When freelancer Jessica Lockhart’s unpaid invoices for Alberta Venture hit nearly $5,000, she hired a lawyer. The Toronto-based writer’s work started appearing in Alberta Venture and Alberta Oil, Venture Publishing’s flagship magazines, in late 2012. The editors were strong, she was given an opportunity to write features, and she could explore interesting topics. The catch? Her editor told her she shouldn’t expect payment for six months post publication.
“I wasn’t paid for any of this work within the agreed to ‘six months of publication,’” Lockhart said. Her invoice for the first batch of stories she wrote was finally paid out after a year — and only after she bluffed, threatening legal action.
She continued writing for the magazines. And again she wasn’t paid. “By February 2015, I was owed $4,900, with some of the invoices having been issued a year prior,” she said. “I sent dozens of nagging emails and left voicemails, with no response.”
Lockhart didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to damage her relationship with the editors, or her broader professional reputation by causing a fuss.
“You can’t risk complaining about anything, because it effectively means risking your career.”
Finally, she hired a labour lawyer who sent a letter to Venture, in February 2015, informing them of Lockhart’s intent to pursue legal action. This time, she heard nothing. In April, Lockhart and her lawyer sent another letter indicating the exact dates they were planning on submitting small claims paperwork. Only then was she paid. She’s not the only writer who was owed thousands for her work.
“Thousands” is the default when it comes to what freelancers are owed by Venture. Their flagship product, btw, is a business magazine.
— Michael Hingston (@mhingston) August 16, 2016
Venture is a publishing company based in Edmonton. It owns the flagship Alberta Venture, a business magazine; the later-acquired Alberta Oil; and the now-defunct Unlimited, a business mag aimed at twenty- and thirty-somethings. (Full disclosure: I have written for all of these magazines in the past and have been owed money.) They also publish magazines for corporate or association clients.
These magazines, and their stories and graphics and design, won awards. The editors were talented, and devoted to quality and innovative storytelling. And then, slowly, around 2008, the writers stopped getting paid.
In June 2008, at height of the oil boom, Venture bought Alberta Oil magazine. With Alberta being a boom-bust economy, oil went bust, advertising dried up, and Venture was weighed down by considerable payments for the magazine. Meanwhile, VP’s corporate clients were also hurting and letting their invoices slide. One former editor pointed out that if these clients were to pay their bills, some of which are in the six figures, Venture wouldn’t be in trouble at all.
James Wilt has been working as a freelance writer since March 2015. He lined up a few stories for Alberta Venture, little pieces at first. Like Lockhart, he enjoyed working with the editors and saw the clips as important for his nascent career. Soon he was writing feature stories. And he, like Lockhart and so many others, wasn’t being paid in any remotely timely manner.
“They produce nice-looking stuff, and if you’re a young writer… they end up fucking you over,” he said. “I make $15,000 to $18,000 a year. When I have five or six thousand dollars outstanding, that’s a third of my annual income.”
More than a few contacted for this article refused to go on record out of loyalty to Venture Publishing’s CEO and president Ruth Kelly. Kelly is trying to make her business flourish in the unwieldy economic reality of Alberta’s resource-based economy. Last fall, the Edmonton Journal named her one of the “Power 30” in Alberta’s new, NDP-inflected political landscape. She’s been consistently lauded for her work: in 2013, Alberta Women Entrepreneurs awarded Kelly the “Celebration of Achievement” award.
But writers complained about being paid 6–8 months post publication after regular emails and phone calls. Some resorted to threatening small claims court. One person mentioned a sit-in someone staged. Almost all preferred not to go on record, professing loyalty to the magazines, editors, and the opportunity to write complex and nuanced stories about their home province.
Kelly herself is blunt. “We have always paid our writers,” she said. “The work they do is worthy of compensation. Is there a longer lag time [to payment] than any of us would like? Absolutely. But we have never not paid a freelancer in 19 years.”
She points out she runs an independent media outlet, one devoted to perspectives oftentimes unsung in mainstream media — and that the larger media companies hardly behave scrupulously towards freelancers.
“An independent company like ours is not eligible for the kind of support that a Roger’s or a Transcon or a St. John’s media is eligible for,” Kelly said, referring to the government subsidies those companies get.
“The current economic conditions are one thing that [affects] advertising payments. … Everyone is struggling. I talk to businesses every day. And I haven’t talked to anyone who isn’t struggling. I hear of people closing doors, laying people off, or looking for new markets because cash flow has been reduced to nothing. And those are our clients. Then layer on the changing media landscape and it’s a particularly fraught time.” She has confidence that, thanks to the diversity of VP’s products, they’ll survive.
