Category: Fall 2009

In early February 2009, staff reporter Rick McGinnis walked intoMetro Toronto, mentally preparing for the meeting he’d scheduled that day with editor-in-chief Dianne Rinehart. Several of his beats and columns had been eliminated since Rinehart had taken over the paper the previous May, and the seven-year veteran of Toronto’s most-read free daily was wondering what Metro even wanted… Continue reading Down to Zero

After The Globe and Mail’s Margaret Wente wrote a column about the risks of talking on a cell phone while driving, it didn’t take long forsomeone to notice it seemed very similar to one by Maureen Dowd that had run in The New York Times the day before. The NYTPicker, a website that follows the Times, cited Wente for “uncredited… Continue reading What’s yours is mine

As reporters Andrew McIntosh and Daniel Leblanc await Supreme Court of Canada rulings that will determine whether they can continue to protect the identities of their confidential sources, the decision to grant someone anonymity remains a difficult one for Canadian news organizations. We asked three senior editors how they deal with the issue. RRJ:What’s the… Continue reading Code of Secrecy

Tom Hanson is on the first green of the Royal Ottawa Golf Club in Gatineau, Québec. The Canadian Press photographer and his long-time colleague, Jonathan Hayward, are there to shoot the LPGA’s du Maurier Classic and someone has spray-painted “Go Canada Go” on the green a week after Canadian Lorie Kane won her first career… Continue reading The Canadian Angle

It’s long been a tradition in Ottawa for the prime minister to, every now and then, brave the eager scrums that form in the lobby of the House of Commons and answer a few questions. Brian Mulroney would climb a few stairs up what some on the Hill know as the “Stairway to Heaven” and,… Continue reading Ottawa Unplugged