News about news

Every newspaper prepares in advance for the potential outcomes of an election. Here are some of the front-page headlines we wrote but didn’t need. #elxn43 pic.twitter.com/ZLxSiLj3PN

— Derek DeCloet (@decloet) October 22, 2019

• A plan to have employees take over Groupe Capitales Médias and run its six newspapers (Le Soleil, Le Droit, Le Nouvelliste, Le Quotidien, La Voix de l’Est, La Tribune) as a cooperative is continuing. The trustee’s plan has been approved by the court, and now the group needs to secure enough financing to make it a reality. Meanwhile, Le Devoir says it declined to make an offer after realizing it could not export its business model to Le Soleil and make money with it. And retirees who will face cuts to their benefits after the pension plan is shut down are accusing the government of abandoning them. And aid from the Quebec government might force Ottawa’s Le Droit to move to Gatineau.
• A lawsuit by the Subway sandwich chain against CBC’s Marketplace was dismissed under anti-SLAPP law. The defamation suit alleged that CBC recklessly suggested the chicken used in Subway’s chicken sandwiches was less than 50% chicken. CBC says it used a lab for analysis and there is nothing wrong with its story.
• A study by journalism professors at Ryerson University has shown that newspaper columnists have not become diverse at the same rate as the Canadian population.
• A collaboration between 10 universities and nine journalism organizations has produced a national report about lead in drinking water. The project, which was coordinated by Concordia University’s new Institute for Investigative Journalism, was proposed by Robert Cribb of the Toronto Star.
• The Winnipeg Free Press has pulled the plug on its cannabis-centred publication The Leaf News.
• Postmedia meanwhile, has added a new topic-based website called healthing.ca, with health stories from its publications. It promises “a source of verified healthcare information for consumers, caregivers and practitioners.” Some of that content comes from Ebix Inc., designed for an American audience, or comes from health-related organizations. It follows other topic-based websites like The Growth Op (marijuana) and Driving.ca (cars).
• The office of the Turtle Island News in Six Nations of the Grand River near Hamilton, Ont., was set on fire, in what its editor calls “an attack on free speech.” It’s still unclear why the fire was set or by whom.
• Le point d’impact in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines stopped buying stories from freelancer Monic Provost after she wrote a story critical of the mayor. The editor admitted he didn’t want to get into a fight with the city.
• BuzzFeed News and the Toronto Star have published an investigation into the man behind the Buffalo Chronicle, a website that publishes apparently made-up news about Canadian politics.
• An Ontario court has struck down the provincial government’s “Student choice initiative”, which allows university students to easily opt out of paying fees to student groups including university newspapers.
• CBC’s Q got a bit ridiculed after it posted a story about the ADISQ gala and translated the names of albums and even some artists into English. It has since untranslated the names.
• The Google News Initiative has given money to four Canadian news agencies to help them with projects — a data journalism desk at The Canadian Press, an audio news exchange marketplace by Earbank Inc., a “platform for social interaction” (whatever that is) by Village Media, and “a digital-only product that combines quality local news with a community hub” at Torstar.
• Montreal hyperlocal news site RueMasson.com has shut down.
• News website The Logic has raised $1.8 million in seed funding, some of which is from Postmedia, with whom it has a content partnership.
• Two police officers who arrested MNA Guy Ouellette and undertook investigations related to leaks as part of Project Mâchurer have asked Quebecor to not publish the book PLQ Inc. about them that they claim contains falsehoods.
• A New York Times feature story by Catherine Porter has drawn harsh criticism for being “trauma porn” and presenting a distorted and stereotypical picture of what life is like for the Inuit people in the north of Canada. The Times has stood by the story, but except for a Twitter thread, Porter herself hasn’t really addressed the criticisms.
• Vice writes about the New York Times’s habit of failing to link to stories they match. In reality, this goes far beyond the Times, and is a habit of many large news organizations, who see acknowledging that another outlet had a story first as a weakness. And as Vice notes, large news organizations are large and different journalists have different habits when it comes to this.

