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
An email sent by Toronto Star reporter Raveena Aulakh to her estranged romantic partner Jon Filson, then a senior Star editor, suggests that workplace issues were a major concern for her in the weeks leading up to her suicide.
On May 2, Aulakh sent senior editor Jon Filson an email in which she suggested that, years prior, he sabotaged the hiring of an intern he had a sexual relationship with. In 2007, the young woman was interviewed for a permanent position at the paper.
This is what Raveena Aulakh wrote to Filson about her:
“For all this time, I protected you. I never told anyone about us. I never told anyone that you had also been sleeping with [REDACTED] when she was an intern and she told people about it. You then nudged Lynn McAuley into not hiring [REDACTED]. Remember how you freaked out when you found last fall that Michael Cooke wanted to hire her?”
The email also mentions that Aulakh was willing to take her claims to Paul Woods, a senior editor at the Star. Aulakh wrote that because Filson has allegedly sabotaged another woman, she had a reason to be afraid: “Yes, I don’t feel safe at work. Especially knowing how you treated [the former intern].”
Speaking with the Financial Post, the former intern said she didn’t tell management about the affair, but she felt “bullied and trapped” by Filson. Here’s what the Post reported:
“I was a 22-year-old employed through the Star’s internship program, and (Filson) had direct oversight over me and my work. I broke off the relationship while I was still an intern,” she said in an emailed statement.
The woman left the Star when her contract expired in 2007. She never informed management of the alleged affair.
“I felt bullied and trapped in a bad situation and, looking back, lacked the personal experience and professional resources to know how to handle it at the time,” she said.
CANADALAND has reached out to Jon Filson as well as his lawyer and brother Ryan Filson in an attempt to get comment. We have not heard back. Michael Cooke and Lynn McAuley did not respond to detailed requests for comment. Should we hear back from anyone, this story will be updated.
***
editor@canadalandshow.com
Last week, Postmedia’s Vancouver Sun published an editorial called, “May must renounce anti-Israel resolutions.” It was then promptly removed, after a group called Independent Jewish Voices Canada sent Postmedia a legal letter claiming the editorial defamed IJV, according to their blog post.
UPDATE: Postmedia posted an apology and retraction to Sun website for running the editorial last week. The apology also appears in the Ottawa Citizen, and the Calgary Herald, where it ran online. The full text of the apology can be found below.
Here is the removed editorial, in full:
Canada’s Green Party can thank Elizabeth May for slowing its descent into a sinkhole of irrelevance and disrepute. By choosing to remain as leader, May, who represents the B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands and is the party’s only elected member of Parliament, provides a patina of purpose over a caucus that has lost its way.
Two resolutions supported by a majority of Green delegates at the party’s biennial convention this month singled out the only liberal democracy in the Middle East — and a century-old Jewish organization — for abuse and opprobrium. Members passed a resolution supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that seeks to demonize and delegitimize the State of Israel in the hope that its activities will bring about, not peace, but the country’s demise.
Another resolution calls on the Canada Revenue Agency to revoke the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund, an organization founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Palestine, which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire from 1517 to 1917 and under the British Mandate from 1918 to 1948. The JNF invests in research in forestry, watershed management, carbon sequestration, alternative energy sources, animal and plant reintroduction and arid land management problems. Of all organizations for the Green Party to attack, this seems an odd choice.
Although May says she opposed the BDS resolution, she is listed as one of 29 co-sponsors of the JNF resolution. She said the resolution was brought forward by Corey Levine, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, an anti-Israel group that uses the fig leaf of Jewishness to lend support to Iran, deny the Holocaust, participate in anti-Semitic Al-Quds protests, encourage terrorism against Israelis and promulgate lies about Israel’s history, society and policies.
That a majority of Greens have bought into IJV’s false narrative is disturbing but perhaps not surprising. May welcomed anti-Israel activists Paul Manly and Dimitri Lascaris into her shadow cabinet knowing both support the BDS movement.
And May herself voted against a parliamentary motion in February that condemned the BDS movement, citing free speech concerns. It passed with a 229 to 51 vote.
It seems clear that the Green Party has drawn marginalized groups expounding extreme anti-Israel and anti-Jewish views. Notwithstanding her own ambiguous position, May must insist that such views have no place in Green Party policy. Otherwise, she risks leading a fringe party into oblivion.
