far beyond addiction. In some communi- chiefs, contacted the companies, got plane I met one woman working as a social four years ago. She lives in Chelsea, QC., ties, almost every adult was an addict, tickets for myself and a photographer. And worker in the band office. She didn’t have with her husband, two children and a dog. leading to completely dysfunctional com- then things fell apart, not once but twice. much to say to me at first. She told me about natural resource development. point of view but from the First Nations munities. First, one chief withdrew his invita- she had no formal training for her job, but Bringing those elements together in a communities themselves. Original story My time in each community was lim- tion. It was too busy at Christmas. There did her best under the circumstances. The narrative form that would capture read- The result was widespread pickup, full http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder- ited, however, and I was having trouble would be other times to visit. And so on. circumstances turned out to be working all ers’ attention took the fortuitous help of pages across the country over the Christ- bay/story/2012/04/15/thunder-bay-cat- finding anyone to talk first-hand about He would not budge, and I knew I would day and most of each night, breaking up Idle-No-More. As I was compiling my mas holidays, when readers had time to lake-children-letter.html his experience. In the streets were chil- not get anywhere without his go-ahead. So fights and dealing with family meltdowns. stories and sorting out how best to bring digest their daily newspapers. Additional submissions dren. Mostly everyone else was sleeping I re-routed my trip to include a different I asked, hoping to draw her out, whether to life the layers and layers of complexity, The story of prescription drug addic- Oxy addict on reserve still craves drug it off. But it turned out that the children reserve. many people on the reserve were addicted aboriginal protesters were taking to the tions and the story of natural resource after losing children were The Story, and the sole hope for But then, the day before we left, a to prescription drugs. The question turned streets in cities across the country. development in remote areas are deeply First Nation’s water imperils economy, the addicted adults, the well-wishers, the second chief pulled out. There had been the quiet woman into a furious, loud And Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence entwined, and those stories are by no health and maybe even pregnancies government social workers and the natural yet another death, and most of the youth woman who yelled right at me. Yes, she launched into her no-solids hunger strike means over. Ring of Fire mining prospects empower resource companies looking for a local in the community were on suicide watch. hollered, almost everyone. in downtown Ottawa. The federal government has stepped up disenfranchised natives workforce. The Medevac was taking teenagers into And in the midst of that, mining compa- The Canadian public wanted to know with more targeted, culturally-sensitive Harper’s need for speed in resource In Cat Lake, just as I was heading out Thunder Bay almost every day. nies and governments try to speak gently what was going on, and I was well-placed addictions treatment options. And the development meets First Nations reality to tell that story – not from a protesters’ companies are talking intently with First 45 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 46 For this, I relied on CreateSpace. AN OPEN-AND-SHUT CASE? HARDLY: The com – a unit of Amazon.com that caters accounting was complicated and a guilty verdict NNA Award Winner Explanatory Work to self-publishers. I spent an intensive seemed pre-ordained. After all, Frank Dunn, Doug- week working out the technical kinks but las Beatty and Michael Gollogly (pictured to the Ottawa Citizen – The story behind its coverage of the Nortel criminal trial – Explanatory work eventually got a paperback that looked left) had years earlier been fired by their employer presentable, though it would not become for cause. available for a few days following our PHOTO CREDIT: Darren Calabrese/National Post James Bagnall had a deep knowledge of Nortel’s accounting practices even before the yearlong April 26 e-book launch. trial involving former executives Frank Dunn, Douglas Beatty and Michael Gollogly. It was es- What I didn’t realize at the time was sential to be open-minded enough to go where the facts led him. The journey was surprising. that people could order the paperback For perspective on these, discussed very early the possibility of my only through Amazon.com, not Amazon. I got in touch with former members writing a book about the trial and the cir- ca – which proved confusing for Cana- of Nortel’s finance group, dating from cumstances that led to it. The Citizen was dian buyers. Other readers had trouble earlier stories I had done for The Citi- establishing an online store and wanted locating the e-book because our publisher zen – impressing upon me once again the to offer readers a variety of e-books. The used ‘judgement’ in the title, not the more his feature, above all, reminded me ing at the Ontario Securities Commission on Nortel’s balance to trigger executive importance of cultivating and maintain- to be wary of conventional wisdom. had been halted pending a verdict in the bonuses – were couched in generalities. newspaper lined up HarperCollins as the conventional spelling that appears on the T ing sources. The former insiders provided publisher. My job was to deliver a manu- book cover. The epiphany for me came a few days criminal case, I was able to comb through This report had been the starting point valuable off-the-record perspective on the before Christmas in 2011. I had begun to more than 100 pre-trial filings involving for investigations by the U.S. Securities script as quickly as possible after the Jan. To rectify these issues, The Citizen entries cited by the OSC in its reply to 14, 2013 verdict. made all versions of the book available research what I then believed would be a Nortel’s executives and the SEC. These and Exchange Commission, OSC and Dunn’s lawyers. They offered explanations very straight-forward story. The Citizen were available online (for 10 cents a page) the RCMP – and it offered no specific I was prepared to spend some time on at http://store.ottawacitizen.com/blogs/e- other than fraud – business reasons -- to this – I didn’t want merely to recite the books/7768623-100-days-the-rush-to- planned to publish a feature early in the through www.pacer.gov – an indispensable examples of accounting transgressions. account for Nortel’s shift from losses to New Year explaining the likely progres- tool for business journalists. I considered more seriously the pos- key events of the trial. The idea was to judgment-that-killed-nortel. profit early in 2003. explain how it was possible that so many Another mistake involved marketing. sion of the upcoming fraud trial involving Unlike Canada’s online legal database – sibility that no crime had been committed. All of this helped to shape my thinking Nortel’s top three financial executives. www.canlii.ca – the pacer website makes Once I did, the evidence began to acquire players – the OSC, SEC, RCMP, the We had concentrated so heavily on getting during the writing of the pre-trial feature Crown and Nortel’s board of directors – so the book done, we failed to think clearly This was potentially a very boring as- available the complete docket in civil and a different look. So did the story I was – and throughout the yearlong criminal signment and there was every risk readers criminal cases, not just the courts’ final working on. readily accepted the rushed conclusions of about the next steps. Yes, we drafted a proceeding. As a mountain of evidence ac- Wilmer Cutler, leaving the three accused press release, but failed to cultivate poten- would think so too. The accounting was rulings. Dunn and Beatty had filed dozens I examined the nature of accounting cumulated, it seemed clear to me the fraud complicated and a guilty verdict seemed of documents -- including some that would and its many gray areas. In a fast-moving to twist in the wind for nearly a decade. tial reviewers beforehand. charges would eventually be dismissed. I caught a break when the Crown in I also neglected to line up testimonials pre-ordained. After all, Frank Dunn, prove central to their defense in the 2012 industry such as telecommunications My reporting reflected this belief. Douglas Beatty and Michael Gollogly had criminal trial. One of these contained a equipment, the permutations were many. mid-February decided not to appeal the that are so important in the rankings of on- But then I confronted an unexpected original verdict. This made a few sources line publications. The book briefly made years earlier been fired by their employer detailed response by the OSC to questions Nortel’s balance sheet contained hundreds difficulty: the vast majority of the people for cause. Nortel had also published a posed by Dunn – something I couldn’t find of thousands of estimates – each offer- feel more comfortable about sharing it to the top of the business book rankings who were following the trial believed their experiences. Even so, the threat of on iTunes and Amazon.ca – then promptly summary of their alleged transgressions in through the Commission’s own website. ing the possibility of fraud but also the the three Nortel executives were guilty, a report by Wilmer Cutler, the Washington Dunn’s lawyers had asked what, exactly, greater likelihood of error, especially in a continuing litigation in civil court (at the drifted back down to earth. and that I was naïve to believe otherwise. SEC and OSC) meant everyone still had Nevertheless, this was an editorial law firm hired to provide an independent was wrong with how Nortel had accounted corporation that sacked two of every three This included members of the Citizen’s assessment of Nortel’s numbers. for more than 30 allegedly fraudulent employees from 2001 to 2003. to be careful about what they said. Most project worth doing – and the catalyst was newsroom. Every few weeks I paused to conversations remained off the record. the explanatory piece written a year ago In a criminal case such as this, pre-trial transactions. As I examined the OSC’s I consulted the relevant accounting ask myself if I had I missed something interviews with the accused or the wit- answers, I realized its investigators didn’t rules, including the crucial one that laid A Citizen colleague, Christine Brous- January. profound. And if so, why wasn’t I seeing seau, volunteered to edit the book, which You can find the story at:http://www2. nesses were out of the question. The in- have an answer. They referred often to out tests for determining how to account it? But each time I re-examined the hard dependent investigators from Washington the report by Wilmer Cutler or, even more for future exposures to items such as was forwarded to HarperCollins under canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/observer/ evidence, it seemed to point only in the the title “100 Days: the rush to judgment story.html?id=fc09dcaf-2d75-48b0-824c- also declined comment. However, I found telling, noted that these were matters to the potential cost of breaking multi-year direction of acquittal. a great deal of information buried in a pair be determined at trial. Also through the leases and canceling contracts with sup- that killed Nortel”. The publisher, in turn, baeea60788a6 I am grateful that my editors gave me translated our Word document – all 33,000 James Bagnall, the associate business of civil proceedings that had also alleged SEC, I located the synopsis of the criminal pliers – accounting transactions that lay at the benefit of the doubt, though their accounting fraud at Nortel. case prepared by the RCMP. This, too, was the heart of the Nortel case. While I have words -- into electronic books suitable for editor of The Ottawa Citizen, has been relief at the not-guilty verdict betrayed reading on Kindles, iPADs, KoboReaders reporting on business since 1978. He The most fruitful of these was the action unclear about the alleged accounting mis- some training in university-level account- some nervousness. Also to their credit, we brought in 2007 by deeds. While the Crown obviously hadn’t ing, it was useful only at a conceptual and other electronic devices. In addition began his career at The , the U.S. Securi- had a chance yet to prove the allegations level. What gave me comfort, as it always I wanted a paperback version. then an independent weekly, and worked ties and Exchange in court, its case seemed surprisingly thin. does in situations like this, was speaking Because that had not been part for several years at The Financial Times Commission. I returned to the 2005 Wilmer Cutler on background with auditors and ac- of the Citizen’s arrangement of Canada. He joined The Citizen as a While this and a report. Its conclusions – that the three ex- countants familiar with Nortel’s industry, with HarperCollins, I produced columnist in 1993. Bagnall graduated in similar proceed- ecutives had deliberately shifted liabilities people not directly tied to the litigation. one myself – something I had 1975 from the University of Toronto’s Trin- Some were extraordinarily cynical about never done before. ity College. VINDICATION: Frank Dunn’s lawyers had asked what, ex- the inevitable conflicts of interest in the actly, was wrong with how Nortel had accounted for more than financial services industry, which arise 30 allegedly fraudulent transactions. As I examined the OSC’s because the client – Nortel in this case ALL SMILES: Former Nortel chief financial officer Douglas Beatty, was answers, I realized its investigators didn’t have an answer. -- pays the fees. The key to understanding a happy man the day of the verdict. the upcoming trial, I realized, would lie in PHOTO CREDIIT: Michelle Siu/The Canadian Press PHOTO CREDIT: Darren Calabrese/National Post the unique and detailed accounting entries alleged to be fraudulent. 47 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 48 NNA Award Winner Short Features

Winnipeg Free Press – for a story about a Scanterbury resident who built a giant red chair to honour the com- munity’s ditch wavers – Lindor Reynolds

Lindor Reynolds (sitting on the chair), a columnist with the Winnipeg Free Press, won the Short Features category for her piece on a Scanterbury resident John Bear, (standing to her left) who built a large, red chair in honour of the community’s ditch-wavers. You can read her story below.