At the CRTC

• Allarco, owner of Super Channel, appeared before the commission on Nov. 5 to answer for its licence compliance issues. The owners laid out their financial difficulties and work to resolve them, while independent producers argued for the pay TV service’s continued existence, making some interesting comparisons to services like Netflix.
• The commission has approved two new commercial radio stations in the regions around Quebec City: a station in Saint-Raymond-de-Portneuf, owned by Michel Lambert (88.7 MHz, 12,000W, adult contemporary, pop-rock, classic hits and some country) and a station in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce owned by Arsenal Media (105.3 MHz, 4,500W, country).
• The commission has extended comment deadlines for its review of wireless service regulation after a request by the Competition Bureau for more time to study the marketplace.
• Edmonton francophone community radio station CFED-FM has been approved for a power increase and antenna height increase to generate a better signal.
• Community radio station CJRO-FM, which serves Carlsbad Springs and Vars just east of Ottawa, has applied for permission to install a new transmitter in Embrun, across the 417, and extend its coverage into that community. The town will pay for the transmitter.
• Broadcasting licences for Avis de recherche and its anglophone equivalent All Points Bulletin have been revoked at ADR’s request. ADR says it will continue to operate the channels as exempt services. ADR lost its mandatory subscription status in 2015, but Shaw and Telus still have it on some systems. All Points Bulletin, first licensed in 2002, is still not operational.
• The broadcast licences for IFC Canada and Cosmo TV were officially revoked after they shut down.
• The licence of CFTH-FM-1 Harrington Harbour, Que., an English-language community radio station in Quebec’s lower north shore region, has turned in its licence. The station did not respond to my request for information on why.
• The CRTC has given an exceptional extension for Radio Humsafar’s new AM radio station in Brampton, Ont., after recognizing the exceptional situation and sustained efforts by the owner to find a suitable transmitter location within the deadline, and after unusually opening the application to public comment. The station will now have until Oct. 21, 2020 to launch.
• New ethnic radio stations in the Vancouver market have been given an extra year to launch: CHOF Vancouver and CJCN-FM Surrey.
• Two former CRTC commissioners are now on the board of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre: Former chair Konrad von Kinckenstein and former Quebec commissioner Suzanne Lamarre.
• Several applications to allow foreign TV services to be distributed in Canada:
  • DuckTV
  • Heritage 4K
  • M6 International
  • MUTV

