News about news

Ok wait I've got one more. In this file, Public Safety *redacted the sections of the act they were using to withhold the information.*

Like, I can't even know why I can't know the information. pic.twitter.com/n2kfUO3ZiH

— Justin Ling (Has Left) (@Justin_Ling) October 4, 2019

• As if it’s not clear how much of a joke Canada’s access-to-information system has become, this example from Justin Ling of redacting the reason for a redaction, or this example from the Ottawa Citizen of CSIS refusing to confirm details about getting an award for transparency. Or this example from Ling about the government redacting details about its plans to reform access to information even after it had already released that information.
• The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Radio-Canada journalist Marie-Maude Denis does not have to reveal her sources in her investigation of former Liberal minister Marc-Yvan Côté. Instead it sent the case back to the lower courts to be reassessed.
• Kahnawake’s newspapers and radio station issued a joint statement explaining why they did not name someone who was arrested before they were charged with a crime, even though many people know the identity of the accused.
• A former Occupation Double candidate is suing three clickbait websites — Narcity, Hollywood PQ and Showbizz.net — for repeating allegations against him posted on another candidate’s Instagram without giving him a chance to respond to them first.
• A Journal de Québec story about former NHL player Donald Brashear working at a Tim Hortons, and the matching stories at other media, led to accusations of “job shaming” from people who apparently think it’s shameful to work at a Tim Hortons. One of those matching stories included a photo of Georges Laraque, which gave Laraque a good laugh. The error was due to a bad caption on a Getty Images photo from 2009. Patrick Lagacé talks to Brashear’s employer to get context.
• Frédéric Marcoux, a journalist at l’Express de Drummondville, has left his job after a dispute with his employer about his coverage of a Liberal candidate’s connections to a Colombian drug trafficker.
• Saint-Lambert mayor Pierre Brodeur hired an external company to investigate leaks to the media. The investigation included looking through councillors’ work emails without their consent or knowledge.
• Enquête’s Marie-Maude Denis explains in a radio interview how the Sûreté du Québec plays favourites with journalists, and rewards those she calls “good ponies” with access to ensure positive coverage.

News about news about the federal election

https://twitter.com/sdbcraig/status/1182497298225479680

• The “official” federal election leaders’ debates led to some awkward moments in post-debate scrums when so-called journalists from right-wing outlets Rebel Media and True North Centre for Public Policy were allowed to ask questions of the leaders thanks to a court order issued earlier in the day. They asked many questions, ranging from serious ones about foreign policy to a ridiculous one (based off a manufactured whisper campaign) asking Justin Trudeau if he was sleeping with his students and their mothers while a teacher in B.C. Some times leaders answered their questions honestly, sometimes they challenged them, and sometimes, like with Jagmeet Singh and Yves-François Blanchet, they politely refused to answer.
• There was also a bit of a kerfuffle in Quebec at a question posed by HuffPost Canada journalist Althia Raj (the only person of colour among the 10 moderators) that referred to Quebec’s religious symbols ban as “discriminatory.” White columnists called it everything from hate against Quebec to a spit in the face, and one Quebec politician is demanding the CBC apologize for the question, which is odd since Raj does not work for the CBC and the CBC was only one of many media outlets that produced and broadcast the debate. Columnists of colour have a more nuanced view. (Personally I think Raj should have phrased her question at Jagmeet Singh to say that they lack the courage to intervene in a law that the NDP believes is discriminatory, but I also understand that she may have wanted to avoid using weasel words that imply there’s a serious debate here.)
• Facebook won’t step in to prevent made-up anti-Trudeau news at a website called the Buffalo Chronicle from being spread on its platform.
• CBC filed a lawsuit against the Conservative Party over its use of footage from the broadcaster in a campaign ad. The inclusion of journalists Rosemary Barton and John Paul Tasker made things awkward for them, until the CBC promised to remove them as parties of the suit. CBC says it is defending its journalistic independence, but others say the Conservatives have a strong fair dealing case here.
• Global BC got caught in a bit of a PR issue after it scrapped a Focus BC segment when a panellist called out a blackface joke made by an employee.
• Election night coverage plans:
  • CBC (begins 6:30pm ET)
  • CTV (begins 7pm ET)
  • CP24 (begins 7pm ET)
  • Global (begins 9pm ET)
  • CHEK (begins 10pm ET/7pm PT)
  • Radio-Canada (begins 7:30pm ET)
  • TVA (begins 7:30pm ET)
  • APTN (begins 8pm ET)
  • OMNI (begins 9pm ET)
  • CPAC (begins 6pm)
  • Citytv (no plans)
  • CJAD (begins 7pm ET)

