On the cover of the March issue of The Walrus, Death makes his merry way through a meadow, killing everything he touches. It’s a story of saving the world for the living by dissolving the dead, with the power of nature.
While the story was written by staffer at the magazine, a freelance writer says she pitched the idea first. Pitch stealing is a serious charge, one not far below outright plagiarism.
Ann Silversides emailed a pitch to the magazine to write a story about the facility in Smith Falls, Ont., on July 6, 2015. Three weeks later on the 27th, she received a rejection letter from the magazine saying the magazine was already working on a similar story. The next day, July 28, Graeme Bayliss was out reporting the story, according to an email he sent at the time.
Silversides was out of the country, but when she returned to Canada in May of this year to see a very familiar story gracing the cover of the magazine, she was taken aback. She sent a letter to the Walrus, asking for an explanation.
When confronted with the accusation of possible theft, Walrus editor-in-chief Jonathan Kay promised to look into the matter, in an email to Silversides sent in May. Kay said if her pitch was stolen, the magazine would pay her $1,500, the usual fee for a story of its nature.
From: Jonathan Kay
Date: 18 May 2016
Subject: Re: The Walrus calling
To: Ann Silversides
Thanks
I am investigating this. I am going to give everyone involved a chance to give me their side of the story.
If we determine that your idea was stolen, I will pay you the amount of money I would have paid for a finished draft of your article — which in this case would be $1500.
Best, Jon.
At this point, publisher Shelley Ambrose took the reins. In a long email to Silversides on June 2, Ambrose said she had spoken with staff and looked at prior research and concluded the pitch was not stolen.
The key paragraph (the full text can be found below*):
“I have now been able to not only talk to current and former editorial staff — including our editor-in-chief [Jonathan Kay], as well as the author of the Dissolving the Dead’ [Bayliss] and I have gone back to look at research timelines and more. And, although Graeme Bayliss did not actually do the interviews or write the story until much later, he did, in fact, pitch it — in June 2015 — to the then managing editor — a month before your pitch arrived. He had also – inspired by a short article he had read — done some early research (I actually have seen the dated Google records) in order to pitch the story internally. So the response you were given to your pitch at the time — perfunctory as it was, was the simple truth. We did, in fact, have a story about that very thing in the mix already, so we cannot agree that your pitch — excellent as it was — was the basis of ‘Dissolving the Dead.’ ” We all agree, however, that your pitch was timely and that the idea was obviously a good one.
There was a problem with this explanation. The managing editor at the time, Kyle Wyatt, has since said he did not know about the pitch before Bayliss had gone reporting the story. In a comment on Story Board, a news site run by the Canadian Media Guild frequented by freelance writers. Wyatt says the first he heard of the story was when Bayliss sent him an email saying he was off to report it.
I had been away from the office for a week or so, on an annual canoe trip in Nebraska. Beyond this email and processing a rental car receipt shortly after Bayliss’s visit to Smith Falls, I had no involvement with the story—the pitching, the writing, or the editing.
Shelley Ambrose cannot produce the emails that Ann Silversides has requested, detailing the June 2015 commissioning, because they simply do not exist; I made no such decision to “proceed with the story as planned.”
The content of the email, which CANADALAND has seen independently, reads [emphasis ours]:
From: Graeme Bayliss
Date: July 28 2015
Subject: Out of office Thursday
To: Kyle Wyatt, Jonathan Kay
“Just a heads-up that I’ll be away Thursday, driving out to Smiths Falls to report on a story. (Kyle: I pitched a story to Jon while you were away; broadly, it’s about a new bio-cremation facility. The man who runs it has offered to give me a tour and an interview. The drive is about four hours each way.)”
Graeme
Ambrose did not reply to requests for comment, nor did she provide any of the evidence that cleared the magazine. Kay, the editor-in-chief, said he was unable to speak on the record, and directed all questions to Ambrose. When reached for comment, Bayliss said he could not talk about anything that happened during his time at the Walrus, as he had signed a non-disclosure agreement.
This is not the first time Walrus staff have been accused of using a freelancer’s work in house. Last year, freelancer Alex Gillis said the investigative work he did for a story on cheating in universities was entirely reworked into an essay written by Wyatt. The writer, Gillis, received part of his fee when the story was killed, and an apology from Kay.
