Canadian Centre of Investigative Reporting

Statement from the CCIR

admin — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 03:00:17 +0000

It is with regret that we announce that the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting (CCIR) is winding down operations after five years of supporting investigative journalism in Canada.

With your support, the CCIR has supported important and ground-breaking investigative journalism projects, which you can continue to view at this site: canadiancentreinvestigates.org. However, the funding environment for a project of this sort in Canada remains very challenging, and as a result the CCIR has had to make the difficult decision to close its doors.

In the coming weeks we will be filing final reports with the Canadian Revenue Agency to complete the process of formally closing the charitable organization. While we appreciate offers of support, the Centre is not accepting any further donations.

We would like to thank you for having supported the CCIR during its five-year effort to build and promote investigative journalism in Canada.

Bilbo Poynter
Executive Director
CCIR

Investigative Journalism: Can You Fight Poverty With a Five-Star Hotel?

admin — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:05:10 +0000

Bilbo Poynter – “Why, then, did the IFC give a Saudi prince’s company an attractively priced $26 million loan to help build the Mövenpick, a hotel the prince was fully capable of financing himself? The answer is that the IFC’s portfolio of billions of dollars in loans and investments is not in fact primarily targeted at helping the impoverished. At least as important is the goal of making a profit for the World Bank.”

ProPublica, co-produced this long (for online) but compelling story on how the World Bank lending arm, the International Finance Corporation — whose mandate is to alleviate poverty — instead lends billions to the some of the world’s richest corporations and individuals. “The IFC is very profit-focused. The IFC does not address poverty, and its investments rarely touch the poor,”said one former staffer.

The story focuses on an IFC loan to the world’s 29th richest person to build a luxury hotel in Ghana. Internal Bank audits have repeatedly concluded that the IFC loans aren’t flowing to development aid projects.

Included as a sidebar to the piece is an editorial note from ProPublica Editor-in-Chief, Paul Steiger after officials with the World Bank complained that the author didn’t identify herself as representing ProPublica while gathering material for the story.

Resources: This Magazine 2012 Year In Review Needs You

admin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:18:39 +0000

Bilbo Poynter — Our friends at the multiple Magazine of the Year award-winning This Magazine are asking their readers and would-be readers to help them raise enough money to publish a seventh special issue this year. The topic? The 25 Stories You Missed In 2012. For decades This Magazine has published irreverent, investigative reporting. There’s a few more days left to help. Watch this appeal by editor Lauren McKeon here. This Magazine is also the home to my occasional column on the stories the media forgot: @StoriesUndone.

Resources: Sludgewatch

admin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:56:22 +0000

Bilbo Poynter — It’s with sadness that we mark the passing of activist Maureen Reilly. Reilly, from Toronto, maintained the listserv Sludgewatch, which was a great resource for news about toxic dumping and hazardous waste and I know that various of us at the CCIR had sought Reilly out for her expertise and tips on these issues. Reilly passed earlier this month at the age of 58.

Investigative Journalism: Immigration Detention in Canada

admin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:43:58 +0000

Bilbo Poynter — There was a flurry of activity and a number of reports on the issue of immigration detention in Canada earlier this month. I contributed a double-feature looking at the multi-billion dollar private prison industry’s interest in Canada’s immigration detention system in the Guardian, while the CBC looked specifically at the impact on children caught behind the wire of Canada’s immigration system — and this on the heels of a mass detention of an alleged Roma smuggling ring in which dozens of children have been detained by Canada Border Services. The rights organization No One Is Illegal also produced an interesting video about detention in Canada.

Resources: Google Journalism Fellowship Applications Open

admin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:14:46 +0000

Bilbo Poynter — An opportunity for tech-savvy students out there: Google has announced that their 2013 Journalism Fellowship is now open for applications. Students in any field who demonstrate, among other qualities, “a commitment to journalism – especially in the fields of data driven journalism or freedom of expression online,” are encouraged to apply, and it includes time at some of the heavy-hitters in the non-profit journalism world, including, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CA), the Committee to Protect Journalists, Investigative Reporters & Editors, the Knight Foundation, Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, the Poynter Institute, Nieman Journalism Lab and ProPublica. There is a $7,500 USD stipend and a travel budget of $1000 . . . what’s not clear is if this is open to students outside of the U.S.? Go ahead apply now. journalismfellowship@google.com

Resources: 2012 IN REVIEW: setbacks for Canadian democracy in 2012

admin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:50:19 +0000

Bilbo Poynter — CCIR advisory board member and award-winning CBC radio producer Bob Carty has asked us to pass along word to any journalists out there working on 2012 political year-in-review stories that you are invited to speak to the Voices-Voix Strategy Group, “which includes representatives from prominent human rights and social justice organizations in Canada, including Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for International Co-operation and Oxfam Canada, as well as prominent human rights lawyers and advocates, and members of the labour movement,” about the state of Canadian democracy. For those interested contact Steve Smith steve@voices-voix.ca 514-892-0237.

Resources: Wayback Machine

admin — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:08:49 +0000

Alex Roslin – I’ve just come across this cool resource: the “Wayback Machine.”

It’s an amazing search engine that lets you look through billions of archived webpages going back to the ancient early days of the web in 1996.

It includes a blog, discussion forum, educational resources for kids interested in archiving pages of historic value and an archiving service. Also available are various web collections of pages on topics like Hurricane Katrina and pioneering websites.

Investigative Journalism: Fukushima Waste Being Stored at Playgrounds, Schools With Little Oversight

admin — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 02:16:03 +0000

Alex Roslin – Here’s a new one from the Fukushima file.

While Japan’s government continues to struggle to deal with the Fukushima nuclear disaster, local communities are storing radioactive dirt, sludge and debris in playgrounds and other public places, according to this excellent Christian Science Monitor report.

In one city 150 miles north of Tokyo, groups of children played in a playground where hundreds of bags of the radioactive waste were stored a few feet underground in an unmarked, unfenced corner, the reporter discloses.

While government scientists assure that the risk of the radioactive isotopes in the waste seeping into the groundwater “quickly” is “low,” there is no mention of an actual risk assessment or method used to calculate that risk.

And of course, local residents are flabbergasted. One found that at least 20 other such disposal sites in parks and public spaces exist in his city alone. It’s not clear if there’s any monitoring of whether radioisotopes are leeching out, and officials even refuse to put up signs.

Across Fukushima prefecture, waste was being stored at 1,027 schools and 788 parks, according to the story, which says the sites are “scantily regulated.”

Resources: Turn Your Investigation Into an E-book

admin — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:09:10 +0000

Bilbo Poynter – A tip we’re borrowing from supporter and investigative journalist Julian Sher; the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has an interesting article, Why You Should Turn Your Investigative Report Into An E-Book, encouraging journalists contemplating longer features to turn these into e-books. The article cites some recent examples and makes the case that e readers such as Kindles and other tablets are making longer investigations accessible to a wider audience. Toronto-based investigative journalist Paula Todd recently turned her discovery of the whereabouts of convicted killer Karla Holmolka into a popular e-book.