One writer who has frequently written for Venture Publishing said, “Local publishing in Alberta is so small that I think [Venture Publishing] is quite a pillar. It might be a cracked pillar, a faulty pillar, but they’re such an important part. If you remove them from the equation, it could be disastrous for the livelihood of freelancers.
“That said, not being paid for 6-15 months post publication is pretty dire for freelancers too.”
***
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
UPDATE: Michael Cooke, the Toronto Star editor-in-chief, issues a memo to staff saying the newsroom will be reorganized and maintains the tablet edition “succeeded” in its goal of increasing reader engagement. He also said the company’s digital revenues are growing.
Here’s how the newsroom with change. (Full memo below)
The old city and national departments have already morphed into what they are today led by Wendy Metcalfe (Beats/Bureaus/Columns). We will move shortly to separate areas for Breaking News/Digital and for Projects/Features, and, after discussions, redeploy staff. As our numbers are reduced, we will focus even more on our key content areas: Toronto news, breaking news, investigations, co-pro projects, and accountability journalism.
For now, departments such as Business, Sports, Photo, Entertainment, Life, Special Sections will remain outside these three groups.
***
Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, laid off 52 people from their newsroom and IT departments today. According to a memo sent by current publisher David Holland, the layoffs include newsroom reporters and “temporary staff.” This comes after the Star already laid off 15 staff in January and shut down its printing plant.
The Toronto Star laid off 60 people today & I’m one of them. (:tada: journalism :tada:) Any tips on places hiring front-end/UX appreciated!
— Lee Richardson (@leerichardson) August 9, 2016
As far as I know re: Toronto Star layoffs: 60 people from Torstar, including Metro. I’m guessing a lot from the Startouch team. #cdnmedia
— Lee Richardson (@leerichardson) August 9, 2016
The memo says, “These changes are another important step in the Star’s strategic evolution along a path towards the multi-platform news media organization of the future,” and takes an optimistic tone about the Star’s “digital focus.”
An employee at the Toronto Star, who doesn’t know whether he has been laid off or not, says there’s a quiet atmosphere in the newsroom right now. “I am—I don’t think anybody is really sure who is and isn’t gone. There was a lot of red faces and handshaking.”
“The memo says that they are still going forward with Star Touch and that’s bullshit,” he said. “Everyone knows they aren’t making a profit off it. This is openly discussed. It feels like a slap in the face that they would sell this as something necessary rather than stubborn. The company does not want to find a way to monetize itself because it’s too rooted in the idea of doing God’s work constantly.”
Memo just sent to staff. 22 employees (19 editorial), 26 temp, mostly in tablet. Not sure about rest of the reported 60. Terrible news.
— Rosemary Westwood (@rosiewestwood) August 9, 2016
CANADALAND wasn’t able to reach Torstar media relations for comment. We will update the story if we hear back.
This is the full memo sent to staff announcing the layoffs from publisher David Holland:
August 9, 2016
To All Star Media Group Staff
Star Media Group is facing an unprecedented pace of change as the news industry evolves and pressures on print advertising revenue continue. In the face of this change, we are committed to continuing to adapt our operations, while at the same time making the necessary investments to position ourselves as a multi-platform and increasingly digitally-focused organization.
In this context, we have continued to undertake a range of cost-reduction initiatives in 2016, including outsourcing of printing as well as staff reductions in Circulation, IT and other areas. We are today announcing further staff reductions affecting 22 regular employees, including 19 in the Toronto Star newsroom. In addition, 26 temporary staff will depart over the next couple of months, mostly in the Star’s tablet operations.
These changes are another important step in the Star’s strategic evolution along a path towards the multi-platform news media organization of the future. Along with these staff reductions, the Star newsroom is also evolving its structure to place greater emphasis on key content areas such as breaking news, investigations and special projects.
As we move forward with these changes, I want to re-affirm our continued commitment to Star Touch as an integral part of the Star’s multi-platform future. While our current audience size is not yet what we had initially anticipated, we are pleased that Star Touch has developed a highly engaged and loyal audience of committed readers. Continuing to grow from this core audience base is a key priority. As we move past the initial launch year for Star Touch, we are embarking on the next phase of refinements to the offering and the related internal resources that publish Star Touch each day. These product refinements will further enhance the reading experience and ensure that we continue to build on Star Touch as an innovative and engaging advertising vehicle for our valued clients.
We take this opportunity to thank those affected by these staffing changes for their contributions. While change is never easy, it is essential that we continue to adapt, including evolving the organization and investing in those areas critical to our future.