In her email to the freelancer, Ambrose said the magazine had done a poor job communicating with Silversides, and should have been more forthcoming with the writer.
“The editors who read your pitch should have called you or written to tell you exactly what was on the [schedule] here and involved you or even assigned the story to you,” Ambrose wrote. “Instead the managing editor at the time decided to stay on the course he was already on. However frustrating this may be in retrospect, it was his prerogative.”
Reached by phone, Wyatt confirmed his involvement in the story was limited to receiving Bayliss’s email and processing a car rental receipt, echoing his early Story Board comment.
Silversides wasn’t satisfied with Ambrose’s response. Despite promises to improve communication with the writer, Ambrose did not reply to an email from Silversides asking for further proof last June.
She’s still waiting.
—With files from Jane Lytvynenko
***
@robert_hiltz
*The full text of Ambrose’s email to Silversides:
From: Shelley Ambrose
Date: 2 June 2016
Subject: “Dissolving the Dead”
To: Ann Silversides
Hello Ann.
I am. Shelley Ambrose here. I am the publisher of the magazine and the exec director of the Walrus Foundation. Jon handed your correspondence on to me and I want to apologize for the length of time (i am on the road with The Walrus Talks) it has taken me to thoroughly check it out. We took this accusation of story stealing very seriously and can absolutely see how you might come to the conclusion that that is what occurred and so I wanted to turn over every rock.
I have now been able to not only talk to current and former editorial staff — including our editor-in-chief, as well as the author of the “Dissolving the Dead” and I have gone back to look at research timelines and more. And, although Graeme Bayliss did not actually do the interviews or write the story until much later, he did, in fact, pitch it — in June 2015 — to the then managing editor — a month before your pitch arrived. He had also — inspired by a short article he had read — done some early research (I actually have seen the dated Google records) in order to pitch the story internally. So the response you were given to your pitch at the time – perfunctory as it was, was the simple truth. We did, in fact, have a story about that very thing in the mix already, so we cannot agree that your pitch — excellent as it was — was the basis of “Dissolving the Dead.” We all agree, however, that your pitch was timely and that the idea was obviously a good one.
We also all agree that our communication with you was woefully inadequate. In fact, the editors who read your pitch should have called you or written to tell you exactly what was on the sced here and involved you or even assigned the story to you. Instead the managing editor at the time decided to stay on the course he was already on. However frustrating this may be in retrospect, it was his prerogative.
I am copying Jon Kay on this because I know he, too, wishes the response to you at the time had been very different. Again, your pitch was excellent and we very much hope you will give us another chance. I know Jon is eager to talk to you about a few stories he is assigning and is also eager to hear your ideas. I can promise you that he will be very forthcoming with details of what we are currently working on, what is in our mix, and where all the possibilities for future stories lie and that all future communication will be much more, well, helpful and detailed.
Truly — Shelley
The ruling party in Saskatchewan has received more than $100,000 in donations from media companies and associations in the last 10 years. The $117,585 has come from television and radio, newspapers and industry journals and all of it has gone disproportionately to the Saskatchewan Party.
The bulk of the donations came from one source, Rawlco Radio. Since 2005, Rawlco has donated nearly $99,000 to the Saskatchewan Party, according to provincial elections records. Over the same period, it’s given the provincial NDP $1,456. The company owns six stations in the province, including the only two privately owned news talk stations, 650 CKOM and 980 CJME.
Executives at Rawlco did not respond to repeated requests for comment. They, therefore, couldn’t say why the company donated the amounts it did, or how it decided which party to donate to, or if some of those donations were in the form of event sponsorships or if they were all direct donations. Executives also didn’t say whether they’d made listeners aware of the donations. They also didn’t say whether a media company donating such a large amount to a political party might create a conflict in its political coverage.
Should Rawlco executives answer these questions, or say anything at all, we’ll update this story.
CANADALAND verified figures of Saskatchewan Party donation filings posted to Elections Saskatchewan’s website and independently looked at documents submitted by the NDP to the provincial elections agency*.
Rawlco was an outlier in the size of its donations, but it was not the only media company to donate to the Saskatchewan Party.
