Craig Oliver's reporter daughter kicked out of Gatineau courtroom over dress

CTV Ottawa's Annie Bergeron-Oliver says she was kicked out of the Gatineau courthouse because her skirt was too short and her shoulders were exposed.
She was in court to cover a manslaughter case Thursday morning when a male police officer approached her and said she'd have to step out.
"Of course, I'm confused. I don't have my cell phone out. I'm not eating. I don't think I've broken any rules," she told CFRA's Ottawa Now. "So he pulls me outside and says 'I'm sorry. Your skirt is too short. ' "
Bergeron-Oliver says she asked the bailiffs what the Quebec courtroom rule specifically said. They said it was only that people had to be dressed respectfully and the no-shoulders or over-the-knee dress rule was of their own interpretation.
"It's not an actually written rule," she said.
Bergeron-Oliver says she almost missed getting her story because of rules she says she didn't know existed.
"I've never been through this before so for me it was a little be frustrating and kind of shocking, to be honest."
Ms Bergeron-Oliver is the daughter of veteran CTV reporter Craig Oliver.
Link to story with photo

Corus cancels Global's '16X9' news program

Corus Entertainment has cancelled the Global TV investigative news program "16X9" after eight seasons and has let go "The Morning Show" co-host Liza Fromer, CP reports.

"As we continue to evolve our business alongside the changing and competitive media landscape, we made a number of changes across our properties this week," Rishma Govani, spokeswoman for Global News, said Tuesday in an email to The Canadian Press.                      

Govani said Fromer's position will not be filled. She added the company is making "internal reorganizations" meant to eliminate "duplicate costs, capture operating efficiencies and create the structure that will enable future growth."                        

"16X9" had been airing since 2008 and won numerous honours, including two Canadian Screen Awards.

Its cancellation was "purely a business decision" and not a reflection of the work done on the show, said Govani.

"16X9" host Carolyn Jarvis will take on the role of chief investigative correspondent for a new "network investigations unit to work with local teams across all platforms, including radio."

Superior Court of Ontario to notify media of publication ban requests by email

The Star's Alyshah Hasham writes:

"The Superior Court of Ontario is launching a service to notify media when publication bans are requested, which media lawyers say will result in increased transparency and accountability in the courts.

"The email alert system, which starts July 1, comes 22 years after a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision found judges could order that the media be given notice when discretionary publication bans are sought.

“'(The) publication ban notification system will enhance access to justice, including the openness and transparency of court proceedings,' said Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Ontario Heather Smith in a statement. 'It clarifies the process that parties must follow if they intend to ask the Court to impose a discretionary publication ban in a proceeding. This includes giving notice to the media, so that they can attend and seek standing to make submissions about the proposed publication ban, in accordance with Supreme Court of Canada case law.'”

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Ron MacLean confirmed as host of ‘Hockey Night in Canada’

Ron MacLean is officially back as host of “Hockey Night in Canada.”

Sportsnet confirmed Monday that the veteran broadcaster will replace George Stroumboulopoulos in the main chair next season, returning to a role he held for nearly 30 years.

MacLean will host the early game Saturday night while David Amber will front the late game.

Sportsnet says Stroumboulopoulos is leaving “to explore new creative opportunities.” (CP)

Bill Cunningham, legendary New York Times fashion photographer, dies at 87

Bill Cunningham

Bill Cunningham, the street-style photographer whose photo essays for The New York Times memorialized trends ranging from fanny packs to Birkin bags, gingham shirts and fluorescent biker shorts, died in New York on Saturday. He was 87. Writing in the New York Times, Jacob Bernstein notes that Cunningham had been hospitalized recently after having a stroke.

"In his nearly 40 years working for The Times,  Cunningham operated both as a dedicated chronicler of fashion and as an unlikely cultural anthropologist, one who used the changing dress habits of the people he photographed to chart the broader shift away from formality and toward something more diffuse and individualistic," Bernstein writes.

Link to New York Times obit and slide show

George Will leaves the GOP

Conservative columnist George Will has left the Republican Party.
The longtime commentator reportedly made the announcement during a Federalist Society event in Washington, D.C., on Friday, the website Politico reports.
Trump attacked the Washington Post columnist as a “major loser” last month, criticizing a column Will wrote, headlined “If Trump is nominated, the GOP must keep him out of the White House.”

