In early March 2002, Byron Christopher, senior journalist for CHED radio in Edmonton, stumbled onto a story. While looking into a lawsuit against Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc., he discovered that the company had been accused of bombing, raping, enslaving, kidnapping and executing citizens in Southern Sudan, where it operated the Heglig and Unity oil fields.… Continue reading Left Behind

It is 6 o’clock Monday morning. A man sits quietly in front of his computer with headphones on, seemingly oblivious to the world around him. The smell of Kentucky Fried Chicken fills the small room as a young guy named Scott breezes in and perches on his chair, fingers greasy, to update the traffic report.… Continue reading Where’s the Beef?

Toting his notes, thermos of coffee and a pack of Salem Light Menthol cigarettes, Earl McRae would creep into the closed Simpson Tower on Yonge Street and ride the elevator to the 11th floor – home of The Canadian magazine. Squeezing into his office with barely room for a desk and chair, he’d begin pounding… Continue reading Roto Retro

It’s not that I am anti-union, it’s that I’m anti-union for newspaper writers,” wrote columnist Christie Blatchford in 1991, while praising her employer, The Toronto Sun, on its 20th anniversary. “This is one of the greatest jobs in the world. I do not need a union to tell me I should be demanding time-and-a-half while… Continue reading The Sun Also Rises Up

It was the Saturday morning of the 2003 Canada Day weekend and Don Sellar, ombudsman for The Toronto Star, was in for a big shock. Sellar, who was on vacation at his brother-in-law’s Balsam Lake cottage, had decided to pick up a copy of the Star from a nearby newspaper box. That’s where he saw… Continue reading Big Push, Big Error