Canada is a country in the northern part of North America, with 10 provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Canada’s southern border with the United States stretches 8,891 kilometres, making it the world’s longest bi-national land border. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau serving as its head of government and Elizabeth II as its queen.
Apart from a limited number of community broadcasters, media in Canada are primarily owned by a small number of companies, including Bell, Corus, Rogers, Newcap and Quebecor. Each of these companies holds a mix of television, radio, newspaper, magazine and internet operations. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, or CBC, is a Canadian federal Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster for both radio and television. Funding for the corporation has often been.
In Fall 2018, the Government of Canada announced a $600-million bailout for print journalism – two tax credits and a measure to encourage charitable donations to eligible journalism organizations. The federal government has come under fire for its controversial decision to appoint legacy media organizations to determine the allocation of funds. Media bloodletting in Canada has been a source of concern for more than decade with more than 1/3 of journalism jobs being lost.
Pointes Protection, the key Ontario Court of Appeal case on Ontario’s Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation law (discussed in an earlier post) is headed to Canada’s top court. Anyone who wants to understand the core of the SLAPP law should read the ONCA’s decision on Pointes, not just for its take on the law itself, … Read moreOntario’s SLAPP law is headed to the Supreme Court of Canada
This is from the introduction of my 2015 book Kill the Messengers: Stephen Harper’s Assault on Your Right to Know, published by HarperCollins. I’m posting it for Press Freedom weekend. How much of it fits today’s political climate? The Harper government has set out to kill many messengers. The media is obviously one of … Read moreIs this the new Canadian political reality?
I’m proud of the work I did as a journalist. I spent almost 40 years in that trade and had articles published in pretty much every major newspaper in the country, along with some magazines. Some of my books were journalism. I wrote the definitive book on domestic press censorship in Canada in the Second … Read moreThe Globe and Mail’s David Walmsley on Press Freedom