The Saskatchewan Weekly Newspaper Association, an industry group representing more than 80 newspapers throughout the region, has donated nearly $3,500 to the Saskatchewan party since 2006.
Margaret Hasein, the SWNA president, disputed that the figures constituted donations.
“SWNA does not ‘donate’ to political parties,” Hasein said in an email. “The president will attend events such as a golf tournament, or a premier’s dinner. There is a registration fee for this which the political party deems as a donation. We attend the events we are invited to attend. For the years in question, the NDP has not invited us to any of their events, neither has the Liberal Party nor the Green Party.”
But Elections Saskatchewan considers giving money to a party in the form of a registration for a political event — sometimes known as a fundraiser — to be a donation and requires parties disclose such intakes of cash.
“It is viewed as an opportunity to forge relationships and network,” Hasein said.
The premier’s dinner is an annual event put on for some 2,000 grandees and schmoozers to have a nice meal in nicely lit hall and listen to a nice keynote speech from the very nice premier. Since 2007, that’s been Brad Wall, who heads the Saskatchewan Party.
Media don’t need to buy a ticket to get into the event. It’s open to reporters, who cover the dinner every year, usually focusing on the premier’s speech.
CTV, for example, typically sends a reporter, but in previous years CTV has also paid for tickets to the event.
From 2007 to 2015, it paid about $7,000 to the Saskatchewan Party. Over the same period, CTV also gave $1,878 to the NDP. A spokesman for Bell Media, which owns CTV, said in a statement the money was for tickets to events such as the premier’s dinner. “The CTV sales team purchases tickets to many local events to entertain clients and support the community.” Scott Henderson said in an email. “The amount spent on tickets totals a few hundred dollars per event.”
Henderson said no one from CTV News attended the events as a guest. “CTV News operates independently from the CTV sales team,” he said.
Sunrise Publishing, meanwhile, donated some $3,600 to the Saskatchewan Party over the 10-year period from 2005 to 2015. The company produces several industry magazines including Saskatchewan Business Magazine and the Saskatchewan Mining Journal. Several requests for comment to Sunrise’s publisher went unanswered, so we can’t say whether the money was for event tickets or something else.
The Western Producer, an agriculture-focused news outlet, made a one-time donation of $360 to the Sask. Party in 2010. Current publisher Shaun Jessome said since he took over in 2012 it has been his policy for the publication not to make any donations to political parties.
***
@robert_hiltz
*CANADALAND did not look at the filings for additional parties, as no party besides the NDP or Saskatchewan Party has won a seat in the provincial legislature since 2003. The earliest donations records posted for the province start in 2005. If another party claim seats, or even a seat, in Regina, CANADALAND will revisit fundraising documents filed by that party. In the meantime, we decided to keep it simple.
After seven months walking the picket lines journalists at the Halifax Chronicle Herald are left to wonder how a paper in supposedly dire straits can afford paying thousands of dollars to an out-of-town private investigator.
A Vancouver-based private investigations firm has been following striking Herald journalists, and has collected upward of $400,000 from the paper, according to the Halifax Typographical Union. The union said the paper is paying Mitigation Partners more than $500 a day, every day, to follow and photograph striking workers.
That’s not leaving the journalists on strike feeling particularly good, according to HTU vice-president Frank Campbell. “For a lot of our members it makes them feel uneasy,” He said. “But, even more it makes us feel kind of angry. You’re telling us you can’ afford to negotiate a fair contract with us, but you can afford to pay these people to follow us around?”
Campbell couldn’t say who told the union how much the investigators were being paid, saying only it was someone they considered reliable.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, the HTU said its estimates put the Herald’s private investigator spending in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. “We estimate the Herald has been spending $12,000 per week on security and private investigation. By our math, they have now spent about $400,000.”
The union said the paper is also covering regular flights between B.C. and Halifax, as well as expenses for rental cars and lodging.
The post identifies one of the PIs as Chris Van Luven, and included a photo. The image seems to match with several public social media accounts under Van Luven’s name, who lists himself as the principal and lead consultant in Mitigation Partners on his LinkedIn profile.
Campbell said Van Luven and others had been following union members for some time.
“We’ve seen this from a long, long time ago,” he said. “I don’t know if it was their own security or private investigators, but I remember early in the strike we went to outside the city and we could see there were people there taking photos of us.”
