CANADALAND

Governor General David Johnston issued a mea culpa over his radio interview  in which he refers to Indigenous peoples as immigrants. Postmedia did not issue mea culpas for poorly-researched racist screeds  in its Vancouver and Toronto outlets. Instead, they continue to rattle the cup in front of the federal government for bailout money. Finally, the National Post issued a mea culpa for years of Co...

Iraqi photojournalist Ali Arkady thought he was documenting the "good guys" -- the non-sectarian forces fighting Daesh for the preservation of Iraq. Instead, Arkady witnessed abuse, torture, and murder committed by the Emergency Response Division.  After fleeing Iraq with his family, Arkady partnered with the Toronto Star and ABC News to have his work see the light. He joins Jesse Brown on the pho...

Breitbart News has convinced concerned Christian families  that Ontario’s new child protection laws will bring forth a queer totalitarian state, where parents opposing or denying their children’s gender identity will have them forcibly removed from their homes. After tweeting about almost being published in Teen Vogue on June 2, Toronto-based freelance writer, Roslyn Talusan’s call-out of the maga...

Or did we play ourselves? This most recent Conservative leadership race highlighted a number of deficiencies in Canadian media. Namely, why did the guy with virtually no chance of ever becoming Prime Minister, who skipped debates and ran much of his campaign  from Boston , receive so much more press coverage than the guy who actually won the leadership? Did media just go for the low-hanging fruit,...

Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland stands up  to the sole remaining global superpower like a newborn kitten taking on Galactus . Somewhere between 10 and 5,000  freedom-loving citizens descend on Parliament Hill to rail against Trudeau, refugees, Islam, you name it. Of course, close to 10,000 attended the most recent pro-marijuana rally, proving that Canadians love pot far more than the...

McClelland & Stewart was the publishing house that, at one time, served as the home for the likes of Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen and others. In 2000, under the direction of building magnate Avie Bennett, it was broken apart and sold to the University of Toronto and to Random House Canada. It's now entirely owned by a foreign company. Elaine Dewar , author of the new book The H...

The Conservatives have a new , dimpled, leader, Nova Scotians have more of the same , and British Columbians have an unprecedented lefty hybrid . How effective was media coverage of these three electoral events? Plus, Toronto Life's recent tone-deaf spurt of house porn has led to, if not riots in the streets, then at least a whole lot of snark on social media. Journalist Katie Toth joins us. Suppo...

One cardinal rule of journalism is that reporters never accept incentives, be that meals, gifts, or - God forbid - money, from the subjects on whom they're reporting. This applies across the board except, we now know, in the travel section. Travel writers used to diligently follow this standard but, as newspapers and magazines were increasingly unable or unwilling to foot expenses , these journali...

This week, The Guardian continued its exemplary coverage of Canadian university student unions. Hamilton police arrest two journalists attempting to cover a traffic fatality. And the Toronto Star wants you to trust it . This week's Short Cuts comes to you from scenic Hamilton and the studios of CFMU . The Public Record 's Joey Coleman joins Jesse and suggests new ways to report on traffic deaths,...

The Texas of the north . Racist rednecks, gun nuts, and pickup truck enthusiasts. That's the Alberta stereotype portrayed in much of the rest of Canada, but how much of that is accurate and how much is due to lazy media that falls back on clichéd tropes? After all, Alberta gave us the first big-city Muslim mayor , the first provincial cabinet with gender parity , and hell, led the charge for women...

Hal Niedzviecki and Jonathan Kay have left their jobs. Steve Ladurantaye's been shifted to a lesser role at CBC. And no, we're not finished talking about this yet. Ryan McMahon joins Jesse in Winnipeg to talk appropriation. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to rap, where does artistic licence end and confession begin? According to prosecutors in at least 30 cases from the last decade , it starts when the artist is charged with a crime and the lyrics are parsed for clues to a case or for proof of bad character. Many of these defendants are convicted of their crimes, but should their music be a permissible tool? What is the threshold? And...