The apology:
A Vancouver Sun editorial published on Aug. 25 titled “Green Party Lost Its Way” made certain statements about Independent Jewish Voices and, by association, Corey Levine, based on reports from other media and advocacy groups. In particular, based on new information provided by IJV, the Vancouver Sun retracts its statements that IJV denies the Holocaust, supports Iran or encourages terrorism against Israelis. The Vancouver Sun apologizes for not providing proper attribution and to IJV and Corey Levine for the unsubstantiated statements.
***
editor@canadalandshow.com
Last week, the Financial Post published revelations about the Toronto Star’s newsroom and the suicide of Raveena Aulakh, one of its reporters.
Aulakh took her own life earlier this summer and since then questions about the Star have been circling, despite the paper’s internal investigation, which concluded that “the company provided all reasonable support and assistance to Raveena.”
Sean Craig’s lengthy article tells a different story. Over the course of his investigation, Craig (formerly of CANADALAND) spoke to over a dozen sources and reviewed emails Raveena Aulakh sent before her death.
Up until now, we knew Raveena Aulakh had been in a relationship with her then colleague Jon Filson, a senior Star editor in charge of the Star Touch project. The relationship broke down and Filson was also in a relationship with Toronto Star managing editor Jane Davenport. In the wake of Aulakh’s death, Filson and Davenport ceased working in the Star newsroom. Filson was seemingly terminated, while Davenport is still employed by the Star, who have not clarified in what capacity.
Unifor, the Star’s union, called for an external investigation of the Star’s working environment. At first, the Star resisted, having conducted their own internal investigation, but eventually agreed. The Star then once again put the external investigation on hold because it couldn’t agree on the parameters with the union.
Craig’s piece explored lingering questions about the Star’s newsroom, and what he found was quite shocking. Here are the main points:
Jon Filson had a reputation for bullying and “preying” on female colleagues
Two former interns at the Star have said they felt bullied by Filson. One described having a sexual relationship with him while he had direct oversight over her work, while Filson was married. Twenty-two at the time, the intern said she felt “bullied and trapped” by him and left the paper after both the relationship ended and the contract with the Star expired.
The second intern said the culture at the Star “was the most toxic newsroom I’ve ever worked in and eventually led to my decision to leave journalism altogether.” She said Filson bullied her, and his behaviour extended beyond interns.
Neither of the women reported Filson to management, but the second woman said she was discouraged from telling the union.
A student newspaper discouraged students from interning for Filson
By 2008, Ryerson University’s paper, the Eyeopener, heard accounts of Filson’s behaviour. General manager Liane McLarty said young women were warned against interning at the Star because of several incidents involving Filson. This, it seems, is more preventative action than the Star ever took.
Raveena Aulakh wanted to complain about Filson to senior management but her boss was unwilling
Days before her death, Aulakh wrote this her direct superior Lynn McAuley “I’m happy/grateful to go with you if I ever have to talk to [Toronto Star manager of labour relations] David Callum. Whatever you think and say, I will do that.”
It seems this was not the first time the issue came up with McAuley. A few weeks earlier, Aulakh wrote this about McAuley: “She said she likes Jane (Davenport) a lot and won’t say anything unless Jon (Filson) makes life miserable for people and Jane still protects him”.
She was also discouraged from reporting her concerns to her union
From the Post’s piece: “On May 13, Aulakh wrote that McAuley told her ‘not to say anything to the union’ about the relationships between her and Filson and Filson and Davenport.”
But McAuley knew from others that Filson was a problem
Lynn McAuley wrote this about Jon Filson: “I’m alarmed he has this pattern… Completely unrelated to your relationship with him and his preying on interns … three managers today asked me in private how he can be stopped.”
The Post said McAuley tried to provide Aulakh with support, “checking in on her regularly during her free time when the reporter was on sick leave.” Outside of formal channels, it seems McAuley did everything she could to support Raveena Aulakh. But she chose not to pull any of the levers available within the company, which raises questions about how effective these protocols are and why she chose not to pursue them.
Before her death, Aulakh reached out to people in the newsroom which she perceived as an unhealthy environment. “I used to love that newsroom, it was my refuge. Now I’m scared of coming in — I feel emotionally unsafe.”
TorStar Chairman John Honderich allegedly declined emails from a source that would implicate the Star
John Honderich is the most senior figure at the Toronto Star. A former Star employee told the Post that she emailed Honderich to offer help with the Star’s internal investigation. According to her, Honderich turned her documents away, saying that the investigation was only looking at the impact of the relationships on the work that the people involved produced. But (as she would later read in the press) the Star’s investigation was actually intended to also look at how Aulakh was supported by her colleagues, which the emails directly addressed. Honderich did not deny this allegation.