Ethical reviews

• The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is no longer accepting complaints about comments Don Cherry made on air, the decision to fire Don Cherry, or the comments related to Don Cherry made by The Social’s Jessica Allen. It will investigate the Cherry and Allen incidents. And it appears to have a lot of free time to do so since it has reached only two decisions in 2019, compared to 17 in 2018.
• No, Kathy English writes, the Toronto Star isn’t going to fire columnists just because you’re offended by their opinions.
• The Globe and Mail’s Sylvia Stead explains the newspaper’s decision not to endorse a party in the recent federal election, and makes the argument against editorial endorsements generally.
• CBC ombudsman decisions:
  • An essay by Sunday Edition’s Michael Enright about the National Rifle Association was mainly an analysis, which is allowed, but included elements of opinion, which is against journalistic standards.
  • An episode of Ideas that included an interview in which a guest used the term “sneaky fucker” as an informal sociological term should have included a language warning, but the uncensored use of the F-word was justified and not gratuitous.
  • A podcast series called The Band Played On about allegations of ongoing sexual abuse at an Ottawa high school drew complaints from family members of one of the teachers targeted by those allegations, who died before facing trial. The ombudsman found that the series was thoroughly researched, and just because there was no conviction and a coroner’s report found the cause of his death to be undetermined does not mean that CBC can’t responsibly report allegations and police opinions about what happened.
  • A complaint by Blue Flag Canada, which certifies water quality at beaches, that a CBC New Brunswick story implied that it may have acted improperly in certifying a beach, prompted a rewrite of a key paragraph, but the facts reported in the story were not incorrect.
• Radio-Canada ombudsman decisions:
  • Journalist Olivier Lemieux showed a lack of respect to Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume when he said “what you’re doing is cheap” and “Vous n’êtes pas à la hauteur de vos fonctions” (you are not living up to your duties) during an argument with the mayor over Lemieux’s coverage of the naming rights contract of the old Pepsi Colisée hockey arena.
  • An episode of Découverte that discussed carbon capture and emissions of trees was not biased or inaccurate by noting potential downsides of using trees to capture carbon.
  • A Radio-Canada story about a French-language Manitoba newspaper that it said would no longer belong to the community because of an organizational change was inaccurate in some key statements.
  • Yves Lortie, a former VP of Genivar who pleaded guilty to tolerating collusion, complained about a Radio-Canada article whose headline said he was “guilty of collusion”, included a photo of him apparently taken from his passport, and said he had links to organized crime. The headline complaint was abandoned, the photo came from the Charbonneau Commission and so was considered public domain, and the story actually said he had connections to people close to organized crime, which were supported by the commission’s findings. The complaints were dismissed.
  • Someone actually complained that a touching moment between Gilles Duceppe and his son on election night shouldn’t have been aired. Needless to say the complainant’s distaste for human interest (and presumably human emotion) did not make the moment violate journalistic principles.
• Quebec Press Council decisions:
  • A Journal de Montréal story that was in fact an advertorial for Algorithme Pharma did not do enough to disclose that it was a paid advertisement. The council found that the term “in collaboration with” was not sufficiently clear.
  • A complaint against Jean-François Guérin, host of Le Québec Matin on LCN, for having described the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting as a “terrorist act”, was dismissed because half the council found he was expressing his opinion. The council noted that their own disagreement on whether Guérin was acting as a factual journalist or an opinion maker likely reflects viewers’ confusion over the blurred lines between these roles.
  • A Denise Bombardier column in the Journal de Montréal that quoted an expert saying whites are in decline in North America did not present factually incorrect information, even though the complainant disagrees with the expert, and Bombardier is allowed to express her opinion in such a column. Whether it may be discriminatory is beyond the council’s jurisdiction.
  • An editorial in The Journal in Vaudreuil-Soulanges that criticized opponents to a Muslim cemetery drew a complaint, but the council found there’s no violation of journalistic ethics just because you disagree with an opinion.
  • A 24 Heures story about Téo Taxi drivers unionizing was biased when it said this was more bad news for the company. (Quebecor owner Pierre Karl Péladeau expressed interest in buying Téo Taxi after the article was published.)
  • A complaint that Le Droit was biased because it endorsed a development project by an advertiser was dismissed.
  • A story in Le Droit about a coroner’s report into an accidental death contained several incorrect statements, a complainant argued, but the council found that the complaint was about facts in the coroner’s report, not in the story about it.
  • A 24 Heures story about a prohibition of left turns from Pie-IX Blvd., which stated that two pedestrians died when they were fatally struck by vehicles making left turns, was not wrong to state that the turns were “legal” even though the law requites yielding to pedestrians. The council found that the way it was phrased did not affect a reader’s comprehension of the situation.
  • More pedantry about guns:
    • An Agence QMI story about registration of long guns was illustrated with a file photo of a hand gun.
    • A TVA story about fines for failing to register guns didn’t specify that $5,000 is the maximum fine, but it was not incorrect in saying that fines go up to $5,000.

TV

CityNews Montreal has started doing more traditional weather segments, after Rogers said at launch that young people weren’t interested in them.

