It is 1965 and the federal election campaign is nearing an end. Don McGillivray is on a train heading toward Toronto along with other press gallery journalists and prime ministerial candidate John Diefenbaker. A lively discussion about journalism rages in McGillivray’s roomette. Diefenbaker has been saying things in speeches that are untrue and some reporters… Continue reading Farewell ”Mr. McGoo”
Category: Summer 2004
Food or thought?
Last June, people working at Transcontinental Media were given disconcerting news. They learned that their jobs were no longer secure and that a new editor and publishers were on the way. Upper management at the Toronto-based company, they found out, had been busy making a series of senior staff changes at Canadian Living and Homemakers… Continue reading Food or thought?
Little Miss Mischief
The bus platform at Toronto’s Lawrence subway station is uncharacteristically quiet for a Friday evening. There are few commuters, no buses and little noise. It doesn’t even feel like rush hour until Jan Wong arrives. Wearing a green hooded coat and bright royal blue backpack, Wong could just as easily be coming from school as… Continue reading Little Miss Mischief
Mission impossible
Back in mid-October, Jim Williamson was as nervous as an expectant father in a hospital waiting room. Fidgeting in the front row of the John Bassett Theatre in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Disclosure’s executive producer turned his head to scan the audience every 15 seconds. He griped his clipboard tightly, flipping through pages of… Continue reading Mission impossible
Sick and Tired
Everyone’s crowded around the boardroom table on a chilly October afternoon for the Ryerson Review of Journalism’s first story meeting. My foot’s tapping impatiently as the student beside me pitches her story; then, it’s my turn. “Public health reporting,” I suggest. “It’s surrounded us through what some are calling the year of panic: Mad Cow… Continue reading Sick and Tired