Media reports estimate that 4,000 migrant workers in Qatar will die in the lead-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup because of the substandard working and living conditions imposed by Qatar’s migrant worker program, otherwise known as the kafala system. In Canada, the rights to broadcast that event belong to Bell Media.
When police reporter John McFadden showed up to an RCMP press conference, he was told he was barred from the event because of unspecified “unprofessional and disrespectful conduct.” That conduct? Reporting on the RCMP.
Today at 12:30, CBC English boss Heather Conway will hold a conference call with reporters to present findings from the independent investigation of the CBC workplace, conducted by lawyer Janice Rubin. Here are some details you may not know, but should:
“I was given the choice to walk away quietly and to publicly suggest that this was my decision.”
That’s what Jian Ghomehsi said in his infamous Facebook post. CBC management offered to stand silently by while he hushed it all up- or so he claimed.
Today, CANADALAND finally had an opportunity to ask the two top executives at the CBC if this was true. Here’s how that went:
EDITOR: Journalist Mark Bourrie responds here to this CANADALAND post by David Akin. Bourrie will appear on CANADALAND on Monday, April 20 to discuss the issue.
Last Thursday, more than 2,000 and fewer than 76,000 people marched through the streets of Montreal to protest austerity—and that’s as accurate as news reports on the demonstration allow us to be.
The high-profile trial of Mike Duffy, one of the country’s best-known former journalists, has put a spotlight on two other political journalists.
Exhibits filed this week in the trial of suspended Senator Duffy – the former broadcast journalist at CTV and CBC — show that both Ezra Levant and Mark Bourrie accepted work contracts from Duffy the politician.
Desmond Cole and Andray Domise are the co-hosts of CANADALAND:COMMONS, our upcoming weekly politics show.
Both journalists are quick, opinionated and funny, and neither of them knows much about federal politics. This is a good thing.
CANADALAND:COMMONS will shatter the box of Canadian political coverage, discarding insider jargon and horse-race strategy talk for an open, inclusive, and curious exploration of the way our country works, and doesn’t.
The first episode will launch on Tuesday, May 5th.
But you can subscribe now right here, and hear a quick preview. Do it!
Last week, the CBC aired Volunteers Unleashed, which is great because it’s a well made and important documentary that should be seen. But gone are critical mentions of Me to We, and in one case the CBC appears to have misrepresented the opinion of one of its own interview subjects by adding a voiceover that contradicts what she said.
Since I left the Toronto Star last fall, a number of online news sites have asked me to return to media criticism.
I always say the same thing: “unh-unh, no thanks, no way, not me.” Not full-time, not even part-time. Truth is, I can’t even muster up the energy for a media blog, despite having been the country’s most prolific media writer just a decade ago.
There’s no going back. Media criticism in Canada ain’t what it used to be.