David Holland
Acting Publisher, Toronto Star
Acting President, Star Media Group
This is the full memo sent by editor-in-chief Michael Cooke:
By now you will have read David Holland’s email.
This is a very difficult day for our newsroom.
Star Touch is evolving, based on our experiences and informed by the research in the first year of publication. Sadly, more than 26 of our colleagues hired as temporary employees to launch Touch will see their temporary employment end.
Also, declining print advertising means as many as 19 permanent staff hired in the traditional newsroom are being laid off.
On every level – professional and human – the loss of these people hurts.
These are hard decisions.
Hardest, of course, on those whose jobs are being eliminated, and it is those people who are first in our thoughts.
They have done great work for Touch and for the Star more broadly, and what is happening today is not their fault. They have done everything we have asked – making Touch in particular a splendid new platform for Star journalism.
I have today met with as many of these journalists as possible to give them this bad news. And I know you join me in saluting them.
Consistent with the union collective agreement, staff layoffs are based primarily on seniority. There are basically two groups of people affected. Some employees working on term-limit employment (in tablet, digital and video) will be leaving earlier than planned. Some phasing in of this is required and these individuals will be notified directly about departure dates.
There is also a group of permanent employees being issued layoff notices. Most of these are Journalists and Team Editors hired over the past 18 months. For this group, a 90-day notice period is required.
A layoff notice triggers a right for others with greater seniority in the same classification to voluntarily resign and receive severance, potentially saving the job of someone named for layoff. This may give longer-term employees the opportunity to consider whether the time is right for them to retire or resign, based on their personal considerations and the direction of the newsroom and the business.
We have contacted union leaders with the intent of starting such discussions quickly, to provide greater certainty to all newsroom staff.
What do I mean by the direction of the business? You all read the industry news that I read, and just a couple of weeks ago Torstar announced its latest financial results. There is continuing pressure on print advertising revenue … across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Our print audience remains relatively stable and loyal, but advertisers continue to put more and more of their money into digital … mostly Facebook and Google.
What do I mean by direction of the newsroom? We have to keep rethinking everything we do and how we do it. We have to, and will, keep trying new things. Everyone here agrees with that.
We launched Touch in September of last year with the aim of building a new digital platform. Following on the success of LaPresse+, from which we borrowed heavily, we sought to offer something that is neither web nor newspaper, rich in interactive content that encourages deep reader engagement.
We succeeded.
After a year of running the operation we have a better sense of the resources and revenues required to run Touch and to do so in a financially viable way. Unfortunately, this means we have to reduce the costs. The Star remains committed to Touch.
Better news: our digital revenues are growing. Our new mobile site recently doubled its audience, and advertisers are coming to our web, tablet and mobile platforms.
While the old warhorse of print continues to provide the largest portion of our revenue (this is true of every newspaper I know), digital is clearly our future, and our newsroom will continue to reshape and reorganize around that future.
The old city and national departments have already morphed into what they are today led by Wendy Metcalfe (Beats/Bureaus/Columns). We will move shortly to separate areas for Breaking News/Digital and for Projects/Features, and, after discussions, redeploy staff. As our numbers are reduced, we will focus even more on our key content areas: Toronto news, breaking news, investigations, co-pro projects, and accountability journalism.
For now, departments such as Business, Sports, Photo, Entertainment, Life, Special Sections will remain outside these three groups.
Everyone should understand that most, if not all, core newsroom jobs will be affected by these changes. Everyone will be invited to participate in the re-shaping.
Where does this leave us? Well, a newspaper-watcher commenting on the hollowing-out of many newsrooms wrote recently about “churnalism” and the procurement of “oven-ready copy”…
“… space in newspapers can be filled. The end result … lacks any real value. It is not journalism. It is pointless material without any public benefit.”
We’re not going there. We will keep to the Star’s conviction and direction.
Several disciplines link together to produce Star journalism, but our reporters are the tip of the spear.
The Star has had a long and noble presence in Toronto. It has always had a large staff of reporters whose talent matched the paper’s ambition — that staff brought honour and success to our paper, and continues to do so.
Yes, gaps have appeared from those dozens of reporters who took the various buyouts. We’re a smaller team now.
But yes, we still have big journalistic ambition … and we still have plenty of talent to fulfil that.
Torstar Chair John Honderich said during deliberations on these latest changes: “Nothing can be the way it was. Nothing, that is, but our firm and forever commitment to great journalism and the Atkinson principles.”
Thank you for the work and the belief that has brought us to where we are today and that will keep Star journalism alive and vibrant. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of journalists were in this newsroom before us, building and shaping the Star’s great journalism. If they could see you today, they’d be proud.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said the Toronto Star laid off 60 people. That was an early estimate. The official number of laid off employees is 52.
