On September 1, 1983, Korean Air Lines flight 007 trespassed into Soviet airspace and was blasted out of the sky. Two hundred and sixty-nine people died. On September 2, the western press, reflecting international outrage, condemned the Soviets as murderers and barbarians. The Toronto press was no exception. In the weeks following the incident, cold… Continue reading Shots in the Dark

Of the many talented women who hold responsible jobs on major daily newspapers in Canada, surprisingly few have managed to reach the upper editorial echelons. Dona Harvey has been editor of the Winnipeg Tribune and managing editor of the Vancouver Province, Lise Bissonnette is the editor of Le Devoir in Montreal, Barbara Amiel is the… Continue reading The Patience of Shirley Sharzer

The twenty-fifth anniversary convention of the Canadian Ethnic Press Federation in Ottawa last November ended amidst a heated argument between the editor of a German-language paper from Vancouver and the editor of a Yugoslavian paper from Toronto. Though the raised voices had strong European accents, the nature of the argument was unmistakably Canadian-a squabble between… Continue reading The Audible Minorities

Christie Blatchford is used to being candid in print. Eleven years after her column first appeared in a campus paper known for its raw look at student life, she is writing for Toronto’s irreverent newspaper, the Sun, enticing readers four times a week with a peek at her personal experiences. But just how often Sun… Continue reading Blatchford Behind the Byline

We can add the Davey Committee and the Kent Commission to the “boneyards of broken dreams,” the description the Davey report gave to most Canadian newsrooms. It is true that had it not been for the two inquiries, the first on the mass media in general, the second on the daily newspaper industry in particular,… Continue reading Out of Commission