Perhaps in part because it’s not done by a local, the segment has a habit of misspelling city names. pic.twitter.com/pVbEHnhoYe

— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) November 13, 2019

• U.S. TV stations on the borders of Canada and Mexico are pushing for a “minor clarification” in the new North American trade agreement to require permission from U.S. stations before their signals are distributed across the border. The result would be significant — Canadian cable and satellite subscribers would no longer be able to get ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and PBS directly, unless fees were paid to those U.S. stations, and where a Canadian broadcaster has signed any exclusive rights deal, such permission would not be granted.
• A fire at the transmission site on Mount Mansfield has taken TV stations WCAX and WPTZ off the air. Damage is being assessed and it’s unknown when they’ll be back on the air. In the meantime, WCAX and WPTZ have established direct links to most cable TV providers to get their signal on distribution systems and Videotron has substituted WWJ-TV and WDIV-TV Detroit as their CBS and NBC signals.
• Bell Media has extended its rights deals with the Canadian Football League, which will keep all CFL games on TSN and RDS for an unspecified number of years. The deal also covers online rights, and radio rights for the Grey Cup. According to Dan Barnes, the six-year deal is worth $50 million a year to the league.
• Bell Media has signed up for the exclusive Canadian rights to HBO Max original content, which will be distributed on Crave.
• Bell and Jann Arden are extending their partnership to include a live concert/intimate evening in Toronto that will be turned into a one-hour primetime special on CTV. They’re also doing a podcast.
• Corus’s Nelvana is producing a live-action Hardy Boys series for YTV in Canada and Hulu in the U.S.
• Julie Snyder revealed more details about her nightly talk show called La semaine des 4 Julie, which will air on V four nights a week starting Jan. 6.
• CBC Television has announced its winter schedule, which includes the debut of Family Feud Canada on Dec. 16.
• Le Soleil’s Richard Therrien visited the set of the new CTV drama Transplant, and noted the significant increase in budget compared to the Quebec series he’s used to.
• Jeopardy! is doing a greatest-of-all-time series with its three biggest winners.
• Simon Houpt of the Globe and Mail talked to some producers, and found that studio space in greater Toronto is at a premium, and homegrown Canadian producers are being shut out because of foreign productions filming there like Star Trek Discovery and The Handmaid’s Tale. Some are setting up outside of Toronto because the costs are too high.
• Similarly, Variety looks at Netflix’s studio spaces worldwide.
• Gray Media Group, owner of CBS affiliate WCAX-TV Burlington, has applied to the FCC for permission to buy WYCI, a MyNetworkTV affiliate in Saranac Lake, N.Y., from Cross Hill Communications. The application describes WYCI as a “failing station” whose signal reaches only a small fraction of the market. Gray intends to combine resources with WCAX, introduce local news to WYCI (two hours each weekday) and increase its signal power. WYCI would remain a MyNetworkTV affiliate. It has also agreed to purchase WYCU, a Decades affiliate in Claremont, N.H., from the same owner. Both stations air primarily low-budget reruns.
• Anthem Sports’s Game TV has signed a new distribution deal with Videotron. The deal adds HD feed Game+ (Channel 778, or 218 on Helix), on free preview until Feb. 3, 2020. Game+ is separate from Game TV, which remains standard definition.
• Shaw and Rogers have added Amazon Prime Video to their next-generation set-top boxes. Since Videotron is based on the same system, expect it to follow suit. Note that this is just the app — you still have to subscribe to Amazon Prime to get access to the content.
• CBC Montreal analyzed more than 100,000 film permits in Montreal to crunch some data, including most popular places (parks, Old Montreal and Dorchester Square, unsurprisingly). They cover domestic and foreign TV and film productions in both languages.