ROKENHEAD OJIBWAY NA- Nelson Starr died in 2007 at 71. James during Brokenhead Ojibway’s treaty days. BTION -- The Starr brothers put is living in a seniors facility. Bear entered his chair in the public parade. Scanterbury on the map. Now, it’s the Beach-goers and community members He won first prize. community’s turn. missed the comforting presence of the This was no fancy Canada Council A former neighbour has memorialized brothers. The Starrs were so popular, the project. The lumber was salvage. The the famous ditch wavers with a huge red local convenience store is named Wavers. paint (three coats of red and white) cost lawn chair, placed in the spot where the So John Bear, a 52-year-old mainte- him $120. His labour was free. The band men brought smiles to thousands of lake- nance man with a bum leg, decided he’d kicked in a little cash but this was really goers. do something to memorialize Scanter- one man’s mission. Nelson and James Starr spent more than bury’s famous citizens. Chief Jim Bear, Bear’s uncle, has trav- 20 years standing in the tall grass that “Last March, this idea just came into my elled extensively across Canada. When- separated their home from Highway 59. mind,” says Bear. ever he mentions Scanterbury, he says, Four days a week, the men offered greet- “I seen the spot where they waved and I people talk about the Starr brothers. ings to passing vehicles. thought we should have something there. “These two individuals received gifts They wore a path through the weeds to It was almost like a vision.” continually. They received letters from all their regular waving spots. A memorial chair seemed like a perfect parts of the world. People looked forward A generation of Winnipeggers bound for symbol. Bear has built ice shacks, but this to seeing them.” Grand Beach and surrounding communi- was his first art project. He happened to He’s pleased his nephew took the time ties slowed their vehicles, waved back, have an old deck in his yard, so the mate- to build the tribute chair. honked their horns and stopped to offer rial was at hand. “The brothers did this for years and they them water and gifts. He set out to build a lawn chair. A really weren’t paid,” he said. “He did this out There was a quiet dignity to the ditch big lawn chair. of the kindness of his heart to remember wavers; an implacable, Mona Lisa-like When Bear was done, he’d constructed them.” mystery to the matched set of stout men in a 2.4-metre-high, 193-centimetre-wide It’s working. People stop to pose for ball caps. They were born on Brokenhead, chair, big enough to hold two adults com- pictures on the chair. When Jim Bear two of five children. Both were mentally fortably. It’s so tall that when you stand on clambered onto it one warm morning this challenged. They weren’t sent to school. the seat and wave, people on the highway week, people waved at him. A broad grin No one expected they’d amount to much see you easily. split his face. more than gentle souls. The brothers didn’t Bear says building the chair was a way Slow down the next time you pass by work, kept to themselves and couldn’t of easing some of his own demons. He’s Scanterbury. dream they’d someday become small-town been unable to work since a failed 2010 The chair is a tribute to two simple men celebrities. knee operation. who gave a gift to everyone who saw When I met them a decade ago, it was “I was depressed a lot,” he says. “I was them. up to James Starr to explain why they dealing with stress a lot. I talked to people Sit in that giant chair for a while, wave waved. in the community and that helped. But this and you’ll feel their spirit. Life doesn’t “It makes me happy,” he said shyly. chair; it reminds me that everyone has ups have to be complicated to be good. “People wave. Sometimes they stop and and downs. It changed my perspective on [email protected] give us things like drinks, sometimes my disability.” Republished from the Winnipeg Free sandwiches.” The chair got its first public showing Press print edition August 17, 2012 A4 49 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 50 NNA Award Winner Local Reporting

St. John’s Telegram – for stories about the sexual abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage – Barb Sweet

Barb Sweet discovered that the pain of the years at the infamous orphanage never goes away for the former residents. But there was more to the story than painful memories resurrected. She also convinced the cop who claimed there was a cover-up to break his silence.

y three-part series revealed that whereabouts of some of the victims with the brother that abused him to throw the Mfor men who were residents in troubling stories — some of whom do dog out a top-floor window. The faithful Mount Cashel during different eras, the not have fixed addresses or phones — I animal was left for dead in the woods. physical and sexual abuse by certain mem- knocked on doors and went to shelters. That evening, when I left the man’s bers of the Christian Brothers — despite I did obituary and Facebook searches house after the interview, I was driving an inquiry and compensation — is too hor- for relatives of deceased twin brothers -- with my own dog in the back seat to our rendous to shake with tragic consequences Johnny and Jerome Williams. usual walking trail. for some. And even those who have done I was particularly compelled by the sto- My phone rang and it was the man, who well in their lives continue to suffer the ries of the Williams brothers. I interviewed said he wasn’t doing well because of the pain. their sister, who lives in Western Canada. I flood of all those memories. Part three of the series also revealed am grateful to her. My heart sank for causing him pain. some victims have never come forward I also read the volumes of the Hughes But he actually told me he was grateful ATTEMPTING TO FORGET AND MOVE ON: Billy Earle, a victim of abuse at Mount Cashel orphanage in the 1970s, has been trying ever inquiry report, before. I put one man in touch with a law- including the appendix that I had listened to him. since to shake anxiety. yer as the compensation deadline loomed exhibit material, and watched some of the For me, the stories I write best are the PHOTO CREDIT: Barb Sweet/The Telegram last summer. hearing footage on old VHS tapes, thanks ones I feel the most deeply. The stories also featured a rare interview to the provincial archives. While our jobs are to be objective, the with the police officer who first investi- Because I knew how his story turned ability to empathize is a gift that can make involved in two other more complex proj- stantly be thinking of angles for the story which is published by the Transcontinen- gated the allegations, an investigation that out, I will never forget the feeling of a person agree to an interview and to open ects — one building a database of bridge and ways to write it. tal Atlantic Media Group. I have worked was quashed. watching Johnny Williams testify. up. inspections from four inches of paper Such stories don’t ever leave my mind. I since 1993 in a variety of roles, including Our editorial page editor, Russell The other most enduring memory of Journalists have to be clear about their copies supplied by the province; the other, wake up in the morning crafting the story section editing, before I decided to go Wangersky, was a Sunday Express re- working on this series was sitting down intentions and their sensitivity to the sub- a feature series with two colleagues on the in my head and organizing my thoughts back to my most enduring love of writing. porter who had covered the Mount Cashel with a retiree who had done well for ject matter: a no can turn into a yes when 20th anniversary of the cod moratorium. while walking my dog at night. Think- I have won a number of awards, but this scandal when it broke in the late 1980s. himself. the reasons for wanting to tell the story are Daily newsrooms are places where time ing out a story and what you want the was my first National Newspaper Award. He didn’t think I would get the officer to As we spoke for hours, the toll the or- explained. and resources are less than ideal. legacy of it to be is an essential part of the Prior to 1993, I was a recipient of the speak to me, but I did. phanage experience had taken on him was Some of the sources quoted in the Fortunately, I had the support of my process. 1991-93 Thomson Newspapers working It was a column by Russell about Mount revealed, despite his success in building a story were reluctant at first. But when I editors, particularly managing editor Kerry And respect goes a long way in this fellowship to Washington, D.C., achieved Cashel survivor Billy Earle’s troubles with life through the years. explained my aim and my belief that this Hann, to spend some time on the Mount business. through a national competition. The getting counseling services that sparked He told me about a little stray dog that was not an old story that I was rehashing Cashel legacy series. I am grateful for that. If readers and subjects respect your stories I most enjoy pursuing are the my interest in pursuing the stories of he’d befriended as a teen at the orphan- for the sake of sensationalism, the police But it was not months, but weeks to stories, no matter whether they come off intensely personal ones and those stories where the abuse survivors are with their age and how the dog came to his side officer whose interview was in doubt re- spend. That’s just the reality. negative or positive, and no matter how that help people. I can be contacted in The lives. one evening when band members were lented. Det. Robert Hillier, who headed the My biggest piece of advice is to pick anguishing the telling, then you’ve accom- Telegram newsroom at (709) 364-2323, by I have lived in St. John’s for about 20 being berated for mistakes made during a investigation for the Royal Newfoundland your battles and pursue them with all the plished something to be proud of. email [email protected] and on years and have written stories on the com- performance. Constabulary at the time, agreed to let me heart and soul. Respect from your colleagues is also Twitter: bsweettweets pensation angles over the years. The brother who abused him was also come see him. His findings were covered Other than that, it’s simply to follow the essential. I am thankful for the editors At the time the scandal broke, I was a the band leader and he hit the dog so hard up, including the confessions he obtained leads, keep telling those who are reluctant who had input on my series, particularly Stories university student in my home province with a hockey stick, the animal screeched. from two Christian Brothers. to speak why the story is relevant and Russell, assistant managing editor Pam Picking up the pieces of studying psychology. I That night, in bed, the teen felt the “There were so many boys escaping important and why their voices need to be Frampton and former court reporter, now was obviously aware of the Mount Cashel dog licking his hand. He carried the dog from Mount Cashel and it was a battle,” heard. web editor Glen Whiffen, as well as to all Bitter legacy: How Mount Cashel survi- story, but had not been immersed in the outside and told him he’d see him in the he recalled. “We were out all night long Embarking on any project involves the my colleagues for the passion and pursuit vors are living with the aftermath details. morning. looking for them.” ability to be organized, set goals, keep of good journalism we all share. So in early summer 2012, with an initial But the next day he learned that some During the research, interview and ahead of transcribing interviews, and con- I am a senior reporter at The Telegram, Trying to numb the pain interview with Earle, some leads on the of the other boys had been ordered by writing process of this series, I was also 51 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 52 NNA Award Winner Presentation

Toronto Star – Spencer Wynn, Nuri Ducassi, Raffi Anderian, Katie Daubs

The Toronto Star experimented with a graphic novel of reporter Katie Daubs’ two- week stay indoors and in Toronto’s underground PATH system with maps, videos and photos. Here, Daubs answers Eric Mark Do’s questions about the bold project. Read the interview on J-source .

53 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 54 NNA Award Winner Sports Photography

Edmonton Journal – for a photo of joyous soccer star Christine Sinclair – Ed Kaiser

Ed Kaiser explains how his photo of Canadian striker, Christine Sinclair, one world’s best women soccer players, captured the bit- tersweet moment that combined the sting of a previous defeat to the with the elation of finally winning an Olympic medal in women’s soccer.

or me it all started with the Stadium, playing in the bronze- bronze medal, something not done Fsemi-final match, Canada medal match against France. After since 1936 when Canada won its vs. USA at Old Trafford Stadium the heartbreaking and controversial first medal in a traditional team in Manchester at the 2012 London loss to the USA squad, I knew I sport at the Summer Olympics. Olympics, the winner advancing to wanted to key on Sinclair near the Ed Kaiser has been working for the gold-medal match. end of the match for her reaction, the Edmonton Journal for 25 years You couldn’t have picked more win or lose. covering a wide variety of assign- hallowed ground of this iconic As Canada’s Diana Matheson ments, everything from the day-to- football stadium for something scored in extra time and as minutes day jobs to Stanley Cup Finals to thrilling to happen. ticked away, I swung my camera Grey Cups, Royal visits, the World For Canadian striker Christine on Sinclair just as the referee blew Figure Skating and World Track Sinclair it did: she scored a hat the whistle to end the match catch- and Field Championships and the trick which ended up breaking the ing her first reaction: A bittersweet Olympic Games in London and record for most goals scored in the expression as she fell to her knees Calgary. Raised in Toronto, he Olympics for Women’s soccer. in celebration of winning 1 to 0. didn’t seriously consider a career So, just when you thought they Initially, I missed other players in photography until the age of 24. actually might pull off an upset, reacting as a group because Sin- Wanting something more challeng- the USA scored the winning goal clair was by herself in the middle ing, he quit his job as a machinist in extra time, with the help from a of the field. to go back to school in 1984. few bad calls by the referee, win- However, sometimes you have After graduating from a two-year BITTERSWEAT CELEBRATION: Canadian superstar striker, Christine Sinclair cel- ning 4 to 3. to take chances to make a good course at Sheridan College of Ap- For a photographer this was one picture. I felt this photo spoke more plied Arts, he began his career at ebrates a 1 - 0 victory over France in the bronze medal match in City of Coventry of the best sporting events I’ve than the other players celebrating the as a summer photographed in my 25 year career. winning a bronze medal. For me, intern. He then moved onto the St. Stadium at the London Olympics, August 9, 2012, after losing to the United States It had it all in one game. I could see the pain on her face Albert Gazette, then to the Medi- for the right to play in the gold-medal game. Fast-forward three days later. from losing to the USA, and at the cine Hat News and finally landed at Canada is in the City of Coventry same time her elation at winning a the Edmonton Journal in 1987. PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Kaiser/Edmonton Journal