Requests for comment sent to Mitigation Partners and to management at the Chronicle Herald were not returned. Should we receive a reply, we’ll update the article.
When the strike was only in its third month, Campbell and other HTU members were still hopeful it would end reasonably. That hope is still there, but it may be diminished. Private Investigators recording the striking workers hasn’t exactly bred good will.
“How it bodes for negotiations going forward, I don’t know. I would hope that this doesn’t have much of an impact on that,” Campbell said. “But, you know, it’s hard for our people not to say, ‘Well, [what about] the financial implications? You can’t negotiate a fair deal with us, but you can afford to bring in these people from British Columbia to do your security work.’”
***
@rob_hiltz
PHOTO courtesy: Trevor Beckerson – Foundry Photography
If a former MMA fighter decides to throw down in front of the local strip club, but the RCMP won’t confirm it to media, did it really happen?
In Yellowknife, this is a real question reporters are facing. The city’s journalists are struggling to get basic answers from their local police force about reported crimes. In June, the Mounties lost their only media relations officer for the division, Const. Elenore Sturko, and she has yet to be replaced.
Shane Magee, a reporter at the Yellowknifer who wrote the story “‘Don’t call us,’ RCMP tells media,” said the Mounties have been reluctant to answer questions about things ranging from sexual assault reports to information about boaters missing on Great Slave Lake.
Magee said when they heard about sexual assault at a music festival, they got in touch with the RCMP who didn’t confirm anything for days. “Four days later they sent out a news release saying that, ‘Yes, there had been four separate reports of sexual assault. Oh, here’s all there these traffic stops we did that weekend, and boat checks we did.’”
“We were getting to the point where we’re no longer getting basic information anymore.” He said the Mounties were basically deciding what was and wasn’t newsworthy.
“Someone tells us there’s been a serious assault involving an ex-MMA fighter outside one of the strip clubs downtown on Friday night, we email police and say, ‘What happened, did you respond?’ ” Magee said. “And they say sorry, they can’t really answer any questions. Yet the same day, they put out a press release about a truck driving into a fence with no injuries.”
It wasn’t always this way. When he first arrived in Yellowknife, Magee said he was able to call the media contact with any questions. While they didn’t always have all the answers, Magee was able to build a relationship with someone who understood his role in informing the public.
Since the media officer’s departure, that’s all disappeared.
In June, the RCMP sent an email to media outlets across the territory telling them an email address has been set up for all inquiries. Last month, a follow-up email was sent, informing reporters they were no longer supposed to call individual detachments or the central RCMP office.
“Our OCC operations [dispatch number] is for emergency purposes only, and media inquiries tie up valuable time and resources that could be directed towards emergency matters,” the email said.
RCMP Cpl. Danny Brookson told CANADALAND that in the absence of a dedicated media contact, inquiries have been split between a number of different officers who have had media training. “Without a current media liaison position, it is felt that this is the best way to ensure inquiries are met. We are committed to try our best to get a response within four hours of receiving a request,” provided it was within regular business hours, Brookson said.
While Magee has noticed an improvement in the week or so since his piece ran, there’s still some ways to go. Even if the media officer is replaced, there’s a longer history of discord between the two sides.
“I think over the past number of years there’s been several things that have led to a more adversarial relationship,” Magee said.
Among those things is the rather acrimonious relationship between Magee’s colleague John McFadden and the RCMP.
Last year, McFadden was barred from an RCMP press conference, after officers took issue with the reporter’s tone and accused him of “unprofessional and disrespectful conduct.” Since then, McFadden has been put on trial for obstructing police. He was arrested last July, after taking photos of police searching a vehicle. He says he was just doing his job, police testified he was too close and impeded their ability to do their jobs.
McFadden’s trial is still in progress and is scheduled to resume next month.
But one question still hangs. In the months since the media officer departed, has the public been put at risk because of a lack of information?
“Well, we don’t know,” Magee said.
***
@robert_hiltz
The Newfoundland and Labrador premier’s office has decided that you can’t be a journalist if you’re dressed like a giant Pokémon character.