Federal government showering U.S. Internet giants with ad dollars. Canadian media gets clobbered

Sam Moore writes in the National Observer:
"Canadian media is losing one of its steadiest advertising partners. Over the last two years, the federal government has radically shifted its digital advertising away from websites of Canadian news organizations towards services like Facebook, Twitter, and Google and it's feeding into a grim outlook for the country's journalists.
"The shift comes as many Canadian media outlets are facing a crisis because of a collapse in advertising dollars that are being sucked up by the American social media giants. Google, Facebook and Twitter reap the benefits of top advertising dollars in Canada, even though they generally do not produce any journalism and largely avoid having to pay Canadian taxes."
The full story

Author Steven Galloway fired from UBC after investigation of ‘serious allegations’

Te Globe and Mail's Marsha Lederman reports:

"Award-winning Canadian author Steven Galloway has been terminated by the University of British Columbia, which cited 'a record of misconduct that resulted in an irreparable breach of the trust.'

"Philip Steenkamp, the university’s vice-president of external relations would not disclose the nature of the allegations, which were identified as 'serious' when Mr. Galloway was suspended last November as chair of the creative writing program and associate professor.

"His termination – which comes without a severance or package, according to UBC – follows a months-long investigation by the university and a retired judge who was brought in to oversee the file.

"Mr. Galloway is the best-selling author of novels such as The Cellist of Sarajevo and The Confabulist. When reached by The Globe and Mail on Wednesday morning, he said he was unable to comment on the investigation or the outcome."

Full story

Liberals seek outside advice as they mull policy help for struggling news media

CP's Bruce Cheadle reports that the government has enlisted the independent Public Policy Forum to assess the state of Canada's struggling news industry as it mulls over potential policy options.
A rash of newspaper closures and newsroom layoffs this past winter, combined with a looming debt bomb for Postmedia Network Canada Corp., Canada's largest newspaper chain, has added a sense of urgency to a decade-long disruption of the journalism that Heritage Minister Melanie Joly's office says "plays a central role in a healthy democracy."
The Commons heritage committee has already begun hearings on how Canadians, and particularly local communities, are being served "through news, broadcasting, digital and print media," according to a February committee motion.
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Evan Solomon named host of CTV's Question Period, replaces Robert Fife

CTV News has announced that Evan Solomon has been appointed host of the Sunday program Question Period. His role starts when the program returns in September. Solomon was bounced from the CBC news channel's Power and Politics program when it was revealed that he had commercial art dealings with people who had appeared on the program.
 Solomon replaces Robert Fife who joined the Globe and Mail but continued to hos the TV program. That gig has now apparently ended for him.

Canadian entertainment and media sector in for a rough five years: Study

The Canadian entertainment and media sector can expect slow growth and will lag behind the global economy for the next five years, says a report Monday by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
According to the firm’s global entertainment and media outlook, business in the sector will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 3.5 per cent, to US$50 billion in 2020 from US$43.8 billion in 2015. That’s a considerable decrease from last year’s five per cent growth.
PwC says it expects steady growth in Internet advertising, mobile technology, and online video streaming, while it says the recent downturn in newspaper publishing will accelerate. The report predicts that Internet advertising revenues, for example, will rise at a CAGR of 9.8 per cent to 2020, reaching US$6.17 billion.
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Ron MacLean to replace Strombo on Hockey Night in Canada: Feschuk

George Stroumboulopoulos won’t return as host of Hockey Night in Canada next season, the Star's Dave Feschuk writes, quoting "sources."

His replacement will be Ron MacLean whom he replaced. He is expected to return to the show’s No. 1 seat just two seasons after Stroumboulopoulos was hired with much fanfare in the wake of Rogers’ $5.2-billion acquisition of NHL broadcasting rights.

MacLean occupied the job from 1986 until 2014. Since then, he has hosted Sunday night Hometown Hockey broadcasts and worked Saturdays alongside Don Cherry on Coach’s Corner. It’s expected he will continue those roles in addition to resuming the main HNIC hosting gig — the highest-profile position in Canadian sports broadcasting.

The ouster of Stroumboulopoulos marks a strategic about-face for Rogers, which sublicenses Hockey Night in Canada to CBC. In 2014, executives remade the

CRTC shifts $90-million to support local television news

The Globe and Mail's James Bradshaw writes:

"The federal broadcast regulator is reshuffling support for local television, promising up to $90-million in existing annual funding could be shifted to support local news programs, many of which are suffering from dramatic shifts in the media landscape.

"But to get their share, the largest companies will have to keep all their stations open.

"A new framework released on Wednesday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is designed to keep current levels of local news programming on air as local broadcasters endure steep declines in advertising revenue and the threat of stations going out of business.

"The CRTC’s review of local and community TV, which launched last September, was always going to be a zero-sum game. The regulator has insisted from the start that “there is sufficient funding within the broadcasting system” to sustain quality local programming. The new policy will shift more of those dollars to the creation of local news programs, mostly at the expense of public-access community channels."