At the CRTC

• Corus has requested additional flexibility on when it spends its Canadian content expenditures for its TV licences, after discovering its revenues were more than $150 million higher than expected. It wants to underspend by up to 10% and make it up by the end of its licence term, higher than the usual 5% allowed by standard conditions. The total expenditure would remain the same. Corus argues it would rather take the time and invest in high-quality programming than rush crappy CanCon to air just to meet its quota on time.
• The commission has posted voluntary action plans of various broadcasters to deal with gender parity.
• Stingray’s proposed purchase of CIXL-FM (Giant FM 91.7) and CKYY-FM (Country 89) in Welland, Ont., from RB Communications (David Holgate) has been posted by the CRTC with a hearing set for Dec. 3. The proceeding reveals the purchase price is $6.5 million. Stingray says it plans to add syndicated shows hosted by Casey Clarke and Paul McGuire to Country 89, and incorporate its “Trending Track” program, which promotes emerging Canadian artists.
• The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a request by Videotron to overturn a CRTC decision requiring it to share set-top-box data with Numeris to improve ratings information.
• The commission has formally approved changes to its simultaneous substitution regulations giving cable network CTV Two Alberta the same simsub privileges as CTV Two Atlantic.

Ethical reviews

• The Globe and Mail’s Sylvia Stead responds to complaints that it focused too much on Justin Trudeau’s blackface scandal and not enough on climate change.
• The National Newsmedia Council dismissed a complaint against Toronto Life for “reckless reporting” by allegedly putting a real estate property in the wrong Toronto neighbourhood. The council found that the description of the house’s neighbourhood was not unreasonable and there was no comment that would subject it to prejudice.
• The NNC dismissed three related complaints against Tri-City News in Coquitlam, B.C., which said a story was biased against a church and Christians. The NNC found no bias and no inaccuracies in the story.
• CBC ombudsman:
  • CBC News’s coverage of Quebec’s Bill 21, a law banning the wearing of religious symbols by public servants in position of authority, could have included more voices supporting the law, but was not a violation of policy.
  • A Murray Brewster analysis about the Mark Norman case was not unfair in describing the party as having thrown people “under the bus.”
  • A story about fears of vaccinations in Pakistan was correct in describing a CIA-backed campaign as offering “legitimate” inoculations, even though they were a ruse to collect DNA.
  • A story about irregular border crossings into Canada was not incorrect in saying these crossings are not “illegal”.

TV

Let the record show that CosmoTV and IFC Canada did indeed go dark at exactly midnight on Oct. 1, 2019. pic.twitter.com/fgfHADlcvE

— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) October 1, 2019

• CBC’s CEO says the public broadcaster will no longer do content deals with Netflix because it will “hurt the long-term viability of our domestic industry.” The issue is that the streaming service does not pay into the Canadian broadcasting industry like Canadian broadcasters do. It’s unclear how this will affect exiting CBC-Netflix coproductions like Anne with an E.
• CHCH has a new late-night show Thursday nights (Friday mornings) at 12:30am called This Week Live. Similar to Being Frank, which airs the following night on the same station, it’s a show funded by a guy with lots of money (Michael Bratch) as an apparent vanity project, but one he hopes to make financially viable.
• CTV has a new deal with Netflix to produce a series starring Jessica Mulroney in which she redoes disastrous weddings.
• Sportsnet says it is sorry that a “human error” resulted in it missing an 11th-inning home run in a Yankees-Astros playoff game.
• A (since-deleted) YouTube video edited to make Donald Trump look like he’s murdering anthromorphized logos of news media organizations included the logo of Global News for some reason.
• Sportsnet’s channel assignments for Hockey Night in Canada prompted a rant from the Gazette’s Jack Todd about how unfair Rogers is to the Canadiens by always prioritizing the Leafs on CBC (though fans of the Jets and Senators have even more reason to complain this season). Response from across the country was so strong it prompted a followup column as well. Sportsnet has assigned channels (at least tentatively) for the entire HNIC season (you can and download see a full schedule here), and the Canadiens are on CBC six times (four against the Leafs) and Citytv on every other Saturday night. (I’ve also updated the out-of-region viewing guide.)
• Global Lethbridge has moved to new offices downtown. The new office is modest, with a tiny studio that features a desk and a green curtain and not much else.
• Radio-Canada has signed a content sharing deal with France Télévisions to allow each other’s TV productions to be broadcasting using the other’s digital streaming services. Canadian series District 31, Ruptures and Trop will be among those available on france.tv.
• CTV is rebooting the cooking show Cook Like a Chef, originally broadcast 2001-2004, for CTV Life Channel. The series is produced by that channel’s former owner, Gusto Worldwide Media.
• TSN has signed a deal with All Elite Wrestling, which includes the weekly show AEW Dynamite.
• Raptors broadcast schedules have been released for Sportsnet, TSN and RDS.
• CBS has extended its deal with Stephen Colbert for three years, to 2023.

Radio

• Bell Media has expanded its Virgin Radio brand to Kelowna, rebranding CHSU-FM from Sun FM, a brand it has had for 22 years.
• Stingray is launching a syndicated show on its New Country music stations hosted by Paul McGuire on Oct. 21.
• A Chase the Ace fundraiser in Kanesatake has raised $50,000 for the local radio station CKHQ-FM, which is in the process of trying to restart its activities.
• Sportsnet 650 AM in Vancouver has shuffled its lineup and dismissed Rick Dhaliwal and others, shortly after Sportsnet 590 in Toronto began saving money by simulcasting Tim and Sid on the radio again.
• CBC has formally launched its CBC Listen app and audio platform.
• La Presse has a new hockey podcast, in collaboration with 98.5FM.
• TSN also has a new hockey podcast, hosted by Darren Dreger and Ray Ferraro.

Print

• Newsroom employees at Le Soleil are backing the idea of a workers’ cooperative and have launched a website to campaign for it as an option. They’ve also backed the idea with some cash: $150,000. Retired columnist Gilbert Lavoie is among those supporting the endeavour. The group says it has more than $2 million in financing and has submitted a formal expression of interest.
• Le Devoir has signed a new collective agreement with its union. The five-year deal includes salary increases pegged to the Consumer Price Index, up to 1.5% a year.
• Postmedia’s CEO Andrew McLeod (my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss) speaks to the Postmedia-owned Financial Post about the company’s “transformative journey” and focus on “viewpoints that come from a pro-innovation, pro-free-market, smaller-tax, smaller-government perspective.” The interview appears to be a response to reporting from Canadaland and others that is critical of its political coverage.
• Margaret Atwood won a share of the Booker Prize.
• Some student newspapers are celebrating anniversaries and looking to find their alumni. The Link at Concordia University turns 40 next year, but this one will be bittersweet because the paper is being kicked out of its offices in the Hall Building. A reunion party is planned for Nov. 30. Meanwhile, UQAM’s Montréal Campus is searching for alumni as it prepares its 40th anniversary next year.
• Editors at 11 Ontario student newspapers wrote an op-ed about the Ford government’s “student choice initiative” that allows them to opt-out of paying fees to student media, and how it is endangering their future.
• The National Newspaper Awards have changed their eligibility rules, among other things new rules for freelance eligibility.
• The Los Angeles Times has reached a tentative deal for its first collective agreement with its newsroom.
• Sports Illustrated’s employees are very concerned that its new employer wants to replace its permanent journalists with freelancers and bloggers to save money.