Jon Keefe wanted to report on a recent press event held by Premier Dwight Ball, and he chose to do so while wearing a Pikachu onesie. Once he was dressed for the occasion, he grabbed a notepad and pen and headed to The Rooms, which houses Newfoundland’s art museum and archives.
“About 20 minutes after the event was supposed to start, a couple of people came downstairs and handed out laminated passes to everyone but me and the guy holding my camera,” Keefe said. “I told them that they forgot to give us our passes; the man, who refused to give his name, told me that the event was for registered media only.”
Curiously, several reporters at the event tweeted that no one had registered for the event.
https://twitter.com/TelegramJames/status/758648036369178624
https://twitter.com/TelegramJames/status/758648427165028352
Keefe left, while the rest of the assembled media went to the availability. He had figured he’d receive some pushback, but didn’t expect to be barred entry.
“I figured they’d put up a halfhearted attempt to stop me, but I was actually halfway surprised when they shut me down. I honestly didn’t think they’d be so foolish,” Keefe said.
Other than appearing in costume, he wasn’t planning on causing a fuss. “I have plenty of questions for Ball, but wasn’t planning to pose any of them to him today.”
Jon Keefe, not being let in. Matthew Howse/Handout
Despite being denied entry, Keefe isn’t too disappointed. “I was hoping to just watch the press conference like everyone else, but starting a public conversation about the relationship between the media and the government is a decent consolation prize.”
“There are mechanisms in place to deal with disruptors. Barring people because you don’t like their politics isn’t acceptable,” he said.
It’s reasonable to assume the premier’s office doesn’t like Keefe’s politics. While he doesn’t really consider himself an activist, he’s accepted the label in the past. He came to a kind of infamy recently after printing a series of posters with Ball’s face and the “Resign” in bold text. He also produces a broadsheet poster series The Running Mouth, a satirical paper of sorts he’s posted around the legislature in the past few months.
The Running Mouth, Keefe’s broadsheet. Jon Keefe/Handout
Of course, it’s entirely possible that what they objected to most was not Keefe’s politics, but the fact that he was wearing a giant, furry Pikachu costume.
The Newfoundland premier’s office did not respond to questions from CANADALAND. Should we receive a response, we’ll provide an update.
The decision to pick and choose who is and isn’t a journalist got the NDP government in Alberta in some hot water earlier this year, when reporters from the Rebel were forbidden from attending a budget briefing. The right-wing news site, which is openly hostile to the NDP, gained widespread support from media across the country. Premier Rachel Notley’s government eventually caved to public pressure, reversed their decision and handed over decisions on who to accredit to the legislature’s press gallery.
“They are an enormous client,” wrote a program director to her staff
Battered by allegations of animal mistreatment, barred from breeding more orcas, and beset by frequent protests, Marineland is a theme park with few friends.
Thankfully for the beleaguered Niagara Falls attraction, their generous ad budget means that Bell-owned radio stations won’t contribute to the pile-on in their hometown.
Hosts of three southern Ontario radio stations were ordered to not express any opinions about the troubled theme park on air, because Marineland does so much business with Bell.
“In light of Marineland opening and the ongoing controversy I want to make sure we’re all on the same page regarding this client,” program director Sarah Cummings wrote in a May 2014 email sent to radio staff, since obtained by CANADALAND. “I know there are many opinions but I am asking that you please refrain from talking about them on air.
“They are an enormous client of Bell Media and I think keeping our coverage to news only is best,” she wrote.
One of the stations with hosts ordered not to talk Marineland is the only talk radio station for the region, 610 CKTB. Hosts at the music stations 105.7 EZ Rock in Niagara and 102.9 K-Lite FM in Hamilton were also sent the directive.
Cummings did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did the hosts who were sent the email. As always, we’ll update our story if any of them do.
The memo also directs staff not to engage with any discussion of Marineland on its website or on social media. This all but eliminates talk of the park’s troubles by several major radio stations in the region. EZ Rock is the highest rated station in the region, according to stats posted by Kowchmedia. Bell owns three of the seven stations in the region, and they draw more than half of the area’s listeners.
Marineland has been accused by former staff of mistreating their animals. The amusement park has vigorously denied all the allegations and is suing for defamation former staff who have spoken out and the Toronto Star, who published a sprawling investigation into allegations of poor conditions at the park. Marineland has also threatened to sue CANADALAND, for airing an episode where former animal trainer Phil Demers spoke of the abuse he alleges he saw.
