The Toronto Star built an entire exposé on female genital mutilation based predominantly around a mid-level civil servant's email from three years ago. Also, CBC Comedy is so unfunny it's funny. Or is that the other way around? Either way, a former member of Kellie Leitch's team has made it his mission to bring it down . Writer/broadcaster, and producer Naheed Mustafa joins us. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. S...
Jul 27, 2017•40 min•Ep. 129
We revisit a couple of stories that we haven't been able to follow up on to the level to which we'd hoped. At least not on the website, where our News Editor Jonathan Goldsbie makes the ultimate call as to what gets published. In this episode Jonathan and Jesse go head to head and reveal new facts about Andrew Potter's abrupt departure from McGill after his Maclean's diatribe about Quebec, and what happened after Leah McLaren's column about attempting to breastfeed Michael Chong's baby was spike...
Jul 24, 2017•43 min
The Conservative Party takes their latest wedge issue to the US media, a Quebec town won't let Muslims bury their dead and Trudeau lays out some hot summer jams. BuzzFeed's Elamin Abdelmahmoud co-hosts. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 20, 2017•36 min
When the vitriol started to fly over Omar Khadr's $10.5 million settlement and apology from the government, Michelle Shephard got frustrated with just how much people were getting the basic facts wrong. As national security reporter for the Toronto Star, author of the book Guantanamo's Child and co-director of the documentary of the same name, she's been the top reporter on Khadr's story for the past 15 years. She speaks to guest host Omar Mouallem about how Khadr's public image has evolved over...
Jul 17, 2017•42 min
Journalist Evan Balgord has been covering fringe right groups like the Proud Boys , Soldiers of Odin , and the Three Percenters for the better part of the past year. He joins the COMMONS team to discuss the ongoing street protests and what’s driving these groups’ discontent. CANADALAND will be back on Monday. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 13, 2017•37 min
Ren Bostelaar posted nude pictures of women he knew to 4chan without their consent. He avoided a criminal record by apologizing and taking a peace bond. Was justice served? Is revenge porn legal in Canada? What is the state of the law and social media, years after the Amanda Todd and Rehteah Parsons cases? Privacy lawyer David Fraser launched a successful constitutional challenge against Nova Scotia's anti-cyberbullying law. But he supports current anti-revenge porn laws, and he explains why. Su...
Jul 10, 2017•41 min
With resistance to Canada150, Indigenous women calling out a reporter at a press conference, and the Proud Boys disrupting a Mi'kmaq ceremony in Halifax, the way people talk about our colonial history is changing. While Indigenous people demand respect, journalists like the National Post's John Robson think the insults are just too much. NDP MP Romeo Saganash plagiarized co-host Erica Violet Lee's work in an op-ed for the Globe and Mail. With Omar Khadr reportedly getting an apology and a settle...
Jul 06, 2017•34 min
Canada was once home to a small, but mighty collective of gay and lesbian newspapers and magazines that made up a radical alternative media. Over the last few decades now-defunct publications like The Body Politic , Siren and Fab brought LGBTQ+ issues, interests and voices, to the forefront. Daily Xtra , now the country’s only remaining national queer news source, ceased print in 2015 but continues publishing online. Despite queer people having more rights than ever before, queer media is all bu...
Jul 03, 2017•34 min
The Toronto Star put the final nail in the coffin of Star Touch, its $20-30-million app for a device that most people don't have or use. And after praising themselves for its bold innovation, quietly laid off 30 journalists. Meanwhile, Canada gears up this weekend for a celebration of epic proportions: Peter Mansbridge is retiring. And confederation, something something. Finally we dig into Jonathan Kay’s Twitter mobs and how they’re killing free speech for anybody who’s not a National Post colu...
Jun 29, 2017•47 min
After the release of the Public Policy Forum's Shattered Media report this past winter comes the latest beg for cash to prop up the newspaper industry. This one comes in the form of a request for a subsidy totaling hundred of millions of dollars per year from News Media Canada , the umbrella advocacy organization for Canadian newspapers. While it claims to advocate for the maintenance of local journalism, the organization shies away from supporting small, digital startups, which are often the st...