***
Send tips to: jane@canadalandshow.com
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.
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@robert_hiltz
Soon, reporters and the pubic may be able to request police records in Saskatchewan, according to proposed changes [PDF] to the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) legislation. Right now Saskatchewan police are not subject to FOIP, which is what led to reporters collecting data on racial profiling themselves instead of relying on police records.
The proposed change comes less than a year after a collaborative investigation by Maclean’s associate editor Nancy Macdonald and a team of reporters and data journalists at Discourse Media, which brought attention to a lack of racial data about policing. While conducting the months-long investigation, which showed massive overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons and provided evidence of racial profiling of Indigenous people by police, the Saskatchewan police refused to release racial data because they weren’t subject to FOIP legislation.
Because of the lack of publicly available data, Discourse Media had to conduct a survey to determine whether anecdotal reports of racial profiling were part of a systemic problem. The survey of over 850 students in Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg found that Indigenous students are more likely to be stopped by police than non-Indigenous students, and staying away from illegal activity does not shield them from unwanted police attention.
Ron Kruzeniski, Saskatchewan’s information and privacy commissioner, proposed the changes to the government last year. He says the legislation has not been updated in over 20 years. But what changes the legislation will bring and what specifically will be tracked is not clear. Elizabeth Popowich, manager of public information and strategic communication for the Regina Police Service, says it’s not yet laid out, but will likely become more clear in the coming year.
“It may take some information more accessible to the public,” she says, adding that while the legislation has yet to become official, police already operate with transparency in mind.
“Even though we weren’t covered under FOIP legislation before, we’ve been aware of the rules and tried to pattern our public information after what’s already there,” says Popowich.
In a press conference on June 13, Gordon Wyant, Saskatchewan’s minister of justice, told a scrum of reporters, “It was time that it happened.” When asked if police departments were pushing back against the change, Wyant said: “Most of them realized that there was going to come a point in time where they were going to be caught by our legislation. So they had been expecting it.”
When asked whether new legislation could highlight racial profiling within the police force that previously went unsubstantiated, Popowich replied that police follow strict policy at all times. “We get a phone call and go to the incident. We don’t ask at the time of the call what a person’s ethnicity is.”
Popowich pointed away from the force: “We all, as a society, need to look at not just the justice system, but at the way our society as a whole deals with poverty and addictions and homelessness and mental health and education and employment — things that sooner or later manifest as crime.”
Andre Bear, a 21-year-old from Saskatoon, was featured in Macdonald’s Maclean’s story when his 18-year-old friend filmed the pair being stopped by police on their way home from baseball practice. When Bear asked the officer the reason they were stopped, he was told, “Shut up, passenger.”
“There’s so many times when I get racially profiled, and it’s terrifying to know that if I say the wrong thing to this white cop he can kill me, and there’s nothing that I or anyone else could ever do about it,” says Bear, who is stopped by police once every few months.
Bear, who is Saskatchewan’s regional representative for First Nations youth, says subjecting police to FOIP policy is a good thing. But he doesn’t want Indigenous people to correlate it with justice.
“I would like people to really instil in themselves … not to let down their guard. Because even though these small incremental changes within legislation are baby steps forward, I wouldn’t want people to get too comfortable, because police can still continue abusing their power on oppressed peoples,” says Bear.
“We can never give up, and we can’t give up on these officers because they’re people too. They’re just going with the same behaviours that society is perpetuating. We need a paradigm shift,” he says.
“Our country has been racist for so long.”
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The full findings, based on surveys conducted by Discourse Media with the support of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, were published as part of Nancy Macdonald’s investigation into the justice system in Maclean’s in December.
PHOTO: John McFadden walks out of the Yellowknife courtroom with the Rheostatic’s Dave Bidini, left, and local media mentor George Lessard in tow. McFadden is being tried for allegedly obstructing a police officer.
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John McFadden, a reporter with Northern News Services, was arrested while taking photos of police searching a van in downtown Yellowknife in the early hours of July 5, 2015. His trial began on June 20 after being postponed twice.
This is not McFadden’s first trouble with the RCMP. Last year,CANADALAND reported he had been barred from a press conference and denied media access to officers because of what the RCMP called “unprofessional and disrespectful conduct” and an email that had “a disrespectful tone.” McFadden covered the Yellowknife courts and crime beat for his paper, but was taken off it to prevent a conflict of interest in the wake of the charges.
Last Wednesday, the court heard testimonies from three officers who were present the night of McFadden’s arrest. During the incident, four on-duty police were searching a vehicle with stolen licence plates. The trial adjourned until Sept. 1, which is when McFadden is set to testify.