Full story

CRA put liens on Conrad Black home fearing flight from tax debts

Robert Fife reports in the Globe:

"The Canada Revenue Agency says it placed liens on Conrad Black’s Toronto mansion because it believed the former media magnate could skip the country without paying $31-million in tax debts to the Canadian and U.S. governments.

"Documents filed in Federal Court proceedings related to the liens reveal that Mr. Black, who gave up his Canadian citizenship to sit in the British House of Lords, has little money left in his Canadian bank accounts and has made no attempt to renew a temporary residence permit that expires in September.

 "The documents say that Mr. Black, who has sold all his property in the United States and Britain, has refused to provide a bank letter of credit to secure his income tax debt on the sale of his Toronto mansion at 26 Park Lane Circle."
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‘Border Security’ TV show cancelled after watchdog finds privacy violation

Canada’s border agency is pulling the plug on the controversial reality TV program Border Security after the federal privacy commissioner found the agency violated the rights of a construction worker filmed during a raid in Vancouver, CP reports.

Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien recently informed the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, which spearheaded a complaint on behalf of Oscar Mata Duran, that the Canada Border Services Agency breached the Privacy Act by allowing production company Force Four to film the agency’s examination of the migrant labourer.

“As a matter of principle, it is our view that federal government institutions cannot contract out of their obligations under the Act,” says the commissioner’s 26-page report of findings.

In light of the well-founded complaint, Therrien’s office recommended the border agency end its participation in the television program, which the agency agreed to do.

Agency spokeswoman Esme Bailey confirmed that Border Security: Canada’s Front Line would not return for a fourth season.

Border Security began airing on the National Geographic Channel in 2012, chronicling encounters between border officers and the public.

Full CP story

Life at the Washington Post under Jeff Bezos

Excerpt from the Poynter web page:
"The Washington Post's era-ending handoff to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the current state of the paper under his ownership are all described in a report published today by The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School.
"Much of the report, by Northeastern University professor Dan Kennedy, is drawn from new interviews with Washington Post Editor Marty Baron, Chief Information Officer Shailesh Prakash other Post staffers. There's also a fair bit of dot-connecting here, weaving original information together with reports published elsewhere to paint a comprehensive picture of life at Washington, D.C.'s paper of record."
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Arthur Kent awarded $200K in defamation lawsuit against Postmedia, Don Martin

Arthur Kent has won his defamation lawsuit against Don Martin and Postmedia, the CBC reports.
Justice Jo'Anne Strekaf awarded Kent $200,000 in general damages — $150,000 in general damages from Martin and Postmedia and another $50,000 from Postmedia for continuing to keep Martin's column online.
"Its continued availability and the potential for it to be viewed online until November 2012 caused significant ongoing stress to Mr. Kent," wrote Strekaf in her 60-page decision.
"He suffered substantial distress and damage as a result of the defamatory factual statements in the article that were not saved by the defences of justification or responsible communications on matters of public interest."
Kent — who was nicknamed the "Scud Stud" for his reporting for the American network NBC during the Persian Gulf War — has waged a prolonged lawsuit against Don Martin, Postmedia and the National Post over an article written during his bid for a seat as a Progressive Conservative in the 2008 Alberta election.
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Union calls for independent investigation into Toronto Star reporter’s death

"The union that represents employees of the Toronto Star is calling on the newspaper’s management to organize an independent, third-party investigation into the death of one of its reporters and the 'events surrounding the tragedy.'” Sean Craig of the National Post reports.
“'We want the third-party investigator’s mandate to include workplace health and safety, and harassment issues,' said the memo, signed by UNIFOR’s Steve Gjorkes.
"According to a memo obtained by the National Post, Unifor Local 87-M made the request to company officials Tuesday, after the death of global environment reporter Raveena Aulakh, 42, on the weekend of May 28"
"Sources confirmed to the Post that Aulakh took her own life. She left a note in the newsroom, which was discovered by colleagues.

"Aulakh requested that no obituary be published in the paper, and sources confirmed that the Star and its staff are honouring her request."

 Link

The cat is out of the bag: It's Ben Mulroney in the mornings on CTV

John Doyle asks: "How much Ben Mulroney can Canada take?"
His column:

"In the annals of Canadian television, few persons – man, woman or child – have the status of Ben Mulroney.

"This is, after all, a man who tied with the Canadian Tire Guy for Most Irritating Canadian (TV-related) back in the year 2004. And now, people of Canada, prepare yourselves. Mulroney will co-host CTV’s new morning show Your Morning. He’ll be on the national network for three hours in the morning, day after day after day.

