*This article first appeared on J-Source, the website of the Canadian Journalism Project.

By Bilbo Poynter

September 29, 2009

Is foundation-funded journalism free of ethical landmines? Absolutely not, writes Bilbo Poynter, executive director of the charitable Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting. But with a clearly defined editorial process, ethical advisory boards and the drafting of “firewall statements,” he hopes to ensure editorial integrity.

When I read Stephen J. A. Ward’s recent column,"Journalism in the entrepreneurial age"(Sept. 15, 2009) about the serious ethical considerations for the practitioners of not-for-profit and pay-for journalism when raising funds I immediately wanted to reply. The questions he poses are ones I've been wrestling and reconciling with for the last two years as the executive director of the fledgling and newly charitable Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting (CCIR).

The CCIR in partnership with the National Film Board Mediatheque held a panel discussion in early August on the theme “Is the Mainstream Media Dying? Can Investigative Reporting Save It? Should It?” Gillian Findlay, co-host of CBC-TV's the fifth estate and a CCIR advisory board member, moderated a lively discussion among the panelists Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank and Real News Network founder and senior producer Paul Jay, documentary producer and former head of documentaries at CTV Bob Culbert, as well as the CCIR’s Bruce Livesey.

We were thrilled with the turnout, the lively debate both during the panel and afterward with the audience Q&A. The panel was considered a top-three can't-miss event by NOW Magazine:
http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=170591.

The evening also included a reception for CCIR supporters and potential media partners, including former Ontario Minister of Culture Isabel Bassett as well as representatives of the Canadian Press, the Real News and other news organizations.

For other accounts of the evening, click on the links below. And check back here regularly for upcoming events listings.

http://www.j-source.ca/english_new/detail.php?id=4143&PHPSESSID=1677e2cf...
http://this.org/blog/2009/07/31/is-there-a-saviour-for-journalism/
http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/story.cfm?content=170584

Click here to view the slideshow.

Perhaps the first time you heard about the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting was around our recent media panel, “Is the Mainstream Media Dying? Can Investigative Reporting Save It? Should It?” held at the National Film Board Mediatheque in Toronto.

source: http://www.copyright-free-photos.org.uk/

Statistics hog-tie pig farming to H1N1 cases

By Alex Roslin

August 27, 2009

The Georgia Straight

As hospitals brace for the coming flu season and a possible new surge of H1N1 cases, international data on the flu pandemic shows it has hit Canada worse than almost any other country.

And a close look at the data suggests that a key factor may be something that health authorities have largely overlooked: hog farming.

Canada had the sixth-highest number of H1N1 cases per capita and the fifth-highest per capita rate of H1N1 deaths of all 134 countries and dependencies that had reported flu cases to the World Health Organization as of July 6. (That’s the last date for reliable international comparisons, because the WHO advised countries in early July to stop reporting data on individual H1N1 cases.)

Download a .pdf version of this flyer: here.

Centre Blog

The following column first appeared on www.niemanwatchdog.org June 03, 2009, and is reprinted with permission

Charles Lewis, a longtime innovator in investigative reporting, describes what he calls “a seismic event in the annals of American journalism”—the formation of the new Investigative News Network.

Charles Lewis

Showcase

July 09, 2009

AIDS researchers have struggled to find a cure for the disease for thirty years. But what if they have it all wrong?

Read the latest offering from CCIR Associate Bruce Livesey in the new issue of Maissonneuve

Bruce Livesey

June 22, 2009

JOHN SCYTHES is a 61-year-old with grey bushy hair, pursed lips and a tendency to punctuate his quickly issued sentences with bursts of cackling laughter. He’s never spent a day in medical school, but his knowledge of human illness seems encyclopedic. This is odd given that he earns his living as the owner of Toronto’s Glad Day Bookshop, a small, dusty gay and lesbian bookstore stacked with novels, calendars, posters and steamy Tom of Finland erotica.

Centre Blog

May 21, 2009

Listen to these recent documentaries by CCIR Reporter Susanna Kelley on CBC's the Current.

Former North Spirit Lake Chief, Sally Bunting, now councils community members with addictions (credit: Susanna Kelley)

“. . .While everything looked peaceful from the outside, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) had brought in heavily armed units to where Shawn Brant and other Mohawk Warriors had blockaded Highway 401, the CN Rail line and Highway 2. A group from the community -- including a woman named Mandy Smart -- had gone off to meet with OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino to try to hold off any possible raid because they believed there were children behind the barricades. . .” (from the segment intro, March 26, 2008)

Executive Director Bilbo Poynter and author
Susanne Reber discuss Starlight Tour

The launch of the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting (CCIR) last Saturday, featuring CBC Investigative Producer and CCIR Advisory board member, Susanne Reber was a success.

Reber was speaking at the Skydragon Centre, in downtown Hamilton, about her book, ‘Starlight Tour: The Last Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild’, and on the future of investigative reporting in Canada.

‘Starlight Tour’, the term used to describe the police practice of dropping Native men and women outside of Canadian prairie cities and towns, alleged by First Nations, is the real life account of the last night of Neil Stonechild,