British Columbia had an election where everybody won - or at least got an 'I Participated' ribbon. Also, Rebel Media wades into the French election like a skunk splashing around a backyard kiddie pool. Finally, black activist and journalist Desmond Cole takes leave from the Toronto Star after the corporation suggests they'd appreciate it if he wouldn't mind being a little less active and a lot les...

Since the late 1990s nearly 800 children in Alberta government care have Veteran Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons has been shining a light on this crisis since from the start.  In November 2016, Simons published a story that shocked the province. It was a story about a four-year-old girl named Serenity. Let down by a wide range of government and non-governmental services, Serenity was the v...

Is the media complicit in popping Harjit Sajjan's balloon ? Also, National Post columnist Christie Blatchford and her parent company, Postmedia are facing a substantial libel suit . Finally, in the art world, what constitutes cultural appropriation and what's merely blatant plagiarism ? National Magazine Award multiple nominee  and May's CANADALAND guest host Omar Mouallem  joins us. Support CANAD...

On April 20, Toronto Star columnist and Newstalk 1010 host, Desmond Cole, gave a powerful deputation at a Toronto Police Services Board meeting. He then stood in protest, calling on the board to restrict police access to ‘carding’ data . The meeting eventually adjourned, and Cole was escorted out by police officers. For almost five years now, Cole has been using his platform as a journalist to rep...

The Prime Minister showed up at Vice to talk about the Liberal government's marijuana legalization plan, but is blindsided when members of the audience demanded he address the opioid overdose epidemic going on across the country. Reporters Without Borders released their annual World Press Freedom Index this week. Canada placed 22nd. Two years ago we were in eighth place. What caused this dramatic...

...The Chronicle Herald's Mark Lever , that's who. After pleading poverty for nearly 16 months while his reporters, editors, and photographers are strike, he came up with the bucks to buy 28 Atlantic Canadian newspapers from the floundering Transcontinental chain. This gives his company an effective monopoly in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. We speak with long-ti...

The scandals continue  piling up on B.C. Premier Christy Clark's administration, yet it doesn't seem to be getting a ton of press. Maybe that's because so many of them are now working for her party. Meanwhile, south of the border, President Trump no longer wants to 'tweak' NAFTA, but would rather stick it to our cows. Our precious, precious cows.   Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join S...

The largest newspaper chain in Canada is in its death throes . As Postmedia staggers, bleeding, toward insolvency, we need to ask what its loss means for public discourse in Canada. Former Postmedia stars Kady O'Malley and Stephen Maher join Jesse to try to envision a post-Postmedia future in Canadian journalism. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

Jian Ghomeshi is back and the nation breathes a collective "Ewww...really?" Also, you know things are bad at Postmedia when even the founder of the company is awaiting his pink slip. Plus, CBC finally gets the story of Canada right by just saying " sorry " over and over. Freelance journalist David Berry  joins us. Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for priv...

Is Quebec’s media - like its culture - distinct from the rest of Canada’s? Does national media do a decent job of covering Quebec issues and news? The Globe and Mail’s Montreal bureau chief, Les Perreaux and Laval University’s Centre for Media Studies' director, Colette Brin , set the record straight on prejudices and assumptions many ‘ugly anglos,’ like Jesse, have about the province’s media cult...

CBC’s miniseries “The Story of Us,” is only two episodes in, but manages to upset literally everyone (except Joseph Boyden). Justin Trudeau endorses CBC’s Canada 150 fiasco--and his favourite microbrew, Labatt150. Everyone forgets the Junos were on Sunday and Russell Peters makes a statutory rape joke. The Globe and Mail issues Leah McLaren a gag order, following the coded memo sent out to staff....

Something special to announce today, new show on Thursday.  Link discussed: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-canadaland-guide-to-canada/9781501150630-item.html?ref=item_page%3avariation Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're seeing a simultaneous backlash against both the media and the Jewish community . And there's a place where the two intersect.   Is there an over-concentration of Jews in the media? Well, yeah, probably. So?   We speak with Yoni Goldstein of the Canadian Jewish News , and Sam Bick and David Zinman of the Treyf podcast about Jewish media in Canada, and what its future looks like. Support CANAD...