Radio

• CBC North has reversed a plan to combine morning newscasts across the territories after a public backlash against the decision. The CMG union, which represents most CBC employees, has called on the government to step in to provide more funding to the public broadcaster.
• Radio-Canada has created a new app that merges radio, podcasts and audio books, called Ohdio.
• An Alberta court has ordered Harvard Broadcasting to cease using the Power 107 branding it recently launched for Edmonton radio station CJNW-FM (now CKPW-FM). Corus, which owns Edmonton’s 92.5 The Chuck, a station that used to be known as Power 92, argued successfully that Harvard was using not only the name but the logo and branding of the station to try to attract an audience by tricking them into thinking there was an association between the two. The station is now known as CKPW or “??? 107” as it searches for a new name.
• Quebec City’s BLVD 102,1 has launched a new show called Le Collectif, that’s devoted to Quebec rap music. It airs weekdays at 8pm.
• The scare over the Christmas song Baby It’s Cold Outside has apparently subsided enough that Bell Media stations are comfortable bringing it back. Music stations have similarly brought back Chris Brown and Michael Jackson after outrage about them cooled down.
• Evan Solomon’s promotion to host of CTV News Channel’s Power Play means he’s had to move his national radio show to noon. Stations including CJAD in Montreal will adjust accordingly — Natasha Hall will go from 2-4pm as of Jan. 6.
• Virgin Radio 95.9’s new morning team of Vinny and Shannon, who have been blocked from interviews with any media not owned by their employer, even as it plasters their faces on billboards and electronic ads across the city, had a sponsored interview in Chatelaine.
• CHOM celebrated its 50th anniversary and got news coverage in the Montreal Gazette, CTV News, La Presse, the Journal de Montréal and Le Devoir, plus a Claude Rajotte interview with Radio-Canada.
• Cabin Radio writes about the 40th anniversary of CJCD radio in Yellowknife.
• Just For Laughs has launched a record label.
• The true crime podcast genre has gotten so big that even police departments are getting in on the action themselves.

Print

• Vividata has released its latest print and digital readership numbers. Le Devoir breaks it down for Montreal: La Presse up 13%, Le Devoir up 6%, Journal de Montréal up 2%, Montreal Gazette flat, and Métro down 7%.
• The Journal de Montréal has launched a new marketing campaign focused on it being a “real” newspaper. The campaign stresses that the newspaper is a reliable publisher of the truth, but provides no guarantee of this. The Journal does not have an ombudsman or public editor and is not a member of any press council.
• The Tyee gives an update into the Competition Bureau investigation into a newspaper swap deal between Postmedia and Torstar, and the companies’ efforts to keep details about their dealings from becoming public.
• The London Free Press is no longer publishing on Mondays.
• The Western Standard magazine, which claimed to offer a voice for western Canada, is returning under new ownership, with an online presence and a print edition some time in the new year.
• The RBC Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction is shutting down after this year’s awards. It says it has more than fulfilled its mandate.
• Winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards have been announced.
• Postmedia is offering a round of buyouts at the Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Province.
• Sports Illustrated, which five years ago was a weekly magazine, is going monthly with some special issues for a total of 17 a year.

Online

• Two court rulings going in different directions on internet piracy: a proposed reverse class action lawsuit against alleged pirates by Voltage Pictures was rejected by a judge because Voltage could not provide enough evidence of actual infringement by specific people. Meanwhile, a federal court has ordered internet providers to block access to GoldTV.ca because of its copyright infringement. It’s believed to be the first decision of its kind requiring ISPs block websites pirating content.
• Freshdaily, the parent company of BlogTO, which launched a nationally-focused news and information website, has shut it down about a month after hiring staff to fill it. The company previously failed expansions to Montreal and Vancouver with Midnight Poutine and Beyond Robson, respectively.
• La Presse has announced a buyout offer as it seeks to cut 15 positions.
• Things blew up at Deadspin, with its top editor fired and staff resigning en masse. The departures meant the site couldn’t cover the end of the World Series. The death of the website comes after an ownership change and a directive from the new owners to “stick to sports” that staff didn’t appreciate. The debacle has cost the job of the editorial director of the new parent company G/O Media.
• Despite a report by the Financial Times last month, Verizon says it is not looking to sell HuffPost.
• Derek Jeter has sold The Players Tribune to Minute Media, as he’s apparently too busy with the Miami Marlins to bother with the athletes-in-their-own-words-but-really-the-words-of-ghostwriters website.

Telecom

• Another public alerting test will be conducted across Canada (except Nunavut) on Nov. 27. Tests will happen mostly at 1:55pm local time. The tests will go out on TV, radio and wireless networks.
• Telus has completed its acquisition of ADT Securities Services for $700 million.