Management likely knew about Filson’s behaviour before Raveena Aulakh’s death
Aulakh sent several emails to newsroom staff, including management, about what was happening. Filson had a pattern of alleged bullying that many senior staff were aware of. The Eyeopener’s general manager said complaints regarding Filson went eight years back. Still, Filson kept getting promoted into senior positions, from features editor to, eventually, a leadership role in Star Touch.
Raveena Aulakh expressed despair over the loss of a safe workplace
Many have assumed that this tragedy was primarily about interpersonal relationships gone sour. Toronto Star Public Editor Kathy English referred to Aulakh as a “clearly heartbroken reporter.” But emails from Aulakh herself reveal that her despair had much to do with a different kind of loss. “I used to love that newsroom,” she wrote of the Star. “It was my refuge. Now I’m scared of coming in – I feel emotionally unsafe.”
Read the full Financial Post story here.
***
editor@canadalandshow.com
Lawsuit names former CBC host Evan Solomon
This week, CANADALAND published an article by Farnia Fekri outlining how diverse the CBC is compared to the Canadian population. One of Fekri’s sources was Adrian Harewood, a long-time anchor at CBC Ottawa. Fekri contacted many CBC employees, but Harewood was the only one who agreed to speak on the record.
Absolutely awed by the brilliance and bravery of @AdrianHarewood , who’s quoted in the piece. (2/7)
— Farnia Fekri (@f_fekri) August 17, 2016
I contacted dozens of PoC at the CBC, and while many were nice, it shocked me how many didn’t want to talk (anonymously). (3/7)
— Farnia Fekri (@f_fekri) August 17, 201
Today, Harewood explained on Twitter why he decided to speak out and why many others can’t. This is his Twitter essay.
1. I get why many of my friends & colleagues at CBC were reluctant to speak to @Canadaland about race & diversity issues at the corporation.
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
2. I think there are questions,whether justified or not, as to whether @Canadaland has a particular animus towards the CBC -an axe to grind.
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
3. But I think what is more troubling is that some folks at CBC are reluctant to talk about “race matters” at the corp. out of fear.
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
4. That fear is real. Whenever one talks about race in a professional context in Canada there is always concern about the repercussions.
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
5. The fear is that one will be labeled or pigeonholed as a whiner;a troublemaker; as an amateur or incompetent who “uses the race card.”
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
6. Whoever you are regardless of the environment in which you work no one wants to be labeled or deemed “unprofessional.”
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
7. The fear then is that to discuss race matters which may be real to you,is to court career suicide & be regarded as an unfit & unserious
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
8. I realize that as someone who has worked as a host @ CBC for a decade that I occupy a position of relative power & privilege.
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
9. That power & privilege is not unlimited but it is real & it means that I can utter things that others may not feel powerful enough to say
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
10. It doesn’t mean I don’t have fear. I too don’t want to be labeled. I want to be seen as the complex individual that I know myself to be
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
11. Media organizations demand accountability from national institutions, as they should. It’s their job to ask tough probing questions.
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
12. But media organizations like CBC also need to be scrutinized. They need to be held accountable for their actions & inaction.
— Adrian Harewood (@CBCAdrianH) August 19, 2016
***
editor@canadalandshow.com
Despite a federal mandate to reflect the “multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada,” around 90% of staff at Canada’s public broadcaster are white.
According to survey results obtained by CANADALAND and released through an Access to Information request, only 453 CBC employees self-identified as a Person of Colour (not Caucasian or Aboriginal) on the internal CBC HR site between 2011 and March 2016.
While the survey results referred only to voluntary employee responses in 2011–16, the CBC has been surveying its employees since the 1980s. The corporation’s latest numbers reported there were 563 visible minority and 100 Aboriginal journalists at the corporation by 2015. This amounted to 9.8% of CBC employees at the time.
The CBC couldn’t say how many employees it has currently, but in March 2015 there were 7,440. This means 90–93% of employees are white. In contrast, Statistics Canada reported that one in five Canadians is a visible minority and 4.3% of Canadians identified as Aboriginal.
CBC spokesperson Alexandra Fortier said there’s been “an increase in representation for members of visible minorities.”
In 2011, 8% of CBC employees identified as visible minority or Aboriginal. By Dec. 2014 this number went up to 9.8%. “We [also] continue to exceed industry availability for women,” Fortier said, acknowledging there are areas where the CBC could do better.