Jun 26, 2017•43 min
Governor General David Johnston issued a mea culpa over his radio interview in which he refers to Indigenous peoples as immigrants. Postmedia did not issue mea culpas for poorly-researched racist screeds in its Vancouver and Toronto outlets. Instead, they continue to rattle the cup in front of the federal government for bailout money. Finally, the National Post issued a mea culpa for years of Conrad Black columns by announcing they would stop publishing their Monday edition of the paper. (Produc...
Jun 22, 2017•41 min
Iraqi photojournalist Ali Arkady thought he was documenting the "good guys" -- the non-sectarian forces fighting Daesh for the preservation of Iraq. Instead, Arkady witnessed abuse, torture, and murder committed by the Emergency Response Division. After fleeing Iraq with his family, Arkady partnered with the Toronto Star and ABC News to have his work see the light. He joins Jesse Brown on the phone from an undisclosed location in Europe alongside Mitch Potter , one of the three Star reporters wh...
Jun 19, 2017•33 min
Breitbart News has convinced concerned Christian families that Ontario’s new child protection laws will bring forth a queer totalitarian state, where parents opposing or denying their children’s gender identity will have them forcibly removed from their homes. After tweeting about almost being published in Teen Vogue on June 2, Toronto-based freelance writer, Roslyn Talusan’s call-out of the magazine went viral and led to dozens of writers flooding her inbox with similar stories of being strung ...
Jun 15, 2017•34 min
Or did we play ourselves? This most recent Conservative leadership race highlighted a number of deficiencies in Canadian media. Namely, why did the guy with virtually no chance of ever becoming Prime Minister, who skipped debates and ran much of his campaign from Boston , receive so much more press coverage than the guy who actually won the leadership? Did media just go for the low-hanging fruit, or did we allow ourselves to be manipulated by an expert huckster? CBC.ca's Opinion Producer Robyn U...
Jun 12, 2017•41 min
Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland stands up to the sole remaining global superpower like a newborn kitten taking on Galactus . Somewhere between 10 and 5,000 freedom-loving citizens descend on Parliament Hill to rail against Trudeau, refugees, Islam, you name it. Of course, close to 10,000 attended the most recent pro-marijuana rally, proving that Canadians love pot far more than they fear Sharia law. Finally, Scott Gilmore pens a tone-deaf piece for Macleans highlighting conditions ...
Jun 08, 2017•39 min
McClelland & Stewart was the publishing house that, at one time, served as the home for the likes of Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen and others. In 2000, under the direction of building magnate Avie Bennett, it was broken apart and sold to the University of Toronto and to Random House Canada. It's now entirely owned by a foreign company. Elaine Dewar , author of the new book The Handover , joins us to explain the seeming sleight-of-hand that put this institution in foreign h...
Jun 05, 2017•49 min
The Conservatives have a new , dimpled, leader, Nova Scotians have more of the same , and British Columbians have an unprecedented lefty hybrid . How effective was media coverage of these three electoral events? Plus, Toronto Life's recent tone-deaf spurt of house porn has led to, if not riots in the streets, then at least a whole lot of snark on social media. Journalist Katie Toth joins us. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Host...
Jun 01, 2017•32 min
One cardinal rule of journalism is that reporters never accept incentives, be that meals, gifts, or - God forbid - money, from the subjects on whom they're reporting. This applies across the board except, we now know, in the travel section. Travel writers used to diligently follow this standard but, as newspapers and magazines were increasingly unable or unwilling to foot expenses , these journalists were forced to find alternative sources to fund their trips. This meant cozying up to hotel chai...
May 29, 2017•38 min
This week, The Guardian continued its exemplary coverage of Canadian university student unions. Hamilton police arrest two journalists attempting to cover a traffic fatality. And the Toronto Star wants you to trust it . This week's Short Cuts comes to you from scenic Hamilton and the studios of CFMU . The Public Record 's Joey Coleman joins Jesse and suggests new ways to report on traffic deaths, and how local newspapers need to up their game when it comes to investigative reporting. Support CAN...
