Long-time CTV producer and host Heinz Avigdor dead at 80

Heinz Avigdor

Heinz Avigdor, long-time CTV producer and host on Live it Up has died at age 80. A memorial event is planned for May 3rd in Toronto,
Globe and Mail death notice

Climate scientist Andrew Weaver wins defamation case against National Post

The Star's Rachel Mendleson writes:
"Climate scientist Andrew Weaver has won a closely watched defamation lawsuit against the National Post, after a B.C. Supreme Court found the newspaper was 'careless or indifferent to the accuracy of the facts' in a series of articles published in 2009 and 2010.
"Justice Emily Burke awarded Weaver, a former University of Victoria professor and current B.C. Green Party MLA, $50,000 in damages. She also ordered the Post to remove the offending articles from its websites and electronic databases, as well as publish 'a complete retraction' of the defamatory statements, 'in a form agreed to by' Weaver.
"However, in the first court decision in Canada to address the issue of whether a newspaper can be liable for reader postings on its website, she sided with the Post, which had argued it was not the publisher of the comments, and had removed them."
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Postmedia cuts national writer jobs, offers newsroom buyouts

The Globe and Mail reports that Postmedia Network Canada Corp. has cut the jobs of several national writers and offered voluntary buyouts to newsroom staff at the Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen and Windsor Star.
Employees learned of the latest round of cost-cutting on Thursday, as Postmedia continues to slash spending in the face of diminishing advertising revenue and high costs to service a long-term debt that stands at $483.5-million.
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Brian Williams admits he wasn’t on copter shot down in Iraq

The NBC News anchor Brian Williams apologized Wednesday for mistakenly claiming he had been on a helicopter that was shot down by ground fire in Iraq in 2003.

Last week, NBC Nightly News filmed Mr. Williams taking a soldier to a New York Rangers game. The public address announcer at the game explained to the crowd that “U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major Tim Terpak was responsible for the safety of Brian Williams and his NBC News team after their Chinook helicopter was hit and crippled by enemy fire” during the invasion of Iraq. 

Mr. Terpak received a standing ovation, and, on Facebook, where NBC posted a video of the story, Mr. Williams was also praised. But one commenter cast doubt on the story, which Mr. Williams also told in vivid and specific detail to David Letterman in 2013. 

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Australian Al Jazeera reporter freed from Egyptian jail, Canadian still held

AP reports that Al Jazeera English reporter Peter Greste left Egypt on Sunday after the president approved his deportation, but there’s no word on jailed colleagues Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed. Greste was released after more than a year behind bars in a case that was widely condemned by rights groups. An Egyptian prison official and the nation’s official news agency said Greste was released following a presidential “approval.” The official and an Interior Ministry statement said his release was an implementation of the new deportation law passed last year.
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