55 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 56 NNA Award Winner Business Few would have guessed 10 weeks ago that war would break out so quickly between CP and its largest shareholder. The Globe and Mail – for stories of the power struggle at Canadian Pacific Railway – Jacquie McNish, Brent Jang, Sean Silcoff For CP’s directors, Mr. Ackman’s chal- its stake on Oct. 28. Mr. Ackman had re- man something to read on his flight home: The story behind the all-out war to control CP lenge to their authority is a huge preoc- quested a meeting with CP’s directors, but a history of the American Civil War. cupation at a time when the company is typically boards don’t meet with minority What happened in the two months fol- JACQUIE McNISH, BRENT JANG, SEAN SILCOFF under enormous pressure to revitalize its shareholders, and certainly not so soon lowing the Montreal meeting is a subject sluggish operations, which are the least after their investment. of debate. Sources close to CP say the TORONTO, AND OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail efficient of North America’s Big Six There is nothing typical, however, about company moved at lightning speed to ac- railways. The activist can be expected to Mr. Ackman. Since he founded Pershing commodate Mr. Ackman. In early Decem- Published Saturday, Jan. 14 2012 escalate his criticisms of the company’s Square in 2003, he has profited from most ber, CP’s governance committee invited leadership as the proxy vote approaches in of his 23 turnaround targets by agitating, Mr. Ackman to meet with them in Calgary There comes a moment in every corpo- track record and history.” alert them in clear terms that their inac- the spring and a debate is emerging over embarrassing and, on two occasions, mus- so they could review him as a candidate rate battle when the first cannon is fired. Mr. Ackman, a sharp-elbowed investor tion was moving the two sides toward a how the board should respond. tering enough shareholder support to vote for the board. In the unfolding power struggle at Ca- who describes himself as a “direct” com- confrontation. Len Racioppo, president of Montreal- out intransigent directors and executives. The board, Mr. Cleghorn said in an nadian Pacific Railway Ltd. , that moment municator, hoped his e-mail would prod “I was laying out clearly and directly based Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd., which does By opening the door to him, the direc- interview this week, agreed to offer Mr. came at 7:22 a.m. on Jan. 4, when the send into action a board that he believed was what was going to happen.” (Mr. Ack- not currently own CP shares, said the tors hoped they could forge a constructive Ackman a director’s seat to engage him button was clicked on an e-mail, lighting a moving “too slowly” in response to his man also said he was “disappointed that railway is being challenged because share- relationship with the investor and avoid in “a constructive dialogue” at the board fuse from New York to Toronto. demands. excerpts of a private communication with holders are “extremely frustrated” with a public confrontations, people familiar with level. The only proviso was he had to sign The general holding the match was Bill To Mr. Cleghorn and the startled CP Mr. Cleghorn has been released to the company that is underperforming. the company said. “fairly normal” legal agreements. Ackman, a brash 45-year-old activist in- directors with whom he shared the e-mail, press.”) “Everyone has to squeeze more to At first it looked like the peace process Fairly normal agreements, Mr. Ackman vestor who has made a $1.4-billion bet on however, the message was an act of hostil- What happens next will likely be an epic generate returns. Why should companies would work. On Nov. 2, five days after discovered, included a document known the railway, buying a 14.2 per cent stake ity that challenged the authority of a board tug of war over who gets to drive what has be treated any differently, and why should Pershing Square’s announcement, Mr. as a standstill agreement. By signing it, in the belief that it will give him enough stacked with leading business figures such become a runaway train. The contest at boards be any different? You’re seeing it Cleghorn, Mr. Green and a handful of their he would be effectively prohibited from clout to push for a management overhaul as Suncor Energy Inc’s Rick George, for- CP has the potential to reshape a historic everywhere,” he said. advisers welcomed the activist and one of launching a proxy battle. It was a non- and raise its stock price. mer deputy prime minister John Manley national railway, under the hard-charging Alan Radlo, a Boston-based portfolio his partners, Paul Hilal, at a small airport starter. His other aggravation was that the The target in Mr. Ackman’s crosshairs and grain merchant Hartley Richardson, leadership of Mr. Harrison, who Mr. Ack- manager with CI Financial, which has a terminal in Montreal where Mr. Ackman’s board had rejected his second candidate was John Cleghorn, the 70-year-old a fifth generation descendent of one of man wants to air drop into CP. It could small stake in CP, counters that it is a “dis- private jet had just arrived from New for the board, his partner Mr. Hilal, who chairman of CP and a former chief execu- Canada’s oldest business families. also further shift the balance of boardroom grace” that the board has extended special York. had flown with him to Calgary but was not tive officer of . A According to people familiar with the power away from directors who are seeing privileges to Mr. Ackman by meeting with The meeting began with Mr. Ackman included in the boardroom session. sombre and courtly business veteran, Mr. company, the directors were outraged by their authority increasingly challenged by him privately and discussing his proposals presenting a book to Mr. Cleghorn that Talks between Mr. Ackman and Mr. Cleghorn, personifies the buttoned-down the e-mail’s tone and demands. Mr. Cleg- powerful pension and hedge funds. for management and board changes. outlined his proposals for change at CP. Cleghorn cooled after the December reserve of the Canadian establishment. horn and his directors believed they had “We are walking down a path where “There shouldn’t be favouritism with The book was thick with data, but the only setbacks. According to people familiar It is doubtful Mr. Cleghorn, a military bent over backwards to meet and discuss power is slipping from boards to share- one shareholder. I definitely have a prob- passage that really mattered was the block- with the discussions, telephone calls and history buff, had ever received a message Mr. Ackman’s proposals. They saw the holders and we should ask ourselves, lem with the company showing privilege buster proposal to hire rail legend Hunter e-mails between Mr. Ackman and Mr. like the one that was fired into his inbox e-mail as an attempt by Mr. Ackman, a ‘What are the implications?’ ” said Ed to this activist,” Mr. Radlo said. “What Harrison as the next CEO. Mr. Harrison, Cleghorn tapered off. The lack of commu- that morning. Under the subject line “War minority shareholder, to usurp the board’s Waitzer, a corporate lawyer with Stike- about other shareholders?” the retired former chief of CP’s archrival nication was interpreted by the Pershing and Peace,” Mr. Ackman had typed out a authority to hire and fire a CEO. They man Elliott LLP and former board adviser The activist investor CN, was presented as the solution to the Square camp as a sign that the board did lengthy e-mail, obtained by The Globe and quickly decided to break off discussions to BCE Inc., which saw its management Few would have guessed 10 weeks ago company’s problems. He could transform not want to hire Mr. Harrison. Mail, that warned his “border skirmish” with their largest shareholder; peace would overhauled after lengthy brawl with the that war would break out so quickly be- CP the same way he had transformed By Jan. 4, Mr. Ackman was tired of with the company would turn into “a not be accepted on Mr. Ackman’s terms. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. tween CP and its largest shareholder. From CN into North America’s most efficient waiting, and he fired of his War and Peace nuclear winter” if his demands for a new On Monday, five days after Mr. Ack- But for corporate directors, the muscular the beginning, CP’s board had raced to put railway. e-mail. CEO and two seats on the board were not man’s e-mail, the board steered CP tactics of investors like Mr. Ackman are out the welcome mat to an investor whose Sitting next to Mr. Cleghorn while Mr. Deal experts said it is likely he has been met. towards a head-on collision with the making it harder to say no to shareholder lucrative bets against subprime mortgage Ackman sang Mr. Harrison’s praises was so forceful with the company because His atom bomb, he explained, would investor. They publicly dismissed his pro- demands. insurers in the United States had seen him Mr. Green, who was facing for the first he has a high degree of comfort that be a proxy battle for new directors that posed hiring of former Canadian National Jon Grant, lead director of CCL Indus- lionized in the Academy-award winning time the prospect of losing his job to a CP shareholders will support his bid to “would not go well” for the board and Railway Co. boss Hunter Harrison as tries Inc. and a veteran of 15 boards, said film Inside Job. man he had been locked in competition replace Mr. Green and a minority of the CEO Fred Green because of their “very “detrimental” to the company’s strategy. the “polite” world of Canadian boards is The combined impact of Mr. Ackman’s with for much of the past decade. Accord- company’s directors. poor” track record. Hours later, Mr. Ackman declared war, being rapidly altered by global influences, big stake, influence and an exuberant ing to people familiar with the session, Mr. To read the rest of the “The story behind “We will take the largest public hall announcing a proxy contest to elect new and as a result boards are at times “intimi- market reaction that sparked a 7 per cent Green, a CP lifer, said almost nothing. the all-out war to control CP”, you can available in Toronto and we will make a directors who backed his plan to replace dated” by investor pressure. increase in CP’s stock since Oct. 28 put When the meeting ended, Mr. Cleghorn visit the Globe’s website at: http://www. presentation to the shareholders and the Mr. Green. “One of the things we forget as directors enormous pressure on the board to respond promised to take Mr. Ackman’s book of theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/the- public ... about management and board Mr. Ackman said in an interview that is that directors are responsible to the cor- to him after his hedge fund, Pershing ideas back to the board. In exchange, the story-behind-the-all-out-war-to-control-cp/ failures of the last ten years at CP. We that he is “sorry” his e-mail “offended” poration first and to shareholders second,” Square Capital Management, announced student of military history gave Mr. Ack- article1358769/?page=all will examine management and the board’s CP’s directors, but his intention was to he said. 57 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 58 NNA Award Winner Columns NNA Award Winner Editorial Cartooning

The Globe and Mail – for a column about the French – Doug Saunders La Presse, Montréal, for a cartoon of Toronto mayor Rob Ford – Serge Chapleau

The French are the globalizers - not the globalized

Doug Saunders Paris — The Globe and Mail Published Saturday, May. 05 2012, 2:00 AM EDT