May 25, 2017•38 min
The Texas of the north . Racist rednecks, gun nuts, and pickup truck enthusiasts. That's the Alberta stereotype portrayed in much of the rest of Canada, but how much of that is accurate and how much is due to lazy media that falls back on clichéd tropes? After all, Alberta gave us the first big-city Muslim mayor , the first provincial cabinet with gender parity , and hell, led the charge for women's suffragism (okay, that was a century ago, but still...). Despite the province's increasingly youn...
May 22, 2017•46 min
Hal Niedzviecki and Jonathan Kay have left their jobs. Steve Ladurantaye's been shifted to a lesser role at CBC. And no, we're not finished talking about this yet. Ryan McMahon joins Jesse in Winnipeg to talk appropriation. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 18, 2017•46 min
When it comes to rap, where does artistic licence end and confession begin? According to prosecutors in at least 30 cases from the last decade , it starts when the artist is charged with a crime and the lyrics are parsed for clues to a case or for proof of bad character. Many of these defendants are convicted of their crimes, but should their music be a permissible tool? What is the threshold? And does the practice intentionally or unintentionally tap into the unconscious biases of jurors with t...
May 15, 2017•44 min
British Columbia had an election where everybody won - or at least got an 'I Participated' ribbon. Also, Rebel Media wades into the French election like a skunk splashing around a backyard kiddie pool. Finally, black activist and journalist Desmond Cole takes leave from the Toronto Star after the corporation suggests they'd appreciate it if he wouldn't mind being a little less active and a lot less black. The National Observer's Sandy Garossino joins us. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.co...
May 11, 2017•35 min
Since the late 1990s nearly 800 children in Alberta government care have Veteran Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons has been shining a light on this crisis since from the start. In November 2016, Simons published a story that shocked the province. It was a story about a four-year-old girl named Serenity. Let down by a wide range of government and non-governmental services, Serenity was the victim of horrific abuse and neglect. Simons' article, Her name was Serenity. Never forget it. spurred...
May 08, 2017•48 min
Is the media complicit in popping Harjit Sajjan's balloon ? Also, National Post columnist Christie Blatchford and her parent company, Postmedia are facing a substantial libel suit . Finally, in the art world, what constitutes cultural appropriation and what's merely blatant plagiarism ? National Magazine Award multiple nominee and May's CANADALAND guest host Omar Mouallem joins us. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acas...
May 04, 2017•36 min
On April 20, Toronto Star columnist and Newstalk 1010 host, Desmond Cole, gave a powerful deputation at a Toronto Police Services Board meeting. He then stood in protest, calling on the board to restrict police access to ‘carding’ data . The meeting eventually adjourned, and Cole was escorted out by police officers. For almost five years now, Cole has been using his platform as a journalist to report on and push back against ‘carding’ —which disproportionately affects Black people—by the Toronto...
May 01, 2017•50 min
The Prime Minister showed up at Vice to talk about the Liberal government's marijuana legalization plan, but is blindsided when members of the audience demanded he address the opioid overdose epidemic going on across the country. Reporters Without Borders released their annual World Press Freedom Index this week. Canada placed 22nd. Two years ago we were in eighth place. What caused this dramatic decline? Finally, the CBC is scoring some of that sweet Canada150 cash to commission programming it ...
Apr 27, 2017•46 min
...The Chronicle Herald's Mark Lever , that's who. After pleading poverty for nearly 16 months while his reporters, editors, and photographers are strike, he came up with the bucks to buy 28 Atlantic Canadian newspapers from the floundering Transcontinental chain. This gives his company an effective monopoly in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. We speak with long-time Nova Scotia journalists (and former Transcontinental reporters) Stephen Kimber and Parker Donham ...
Apr 24, 2017•38 min
The scandals continue piling up on B.C. Premier Christy Clark's administration, yet it doesn't seem to be getting a ton of press. Maybe that's because so many of them are now working for her party. Meanwhile, south of the border, President Trump no longer wants to 'tweak' NAFTA, but would rather stick it to our cows. Our precious, precious cows. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inf...
Apr 20, 2017•36 min
The largest newspaper chain in Canada is in its death throes . As Postmedia staggers, bleeding, toward insolvency, we need to ask what its loss means for public discourse in Canada. Former Postmedia stars Kady O'Malley and Stephen Maher join Jesse to try to envision a post-Postmedia future in Canadian journalism. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 17, 2017•41 min