News about people

• Hey, did you hear Don Cherry was fired? Anyway, he started a podcast. You can listen to it here.
• Meanwhile, Jessica Allen, co-host of CTV’s The Social, brewed up some social media backlash after saying she doesn’t like hockey because in her experience as a young person the hockey players were mostly white, male and bullies.
• Concordia University Magazine did some profiles of alumni broadcasters — Sabrina Marandola, Andrew Carter, John Moore, Elias Makos and Anne-Marie Withenshaw.
• Susan Allan, formerly of the Ottawa Citizen, iPolitics and WE, has been named the new Canadian editor at Politico.
• Reporter Luisa Alvarez has left CHEK News for CTV Vancouver.
• Valérie Ambeault has left her job at Rythme FM in Sherbrooke, mere weeks after starting there following the non-renewal of her contract at competitor Rouge FM.
• Jasmine Bala has left Global Lethbridge to be a multimedia journalist at CHEK News in Victoria.
• Andy Blatchford has left The Canadian Press for Politico’s Ottawa bureau.
• Christie Blatchford and Lorrie Goldstein have been inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame, which is a thing that exists.
• Justin Bourne has joined Sportsnet as a co-host on 590 The Fan’s hockey show at noon.
• Olivia Bowden is the new lifestyle reporter at Global News in Toronto.
• Ruth Ellen Brosseau, former NDP MP for Berthier-Maskinongé, is the newest addition to Radio-Canada’s Mordus de politique political talk show.
• Tom Cardoso has joined the Globe and Mail’s justice and crime reporting team
• Véronique Chagnon is leaving Le Devoir for a senior management position at Nouveau Projet magazine. She’s being replaced as assistant news director at Le Devoir by Anabelle Nicoud, formerly arts editor at La Presse.
• George Cope, who is leaving his job as chief executive at BCE, will be appointed chair of BMO.
• Columnist Andrew Coyne has left the National Post for the Globe and Mail.
• Sean Craig, formerly of Canadaland, The Logic and Fresh Daily, among others, is now working for the National Observer.
• Nick Davis is the new Director of Engagement and Inclusion for CBC English services.
• Lisa De Wilde, outgoing chief executive at TVO, was the subject of a tribute by Steve Paikin.
• Denis Dubois is the new vice-president of original content at Quebecor Contenu, after leaving Télé-Québec.
• Dave Ellis is retiring as photojournalist and editor with CTV National News in Ottawa.
• Laurie Few is the new managing editor of the Hill Times, replacing Mike De Souza. Carl Meyer takes over as Ottawa Bureau Chief.
• Philippe J. Fournier of 338 Canada/QC125 is now a permanent columnist for Maclean’s.
• Montreal Gazette humour columnist Josh Freed was honoured by the Quebec Community Groups Network. That got him a story by former colleague Phil Carpenter at Global News.
• Matt Galloway, the host of the CBC Radio morning show in Toronto, has been named the new host of the national morning show The Current.
• Crystal Goomansingh, one of Global TV’s multi-market news anchors, has been appointed European bureau chief for the network, based out of London.
• Richard Haddad is leaving Québecor Contenu to run programming Télé-Québec. He replaces Denis Dubois, who left Télé-Québec for Québecor Contenu.
• Entertainment reporter Teri Hart was let go by Rogers Media.
• The Gazette’s Bill Brownstein caught up with former Montreal news anchors Bill Haugland and Dennis Trudeau, more than a decade after their retirements from CFCF and CBC Montreal, respectively.
• Jordan Hennessey is joining the Stingray Radio sales team in Ottawa, from Toronto’s Indie 88.
• Valérie Héroux is leaving Videotron to become VP of programming at Stingray Digital.
• Monika Ille has been named the new CEO of APTN.
• Maya Johnson has taken maternity leave from CTV Montreal’s Quebec City bureau.
• Patrick Jutras is suing La Presse, his former employer, over La Presse’s efforts in court to prevent him from taking a job as head of advertising sales at Quebecor Media.
• Michelle Keep is the new president of the Canadian Freelance Union.
• Suzane Landry is leaving her job as head of programming for Groupe TVA.