CANADALAND reached out to McFadden. He declined to comment on the testimony of the officers. But, he told CANADALAND the worst thing about his case is that it has prevented him from covering his beat.
“I can’t cover the courts because I’m before the courts and that’s frustrating,” he said.
Regardless of the outcome of the trial he said hopes his case leads to a less adversarial relationship between RCMP and the media in Yellowknife.
In his testimony, Const. Christopher Hipolito, who was the first to notice McFadden, said he saw him come from the direction of a local bar toward the scene. Hipolito told the court McFadden ended up between six to ten feet of the van before the officer told him to step back. At that point, Hipolito said McFadden became aggravated and told the officer he could stand wherever he wanted before announcing he was going to get his camera.
McFadden returned with his camera and proceeded to take photos of the police search. Const. Christopher Watson said McFadden was upset and yelling, saying he could take pictures if he wanted to, to which Watson responded “absolutely you can take pictures but don’t interfere with our investigation.”
All three officers told the court they believed McFadden was intoxicated, although they offered differing accounts of the extent of his intoxication. Two of the officers said McFadden was swearing throughout their interactions.
According to the officer’s testimony, McFadden took photos and their search attracted a crowd of 15 to 20 people, some of whom were smoking outside a bar adjacent to the van. Watson said McFadden was “getting the crowd jacked up and hostile toward police.” Several of them looked angry and began “chirping” the police in support of McFadden, Hipolito testified.
Photographs taken by McFadden over the course of three minutes and 25 seconds, which were entered as evidence, showed a few people in the vicinity of the van. The officers said some of the crowd was around the corner and not visible in the photos.
Watson claimed he was concerned about the officers’ safety as a result of McFadden’s presence in the “bubble we were working in,” leading the constable to conclude the reporter was obstructing the investigation.
When defence lawyer Peter Harte asked Watson if RCMP could have just ignored McFadden during cross examination, the officer responded by saying “It’s a huge officer safety liability to have an angry man with a camera in the area where you’re trying to work.”
Harte also asked Watson why the officers didn’t use police tape to mark off the scene.
At one point, Watson said he had to stop what he was doing to get McFadden to move out of the middle of the road, where he was taking photographs. After complying with the officer’s request, Watson said McFadden calmed down briefly.
But as Watson continued to search the front of the van, he said he saw McFadden’s camera enter through the side cargo doors, which had been opened by police. It was at this point that Const. Kevin Sales grabbed McFadden and arrested him for obstructing a police officer.
“I had to stop my search to remove him from the opening of the van,” said Sales. When explaining why he placed McFadden under arrest, Sales said McFadden was close enough to the vehicle that he could have tampered with the scene.
After being arrested, McFadden was brought back to cells where he was held for several hours. While he was in custody, Sales went through McFadden’s photos and downloaded the final shot which he said showed that the camera was inside the vehicle.
During their testimonies, the three officers said they knew who McFadden was but that they didn’t immediately recognize him when he showed up.
Watson and Hipolito said they ended up figuring out the reporter that night was McFadden before he was arrested.
Sales told the court he didn’t realize the man he was arresting was McFadden until the reporter told him he wanted to speak to Elenore Sturko, the communications liaison for the RCMP at the time, after he had been handcuffed.
“It was at that point I realized he was media,” said Sales.
McFadden’s lawyer hasn’t completed his cross-examination of Sales, who was the last to testify. It is anticipated that McFadden will testify in his own defence when the trial resumes on Sept. 1.
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Disclosure: Cody Punter is a former employee of NNSL and is currently doing contract work for them.
Photo by Cody Punter.
CORRECTION: The previous version of this story said, “Several of them looked angry and began “chirping” the police in support of McFadden, Watson testified.” It was Hipolito who used the word “chirping.” Sorry about that, everyone.
We are officially launching The Imposter, an arts & culture podcast hosted by Aliya Pabani, on July 13. Subscribe to The Imposter on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Episode 0 is online now.
For those in Toronto, we’re going to be celebrating with a live podcast performance at Gladstone Hotel on August 3. Tickets here.
This one-time event will include live music, feature interviews, comedy, storytelling, and other goodies.
This event is sponsored by FreshBooks.
Look forward to comedic storytelling by Jackie Pirico, member of the acclaimed Laugh Sabbath collective, live music from cosmic soul sisters bizZarh, and an audio documentary performance by Geoff Siskind about the 1980s period of “tax shelter cinema” that created such films as Porky’s, Prom Night, and Meatballs.
More guests TBA!
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For more info, email Katie at katie@canadalandshow.com
Photo by Yuula Benivolski.
