Author: taudette

Of energy futures, jobs in 2030, and what it’s like to be the new #ndpldr in Ottawa https://t.co/xcWQdFIB3D #cdnpoli

— Trish Audette-Longo (@taudette) October 19, 2017

My piece on how prayers were entered into the record during the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline hearings is part of this beautiful collection of essays, published by Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities and co-edited by Susie O’Brien and Cheryl Lousley. Read their introduction here, drawing links across case studies and conceptualizations of environmental futurity.

For the latest on the Enbridge Northern Gateway project:

• Trudeau cabinet approves Trans Mountain, Line 3 pipelines, rejects Northern Gateway

To consider how it might connect to other pipeline projects:

• Court overturns Ottawa’s approval of Northern Gateway pipeline
• Kinder Morgan asked about Indigenous consent in Vancouver court

And, you should read Tyler McCreary’s piece on the hearings, “Beyond Token Recognition: The Growing Movement against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project,” in A Line in the Tar Sands.

I began working at The Edmonton Journal in 2005, as a paid summer intern. I had left my job at The Standard in St. Catharines, Ont., for the chance to work at a major urban daily.

I was thrilled to find so many people milling about the Journal‘s newsroom on my first day. Sports, lifestyle, entertainment, and editorial folks worked in other areas of the newsroom, and there was a whole team of photographers. Support staff sometimes transcribed reporters’ taped interviews, and kept everything running so smoothly. People had time to mentor me and the seven other interns. They read our work, shared their expertise, and led workshops to improve our interview skills. More than one person could take time to craft feature stories, go on the road, or assemble binders dedicated to cracking the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy system. There were librarians who supported our research and many different editors to argue with and challenge us through the day.

I was living the journalism dreams I had adapted somewhere between the first time I saw a printing press in the basement of my hometown newspaper office, and when I graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism.

After my first summer, I moved onto the crime desk for a one-year contract. I was then made a permanent reporter, and eventually found my way to the Alberta Legislature beat before getting to cover the environment. By the time I left in 2012, I had mentored summer interns, perfected the art of packing fast to hit the road when necessary, planned feature story packages, and got to assign stories and edit copy on weekend shifts.

But my journalism dreams do not quite square with the realities of today’s newsrooms.

In some ways, my journalism career was very small compared to the fascinating opportunities afforded by new and alternative media. In other ways, however, it is difficult to replicate as new newsrooms, with fewer people and different approaches to coverage, emerge.

In the last decade, newsrooms across the country have cut people, sections, and/or distribution services in order to reduce costs.

This year, for example, The Journal was hit by a whole new round of layoffs. It was gut-churning to watch from the outside, as fragmented social media updates tumbled in from friends and former colleagues. From the inside, former editor-in-chief Margo Goodhand offered a great deal of insight here, and reporter Jana Pruden made it real in a series of Twitter updates you can read here. According to reports, Postmedia was again scaling back costs across the chain in an effort to turn a profit. The Journal’s newsroom would be merged, more or less, with that of the recently-acquired Edmonton Sun’s.

These kinds of cuts and scale-backs have impacts on communities, how they see themselves, and democracy.

If mainstream outlets fall back, what happens to journalism now?

Against this backdrop, earlier this year I reached out to Karen Unland, a former Journal editor, a new media entrepreneur, and one of my very favourite people on the planet. I wanted to do something, to explore the effects of a swiftly changing journalism landscape for people living in Edmonton, in Alberta, and in Canada.

It seemed fortuitous, really, that the annual National Newspaper Awards–an event that celebrates the best print journalism in Canada–would be held in Edmonton in May.

Karen approached Brian Gorman, an assistant professor of communication studies at MacEwan University and the author of the recently released Crash to Paywall: Canadian Newspapers and the Great Disruption.

Together, we hatched a plan to bring media practitioners, educators, and Edmontonians together to talk about “a blueprint for a new free press.”

We have so many questions for the panelists who have agreed to join us. Questions like: what happens now? what will journalism look like in the future? how will it be funded? what does it all mean for communities?