I’ve spent the week in cobblestoned train built by Alstom, the French engineer- about that as I stepped off the Under- squares, listening to French presidential ing company with 85,000 employees in ground in the corner of Kensington known candidates argue that their country’s way 70 countries. They also built the nuclear as “petit France” for its baguette shops of life is threatened by forces from beyond reactors that provide my electricity. The and brasseries. London is home to 300,000 its borders. It’s a popular refrain these train was guided by the Underground’s French citizens who take advantage of days: As economies falter, people fear the signalling and control network operated Europe’s open borders. There are two economic and human waves sweeping in from a central hub in Waterloo Station by million French living abroad, an outflow from beyond. Thales, the French company with 68,000 that’s approaching the number of foreign- President Nicolas Sarkozy has led the employees in 50 countries. ers coming in. way, pledging to reintroduce trade protec- En route, I made some travel plans. I’ll As I had lunch with a Parisian expat tionism, reinstitute passport checks and need to be in Munich, Warsaw and Bar- scholar, I saw people heading to the local cut immigration. His challenger François celona in the next while, which inevitably lycée to vote early in the presidential elec- Hollande has also suggested more protec- means staying in one of the 5,000 hotels tion. We now know that slightly more than tionist policies and less immigration. As a owned by the French company Accor, half of those London French cast their result, four out of five French voters now whose 145,000 employees in 40 countries ballot for a candidate, Mr. Sarkozy, who believe that globalization is bad for their run the Sofitel, Mercure, Ibis, Pullman, has promised to outlaw foreigners voting livelihoods, and that borders should be Novotel and Motel 6 chains. in local elections. closed to foreign investment and immigra- French companies are impossible to And then Thursday, a great many tion. avoid. They employ 4.5 million people of those same French citizens went to As I listened to these warnings, I outside of France and account for almost another polling station to cast a ballot for couldn’t help thinking about how my week a fifth of all the investment in Europe. If the London mayor, because as European had begun in London. you want to buy groceries in most parts foreigners, they have full rights to vote in On Monday morning, I paid the elec- of Poland or Greece or Portugal, you have Britain’s local and national elections. tricity and gas bills by writing a cheque little choice but to go to one of the 13,000 Mr. Sarkozy said he’d end Europe’s to a French company. We buy our heat giant supermarkets of France’s Carrefour open borders because immigrants, notably and light, as do 5.7 million other British chain. France’s banks dominate finance Muslims, aren’t integrating in France. In families, from EDF Energy, a state-owned across the continent – which is why they fact, every study shows French Muslims French company that provides a quarter of are so dangerously exposed to the Greek have the highest rates of social integration, Europe’s electricity. and Spanish crises. France doesn’t suffer adopting the language, the family sizes Then I took the garbage bags to the the blows of international capitalism – it and the liberal attitudes toward premarital curb, where they were collected expertly metes them out. sex and homosexuality at Europe’s highest by employees of the French company Veo- In fact, French investment abroad is rates, and even becoming as atheist and lia Environnement. Its 331,226 workers twice the size of outside foreign invest- religiously unobservant as French Chris- provide garbage collection, water treat- ment in France. And if you strip away tians. ment, street lighting and public transporta- finance flows and look only at the indus- The problem is that nobody gives tion in 77 countries. trial economy, French companies do 14 them jobs. And the larger problem within I hit the road, avoiding the tide of times more business abroad than foreign France is not foreign capital, but the fact Renault Clios and Meganes and Peugeot companies do in France. This is hardly that people have trouble creating jobs. As 207s, among the most popular cars in a country that will, in the words of Mr. with so many countries today, their leaders Europe, together accounting for almost a Sarkozy’s campaign speech, “dilute itself are searching in vain for outside enemies million vehicles sold each year in the 27 into globalization.” The French are the when the real problem is right in front of European Union countries. globalizers, not the globalized. them. At the Underground station, I boarded a What about the human flood? I thought Find the column online here. 59 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 60 NNA Award Winner Investigations These bogus traffic stops and warrantless searches have led to wasteful prosecutions that tied up the taxpayer-funded courts and put Toronto Star – for an investigation into why police knowlingly lie – David Bruser and Jesse McLean alleged criminals back on the street. Police who lie: How officers thwart justice with false testimony In 100 recent cases across Canada, police used illegal techniques, excessive force and racial in cash. Sprott testified at trial that he unpunished leaves a sense of betrayal in determined by judges to have misled the profiling, then covered it up with false testimony. stopped Xiong for speeding. hard-working, law-abiding people,” Ham- court. The alleged speeding, as well as Sprott’s bly said, but he added: “If police lying is Toronto Police Services Board chair By: David Bruser and Jesse McLean Staff Reporters, Published on Thu Apr 26 2012 claim that crack rocks fell onto the pave- tolerated by the courts, they will soon lose Alok Mukherjee told the Star he has raised ment when the suspect exited the ve- the respect of the community.” the issue with senior police officials and hicle, gave the Mounties their reasonable Hambly’s decision is being appealed. has been met with “a certain frustration Visibly nervous, papers shaking in investigate the courtroom conduct. with deceit and discreditable conduct. grounds. • Some of the words judges used to de- and defensiveness. They’ll say, ‘The of- their hands, Toronto police officers Jay One Toronto officer, Det. Scott Aikman, Judges have found officers lie in court But Sprott had earlier testified during scribe police evidence and testimony were ficer was being diligent and the judge was Shin and Joseph Tremblay testified under has twice been accused of being untruthful to cover up shoddy and illegal investiga- a preliminary hearing that he intended to “lie,” “fabricate,” “evasive,” “absurd,” more interested in the Charter rights of a oath that they stopped Delroy Mattison’s by judges in different cases. The story of tion techniques, excessive force, and racial stop Xiong before he allegedly sped from “ridiculous,” “subversive,” “disturbing” criminal than the fact that the officer found Chrysler Intrepid on the afternoon of July Aikman, and the two cases that crumbled, profiling. the house. The Mountie was asked if his and “pure fiction.” a gun, and they let that person go.’” 18, 2011, because they saw him using a will be in Friday’s Star. The majority of the cases reviewed by answers at the preliminary hearing were • Two officers — one in Victoria, the Mukherjee added, “I have some degree cellphone. Though some may believe it is accept- the Star involve police officers who, out of true and “(he) answered rather remark- other a Toronto detective — have each of frustration because I believe judges The officers were lying, just not very able for officers to lie after taking guns laziness, overzealousness or poor training, ably, ‘At the time, they were true,’” Justice misled the court in two separate cases. should be listened to.” well. and drugs off the street, the Star found the violated laws that protect suspects from Kathleen Ker noted. • The chief of a suburban Winnipeg In a combative letter to the Star, Toronto In Mattison’s trunk that summer day cost of the deception to community safety abuse of police power, found damning She added: “Const. Sprott ... appeared police force was charged with perjury and police spokesperson Mark Pugash equated were a stainless steel .357 Smith & Wes- across the country is high. evidence and then lied to cover up their evasive and uncomfortable when ques- his force taken over by the RCMP after the language used by judges in the cases son revolver and 31 bullets. Mattison, who The following suspects have walked flawed investigation. tioned on this point.” On the witness he allegedly lied to cover up details of his reviewed by the Star to “throwaway com- had a previous conviction for armed rob- free after officers lied in court: an accused “It’s the coverup that kills,” said an stand, the Mountie, who never issued former partner’s role in a fatal drunk driv- ments unsupported by evidence.” bery, was on his way to a drug deal. Under pimp of a teenage girl, possessors of child Ontario judge, who requested anonymity Xiong a speeding ticket, shrugged and ing accident. “You either don’t understand, or you the law, these officers needed a reason to pornography, a major ecstasy manufactur- to preserve the appearance of impartiality awkwardly grinned. • In several cases, officers assaulted don’t want your readers to understand, the stop and detain Mattison. Without one, er operating out of a Scarborough house, necessary for his job. “There is a legitimate public interest a suspect, then began their coverup by fundamental distinction between a judge’s they would never have found the gun. members of an international data-theft and Police officers have a difficult job and in having police officers provide their charging their victim with assaulting and comments and a judge’s rulings,” Pugash The problem is they never seized a fake-credit-card ring, marijuana growers, usually know who the criminals are, the evidence to the court in an accurate and obstructing police. Some of the victims continued. “Without an understanding of cellphone or noted the existence of one and drug dealers carrying loaded hand- judge said, but some play hunches to bust careful manner,” said Ker, who slammed were guilty of nothing more than a bad such a basic point, your story cannot be in paperwork filled out at the scene. That guns. suspects, then “make stuff up” to patch the officer’s “flip-flop,” ruled there was attitude. taken seriously.” night, a third officer snapped photos of the Judges have discarded as evidence at their investigations. no legitimate reason to stop Xiong’s car, • Racial profiling, and the subsequent “A judge can comment on anything he impounded Chrysler’s interior, none show- least $40 million worth of cocaine, meth, “Police will end up lying on the witness tossed the evidence and let the suspect police deception meant to hide the mis- or she wishes. Such comment, however, ing a phone. ecstasy and weed in recent years. stand. That’s just a reality ... We (judges) walk. conduct from public view, cost the people does not amount to a finding of guilt,” “Officers Shin and Tremblay were Some suspects, freed following police know this happens. We talk about it all the Sprott could have saved himself and his of 100 Mile House, B.C., the prosecution Pugash said. untruthful about seeing Mr. Mattison using lies, continue to get in trouble with the time.” force the embarrassment with proper po- of Zai Chong Huang and the 57 marijuana “The criminal justice system works on a cellphone,” Justice Nancy Backhouse law. While police officers can randomly lice work, such as continued surveillance plants found in his Dodge pickup by evidence, on examination, cross-exami- ruled. She tossed the evidence, saying, The Star attempted to contact all officers stop vehicles to check vehicle safety or a of the house or car. RCMP Const. Berze. nation and decision. It does not work on “This court must dissociate itself from named in this series of articles. Some driver’s paperwork, they must otherwise These bogus traffic stops and warrant- Berze testified he stopped Huang’s truck throwaway comments unsupported by (this) serious and deliberate state miscon- spoke to the newspaper. Most did not. have reasonable grounds to believe an less searches have led to wasteful pros- because it swerved in its own lane. The evidence.” duct.” Mattison walked free. One of the biggest prosecutions in- offence is being committed to stop a car, ecutions that tied up the taxpayer-funded judge noted that Berze followed Huang Pugash said the onus is on defence Backhouse was trying to send a mes- volved Chuck Wan Leong, accused of detain a person or search a house. Mere courts and put alleged criminals back on for many kilometres before the alleged lawyers, prosecutors and judges to report sage, one being repeated by concerned operating an ecstasy lab in his two-storey suspicion is not enough. the street. swerve. For this reason, and because of the concerns over an officer’s testimony to judges in courtrooms across the country: brick house. Police found $16-million Suspicion is all RCMP Const. Brian Though the judges in these cases rec- wording and emotion of Berze’s interview police for investigation. Police dishonesty makes a mockery of the worth of ecstasy, methamphetamines and Sprott had. In January 2009, on a rainy ognize that such large seizures of drugs, of Huang after the arrest, the judge found The cases in the Star study show judges courts, undermines the public’s trust in the ketamine in the basement. night in Maple Ridge, B.C., Sprott and his loaded guns and “highly reliable” proof of the swerve was a “pretext,” and that Berze painstakingly reviewed and deconstructed justice system and must be condemned. In that case, Justice Nola Garton said partner sat in their unmarked vehicle and other serious crimes “cry out for a trial on likely saw Huang at a gas station earlier the facts, testimony and physical evidence There is little evidence anyone is listening. various parts of York Region Det. Robert watched a suspected drug house on Dewd- the merits,” they find the police miscon- in the night, noticed he was Asian and presented in court, and concluded that of- A nationwide Toronto Star investigation Worthman’s testimony were “inconsistent ney Trunk Rd. Then, on a hunch, they fol- duct the greater sin. Angered at police lies assumed he was involved in organized ficers lied. shows judges are frequently finding that and inaccurate,” “exaggerated,” “almost lowed Chris Xiong after he pulled out of in his courtroom, Justice Peter Hambly crime. police officers lie under oath. The dishon- inconceivable,” an “embellishment,” the driveway. This was a drug investiga- explained his difficult decision to stay “Const. Berze was being untruthful To read the rest of the article, please esty comes with little consequence to the “misleading,” “nonsensical” and “patently tion, not a vehicle or driver safety check. charges against two men accused of oper- with the court,” said B.C. Judge Elizabeth visit The Star’s website at: http://www. officer, particularly in provinces such as absurd.” The judge tossed the evidence The Mounties stopped Xiong and found ating a $16-million marijuana grow-op in Bayliff. thestar.com/news/canada/2012/04/26/ Ontario where there is no law or policy and Leong walked free. 12 individually wrapped, $40 crack rocks, Niagara Region: The Star found 28 cases since 2005 that police_who_lie_how_officers_thwart_jus- requiring a prosecutor or police force to Worthman has been charged by his force three cellphones and more than $800 “For the people involved in it to go involved a total of 34 Toronto officers tice_with_false_testimony.html 61 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 62 SEEKING ACCEPTANCE: She was NNA Award Winner Arts and Entertainment 19 and in nursing school, aspiring to model... when a photographer pointed The Globe and Mail – for a story about a Canadian adult film star’s Bollywood success– Stephanie Nolen out that she could earn plenty more Why this Canadian porn star’s past isn’t modelling without clothes on. Here, she holding her back in Bollywood is photographed at an event in New Delhi Stephanie Nolen on August 1, 2012, to promote her Bol- Mumbai, India — The Globe and Mail lywood film “Jism 2”. Published Saturday, Apr. 07 2012, 6:00 AM EDT Last updated Monday, Jun. 03 2013, 3:53 PM EDT PHOTO CREDIT: AP