• Simon-Olivier Lorange is the newest Canadiens beat writer at La Presse.
• Nicole MacAdam has left the National Post to be the new editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen and Sun. She succeeds Michelle Richardson, who left for a Crown corporation.
• Radio-Canada political reporter Yves Malo retired after the federal election. He got a sendoff on his final appearance on les Coulisses du pouvoir. Madeleine Blais-Morin is the new Ottawa bureau chief and Fannie Olivier the new reporter there.
• Melani Mariani is the new midday announcer at Toronto’s Indie 88.
• Nicolas A. Martineau has left TVA Sports’s soccer broadcast team for a job with the sports agency Obelisq.
• Jon McComb is retiring from CKNW in Vancouver after 36 years.
• Wendy Metcalfe, formerly of Brunswick News, is now editor-in-chief of Hearst Connecticut Media Group.
• CBC/Radio-Canada Chief Revenue Officer Jean Mongeau is leaving the company in February to “pursue new opportunities.” He has been replaced by Donald Lizotte, formerly VP of sales at TVA and Videotron
• Jeunesse Montgomery-Spencer has left Flow 93.5 in Toronto for Energy 95.3 in Hamilton.
• Vanessa Murphy is the new morning host at 91.9 Bob FM in Lindsay, Ont., replacing the morning team that was let go in the latest round of cuts at Bell Media.
• Michaël Nguyen of the Journal de Montréal has been elected president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec. He succeeds Stéphane Giroux, who stepped down at the end of his mandate. Philippe Papineau of Le Devoir interviewed Nguyen, who lays out some of his priorities.
• Annabelle Olivier has been hired permanently as full-time web producer at Global Montreal.
• Michèle Ouimet, former La Presse journalist, was honoured by the FPJQ with its Judith Jasmin Hommage award.
• Alex Panetta has joined CBC News’s Washington bureau. He was previously at Politico.
• Martin Patriquin has been hired as the Quebec correspondent for The Logic.
• André Pratte, former chief editorialist at La Presse, announced on election night he is resigning from the Canadian Senate. He explains to the Gazette’s Bill Brownstein that the culture was too divisive and he couldn’t do what he wanted to there.
• David Reevely is the new Ottawa bureau chief for The Canadian Press.
• Alanna Rizza is the new assignment editor for Global News in Toronto. She was previously at The Canadian Press.
• Jacob Serebrin, former business journalist at the Montreal Gazette, has started a new newsletter about his travels in southern Africa.
• The Gazette looks at the memoirs of former CJAD broadcaster Tommy Schnurmacher, which are focused on his mother.
• Former CTV Montreal sportscaster Randy Tieman was honoured in Toronto with the Sports Media Canada Honour Roll award for his contributions to sports journalism. Tieman, who died last year, was represented by his son.
• Dave Tomlinson is back at TSN after being a victim of budget cuts there in March. He’s on the 2020 world juniors team and will be heard again on TSN 1040 in Vancouver.
• J.F. Tremblay is the new sports editor at La Presse.
• Anna Maria Tremonti talks to The Canadian Press about her new podcast project and how it will be different from her work as host of The Current.
• Ryan Tumilty has left CBC for the National Post, covering Parliament Hill.
• Martine Turcotte, Bell Canada’s Vice-Chair Quebec, is leaving in January.
• Robyn Urback, formerly an opinion columnist at CBC, has joined the Globe and Mail.
• Ginette Viens has left her job as vice-president of brands and content at Groupe TVA.
• Connie Walker has left CBC, where she hosted the Missing and Murdered podcast, for Gimlet Media in New York.

Obituaries

• Doug Alexander, Regina radio announcer
• Paul Dalby, Global News Toronto journalist
• Paul Flaherty, former Northwestel CEO
• Rusins Kaufmanis, Ottawa Citizen editorial cartoonist
• Scott Hurley, Newfoundland radio personality
• Andrée Lachapelle, actress
• Emilio Nicolas Sr., co-founder of Univision
• Peter Novak, CBC Yukon host
• Bernard Slade, writer and creator of The Patridge Family
• Rick Staehling, CBC film critic