The Canadian Press

Philip Crawley honoured with CJF Lifetime Achievement Award

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 20, 2024

CJF Board Chair Kathy English, who chaired the Lifetime Achievement Award jury, enumerates the many reasons Crawley was chosen: "His inspiring leadership, steadfast stewardship and outstanding successes guided Canada's national newspaper -- and our nation's news wire service -- through one of the most turbulent eras in global media. His commitment to journalistic excellence and business success in Canada is simply unrivaled."

Key Points: 
  • TORONTO , Feb. 20, 2024 /CNW/ - The Canadian Journalism Foundation's (CJF) Lifetime Achievement Award this year goes to Phillip Crawley in recognition of his inspiring leadership at the helm of one of Canada's flagship newspapers and for his commitment to journalistic excellence and business success in Canada.
  • CJF Board Chair Kathy English, who chaired the Lifetime Achievement Award jury, enumerates the many reasons Crawley was chosen: "His inspiring leadership, steadfast stewardship and outstanding successes guided Canada's national newspaper -- and our nation's news wire service -- through one of the most turbulent eras in global media.
  • The CJF Lifetime Achievement Award this year goes to Phillip Crawley.
  • Crawley will be honoured at the CJF Awards ceremony on June 12 at the Royal York Hotel, Toronto.

Internationally-Acclaimed Journalists Siyabulela Mandela, Nohza Ben Mohamed Albouchi, Mustapha Dumbuya, Shogofa Danish and Beatrice Senadju Announced As Keynote Speakers For The 2023 Journalists For Human Rights Gala Event

Retrieved on: 
Monday, October 30, 2023

"We are extremely grateful to all our donors, patrons, and partners for supporting us at this year's gala.

Key Points: 
  • "We are extremely grateful to all our donors, patrons, and partners for supporting us at this year's gala.
  • Hosted by Devo Brown, a host and personality that can be seen on Breakfast Television, Night for Rights 2023 will feature JHR's Tunisia Nohza Ben Mohamed Albouchi as one of the keynote speakers.
  • Afghan Journalist, Shogofa Danish worked in media for almost eight years, before coming to Canada through JHR's Meta Fellow program.
  • As another keynote, Shogofa will share the story of this move and its impact on her life and career.

We fact-checked residential school denialists and debunked their 'mass grave hoax' theory

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Recently a politician from a village in Prince Edward Island displayed an offensive sign on his property in which he proclaimed there is a “mass grave hoax” regarding the former Indian Residential Schools in Canada.

Key Points: 
  • Recently a politician from a village in Prince Edward Island displayed an offensive sign on his property in which he proclaimed there is a “mass grave hoax” regarding the former Indian Residential Schools in Canada.
  • Although many have called for him to resign, he is just one of many people who subscribe to this false theory.
  • A hoax is an act intended to trick people into believing something that isn’t true.

There is no media conspiracy

    • As two settler academic researchers, we decided to investigate the claims of a media conspiracy and fact-check them against evidence.
    • To find out, we analyzed 386 news articles across five Canadian media outlets (CBC, National Post, the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and The Canadian Press) released between May 27 and Oct. 15, 2021.

‘Preliminary findings’ of ‘unmarked burials’

    • A National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Memorial Register has to date confirmed the deaths of more than 4,000 Indigenous children associated with residential schools.
    • But the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) noted its register of missing children was incomplete, partly due to a large volume of yet-to-be-examined and destroyed records.

Countering harmful misinformation

    • In the two years since, a number of commentators, priests and politicians, including the P.E.I councillor with his sign, have downplayed the harms of residential schooling — or questioned the validity, gravity and significance of the the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s announcement.
    • We hope that our research can contribute to this work and that our report helps to debunk the “mass grave hoax” narrative specifically.

Cherry-picked ‘evidence’

    • Myths, however, are not pure fiction; they often contain a kernel of truth that is exaggerated or misrepresented.
    • This selective representation of evidence is commonly referred to as cherry-picking, and it’s easy to see how those spreading the “mass grave hoax” narrative rely on cherry-picked evidence.
    • By September, denialists were misrepresenting the extent of media errors to push the conspiratorial “mass grave hoax” narrative online.
    • And we hope our report sparks a national conversation about how important language is when covering this issue.