hen a family thrust an infant into quickly charmed millions of viewers. in India in a manner which is socially Wher arms a few months ago and Some of them didn’t know she was a acceptable in India and does not breach asked her to pose for a picture, Sunny porn star. But as “Sunny Leone” shot to the social moral code in India, we should shift in people her age. “Our parents’ gen- the family told them. This was the least I Hindi films with her mother, and they Leone knew that everything was changing: the top of the list of most-Googled celebri- not treat her as a social outcast.” (He also eration isn’t ready. But ours is.” Clearly could do,” she says. talked about how she might one day be in her life, definitely. And India, too. ty names in India, and stayed there month helpfully pointed out that many histori- conscious of the uncertain cultural waters How did that conversation go? “My one. When she flew back to Mumbai to Leone is used to a certain level of after month, it became apparent that many cal figures, from Buddha to Jesus, have she is navigating, she is being careful mom didn’t get it. At all. She had no idea start filming her first Bollywood role, she fame. For a decade, fans have asked her Indians were in fact getting to know plenty accepted “fallen women” who went on to with her message. “It’s not something I’m what I was talking about at first. And then was met by a crowd of several hundred for autographs and pictures. But they about Leone’s other acting life. live lives of virtue.) changing. I’m not saying: Do what I’m – she did. Then she was upset. But I don’t photographers at the airport, and the never brought their children. “Whoa,” she She “came out” to her fellow residents Yet Katju received a grand total of 38 doing. I say: Do what you want to do.” know any mother who would say, ‘You’re attention has barely let up. Fresh-faced, recalled a few days later, in an interview in after a few weeks, although the censors complaints about Leone’s presence on In her case, that’s make money. Leone naked and you’re in a magazine – yay!’” friendly and homesick for Timbits and the swank Mumbai hotel where she is now beeped out the words “Penthouse” and a show that routinely had more than 25 was a C student in school, she says, but Her father was distressed, she says, but Coffee Crisps, she seems equal parts de- living. “That’s just weird.” “adult.” Yet India, it seems, made a collec- million viewers. Not exactly a hue and always an entrepreneur: selling candy, soon reiterated the maxim he had always lighted and bewildered by this twist in her Leone, born and raised in Sarnia, Ont., tive decision to get over it. Before Leone cry – just people who couldn’t get enough lemonade, and organizing her brother and told his children – Do your best. life. “I wasn’t going to be famous in North is one of the biggest stars in the North was voted out of the house at New Year’s, details about what Leone was up to: his friends to shovel snow for $3 an hour. In a way, she says now, she was liv- America,” she says. “But here I am.” American adult-entertainment business. she was hired by one of Bollywood’s lead- learning to cook Indian food? practising She was 19 and in nursing school, aspir- ing up to the immigrant ideal: She took Laws against porn notwithstanding, She’s been a Penthouse Pet of the Year, ing filmmakers, Mahesh Bhatt, to star in Hindi? taking up yoga? oiling her hair? ing to model, in California (where her home a $100,000 (U.S.) cheque as Pet of Leone’s adult movies are in fact widely starred in high-grossing hits such as Not his next movie. She tweeted, and the gossip magazines parents had moved when she was a teen) the Year. When she started making adult available here; pirated copies are sold in Charlie’s Angels XXX, has her own line of Combative at the press conference reported every detail. when a photographer pointed out that she films a few years later, there were bigger alleyways for about $4. The country has sex toys and a production company. where he announced the plan, Bhatt “It’s a huge attitudinal shift,” said could earn plenty more modelling without cheques. And before long, she had her a comparatively low rate of Internet use – Her Punjabi parents left India more than seemed braced for criticism. This, after Varkha Chulani, a clinical psychologist clothes on. He sent around her portfolio; own production house; SunLust Pictures about 100 million people, less than a 10th 30 years ago to find a new life in Canada. all, is a country where the production who writes a sex-advice column for the her first-ever nude shoot was for Pent- earns about $1-million in annual revenue, of the population, access the Web at least Now Leone is back in the land she calls and purchase of pornography is entirely popular women’s magazine Femina. “Indi- house. says her partner, Daniel Weber. once a month – but that’s expanding at a her “birthright,” seeking a new life of illegal; where mainstream films never ans – those in the cosmopolitan areas – are At first, she didn’t tell her conservative “It was what they taught me,” Leone ferocious pace. Google says that, glob- her own – and she’s a whole new kind of show or use the word “sex,” and usually being open-minded, less judgmental, about Sikh parents about her new career. But says about her parents: ‘Don’t rely on ally, seven of the Top 10 cities for porn famous. stick to air-kissing; where morality squads what can be provided in terms of sexual before long, she came to the attention of anybody. You’ll have to do everything searches are in India. Last fall, she travelled from her home of police arrest (or demand bribes from) gratification. They don’t mind experiment- Bob Guccione, publisher of Penthouse. yourself. Be self-sufficient.’” Leone’s girl-next-door demeanour slips in Los Angeles to join a smash hit reality- canoodling couples in public parks; where ing, don’t mind exploring their bodies.” (He gave her the name she uses now; she She speaks now about her parents – and slightly when she talks about the piracy; TV program made here in Mumbai; called more than half of all marriages continue Media have played a key role in the was born Karen Malhotra, or Karenjit the phone calls that poured in from hor- the flinty entrepreneur shows through in- Bigg Boss, it follows the Big Brother, un- to be arranged for two young people who shift, she said, both in pushing the bound- Kaur Vohra – her “people” won’t confirm rified aunts and cousins – with a hint of stead. Eighty per cent of the traffic on her likely-group-of-people-trapped-in-a-house have barely laid eyes on each other. aries of what’s shown here, and in bring- which, for security reasons, they claim.) regret in her voice. “It was a crappy situa- website, and 60 per cent of her revenue theme. Leone, the first South Asian star in The outspoken head of India’s Press ing in Western influences. Young people It was in 2003 that she won the title of tion for them.” But the family soon agreed come from India, she says. “And the sec- the North American porn industry, seems Council, Justice Markandey Katju, also 17 to 30, who are also the most exposed to Penthouse Pet of the Year, which put her that they wouldn’t discuss it, and stayed ond it’s legalized here … that’s gonna be a to have been a bit of viewer bait chosen leapt to Leone’s defence. “My opinion is technology, are the ones who have really on the cover of the magazine and led to close, she says, meeting for dinner every business opportunity.” by a savvy producer. She tripped around that Sunny Leone was earning her liveli- changed, she added. “Anything above 30 appearances around the globe. She could week. Both parents died in the last few in stilettos, smiling sweetly and speaking hood in the U.S. in a manner acceptable is a little more restricted and restrained http://www.theglobeandmail.com/ no longer put off that awkward conversa- years; she and her brother brought their broken Hindi. On her first day, she was in that country, though it is not acceptable and a little more orthodox.” arts/film/why-this-canadian-porn- tion with mom and dad. ashes back to India. almost entirely unknown in India, but she in India. Hence, if she conducts herself Leone, herself 30, says she senses the stars-past-isnt-holding-her-back-in- “I wanted to tell them before the rest of As a child, Leone says, she watched bollywood/article4098382/ 63 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 64 PAINFUL GOODBYE: Basia Hoff- NNA Award Winner Feature Photography man hugs Kensington Hospice Social Worker Maxxine Rattner during a The Globe and Mail – for a photo of a woman at a palliative-care hospice embracing a social worker during the visit to her mother, Andrée Hoffman’s final hours of the women’s mother – Peter Power room, during her stay at Kensington Hospice in Toronto on Feb. 8, 2012. For Peter Power, covering death at Toronto’s Kensington Hospice was a delicate balance between respect and boundaries. Andrée Hoffman passed away during the night at 4:44 am. The Kensington Hospice, which has 10 patient beds, has been open for about five and a half months. PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Power/The here are few phrases more painful story required, and to establish rules so Mrs. Hoffman passed away during Tthan “It is with a heavy heart.” I could work in a manner that fell within the night, with her daughters, Basia and Globe and Mail After the death of a loved one, these their guidelines, and with constant con- Tatiana at her side, only hours after I had words most often mark the earliest stage in sideration for all of its residents, not just the pleasure of first meeting them. During the grieving process, an intimate and emo- those I was documenting. the evening I was able to photograph some tional moment when family and friends Lisa had already laid much of the beautiful moments. Before I left for the are coming to grips with their loss. groundwork. The next step was meeting night I whispered a few words to her in For journalists, even though many have the families involved. her native French that included goodnight heard these words repeated several times While I would always prefer not to and thank you. throughout their careers, the emotional rush into any story, time did not allow Andrew McCarthy, who had been a charge never seems to fade. a leisurely approach to this one. While resident at Kensington Hospice for nearly These emotions -- pain, sadness, confu- Marianne Kupina and her husband, An- six months, passed away on the afternoon QUALITY TIME: Marianne Kupina sion, loss -- make covering death and drew McCarthy, weren’t quite sure what of Feb. 20, 2012 with Marianne at his side. dying one of the most challenging assign- to expect from me, they readily accepted He was only 55 years old. On a Sunday, spends time with her husband, Andrew ments for writers and photographers. what I proposed in terms of photography. a week before he died, Marianne poured The best way for a photojournalist to ap- There would be no posed portraits, only Andrew and I each a wee dram of Irish McCarthy, a resident at Kensington proach this kind of assignment is to draw real moments as they arose. Andrew, a whisky. I was the last to have a drink with on personal experience, to put yourself as handsome man, who, at 55 was dying of him and feel honoured to have done so. Hospice in Toronto on Feb. 7, 2012. much as you can in your subjects’ shoes. cancer and seemed all too aware that time Peter Power is an award-winning pho- This means trying to remember what it was of the essence. tojournalist for The Globe and Mail where Mr. McCarthy has been a patient at feels like to touch a loved one for the last After only a short conversation he he began work in March 2007. Before that time, to have the person look at you for the looked at me, smiled, and said, “Well. Go he was a staff photographer for nearly 17 the privately run hospice for nearly six last time, and to desperately want more. get your cameras.” years at the Toronto Star. He is a multiple- There is no way to fully prepare for that This rapid progression from introduc- National Newspaper Award winner, and months. Only 55, he died on Feb. 20, final moment. tion to working is certainly not the norm, was part of a team at the Star that won the For the story about hospice care, I found and yet it did repeat itself the following Governor General’s Michener Award. 2012, with Marianne at his side myself drawing on this personal experi- day. Basla Hoffman, who had travelled ence, as well as the many stories I’ve from California to be with her mother, An- Related link PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Power/The covered in my career, where strangers drée Hoffman, during her final moments, END OF LIFE: To get gently into that have granted me the privilege of witness- did not hesitate to allow me to be present good night: When quality of death can Globe and Mail ing some of life’s most intimate moments. in their lives. I think she was pleased that enhance quality of life, By Lisa Priest At Kensington Hospice in Toronto my I hoped to find beauty in some of the mo- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/ challenge was to build on the trust earned ments that would be so sad. Where there life/health-and-fitness/where-quality- by my colleague, reporter Lisa Priest, to is sadness in death, there is also love and of-death-can-enhance-quality-of-life/ gain permission to come and go as the tenderness. article534641/#dashboard/follows/

65 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 66 7,000 times on Facebook and trended on people in their grief. The manager at the they are deeply grieving. It feels like you Twitter for part of the weekend. Mount Pleasant Cemetery Visitation Cen- are entering a sacred space. All pretence is NNA Award Winner Long Features Forbes Magazine writer Eric Jackson tre had warned me the day before: “People gone. It’s like meeting someone naked. wrote a long piece about the story, and are often angry at funerals. They might They allowed me to poke around in her the New York Times cited it — an almost lash out at you.” rooms by myself, searching for clues. I tell Toronto Star team – for a story on the life and death of an ordinary woman who led a magical life unheard-of tribute. (This was the first time she had ever you this only because I think it helped me The lesson, I suppose, is one we learn received a request like this, she admit- in the writing of this piece. Shelagh Gordon (pictured below with her “life partner” over and over again in this business: What ted. Normally, they boot journalists out of While the graphic was an incredible makes the news is often subjective. It funerals.) achievement, stitching a narrative out of Andy Schultz) was not famous. She hated her job. Was single depends on where you look. If we stationed people outside, how all the various scraps of stories and reflec- when she died at the age of 55. But Catherine Porter and the Another lesson, in the era of shrinking could we pinpoint where they had been tions presented a challenge. team of journalists who wrote about Shelagh disovered that newspapers: readers thirst for stories about sitting for the roll-over graphic? And while Wandering around her home alone gave her life was anything but ordinary. people like them. They will read 4000 we interviewed one, how would we catch me the space and time to think about not words about an ordinary person, if it’s the others streaming out? just her life, but life in general. Why are moving and reflective, and then demand In the end, we decided to print up our we here? How do we measure our lives? more. Our attention spans are not shrink- request on Star letterhead and place one What is the point? I used these questions ing as much as 680News would have us on each of the 186 chairs in the sanctuary. — the universal questions we work hard assume. We had numbered each seat in the room, most of our lives to avoid addressing, Readers thought this was news, so it and had each reporter in charge of two or in mortal fear — as a frame to focus the was news. It was a gamble that in the end, three rows. It was their job to pass a paper story. A team of writers, editors and visual journalists paid off. down that row, asking for people to fill out My colleague Jim Rankin came with were nominated for a National Newspaper Award Shelagh was the “stupid perfect” choice their name and number over the chair they me one day and took photos of many of for the life and death of Shelagh Gordon, an ordi- for this story. She led an ordinary life, but were sitting on. the intimate things in Shelagh’s apartment nary woman who led a magical life. Among them she led it in an extraordinary way. She was In the end, about 100 of the 240 people — family photos, heart-shaped rocks, are, back row, left to right, David Cooper, Paul 55, single, childless. In another age, she’d in the room agreed and we interviewed a wishbone on the window sill. These Hunter, Mary Ormsby, Scott Simmie, Paul Irish and have been considered a spinster. But her them during the reception that day and photos accompanied the story in the paper Oakland Ross. Middle row, left to right, are Ken- home teemed with dogs, sisters, nieces, over the following two weeks over the and online, which gave readers a taste of yon Wallace, Catherine Porter, Joe Hall and Leslie nephews and her “life partner” — a gay phone. walking with us through Shelagh’s home. Ferenc. Front row, from left are Valerie Hauch, man — who would pass summer nights Later, I used the wide-angle photo my Rankin recorded Heather speaking about Nancy White, Sharis Shahmiryan, Patricia Hluchy reading books in bed beside her wearing colleague David Cooper had taken of the many of these totems — why Shelagh and Leslie Scrivener. matching reading glasses. She was deeply packed room to identify 30 remaining treasured them and what they said about PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Finlan/Toronto Star loved. holes. I sent the photo to people sitting in her. We used her voice in an extra graphic, She was vulnerable. She hated her job the same row and asked if they could help where the reader could click on a pic- n February 2012, Toronto Star editor features team editor Patricia Hluchy — your sister’s funeral. Many people would in advertising. She was an extreme klutz, identify the people sitting around them. ture of Shelagh’s muddied boot and hear IAlison Uncles sent 15 reporters, three started to comb the obituaries looking for be horrified. known for breaking wine glasses and Cooper set up a video camera in a quiet Heather talk about her sister’s daily walks photographers and a staff designer to the right person. Cullimore said yes right away. accidentally drinking from paint cans. room off the sanctuary. In the letter to in the ravines with her beloved dogs. cover a funeral. On Valentine’s Day, we found Shelagh. “Boy, did you pick the right person,” But, she exulted in the pleasures of her mourners, we mentioned they could be I’ve reflected for some time on why the Shelagh Gordon had died. We had never discussed what the ‘right’ she said over the phone. “Shelagh would quotidian life. Every afternoon, she’d soak filmed talking about Shelagh. Ten of them story of Shelagh Gordon’s life struck such Shelagh who? person would be. We figured something have thought this was stupid perfect.” for an hour in the bath while eating cut-up did. We put these up on the webpage, a chord with readers. That was exactly the point. Uncles, would jump out at us. So much of this I took a cab directly to her home, which oranges and carrots and flipping the damp along with the eulogies from her funeral. In the end, I think it was this: People the Star’s brilliant associate editor of work, in the end, hinges on intuition and was packed with Shelagh’s mother, three pages of a novel. Once the logistics of interviewing the could see themselves in Shelagh. Her life weekends and features, had brewed up the chance. sisters, six nieces and nephews, brother-in- The most inspiring thing about Shelagh mourners were settled, another pesky was a good mirror to examine their own idea over the previous Christmas: Could Shelagh’s obituary did just that. It stated laws, and friends. was her breathtaking kindness. As I wrote logistics job surfaced: not only double legacy and impact. She reminded them we forensically mine the life of an ordi- she was the “loving aunt and mother” to The next day, Uncles and I went to the in the story: “Shelagh was freshly-in-love checking names and ages, but ensuring we that you don’t need to be famous to matter. nary person by interviewing everyone at a list of names, without differentiating funeral home to figure out the logistics of thoughtful. If she noticed your boots had had identified the right people with their You can change the world around you in the funeral? Then, with all those anecdotes among them. It didn’t mention a mate. interviewing the more than 200 mourners holes, she’d press her new ones into your photo in the graphic. That joyful task fell simple ways, with love. and thoughts, could we paint the person’s Instead, it said she was a “special friend” who were expected the next day. arms. to Hluchy, who spent days buried in print- Catherine Porter is a social justice and life like an impressionistic portrait? to two people — one a man, the other a Now, you might be thinking: “Why is When you casually admired her cof- outs of photographs. To her credit, not a activist columnist at the Toronto Star. She Could we take a photo of mourners at woman. The secrets here intrigued us. this a newspaper story? What about this feemaker, you’d wake up to one of your single error was flagged. has won two national newspaper awards the funeral, and then design an online I called the funeral home and our obitu- is newsworthy?” To answer that, let me own. A bag of chocolates hanging from After the funeral, I went back to and been nominated for three others. She graphic so the reader could scroll over ary department. The Star’s researcher, first tell you: I received more emails about your doorknob would greet you each Val- Shelagh’s home a number of times to dig is currently writing a book on Lovely’s their faces and read their thoughts about Nicole Wynter, started dialing all the the story on Shelagh Gordon’s life than I entine’s Day, along with some clippings deeper into her life. She shared a duplex Haiti — documenting the story of 5-year- Shelagh? Gordons in the phone book. have on any story I’ve ever written in my from the newspaper she thought you’d with her sister Heather — Shelagh on the old Lovely Avelus, who spent six days It sounded like a cool idea and interest- Just as I was leaving the office that eve- 15-year career. find interesting.” top floor, Heather and her husband on the trapped under the rubble of her house ing challenge. I’m a columnist at the Star. ning, around 6.30, my phone rang. It was An hour after the story went up online, The logistics of interviewing 200 or so bottom floor, and one of her two nephews after the devastating 2010 earthquake. But my bosses usually unclip my leash for Heather Cullimore, Shelagh’s older sister. I started to hear from readers, invariably mourners at a funeral are daunting. We in the basement, depending on the week. Porter was on the second team of Star big projects like this. I rambled from condolence to concept. in tears. The story had changed their lives, didn’t want to overwhelm the celebration Her family was incredibly open with me, reporters to land in Haiti after the earth- I put my hand up. I knew it was a tough sell: Let an army hundreds wrote. of Shelagh’s life. We didn’t want to appear both emotionally and with their time. I al- quake. She has been back there 15 times Then, three of us — Uncles, myself and of reporters enter your family’s grief and The online story was shared more than disrespectful. Nor did we want to surprise ways feel so honored to meet people when since, reporting.