The Star’s investigation details the plight of a number of marine mammals, several who have since died, who suffered from a variety of ailments, thought to be caused by poor water quality.
Last year, the Ontario government passed a law prohibiting the park from breeding any more orcas, sometimes known as killer whales, in captivity. The law also banned the sale of orcas in the province. It doesn’t prohibit, however, the sale and purchase of other marine mammals.
After that Star’s investigation was published, Canadian Accredited Zoos and Aquariums inspected the park and found “…that at the time of the site inspection the animals in question in the Marineland collection, including the marine mammals were in overall good health and there was no evidence of animal abuse, that water quality in all the pools was very good, and it appeared that staffing levels were adequate.”
This isn’t the first time Bell Media management has attempted to suppress news content that conflicted with its business interests. Former Bell Media president Kevin Crull ordered staff not to put CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais on air, after the regulator ruled cable and satellite companies would have to unbundle their TV packages. The so-called “pick-and-pay” decision infuriated Crull to the point of calling the head of CTV’s news division to keep Blais off camera, according to a Globe and Mail report. Afternoon shows on CTV News Channel, which is owned by Bell, cancelled planned interviews with Blais. However, the 11pm newscast on the main network featured an interview with the CRTC chair, in defiance to the edict.
Crull later apologized. Soon he was out as Bell Media president, and in the release announcing Crull’s departure Bell CEO George Cope wrote the following:
“The independence of Bell Media’s news operations is of paramount importance to our company and to all Canadians.”
UPDATE (July 18, 3pm): Since the memo was sent in May of 2014, Marineland has been a topic of discussion on CKTB, the talk radio station. This includes an hour-long interview with the former trainer Demers, which aired in February of this year. It’s unclear whether this was done because management dropped its edict baring Marineland discussion, or if it was conducted in defiance of the memo. If we receive comment from any of the involved parties we will update accordingly.
***
@robert_hiltz
Decades after her alleged abuse by John Furlong, what Cathy Woodgate really wants is to heal. But to heal she first needs to be heard.
Wednesday evening the Assembly of First Nations heard her voice.
A resolution passed by the AFN seeks to pressure the federal government and the RCMP into launching a formal investigation into multiple abuse allegations made against the head of the Vancouver Olympics. Furlong has been accused of physically and verbally abusing dozens of students at the Immaculata School in Burns Lake, B.C. when he was a physical education teacher there in the late 60s.
The Assembly of First Nations is the country’s largest indigenous political advocacy group, and functions as the main lobby group for First Nations’ issues in the country.
“I’m a bit relieved,” says Woodgate of the resolution. “For a while I thought our voices would never be heard. There are many hurt victims that are suffering today that are never going to go through life the way they planned, including myself, because of this man, the way he put us down,” Woodgate said.
In 1969, she was in was in one of Furlong’s gym classes, where she says he physically abused her for not keeping up with the other students. “He hit me over and over. And I tried, and I cried and soon it just didn’t matter any more. And soon I learned to keep the tears from coming,” she said by phone. “Yet I was crying inside myself.”
Years later, Woodgate longed to tell him the damage he’d done to her self-esteem. “I thought if I could only confront him and say, ‘Look, you hit me because I was slow. And I had a reason to be slow.’ ” The reason she was slow, she would later find out, came with a diagnosis of muscular dystrophy.
While the passing of the AFN resolution may be a victory for Furlong’s accusers, it’s only the beginning. It directs the assembly “to urge the federal government and the RCMP to conduct, as expeditiously as possible, a thorough and impartial investigation into the allegations of abuse brought by Mr. Furlong’s former students,” according to a draft of the resolution provided to CANADALAND.
As part of the investigation, the resolution lays out that a meeting between the federal government, the AFN, and former students should take place, “to hear their concerns about the conduct of investigations and to discuss with them acceptable remedies.”
Before the vote, Lake Babine First Nation member and Burns Lake resident Emma Williams sent a letter to the AFN to set the stakes on what the resolution would mean for the community. “We feel like the invisible child seeing the violence that happened and hearing the hateful racial slurs and comments made to the children of Immaculata School that we have attended,” she wrote. “The scars that are left in our heart; we are still living this aftermath of the wounded people that turn to alcohol and drugs.