Online

• Vice has acquired Refinery29.
• BuzzFeed’s Craig Silverman exposes a U.S. company that has been running celebrity Facebook scams, including fake ads featuring Marilyn Denis, Mike Holmes and Peter Mansbridge. It has shut down following Silverman’s reporting (as well as its founder’s death).

Other

• Quebec’s court of appeal has overturned a ruling that deemed the Plateau Mont-Royal’s ban on outdoor billboards an illegal infringement on freedom of expression. The split decision says the infringement was justified and the lower court judge exaggerated the negative impact and minimized the positive impact of such a ban.
• Ontario is scrapping the Ontario Film Authority, which provides content ratings for movies. Ontario will use B.C.’s movie ratings until a new system is set up.

News about people

For the first time, Leslie appears on CTV Morning Live – and broadcast television – as a publicly gay man. pic.twitter.com/nqORS2tgZ5

— CTVMorningLiveOttawa (@CTVOttMornLive) October 11, 2019

• Leslie Roberts came out of the closet. In an interview with CTV Ottawa, he says newsrooms were not very welcoming to gay people in 1989. He was working for CFCF-12 (now CTV Montreal) at the time.
• More digital hires at CTV Montreal: Rachel Lau (formerly of Global Montreal) and Matthew Lapierre.
• Mike Boone is retiring from his last job at the Montreal Gazette: liveblogging Canadiens games. Julian McKenzie and Erik Leijon have been taking over in his absence.
• Laura Casella visited the Global Montreal morning show to catch up halfway through her maternity leave for her second child.
• Lisa de Wilde is leaving her job as CEO of TVOntario.
• Stéphane Giroux will not seek a new mandate as president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec.
• Emma Graney has left the Edmonton Journal to join the Globe and Mail as an energy/business reporter.
• Catou MacKinnon is leaving CBC Quebec, moving from Quebec City to Ottawa to care for a sick family member. She gave a goodbye interview with Quebec AM.
• Bob McKenzie has signed a five-year contract extension with TSN, and is apparently important enough for Bell Media to issue a press release saying so.
• Shaun McMahon, recently let go from The Beat 92.5, has a new job as information officer for the Jewish General Hospital and west-central Montreal health authority.
• Wendy Metcalfe is leaving as editor-in-chief of Brunswick News for another yet-to-be-announced job.
• Geneviève Rossier has been named publisher and general manager of Presse Canadienne. She previously worked for Radio-Canada, TC Media, Place des Arts and the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
• Andrew Schultz, let go from Breakfast Television Calgary, has a new job as morning co-host at Global’s CHQR 770.
• Catherine Verdon Diamond has a new website up as she looks for a new project after the cancellation of Breakfast Television Montreal.
• Teresa Wright is now permanent at the Canadian Press’s parliamentary bureau in Ottawa.

Obituaries

• Richard Cleroux, former Globe and Mail journalist
• Margaret Lyons, former CBC Radio executive

Good reads

• The Globe and Mail sits down with Rogers president Jordan Banks, talking about the future of the company’s media division. Banks says he doesn’t regret the $5.2-billion 12-year NHL rights deal and would do it again today.
• Carol Toller, deputy head of editing at the Globe and Mail, explains the paper’s adoption of the “Mx.” gender-neutral honorific, comparing it to the adoption of “Ms.” half a century ago, which was much more controversial at the time than it is now.
• BuzzFeed News investigates the company behind more than a million fake comments submitted to the FCC against net neutrality, discovering their source of names and contact info was a personal information data breach.

Jobs

• R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship (deadline: Oct. 28)
• Globe and Mail summer internship (deadline: Oct. 31)
• Current affairs opinion writer, Globe and Mail
• Staff writer, Vice in Toronto
• Full-time swing announcer, Virgin Radio Montreal