67 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 68 NNA Award Winner News Photography NNA Award Winners Editorials

Barrie Examiner – for a dramatic shot of a police officer trying desperately to hold on to a man trying to jump Waterloo Record – for an editorial on Ontario’s minority Liberal goverment – John Roe from an overpass to a busy highway – Mark Wanzel Ontario’s fate in K-W’s hands A domestic dispute culminated in a dramatic display of life-and-death on a highway overpass. And Mark Wanzel got it on camera. Editorial September 01, 2012 Waterloo Record

alton McGuinty has mapped his follow in the footsteps of Elizabeth Liberals have let this mess stew and fester Droute to a third Liberal majority Witmer as a dependable defender of the for so long? government — and it runs straight through community. Fife’s communication skills This record of cynical politicking and Kitchener-Waterloo. The question that vot- and political experience were especially inept management should not be rewarded ers in this suddenly very important riding impressive at the Election Forum held by on Sept. 6. must ask themselves is: Should they help this newspaper on Monday. In his second In the Kitchener-Waterloo riding, this here are images that take him where he wants to go? attempt to win the seat in as many years, newspaper believes voters who want to see Tleave a profound effect The math will be painfully simple on Davis displayed forcefulness and maturity. more fiscal discipline steeling the Liberals on the viewer, and by them- Sept. 6 — byelection day in this riding and And while Weiler is newer to the political will be drawn to the Progressive Conser- selves offer an experience all the riding of Vaughan. If the Liberals hold arena, she shows passion and commit- vatives who, in recent days, have support- their own. Vaughan and snatch Kitchener-Waterloo ment. ed the Liberals’ attempt to rein in educa- What started as a domestic from the Progressive Conservatives, But there’s more at stake in these bye- tion costs with a new teachers’ contract. dispute at a local gas station who’ve had a 22-year lock on it, the Liber- lections than who would be the best repre- Others who desire more social spending quickly escalated into a series als will scratch out a bare majority. sentative. Some Kitchener-Waterloo voters in key areas, as well as higher taxes for of events that unfolded on a No longer will they have to be propped may still want to support the individual wealthy Ontarians, will be attracted to the highway overpass. A man un- up by the Conservatives or New Demo- and that’s their right. But we see a bigger NDP which won concessions from the der extreme distress attempted crats when passing vital legislation. No picture here where voters have a rare op- Liberals before helping the government to avoid being arrested. Barrie longer will they live with the chilling portunity to determine the fate of not just a pass its budget. Police struggled to rescue realization that the combined opposition government but their province. Both Progressive Conservatives and the the man as he dangled over parties can pull the plug on the minority Last Oct. 6, Ontario voters, in their NDP have proven that the current minority the 400 highway. All of this Liberal government any time they choose. shared wisdom, sent a minority Lib- government can work and serve the inter- unfolded in front of hundreds Two byelection wins will add up to a bare eral government to Queen’s Park. In that ests of Ontario. Both parties have lead- of motorists who watched in Liberal majority in the legislature and, general election, The Record endorsed the ers — Tim Hudak for the Conservatives, disbelief as authorities tried in has a loyal readership. barring unforeseen circumstances, three Liberals after agreeing they offered the Andrea Horwath for the NDP — who have In the past, they have made it known HOLD ON: Traffic in the north-bound more years in office for the Liberals. That best hope for Ontario. But we must now grown in stature, wisdom and experience vain to rescue the man. lanes comes to a halt as members of The resulting photo was a true example such images are considered distasteful means more time and a lot more power. conclude that based on their actions over since last fall’s general election. Voters when a resident’s untimely death becomes the Barrie Police struggle to rescue a If these were not the stakes, if the bye- the past year the Liberals have not earned across Ontario would benefit from having of a journalist working in an unplanned, man hanging from the Dunlop Street unscripted situation with only seconds to front-page news. lections could change nothing substantial, the privilege of winning a majority. more time to observe them in opposition Once it was confirmed the man was Bridge Thursday. Moments later the then the primary issue would be which Their decision in the closing days of in a minority situation and to assess their react. The event literally unfolded as I was man would fall onto the highway travelling in my car. alive and recovering in hospital with non- of the 10 candidates running for office in the last election to cancel construction of fitness for the premier’s office. I made a quick call to the office and life-threatening injuries, the decision was Kitchener-Waterloo would be best suited a generating station in Mississauga and After nine years in power, the Liberals made to run the picture. PHOTO CREDIT: MARK WANZEL/THE to represent this constituency. And if these improve their chances of winning seats in look increasingly fatigued, bereft of ideas, told them what just happened. It wasn’t BARRIE EXAMINER/QMI until I tried explaining to my editor what I Despite falling after slipping through were not the stakes, while commending that area was politics at its worst. It was thin on vision, clinging to power without had seen, and captured, that I knew I had their hands, Police were later recognized its peak, with enough elements to give the all the candidates for stepping forward to reprehensible and will cost beleaguered really knowing what to do with that power something truly extraordinary. for saving the man’s life. Their efforts viewer perceptive. serve the public and putting themselves Ontario taxpayers $190 million. Mean- and begging for a chance to clean up a fi- Forcing my way across two lanes of gave motorists enough time to stop, pre- It’s rare to see moments captured like on the line, we would focus primarily on while, the ongoing scandal surrounding nancial disaster they helped create. Defeat traffic to access an off-ramp, I headed venting what might have the man’s death. this, taken under such extremes for both three strong local candidates who have Ornge, the province’s air ambulance ser- next week might be the sharp spur that back to the office and begin reviewing the The event and subsequent image the photographer and the subject. particularly impressed The Record’s vice, has shredded the Liberals’ reputation pricks them into action — and perhaps images with my editor and publisher. brought to light the incredible sacrifice Mark Wanzel is a freelance photojour- editorial board. They are: Eric Davis of as capable managers of public services even the beginning of renewal. After seeing the image, my editor law enforcement officers make each day in nalist based in Barrie Ontario who has the Liberals; the New Democratic Party’s and the public purse. A damning report It comes down to this. The Sept. 6 bye- immediately realized what I was feel- our communities and the growing issues been working at the Barrie Examiner for Catherine Fife; and Progressive Conserva- by Auditor General Jim McCarter pointed lection is a referendum to decide whether ing. However, there was an ethical issue surrounding mental health. The image by 12 years. You can see more of his work at tive Tracey Weiler. to shady bookkeeping at Ornge as well Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals deserve a ma- regarding the image and whether the man itself shows an incredible, human situa- http://markwanzelphotography.blogspot. Any one of these individuals would as ridiculously high per-patient costs and jority government. In Kitchener-Waterloo had survived his fall. The Barrie Examiner tion, promoting a level of self-sacrifice at ca/or follow on Twitter. make a strong local representative and declining service levels. How could the the answer should be a resounding no. 69 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 70 NNA Award Winner Sports The change to the composite stick has been entirely driven by the

Toronto Star – for a series on high-tech hockey sticks – Dave Feschuk urge to create a hard shot, and an easier one.

Stick shift: hockey stick technology is ‘great equalizer’

Published on Sat Dec 22, 2012 Kelly Chase. His were from fighting. Mine blade makes that much of a difference. of 108 miles per hour. And yes, a former were from rasping my sticks, and rapping Shooting is just more effortless.” Maple Leaf named Al Iafrate was clocked By Dave Feschuk my knuckles off the bench and the vise End of the Slapper shooting 105 miles per hour nearly 20 and the blade.” The physics of a slap shot go something years ago while using a wood stick. Little such post-factory labour is re- like this. A player ideally doesn’t hit the So there is little evidence that the top- quired with composite sticks. Most players puck first; he hits the ice behind the puck; end velocity of elite slap shots has been Wendel Clark is presiding over a hockey it’s changed in the NHL, too,” says the But in less than a generation, wood has simply remove a shipment from the box the contact between blade and ice cause drastically increased by the advent of practice on a wintry evening at Westwood 46-year-old Clark. become a novelty. St. Louis Blues head and add tape. the stick to bend — or, in hockey parlance, carbon fibre sticks. Arena. A legendary member of the Maple If anything, Clark is understating the coach Ken Hitchcock says that when a Though proprietary processes vary, load. But a 2004 study commissioned by Leafs, Clark moonlights as the head coach effect. wooden stick is trotted out at an NHL building a composite stick generally in- J.S. Rancourt, one of the principals of the NHL found that composite sticks did of Toronto Young Nationals, a team of In the past decade, hockey sticks made practice — he, for the record, often uses a volves the cutting and layering of sheets of the Waterloo-based stick-testing laboratory enhance the speed of wrist shots. players who never saw him perform in his from high-tech materials found in aircraft stick with a composite shaft an a wooden pricey carbon fibre, which are then bonded Hockey Robotics, explains that a shooter Wrist shots, truncated slapshots, and prime, skating hard down the wing and and Formula One race cars have replaced blade—players “snicker,” as they might if together with glue-like resin at high heat momentarily transfers energy into the snapshots all are meant to be taken quickly wristing a shot over a goalie’s shoulder, Canadian-made wood models as the tool a golfing buddy brought a hickory-shafted in an oven. It’s a highly technical process. stick, which in turn is released to the puck. and with minimum effort. The stick is always with a wooden stick. of choice for players from the NHL all the driver to the first tee. Stick manufacturers employ engineers The more efficiently that transfer takes either kept on the ice or raised only a foot The talented 12 and unders — the way down to tyke. In a decade, the wooden stick has with backgrounds in the aerospace and place, the less effort is required to fire the or two off of it before it makes contact Young Nationals are in the top division The full effect of that change is still be- become a relic. And this hasn’t happened motorsports industries, where composites puck. with the puck. of their age group —look like pros, with ing realized and it will continue to evolve without complaint. — prized for their high strength-to-weight “The stick stores the energy like a For years, being proficient at shooting shots harder and higher than their es- as kids march through the ranks having Guy Lafleur, the hall of fame scoring ratio — are used in abundance. coiled-up spring — and then as you hit the quickly and hard immediately made any teemed coach could ever manage when he only ever played with a composite-style star of the 1970s, is among those who “The thing people don’t understand is puck and throughout the release, not only player stand out on the ice. But because was this age. stick. has lamented the demise of the Sherwood how manual the process is. A lot of it is is your lower hand pushing and delivering of the quickness of the strike, those types “These kids can do a lot of things at 12 But already the consequences have been 5030, the made-in-Quebec model that was, hand-laid carbon fibre, layers upon layers energy, but that stored energy is trans- of shots either had to be practiced inces- that we could never do,” Clark says as he massive. Expressed at the most simple for years, among the most popular sticks upon layers,” said Evan Baker, a product ferred to the puck as the stick snaps back santly, the shooter had to have God-given leans on the boards. “When I was 12 we level, because the tool in the hands of the in the game. Lafleur once called the 5030 manager for Bauer. “It’s like making a straight,” Rancourt says. ability or the shooter’s arms and core weren’t doing any one-timers. We couldn’t player has changed, goals are scored dif- “the best stick in the world.” really, really fancy cake, when you think During the transfer of energy, compos- needed to be considerably stronger than even bend the stick yet.” ferently now. They are also more expen- But the 5030, like all wood sticks, about it.” ite sticks operate more efficiently than his counterparts in order for a shot to stand Clark, whose massive hands and fore- sive now. had a flaw — no two sticks were exactly The change to the composite stick has wooden sticks. They can also be more eas- out. arms once blessed him with one of the best A booming shot can be bought. Com- the same. Former Edmonton Oiler great been entirely driven by the urge to create a ily customized to match the skill, or lack The composite stick changed that shots in the NHL, takes no credit for his posite sticks have taken a skill that once Paul Coffey recalls a representative from hard shot, and an easier one. A perfect shot thereof, of the shooter. forever. New sticks haven’t made the top players’ accomplishments. He chalks it up belonged only to the most feared shooters Sherwood explaining the reason for the can only be achieved through practice — The end result is that players of all types level shooter better. It has given everyone to technology, specifically the millions of in the game and given it to the masses. inconsistency with a shrug: No two trees the type of practice Clark puts his charges have found that, thanks to the efficiency of a chance to “unload” a powerful shot. dollars spent developing the hockey sticks The end of wood are alike. through. The goal of that practice — of their sticks, they can produce a powerful “I always call it the great equalizer,” in the boys’ hands. Cynics would point out that the game This, on the contrary, is composite tech- any practice — is to ensure your body blast with a modest backswing. says Blues coach Hitchcock. “It’s like in A generation ago, Clark said, an elite was doing just fine when, in the middle nology’s great strength: Every composite consistently and efficiently repeats a skill. It’s a peculiar paradox: By building a golf with the new equipment — every- team of 12-year-olds might have been part of the previous century, hall of famers stick is exactly alike, plus or minus toler- But if the tool in your hand can’t be better stick, the world has seen the decline one hits it further. In our sport, everyone lucky to have two players who could give like Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita were ances that are barely noticeable to even relied upon to act the same way every time in popularity of what was once the ulti- shoots it better.” a goalie pause when they pulled the trig- experimenting with hand-made banana the most finicky pro. It wasn’t unusual — well, it’s not operating as effectively as mate shot, the slap shot. Because the new-style stick transfers ger. Maybe three. But those days, when curves on wooden sticks not disimilar to for players in the wood-stick era to spend it could be. We’ve all seen the mighty wind up, the energy so well, players don’t need to be as players carried sticks hewn largely from the ones sold in Canadian hardware stores hours at work benches customizing shafts That’s the area stick manufacturers have stick raised high above a player’s head, perfect with their efforts in shooting the the forests of Ontario and Quebec, are for a few coins. and blades the way a previous generation’s exploited over the past decade in the quest with a shot that looks more like a golf puck, Hitchcock explains. gone. Today, sticks are made in factories Or they might look to the 1980s, when grease monkeys tuned hot rods. to give everyone a better shot. And by and swing than anything else. Perfected by “You don’t need a lot of stress on the from Mexico to China to Vietnam. Con- Wayne Gretzky re-wrote NHL records “The wood — you never knew if you large, manufacturers have been successful. players like Al MacInnis, a mighty slap stick to create the speed. I see guys shoot- structed of high-tech composite materials largely using a wood and fibreglass Titan were going to get a bad batch of bad One by one, traditionalists in the past de- shot from the blue line was once among ing the puck now with little or no windup. and bearing price tags that can reach $300, model that was noted for its low-tech, log- wood. They never sent the right pattern. cade have been won over by carbon fibre’s the most intimidating plays in hockey. But you see the bend in the stick and you the sticks can now put dents in both goalie like heaviness, or even when the Maple So I’d shave it and rasp it and blow-torch undeniable efficiency. Now? It’s a waste of energy. know it’s going to be coming hard.” masks and in wallets. Leafs last appeared in the NHL playoffs, it and curve it and step on it,” says Brett “I always liked the wood blade better Yes, Zdeno Chara, the Boston Bruins You can read the rest of the story “The sticks have definitely changed the circa 2004. Their leading goal scorer in Hull, who has scored more NHL goals for puck-handling,” says Zach Parise, the defenceman, set a new NHL record during at: http://www.thestar.com/news/in- game, probably more for the youngsters that post-season was centre Joe Nieuwen- than anyone but Gretzky and Gordie Minnesota Wild forward. “But then I real- the all-star skills competition last season. sight/2012/12/22/stick_shift_hockey_ than for the guys in the NHL — although dyk, and he used a wood stick. Howe. “My fingers looked like (enforcer) ized my shot was brutal. The composite He blasted a slapper at an NHL record stick_technology_is_great_equalizer.html 71 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 72 Ville d’Alep, en Syrie. Un groupe d’enfants tente de s’amuser dans un NNA Award Winner International Reporting refuge. Photo Édouard Plante-Fréchette, La Presse La Presse, Montréal – for a story of the toll that the war in Syria is taking on its citizens – Michèle Ouimet