“Healing needs to be done. We are forgotten and invisible,” Williams said.
Meanwhile, Woodgate knows this isn’t the end of her battle, but she is optimistic. “I’m hoping it will lead somewhere, and I’m glad we’re finally being heard.”
Video credit: CBC/The National/Duncan McCue
It wasn’t that long ago that Furlong was able to claim a sort of victory, when he won a defamation lawsuit against him filed by journalist Laura Robinson. “What happened to me should not happen to anyone. I’m relieved this nightmare is over and that my family, friends — and others in difficulty — can see in a matter such as this it is possible to prevail and survive,” he said last year.
As the AFN resolution notes, the suit did not deal with the abuse allegations directly. It was concerned with statements Furlong made attacking Robinson and her work. The vast majority of the allegations against Furlong were never tested in court, and the sworn affidavits against Furlong signed by eight of his former students were explicitly barred from evidence during the defamation trial. None of his accusers gave testimony, or were present.
The AFN resolution says after inquiries from officials at the Lake Babine First Nation, the federal government’s only response was a letter from Carla Qualtrough, the minister of sport. “The government’s sole response…is that the Court decision is definitive of the matter,” the resolution reads.
Furlong’s profile is not what it once was, but he’s still quite active in public life. He was named this month to head up a special advisory committee as the city of Calgary considers an official bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics, according to a Calgary Herald report. The committee is put together by the Canadian Olympic Committee and will guide the city, should it decide to go ahead with a bid, though the process.
As well as his new Olympics duties, he gave a keynote address just last month at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport annual meeting. He’s the head of the advisory board of the government’s Own The Podium initiative, tasked with upping Canada’s medal count at the Olympics. Furlong is also the chairman of the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer club.
For Woodgate, the AFN resolution is the result of hard, persistent work. Because of her muscular dystrophy, she has difficulty typing letters, and getting to this point has required a lot of letter writing. She says, with the help of her community, she was able to describe how damaging her time at the school was.
“All our self-esteem is gone. He really put us down, he hurt us,” she says. “For me, that’s where my hurt started is with that school.”
But despite her lingering pain, Woodgate is ready for taking another step forward. “I’m hoping there will be healing after this. That’s what we need is healing, and healing has to start with us being heard.”
***
@robert_hiltz
Rosie DiManno, the Toronto Star’s acerbic and long-serving columnist, was charged with assault this week, according to Ontario Provincial Police.
DiManno was charged Tuesday near Bancroft, Ont., according to a police press release. In its statement the OPP didn’t offer any further details, saying DiManno would appear in court July 26. A call to the OPP detachment was not returned immediately. When they do, we’ll update our story.
DiManno declined an interview with CANADALAND, via email. “There are children involved and I won’t make the situation worse for them,” she said.
Wednesday morning, Teresa Villeneuve tweeted “Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno charged for assaulting a mother in front of her children.” Villeneuve had previously described DiManno in her tweets as “my children’s aunt.” But once news of the arrest spread Wednesday night, Villeneuve tweeted “My phone was stolen a couple weeks ago and I did not post the two previous posts,” both of which referred to DiManno’s arrest. Both posts soon disappeared.
Screenshot via Twitter
On Twitter, DiManno herself seemed unfazed. “oh I’m still a cool broad. And I will always defend kids,” she said to one user. “I’m fine, thanks. Children need defending. Can’t just allow abuse,” she said when asked if she was OK by Toronto radio personality Mike Bullard. “And the truth will out,” she replied to another user, when asked about her impending court date.
Screenshot via Twitter
The long-time sports and crime columnist isn’t one to shy away from controversy. Famously, DiManno told Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington last month “How fucking dare you? Come here and say that. I’ll rip your fucking throat out,” when Warmington questioned whether she cared about the suicide death of her colleague.
***
@robert_hiltz
Tanya Peatt just left her position at Music Canada where part of her job was to push the government for stricter copyright. Where is she now? She’s in government working on the very policy the music lobby wants changed. The hiring comes as the government prepares for a review of the country’s copyright system, set for next year.