Challenging Residential School denialism

    • According to Daniel Heath Justice and Sean Carleton (one of the authors of this story), residential school denialism is not the denial of the residential school system’s existence.
    • Read more:
      Truth before reconciliation: 8 ways to identify and confront Residential School denialism

      Residential school denialism, like climate change denialism or science denialism, cherry-picks evidence to fit a conspiratorial counter-narrative.

Truth before reconciliation

    • This is the strategy of disempowering and discrediting residential school denialism advocated by former TRC Chair Murray Sinclair.
    • We hope others will join us in this type of research to help Canadians learn how to identify and confront residential school denialism and support meaningful reconciliation.
    • As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said in its final report, without truth there can be no genuine reconciliation.

Terrorist vs. militant: The complicated language of reporting atrocities in Israel-Hamas war

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 17, 2023

So why, even after the mass killings and kidnappings in Israel on Oct. 7, do major news organizations resist multiplying calls to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization?

Key Points: 
  • So why, even after the mass killings and kidnappings in Israel on Oct. 7, do major news organizations resist multiplying calls to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization?
  • Wire services, public broadcasters and national news brands with broad readerships reach more diligently for neutral terms.
  • To those who mourn or rage in violent times, neutral language may seem performative at best — or even cruel.
  • On both sides of the Gaza-Israel Iron Wall, wells of semantic offence rise from aquifers of generational trauma and justified fear.

The enduring offence of neutrality

    • Today’s 24/7 feed of alerts and updates includes a stew of alleged facts and newsy opinions.
    • Some say this is OK because truth is whatever people come to believe after exposure to a variety of reports.
    • According to this view, sometimes dubbed “standpoint epistemology,” truth-seekers should defer to the realities born, especially, of suffering and prejudice.

The reporter’s role as listener

    • Professional roles shape collective standards and influence, however imperfectly, practice.
    • But for those in conciliatory roles, such as mediators and therapists, a key demand is non-judgmental listening.
    • “This didn’t happen (because) Palestinians are just some terrible other form of human beings,” he said.
    • For reporters to honour their listening role demands a disciplined withholding of judgment that requires, in turn, a restrained lexicon.

Elevating facts as an act of faith

    • Facts matter locally, nationally, and internationally (see war, above).
    • For their part, the most responsible journalists know that their choices of stories, sources and words sometimes deepen innocent people’s wounds.
    • Minimizing harm stands alongside truth-telling amongst journalists’ frequently conflicting principles but making facts plain could carry more weight than that borne by professional diligence.
    • If so, the enduring draw of unembellished facts could express a collective leap of faith — a gut belief that “reporting things as they are” will ultimately do less harm than good.

CAJ: RCMP ignores legal precedent, Charter rights, in continued campaign to persecute Canadian journalist

Retrieved on: 
Monday, October 16, 2023

It's a masterclass in ignoring and denying the constitutional and legal protections afforded to journalists in Canada to do their jobs without interference."

Key Points: 
  • It's a masterclass in ignoring and denying the constitutional and legal protections afforded to journalists in Canada to do their jobs without interference."
  • In their filing , the RCMP assert that Bracken, on assignment as a journalist, was not exempt in law from obeying the terms of the injunction order.
  • As part of her lawsuit, Bracken is seeking civil damages, arguing the RCMP violated her liberty rights under Sections 7 and 9 of the Charter.
  • The Canadian Association of Journalists is the country's largest professional organization that serves to advance the interests of journalists from coast to coast to coast.

Toronto and York Region Labour Day Parade 2023: Many Firsts for CMG Members at TVO

Retrieved on: 
Monday, September 4, 2023

TORONTO, Sept. 4, 2023 /CNW/ - For the last 151 years, the Toronto and York Region Labour Day Parade has been an opportunity for all workers including union members to collectively celebrate our victories and struggles.

Key Points: 
  • TORONTO, Sept. 4, 2023 /CNW/ - For the last 151 years, the Toronto and York Region Labour Day Parade has been an opportunity for all workers including union members to collectively celebrate our victories and struggles.
  • This is especially true for the CMG members working at TVO who for the first time in the organization's 53-year history are on strike.
  • Members have received below-inflation wage increases for the past 10 years, CMG said in a previous news release, including three years of wage freezes.
  • In another first, the Canadian Media Guild's members will be leading this year's parade in a show of solidarity for the members on strike at TVO from the house of labour.

No news is bad news for Canada: CAJ urges Meta, Google, government, and news organizations to uphold the public's right to know

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Within a week, the California-based social media company reversed course and began to negotiate with news organizations.