La Presse en Syrie: Alep à feu et à sang Michèle Ouimet La Presse

Les enfants n’ont pas le droit de mettre le nez dehors. Ils pleurent ne auto freine brutalement devant rir ses enfants. Ce n’est pas un soldat, mais perdu, je n’ai pas le choix.» Ul’hôpital Dar Al Saïfa, au centre un simple père de famille.» Il travaille sans arrêt depuis deux mois, souvent. d’Alep. Les portières s’ouvrent, deux Un civil. Un autre. Les soldats de c’est-à-dire depuis que la bataille d’Alep a hommes agités sortent un corps, qu’ils Bachar al-Assad les visent. Des tireurs commencé. tiennent l’un sous les bras, l’autre par les embusqués les abattent au marché ou Dix-neuf infirmières et six médecins pieds. Ils montent les marches en courant, au milieu de la rue, ou alors une bombe travaillent sans relâche dans cet hôpital de les boulangeries. Les autos circulent même le nez dehors. Ils pleurent souvent. Les «On est dépressifs, admet Aum Bashar. balançant le corps maladroitement. Il est s’abat sur un quartier peuplé d’hommes, fortune qui tient tête à la puissante armée si elles doivent parfois zigzaguer entre hommes et les femmes sortent parfois faire Quand les bombes tombent, les enfants aussitôt pris en charge par un médecin, qui de femmes et d’enfants. de Bachar al-Assad. Ils sont bénévoles. les gravats. Des détritus s’amoncellent au des courses. Ils rasent les murs de crainte pleurent. On vit comme des vagabonds. le couche sur une civière au milieu du hall Pendant que le médecin se penche sur Près de 80% de leurs patients sont des coin des rues. Alep ne sent pas bon, ces de recevoir une balle en plein front d’un À l’hôpital aussi, les médecins d’entrée. l’homme blessé, une camionnette armée civils, victimes d’un régime aveugle qui jours-ci. tireur embusqué. manquent de tout et reçoivent peu d’aide. Tout se déroule dans ce hall étroit, d’une mitrailleuse se gare devant l’hôpital. veut à tout prix écraser la révolution. La vie et la mort, la paix et la guerre se Dès le début de la bataille d’Alep, leur «On manque surtout de spécialistes, barbouillé de flaques de sang. Derrière, Un homme en sort en tenant un foulard Le Dr Osmane s’interrompt. Une autre côtoient à quelques centaines de mètres. maison a été détruite. Ils ne peuvent pas explique le Dr Osmane. Nous avons perdu une pièce pour les cas les plus graves. maculé de sang sur son flanc droit. Il boite camionnette vient d’arriver, suivie d’une Alep compte 3,5 millions d’habitants. fuir, ils n’ont pas d’argent, pas de famille cinq patients parce que nous n’avons pas Une pièce exiguë, mal équipée. Les autres en montant les marches et s’écrase sur une autre et d’une autre. Pendant que les bles- Depuis le début de la guerre, environ qui pourrait les héberger ailleurs dans le de chirurgien thoracique.» étages sont fermés parce que l’hôpital a des deux civières stationnées dans le hall. sés défilent dans le hall surveillé par des 1 million de personnes ont quitté la ville. pays. Ils ne peuvent pas non plus se réfu- La ronde infernale des visites continue. été bombardé cinq fois. L’armée de Bachar Deux secondes plus tard, une autre gardes armés, un homme nettoie une veste Il resterait donc 2,5 millions d’habitants. gier dans une école ou une mosquée, car En moyenne, l’hôpital reçoit une centaine al-Assad voudrait le détruire, car c’est là camionnette freine en faisant crisser ses militaire gorgée de sang avec un tuyau Personne n’a de chiffres précis. les troupes de Bachar al-Assad pourraient de blessés par jour. que les soldats de l’Armée syrienne libre pneus. Des hommes crient en brandissant d’arrosage. La plupart vivent dans la peur. Peur de les attaquer. Il n’existe d’ailleurs aucun Certains sont déjà morts lorsqu’ils ar- (ASL) se font soigner. Les immeubles leurs fusils. Ils sont survoltés. Au milieu Ici, c’est le Far West, mais le Far West tomber sous les balles d’un tireur em- refuge pour les sans-abri à Alep. Trop rivent. Le Dr Osmane ne peut rien pour environnants ont été bombardés 20 fois. d’eux, leur commandant, Abo Omar, noyé dans une guerre civile. busqué, peur de perdre leur maison, qui dangereux. eux. Dans Alep, c’est l’une des zones les plus baraqué, barbe grise et foulard rouge noué Alep n’a pas d’électricité, les écoles pourrait être éventrée par un tir de mortier, Il reste les sous-sols. Impossible de Vers la fin de la journée, trois cadavres à risque. Les immeubles poussiéreux sont autour de la tête. Dans la camionnette, sont fermées et les chars d’assaut qui tirent peur que la guerre s’étire et n’en finisse savoir combien de gens vivent cachés dans déboulent en quelques minutes: un corps délabrés, les vitres fracassées. quatre soldats de l’Armée syrienne libre des obus tiennent la ville en alerte avec plus. les entrailles des maisons. Chose certaine, aux vêtements ensanglantés, les yeux ou- Un médecin se penche sur l’homme, qui criblés de balles. Le commandant crie leurs boums assourdissants. Des quartiers Plusieurs ont décidé de se réfugier dans il existe une vie souterraine à Alep. Le verts sur le néant, un homme avec dans la respire difficilement.Un tireur embusqué des ordres. Les blessés sont soulevés par démolis par des bombes se sont vidés de un sous-sol. Comme les familles Bashar et porte-parole de l’ASL, Abdullah Aly Asin, poitrine un trou large comme un pruneau lui a tiré une balle en plein coeur. Son leurs camarades et amenés dans le hall leur population. Un silence impression- Omar, qui vivent dans la cave du magasin n’ose pas lancer de chiffre: un quart de et un troisième attaché avec de la grosse pantalon est mouillé d’urine - sa vessie qui déborde. Ils hurlent «Takbir! Allah nant s’est abattu sur les rues remplies où travaille Aum Bashar, dans le quartier million de personnes? Un demi-million, corde sur une planche de bois, le corps s’est vidée quand il a été touché. Il n’y a Akbar!» (Gloire à Allah, Allah est grand!) de décombres. Aux fenêtres, les rideaux de Tarek el-Bab. Une cave grande comme peut-être? recouvert d’une couverture rose avec des presque pas de sang autour de la blessure. à pleins poumons. défraîchis et poussiéreux se balancent la moitié d’un gymnase. Il faut descendre «Qu’est-ce qui est le plus difficile? dessins de chats. Il a un trou dans la tête. Les deux hommes qui ont amené le blessé Le Dr Osmane reste calme au milieu de doucement. Pas de cris d’enfants, pas de 23 marches dans le noir avant d’y arriver. ai-je demandé à Aum Bashar, qui tient ses Un trou de la grosseur d’une balle. Deux crient en tournant autour de la civière. Le cette agitation. Il en a vu d’autres. Il a été chants d’oiseaux. Rien. Un silence de Ici vivent 45 personnes: 5 hommes, 20 enfants dans ses jupes. civils, un soldat. Trois patients de moins médecin les repousse sans ménagement. arrêté trois fois et il a goûté aux prisons et mort, un silence de guerre après le passage femmes et 20 enfants âgés de 1 à 10 ans. - Tout, répond-elle. Le dénuement. Nous pour le Dr Osmane. Trois victimes de la Des gardes armés les mettent à la porte. aux tortures raffinées de Bachar al-Assad. de l’artillerie. Depuis deux mois, les deux familles n’avons pas d›eau, pas d’électricité, pas de guerre. Les gens les regardent en secouant «C’est mon frère, explique un des «Personne ne veut travailler ici parce À 300 m de la ligne de front, la ville survivent 24 heures sur 24 dans cet espace téléphone, pas de travail.» la tête et continuent leur chemin. hommes, le regard chaviré par le chagrin. que c’est trop dangereux, dit-il. Si le vit. Quelques enfants jouent dans la rue, confiné. Seule une lumière chiche filtre à Tout ce qu’ils ont, c’est du temps, trop On lui a tiré dessus pendant qu’il ache- gouvernement m’attrape, il va me jeter en indifférents aux tirs de mortier, des vieux l’autre bout de la cave. Dans un coin, des de temps, et la peur, trop de peur. À lire la suite de l’article tait des légumes. Il a une femme et sept prison et me torturer. Pour eux, je suis un prennent leur café sur le pas de leur porte couvertures pendues au plafond fournis- Ces conditions extrêmes minent leur http://www.lapresse.ca/international/ enfants. traître. ou jouent aux cartes, des femmes cou- sent un peu d’intimité. Ils cuisinent dehors moral, mais ce qui les tue, c’est d’ignorer dossiers/crise-dans-le-monde-arabe/ - Pourquoi est-il resté à Alep? lui ai-je - Et pourquoi êtes-vous ici? vertes d’un niqab font leurs courses en sur un poêle à bois. combien de temps encore ils devront vivre syrie/201209/27/01-4578347-la-presse-en- demandé. C’est tellement dangereux! - J’ai perdu 20 cousins et 6 amis pressant le pas. Quelques commerces sont Les enfants n’ont pas le droit de mettre dans leur sous-sol. syrie-alep-a-feu-et-a-sang.php - Il n’a nulle part où aller et il doit nour- proches, j’ai perdu mon pays, j’ai tout ouverts et de longues files s’étirent devant 73 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 74 NNA Award Winner Breaking News