"I ask you: How much Ben Mulroney can Canada take?

The just-announced show, the ostensible replacement for Canada AM, has Mulroney co-hosting with Anne-Marie Mediwake (ex of CBC and Global and “trusted news veteran,” says CTV) along with “co-anchors” Melissa Grelo (from The Social), Lindsey Deluce (CP24 Breakfast), and Kelsey McEwen."

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The Star's Peter Edwards' Book on the Rizzutos to become a movie

From the Montreal Gazette:
The “limited event drama Bad Blood: The Vito Rizzuto Story,” is part of the 2016-2017 program schedule announced today in Toronto by City television.
“Inspired by reputed mobster Vito Rizzuto, and based on the best-selling book, Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War by Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards, Bad Blood: The Vito Rizzuto Story is a six-part … scripted limited event series debuting on City and FX in 2017. While imprisoned in Colorado’s Supermax Prison for the murders of three Bonanno family members, Rizzuto watches helplessly as the thriving empire he built is dismantled, and his closest friends and family members are mysteriously murdered one by one. When Rizzuto is finally released from prison, a Shakespearean-level revenge tale plays out – leading to the brutal murders of his closest companions, and ultimately the death of Rizzuto himself. Bad Blood: The Vito Rizzuto Story is produced by New Metric Media, Sphere Media and DHX Media. Writers and Executive Producers are Michael Konyves (Barney’s Version) and Simon Barry (Van Helsing).”
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Problem facing Canadian media goes beyond loss of Canada AM

Wade Rowland writes:
"Bell Media's brusque announcement that it is killing Canada AM represents more than the loss of a morning news and current affairs program with a 40-year legacy. It is further evidence that private television, now in the hands of a clutch of corporate behemoths, is no longer in the business of serving the public interest.
"It may come as a surprise to some readers that in law and regulation, the federal government continues to regard the entire Canadian broadcasting system as a public service-oriented enterprise. Under the current "Broadcasting Act, responsibility for providing citizens with quality news, information, and entertainment is shared between private industry and our public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada, both of which are heavily subsidized."
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NPR photographer, interpreter killed In Afghanistan

David Gilkey, an NPR photojournalist who chronicled pain and beauty in war and conflict, was killed in Afghanistan on Sunday along with NPR's Afghan interpreter Zabihullah Tamanna.
David and Zabihullah were on assignment for the network traveling with an David was 50 and Zabihullah, who for years also worked as a photographer, was 38-years-old.Afghan army unit, which came under attack killing David and Zabihullah, NPR reports.

Peter Mansbridge receives RTNDA lifetime achievement award

Peter Mansbridge has been honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) awards gala, recognizing the remarkable decades-long career of CBC News's chief correspondent.
Mansbridge is receiving the award Saturday night during a gala event in Toronto as part of the RTDNA's national conference.

Ezra Levant sues Twitter user who criticized Rebel Media crowdfunding campaign for Fort Mac

The Globe and Mail's Simon Houpt reports:

"Ezra Levant, the proprietor of upstart news and commentary site Rebel Media, is suing an online antagonist for defamation over a series of tweets that suggested a Rebel-sponsored crowdfunding campaign for Fort "McMurray was financially benefiting Mr. Levant.

In a statement of claim filed last week in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, Mr. Levant charges that Adam Stirling defamed him by tweeting that the campaign, which sought to raise $100,000 that Rebel would then donate to the Red Cross, could result in a tax writeoff and other benefits for Mr. Levant.

"The campaign, on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, began on May 4 and is scheduled to conclude Friday. As of midday Thursday, it had raised more than $162,000 from 1,094 backers."

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CTV cancels Canada AM (No, not an April Fool's joke!)

CTV said this morning that it is cancelling Canada AM, one of the longest running morning television shows in Canada’s history, the Star reports.

“We are so deeply honoured that for more than 40 years, you have invited us into your living rooms to share a coffee, the day’s top news and the occasional laugh or two,” the show’s producers announced on Facebook Thursday morning.

The producers said that Friday will be the show’s final broadcast.

“We are incredibly thankful to our viewers from coast-to-coast-to-coast who have been with us on this journey and a heartfelt part of our TV family all these years,” co-hosts Beverly Thomson, Marci Ien and Jeff Hutcheson said in a joint statement published on CTV News online.

“We are extremely proud of Canada AM. It has been our privilege to be part of this historic Canadian series that brought us the opportunity to work with such an incredible team.”

Full story
John Doyle column