According to the 1991 Broadcasting Act, the CBC has to release a yearly report on employment equity statistics, but there have been no new reports since 2014–15. The 2015–16 one will be live by Oct. 22, Fortier said.
CBC Ottawa anchor Adrian Harewood, who has been a full-time employee for 10 years, said the discussion about racial diversity isn’t always loud enough at the CBC and depends mainly on regional managers.
“I think that there is a little bit of chatter about diversity [in Ottawa] — certainly one of our bosses (Ruth Zowdu) … is committed to bringing change to the organization and has made, in my mind, a sincere effort to do it. But I am not sure if that same commitment exists amongst managers across the country,” he said. “I think we absolutely need more producers and managers of colour in the ranks of CBC.”
Harewood said the positive shift in hiring more women (who made up 46.9% of CBC employees at the turn of 2015) shows how much management commitment can impact newsroom diversity.
“If you look at leadership at CBC … a lot of the people who are in the leadership positions are women. White women. It’s not as if that can’t change — there’s no reason why the CBC could not set a goal of achieving more diversity by 2025 and reaching it, but the organization has to be serious about it,” he said.
“I think a commitment has to be made to broadening the pool of producers and managers at CBC. It is not acceptable in 2016 given the ethno-racial makeup of the population that this reality is not reflected in our national institutions.”
For Harewood, part of the problem is the industry itself and a shortage of young, racialized students who go to journalism school. He said the CBC could collaborate with universities and colleges, and work with communities to encourage careers in journalism by establishing workshops and scholarships.
“I don’t think the CBC’s doing enough, and the CBC should be a leader, I think, when it comes to these issues — because it’s not as if it’s unaware of it. We’re often doing stories about these very issues in other institutions, and we hold other institutions to account.”
He added that the CBC could also do more to bring in qualified people of colour, in the same way that it made positive steps toward covering more Aboriginal issues by establishing CBC News-Aboriginal.
“I think that there has been definite change in trying to bring more Aboriginal journalists into CBC, and to invest more resources in covering the Aboriginal file, and I think that’s noticeable and it’s admirable. With other racialized communities, I don’t think there’s the same focus … or investment,” he said.
The CBC uses CBC News-Aboriginal and CBC North to report mainly on Aboriginal issues, but Aboriginal people accounted for only 100 jobs of all full-time and part-time employees in Dec. 2014.
In an interview with CANADALAND, a former CBC North employee and Aboriginal journalist, who asked to stay anonymous to protect future career opportunities, said the number of Aboriginal employees at the CBC is “poor.”
“We need more representation in the news to tell our own stories,” they said, adding that racial diversity in the newsroom has worsened in the past few years.
“I think that they have one person there representing each language. And that person, I believe, is responsible for finding stories in their region or their communities that are relevant to their radio shows, and that could potentially be pitched as a news story.
“But then it would usually be a news story that would be told by one of the white reporters, or whatever diversity reporter happens to be there,” they said. “There are a lot of southern (white) journalists being pulled in, now more so than ever, since a lot of [the Aboriginal] people have aged and left the CBC.”
Fortier said, “almost half [of] CBC North’s current staff is Indigenous.” To help recruit and retain Aboriginal journalists and other “diverse candidates,” managers are given access a $175,000 annual fund for “internships and development opportunities,” she said.
Aside from the fund, the voluntary survey, the Inclusion and Diversity Plans, and the employment equity and Canadian Multiculturalism Act annual reports, the CBC uses new employee questionnaires and on-air programs to track its diversity.
The Inclusion and Diversity Plan said that in 2011, none of the 11 senior managers belonged to Aboriginal or visible minority groups. By Dec. 2014, one of eight senior managers was reported as a Person of Colour.
In 2006, less than 6% of CBC employees were People of Colour. Almost a decade later, this number has gone up by less than 3 percentage points. Aboriginal representation has fared even worse: in 2009, 1.4% of CBC employees were Aboriginal, and five years later the number changed to 1.5%. In both cases, that’s about half of the industry availability for Aboriginal journalists.
But according to a CBC Toronto employee, who asked to stay anonymous for fear of repercussions, these surveys and reports don’t shift the numbers enough to make a real difference in the newsrooms.
“The priorities of the executive … don’t necessarily change the day-to-day culture,” he said, adding that the only tangible difference in the CBC Toronto newsroom has been an increase in racially diverse interns, not managers. “The higher up the chain you go, the worse it gets.”
***
@f_fekri
The CBC provides a list of its reports and plans, including its equity reports, here.
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