La Presse, Montréal– for stories of Luka Magnotta, the man accused of killing and dismembering a Montreal student – Gabrielle Duchaine, Vincent Larouche, Daphné Cameron, Isabelle Audet, Jean-Thomas Léveilleé

Affaire Magnotta: la victime est un étudiant chinois

Vincent Larouche et Gabrielle Duchaine

Publié le 01 juin 2012

La Presse

’enquête sur le meurtre et le dé- la Ville de Montréal a confirmé l’identité Chine pour l’aviser du drame, mais aussi Lmembrement commis à Côte-des- de la victime. pour savoir si elle a la moindre parcelle Neiges a pris une dimension internationale Le défunt connaissait déjà Magnotta d’information qui aiderait l’enquête. Les jeudi. Alors que la police cherchait le sus- avant le soir fatidique, apparemment. Il démarches se sont avérées compliquées pect Luka Rocco Magnotta en France, la l’aurait suivi volontairement chez lui pour et pourraient prendre encore un certain victime a été identifiée comme un étudiant avoir des relations sexuelles. temps. Le consulat affirme toutefois que chinois admis récemment à l’Université Richard Payette, qui habite un apparte- des gens y travaillent activement sur le Concordia. ment voisin de la scène de crime, est terrain. Selon nos informations, le Service de certain d’avoir reconnu sur cette photo Les autorités jouent de prudence pour police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) a l’individu qui apparaît dans la sanglante l’instant. Le mandat d’arrêt concernant montré à des résidants de Côte-des-Neiges vidéo diffusée sur l’internet. «C’est clair Luka Rocco Magnotta, déposé hier au la photo de Jun Lin, ressortissant chinois que c’est lui... c’est dégueulasse», a-t-il greffe du palais de justice de Montréal, de 33 ans originaire de la province de déclaré au cours d’une entrevue hier. évoque le meurtre non prémédité d’une Wuhan, arrivé à Montréal en juillet dernier Il dit n’avoir jamais vu l’homme dans «personne inconnue» et un outrage à un pour ses études. l’immeuble auparavant. cadavre. Vendredi matin, le Service de police de La police travaille maintenant en collab- France ou Europe de l’Est? oration avec le consulat Le SPVM a aussi demandé l’aide de ses VICTIM OF A HORRIBLE CRIME: Photos from the family of Jun Lin, the victim of a brutal slaying last year, were given to media Tuesday, April 2, 2013 in Montreal. Preliminary WANTED SUSPECT: This file photo provided by the Montreal Police hearing is underway for Luka Rocco Magnotta, the man charged in connection with the Service shows Luka Rocco Magnotta. infamous body-parts case that made international headlines. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Lin Family PHOTO CREDIT: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Montreal Police Service Mais les policiers examinent aussi sait de nettoyer l’endroit lors du passage Drummond. Une enquête pour cruauté d’autres hypothèses. Magnotta aurait pu de La Presse. animale avait toutefois été ouverte en 2011 de la Chine à Montréal partenaires d’Interpol dans sa chasse pour laisser volontairement de fausses pistes. «Je ne pense pas qu’il [Magnotta] va lorsque des organismes de défense des dans cette affaire. trouver l’acteur porno de 29 ans, soupçon- Son utilisation du pseudonyme Vladimir revenir. Ses choses n’étaient plus utilis- animaux avaient accusé Magnotta d’avoir «Un Chinois qui cor- né d’avoir filmé le meurtre et la mutila- Romanov et certaines traces laissées sur ables. Nous avons lavé le frigo, qui était tué des chatons et diffusé des images de respond à la description tion de sa victime, pour ensuite diffuser la l’internet laissent croire qu’il pourrait plein de sang, comme s’il y avait gardé leur mort sur l’internet. avait été porté disparu vidéo sur l’internet et envoyer des restes aussi avoir l’Europe de l’Est dans ligne de une partie du corps. Nous allons sûrement À Peterborough, où habite la famille du par des proches le 24 humains à des partis politiques fédéraux. sa mire. trouver quelqu’un rapidement pour louer suspect, peu d’informations ont filtré hier. mai, soit un jour avant Interpol a diffusé un avis de recherche Mauvaise publicité l’appartement. Mais le propriétaire est «Il est gravement dérangé, c’est un la découverte de la international avec la photo de Magnotta. Par ailleurs, dans l’immeuble miteux tanné de toute la mauvaise publicité, car malade mental», a confié hier un jeune valise, vendredi dernier. Selon nos sources, des documents de Côte-des-Neiges où Magnotta habitait des gens parlent de déménager mainten- homme sur le pas d’une maison modeste Un avis de recherche a trouvés dans l’appartement du suspect et depuis quelques mois et où il aurait tué ant», raconte Mike Nadeau. de la banlieue paisible au nord-est de été publié en chinois sur certains de ses écrits laissent croire qu’il sa victime, avant d’abandonner son tronc Pendant ce temps, en Ontario, la police Toronto. le site du consulat le 29 a fui vers la France après son crime. Le dans la ruelle, on s’affairait hier à effacer de Toronto a reconnu avoir été avertie dès mai», confirme Xin Xu, commandant Ian Lafrenière, porte-parole les traces de l’horrible boucherie. dimanche qu’une vidéo de démembre- À lire la suite de l’article: porte-parole de la mis- du SPVM, confirme d’ailleurs qu’il est Le matelas ensanglanté de son lit ainsi ment circulait sur le web. Elle avait jugé http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/jus- sion diplomatique. possible que l’homme le plus recherché du que le fauteuil et d’autres meubles ont été l’information insuffisante pour ouvrir une tice-et-affaires-criminelles/201205/31/01- Le consulat essaie Canada ait fui le pays. Les médias français sortis du minuscule appartement et jetés enquête. C’est un avocat américain qui a 4530595-affaire-magnotta-la-victime-est- d’aider le SPVM à se sont rapidement emparés de l’affaire et au bord de la rue. Un des concierges finis- fait l’appel, a indiqué la constable Wendy un-etudiant-chinois.php joindre sa famille en la photo du suspect a fait le tour du pays.

75 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 76 NNA Award Winner Project of the Year

La Presse, Montréal – for a project on alternative healers

Gourous inc.: les pédiatres imaginaires Publié le 27 septembre 2012 à 05h00

Marie-Claude Malboeuf

La Presse

(De gauche à droite) Vérónica Pérez-Tejeda (graphiste), David Lambert (graphiste), Isabelle Dubé (journaliste vidéo), Serge Chapleau (caricaturiste), Isabelle Audet (chef de division vidéo), Francis Vailles (chroniqueur), Jean-Thomas Léveillé (journaliste vidéo), Gabrielle Duchaine, Daphné Cameron (journaliste), Vincent La- rouche (journaliste), Michèle Ouimet (chroniqueuse), Nicole Ouellet a été condamnée à quatre reprises pour exercice illégal de la médecine. Marie-Claude Malboeuf (journaliste). Archives La Tribune

autiste «est sorti de sa bulle». Un jour, une autiste ou hyperactif est plus avancé que D’après nos recherches, sur un premier icole Ouellet a commencé sa car- condamnée à quatre reprises pour exercice Guérir au téléphone cliente de 8 ans, hyperactive, «a même vu son prof, que c’est un être supérieur, forum, les parents d’un enfant autiste Nrière comme infirmière. Aux soins illégal de la médecine. Mais le Collège Lorsque nous avons libéré la table d’une trois anges pendant le traitement», ajoute- venu faire avancer la société, rapporte la écrivent par exemple qu’un praticien du intensifs et en néonatalogie. Difficile des médecins du Québec ne savait pas magnétiseuse du quartier Côte-des-Neiges, t-il. Une amie lui aurait enfin demandé de psychoéducatrice Natacha Condo-Dinucci. reiki (forme d’imposition des mains très à croire lorsqu’au téléphone, elle nous qu’elle avait aussitôt repris du service. une écolière s’y est aussitôt allongée pour guérir son fils par téléphone, tandis que le Le filtre affectif laisse passer ça. C’est plus en vogue) visite leur domicile chaque déclare traiter les tout petits bébés en se Encore moins qu’elle s’en prenait aussi subir à son tour un traitement. Sur son site petit - atteint du cancer du cerveau - était facile à avaler qu’un diagnostic doulou- week-end. fiant aux «vibrations» de leurs couches aux enfants. web, un autre pseudo-guérisseur, Sylvain à l’hôpital pour recevoir une greffe de reux.» Sur un deuxième, d’autres racontent pleines d’urine. «Avant de nous la poster, Vérification faite auprès de l’organisme, Champagne, cible carrément les jeunes, moelle. «Ça pourrait avoir inspiré le mé- Les tenants de cette théorie parlent avoir soumis leur enfant à des prises de les parents la font sécher», prend soin de aucun guérisseur autoproclamé n’a encore qu’il dit «beaucoup plus réceptifs que decin», assure le pseudo-guérisseur. d’enfants «nouveaux», «indigo», «arc-en- sang «vivant» pour chercher des cham- préciser la résidante de Sherbrooke. été poursuivi pour avoir traité un jeune. nous, les adultes». L’ex-ingénieur élec- Rien n’a toutefois changé pour l’enfant ciel» ou «de cristal». Et prétendent, bien pignons et des parasites supposément Interrogée en avril au sujet d’une fillette Un seul a reçu un avertissement à cet trique prétend régler leurs problèmes par de 4 ans que nous avons amené chez sûr, pouvoir guider leurs familles. Certains responsables de l’hyperactivité. Ces tests de 3 ans aux intestins infestés de polypes, égard, après avoir forcé les jambes d’un téléphone. Endormez votre fille et appelez- lui. De retour dans son duplex de Rose- vont jusqu’à affirmer que, sans leur aide, sont pourtant «insensés» et les diagnostics la sexagénaire est catégorique: quoi qu’en bébé, qui s’est retrouvé à l’hôpital. moi, nous dit-il. «On va l’observer 30 mont, le petit s’est mis à agiter les mains l’enfant risque un jour le suicide. qui en découlent sont «inventés», indique disent les médecins - et malgré les risques Pourtant, Nicole Ouellet a une immense minutes. Ses yeux et ses doigts vont avoir autour de son chat en expliquant imiter Désespérées et avides de solutions, le site internet américain Science-Based de cancer -, la chirurgie est inutile. Avec concurrence. Au fil d’une enquête de trois des sursauts, son ventre va peut-être faire «le magicien» pour que l’animal cesse de bien des familles lisent tout ce qu’elles Medecine. quelques traitements de «médecine vibra- mois sur l’industrie des pseudo-guéris- du bruit. C’est le signe que les fréquences griffer. Le chat griffe toujours... trouvent sur l’internet, où il est facile de toire», dit-elle, toutes les excroissances seurs, nous avons constaté que la plupart travaillent.» Méthodes extrêmes les embrigader, constate avec inquiétude À lire la suite de l’article: vont sûrement disparaître. La petite n’a d’entre eux jouent les pédiatres. Énergie, Le naturothérapeute reçoit aussi les Pour certains parents, tout semble pré- l’orthopédagogue Karine Martel, spéciali- http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/ qu’à gribouiller sur une feuille de papier. vibrations, aimants, fréquences: chacun jeunes à Boisbriand, dans le sous-sol férable aux médicaments et à la résigna- ste des troubles envahissants du dével- sante/201209/26/01-4577945-gourous-inc- Encore une fois, l’ex-infirmière se fiera prétend avoir trouvé LA méthode miracle rouge de son bungalow encombré de tion. oppement. «Les gens en moyens sont prêts les-pediatres-imaginaires.php aux «vibrations» qui en émanent pour la pour tout guérir, des otites à l’autisme. matériel promotionnel. Devant le garçon- «Des gens leur disent que leur enfant à toutes les dépenses», observe-t-elle. guérir... en pondant une liste de mots. Leurs actions sont très souvent illé- net de 4 ans qui nous accompagnait en Nicole Ouellet énumère ses clients gales, mais payantes. Les consulter coûte mars dernier, il agitait distraitement les passés: une petite de deux ans et demi cou- souvent au moins 100$ par visite. «Mais mains en parlant sans cesse. L’homme ne verte d’eczéma et de psoriasis, une enfant le plus inquiétant, c’est qu’on risque de voulait surtout pas savoir de quoi souf- brûlée au troisième degré... Son site web priver l’enfant de soins reconnus», dit frait l’enfant, «pour ne pas contraindre To read the stories of the award-winners and finalists, you’ll affiche même les photos douteuses avant/ le Dr François Gauthier, directeur des l’univers», justifie-t-il. Parce qu’on ne après d’une fillette de 11 ans, qui lui serait enquêtes au Collège. choisit pas sa guérison, même lorsqu’elle find the NNA’s PDFHERE! arrivée très fiévreuse, peinant à respirer et Difficile de les épingler, car les parents coûte 111$. vomissant. viennent rarement se vanter d’avoir ex- Champagne n’offre aucune garantie, Depuis 1994, Nicole Ouellet a été posé leur enfant à des pratiques occultes. mais raconte qu’à son contact, un enfant 77 MEDIA SUMMER 2013 78