If you’re in Edmonton on May 26, come out and contribute your thoughts and your questions. Here are the details:

Journalist Interrupted: Towards a blueprint for a new free press

Panelists:

• *UPDATE* Jorge Barrera, online journalist for APTN
• Linda Solomon Wood, CEO of Observer Media Group and editor-in-chief of The National Observer
• Kelly Toughill, director of the School of Journalism at University of King’s College in Halifax
• Karen Unland, entrepreneurial journalist and founder of Seen and Heard in Edmonton

When: 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m., Thursday, May 26, 2016

Where: CN Conference Theatre, MacEwan University – Room 5-142 (105th Street Building) 10700 104 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 4S2

Register: http://journalistinterrupted.eventbrite.com

Have you heard the one about the prime minister, the bear, and the bar?

Tabatha Southey’s pitch-perfect column in the Globe, “A prime minister and his bear walk into a bar…,” is a must-read going into the final days of the 2015 election. Because in a way, it pushes back against the moments when we (I) have dismissed campaign distractions, and forces us to take a second, harder look at precisely what matters (and why).

In 2014, during Quebec’s provincial election, Quebecers were also faced with questions of belonging, and representations and rights of minority groups and religions. Reflecting this situation and the greater context of provincial politics, a group of independent media producers called their documentary about the Charter of Quebec Values “La charte des distractions.” Acknowledging campaigns may be trying to draw our attention away from other issues does not negate the need to critically analyze how so-called distractions work.

So while I may tend to agree with Southey’s imaginary bar patron who asks after the environment — or, for more clear perspective, the Assembly of First Nations Ontario Regional Chief quoted in this episode of The Current on CBC who notes the absence of clean drinking water in many indigenous communities continues to be overlooked  — I can’t look away, either. And so here are stories that take up both the environment, and questions of the niqab and citizenship rights, lingering on the challenges voters face:

• In an opinion piece for The Globe and Mail, a former B.C. attorney general argues that, faced with a range of political positions on most fronts — including the environment — that may or may not be so different, the question of whether voters will allow there to be “two types of Canadians” ought to be a determining factor this election.
• The Independent, a London, U.K.-based newspaper, offers a lengthy analysis of the Canadian election under the headline, “Anti-Muslim prejudice is a nasty theme of campaigning as the liberal nation’s democracy loses its way”, while another U.K.-based newspaper, The Guardian, touches on issues of the niqab and the “barbaric cultural practices” hotline — as well as Canada’s responsibilities on climate change and our record on oil production — in this opinion piece.
• Canadian author Joseph Boyden, in this radio interview and Maclean’s article, argues: “The real issue is the economy, which is wobbly right now. […] The real issue is the environment, which is screwed. The real issue is First Nations issues. The fastest growing population in our country are second-class citizens, and yet we’re talking about niqabs.” (If you listen to the radio interview, the interviewer goes to great lengths to play devil’s advocate on what would constitute “barbaric cultural practices” at the start of the interview, while taking a pass on the opportunity raised to talk about oil and the environment.)
• This piece was published over a week ago, but highlights how Thomas Mulcair engaged oil pipeline and niqab issues when he was on Tout le monde en parle, and why this careful engagement is important in Quebec.

The other paddle

Pulling back, the last days of the election are not without a number of questions about how the economy will fare after Oct. 19.

• This Bloomberg story outlines potential post-election effects on the oil industry.
• Should he take the lead in forming government, Justin Trudeau commits in this interview to a quick turnaround on a federal budget and prep meetings for international climate change talks later in the fall.
• This CBC story showcases the extent to which the middle class is the main electoral battleground between now and Monday.
• Brad Wall talks about a post-election Saskatchewan economy in this story, and comes down hard on the NDP.
• Elizabeth May walked with anti-pipeline protesters in Montreal on the weekend, making clear the Green Party’s continued opposition to projects like 9B and Energy East, which would move unrefined bitumen from Alberta to broader markets.

On climate change

• GreenPAC asks, “Which Canada will you send to the climate talks in Paris this December?”
• A UBC political scientist writes, “Party leaders are avoiding some inconvenient truths about climate change”
• Greenpeace encourages you to vote for the climate — here is their link, and a story from Alternatives Journal

Vote!

When I started this blog in August, I promised I wouldn’t tell you how to vote. And I still won’t tell you who I think you should vote for. (Chances are, even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t know.)

But, if you haven’t already voted in advance, do cast a ballot on Monday, Oct. 19. Here are some necessary details from Elections Canada.