Key Points: 
  • Within a week, the California-based social media company reversed course and began to negotiate with news organizations.
  • "For more than a decade, journalism has been engaged in a complicated and unbalanced relationship with tech platforms," Jolly said.
  • "Platforms will, no doubt undertake complex strategies to seek exemptions, particularly as it relates to small, start-up, BIPOC-led news organizations.
  • Foreign-owned tech companies, however, cannot be allowed to dictate winners and losers when it comes to the right to know of Canadians.

Bill C-18: Google and Meta spark crucial test for Canadian journalism

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Three events have recently marked a powerful inflection point in Canadian journalism.

Key Points: 
  • Three events have recently marked a powerful inflection point in Canadian journalism.
  • First, Google and Meta announced they will no longer share Canadian news links on their platforms in response to the new Online News Act, Bill C-18, designed to make them pay for their use of Canadian journalism.

What’s at stake?

    • At stake is the nature of the country’s communications ecosystem, affecting how Canadians get news and information that matters to them.
    • As former journalists, researchers and co-founders of The Conversation Canada, a national not-for-profit news organization dedicated to sharing insights from academics, we support the emergence of the best possible journalism ecosystem given the conditions.

The role of Google and Meta

    • For now, Canadians won’t notice anything different as Google says the changes will take place when the law comes into effect over the coming months.
    • Similarly, Meta plans to phase out news by the end of the year.
    • Google also announced that it would close down its Google News Showcase program, launched in 2021.

Act expected to take six months to be in place

    • These moves by Google and Meta were precipitated by the Online News Act, which became law on June 22.
    • It is likely to take six months to come into force as the Department of Canadian Heritage works out the details on how to enforce it.

How we got here

    • The main focus of Google’s activities has involved funding individual organizations through direct payment deals for content on Showcase.
    • The company has also provided funding for digital innovation and training, oriented within their own proprietary systems, and boot camps for startup entrepreneurs.
    • For example, in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google provided $1.5 million to 230 Canadian newsrooms.

Why now?

    • This is separate to its support of the CBC, the country’s public broadcaster.
    • And this is where the proposed moves by media giants Postmedia, Nordstar (publisher of the Toronto Star) and Bell come in.
    • The larger questions for Canadians are about the nature, amount and quality of journalism and who controls its communications infrastructures.

Impact of Postmedia-Nordstar merger

    • Examples such as the proposed merger of Postmedia and Nordstar illustrate one of the trade-offs under consideration about the amount of journalism content and who is doing it, in addition to journalist economic conditions.
    • The last time the two companies made a deal to swap papers in 2017 resulted in 291 job losses and continuing centralization of content.
    • How we understand what is happening now and how we got here is necessary to make sound policy decisions moving forward.

CJF and CP Name Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award Winner

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 6, 2023

TORONTO, April 6, 2023 /CNW/ - Spencer Colby, an Ottawa-based photojournalist and videographer, is the recipient of the 2023 Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award , presented by The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) and The Canadian Press (CP).

Key Points: 
  • TORONTO, April 6, 2023 /CNW/ - Spencer Colby, an Ottawa-based photojournalist and videographer, is the recipient of the 2023 Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award , presented by The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) and The Canadian Press (CP).
  • The Tom Hanson Award will allow Colby to sharpen his skills, receive mentorship and gain national exposure.
  • "This award will allow me to further hone my storytelling skills at the CP.
  • Catherine Hanson, spouse of the late Tom Hanson;
    Megan Leach, director, planning and packaging, CP News Photos and Visual Content, The Canadian Press;
    Joe O'Connal, assistant editor, CP News Photos and Visual Content, The Canadian Press;
    Hannah Yoon, photojournalist and 2014 Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award winner;
    Marta Iwanek, photojournalist and 2015 Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award winner; and
    Scott White, editor of The Conversation Canada and an honorary governor of The Canadian Journalism Foundation.

Windsor Star layoffs and closure threatens local news coverage

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 31, 2023

"We urge Postmedia to reconsider and look at ways to keep these jobs here in Windsor," he said.

Key Points: 
  • "We urge Postmedia to reconsider and look at ways to keep these jobs here in Windsor," he said.
  • Official notice of the Windsor plant closure was received Jan. 27.
  • The Windsor Star has served the community uninterrupted going back to its predecessors, The Windsor Record, in 1888.
  • "Even though the Windsor Star will continue to publish online, we will no longer print a newspaper in Windsor – after 135 years," said Colin Brian, Local 517-G President.