Hey parliamentary press and national media – wake up!

 Above: RCMP officers physically remove Keean Bexte, a Rebel News journalist, from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's daily press conference. Inset, Justin Trudeau and CBC's Rosemary Barton taking a selfie together. When a journalist is arrested at a protest, the free and fair gathering of the news is arrested, too. When a journalist is arrested by

Rigorous journalism can save us from fake news

 By Senator Raymonde Saint-Germain and Senator Art Eggleton “Journalists are like firefighters: you may not need them every day, but you want to know they’re there to protect you.”  Veteran journalist, Edward Greenspon used this analogy at a recent Senate Open Caucus meeting held to discuss threats to traditional journalism

When Media Stories Get Things Wrong: Five Things About Autism That Everyone Should Know

 Too often well-meaning journalists get it wrong when they write about autism.  It’s not so much the content of their stories that misses the mark as the language they use to describe autism itself.  It can be easy to unintentionally offend – or worse, misrepresent – the autism community you

Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah

 Author: Anna Badkhen Riverhead Books, New York, 2015 Reviewed by Don MacLean Anna Badkhen’s wonderful book Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah documents her journeys with members of the nomadic Fulani, perhaps the largest group of nomads living today. The Mali-based Fulani migrate across the

OLM Argued the Case Against Mike Duffy was Groundless Back in May

 Update: Today all 31 charges were dismissed against Sen. Mike Duffy. Below you can find an article Ottawa Life Magazine publisher Dan Donovan wrote last May, arguing that Duffy was being unfairly targeted by the media. Today, the judge confirmed this suspicion. 21st Century Lynching and Shakespearean Tragedy Take Centre Stage

Crimea Uncensored: A Look from Inside the Peninsula

 Photo courtesy: Igor Mazurov, Flickr In 2014, on a sunny August day, my spouse and I were on our way to Crimea. We were driving along the shorelines of the Black Sea, curving green hills of the Caucasian Mountains. I have been following the Crimean crisis from home in Ottawa, watching

Oil: A High-Stakes Game of Chance

 Popular wisdom has it that the only certainty in life is death and taxes. Until a few short months ago, most economists, politicians, political pundits and journalists would have added to that short list a perpetual increase in the price of oil. But, in today’s interconnected world, much can happen