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    CBC Ombudsman: Twitter Turmoil

    In April, a man driving a van deliberately ran into civilians on a stretch of Toronto’s Yonge Street. The complainant, Mohamed Jiavdheen, objected to a tweet describing the driver, based on an eyewitness as “Middle Eastern.” He thought it irresponsible to publish that description before the information was verified. While live reporting breaking news will…

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    CBC Ombudsman: Election balance on Ontario today

    The complainant, Marc Poitras, thought the host of Ontario Today behaved differently to the callers on the edition which focused on the Progressive Conservative party, during the recent provincial election. He felt she was rude and dismissive. The host was challenging, as she was during episodes focused on other parties. There was no violation of…

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    CBC Ombudsman: Polish perspective

    The complainant, Bodgan Gawroński, objected to an interview with historian Jan Grabowski on CBC Radio programme Day 6. He thought it was biased and that Mr. Grabowski represented an extreme position, blaming the Polish nation for the crimes of the Germans during World War II. The interview concerned the new Polish anti-defamation law and the…

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    CBC Ombudsman: Framing creates balance

    The complainant, Ira Zbarsky, objected to a story covering pro and anti-Kinder Morgan pipeline demonstrations. He said they were framed as equal. Programmers agreed with his assessment shortly after the story went up, and it was rewritten. He was not satisfied and wished to know how it happened and what consequences there might be. Here’s…

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    CBC Ombudsman: Pay the piper

    The complainant, Christopher Budgell, wanted to know why Sunday Edition host Michael Enright was able to attend the Canadian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies’ week-long lecture series in Cambridge, England. He thought it inappropriate for a journalist to be there and was a conflict of interest. He also wanted to know who paid his expenses.…

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    CBC Ombudsman: Tough, not biased

    The complainant, Isi Erez, thought Carol Off showed her personal feelings through an angry interview with an Israeli politician. Tone is somewhat subjective – the interview was probing but I did not detect anger. The questions were challenging but did not violate policy. COMPLAINT You found an interview Carol Off did with Sharren Haskel, a…

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    CBC Ombudsman: Writing analysis: Conclusions require attribution and explanation

    The complainant, Eric Wredenhagen, Registrar and CEO of the College of Massage Therapists of British Columbia, thought an analysis piece regarding the deficiencies in reports about disciplinary actions from various health care colleges was opinion and not analysis. He also said the reporter did not properly identify the purpose of her inquiries. The report failed…

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    CBC Ombudsman: Precision matters

    The complainant, Adam Lewis, said that there was an error of fact in a piece about a Russian-owned, U.S.-based uranium mining company. There had been an ongoing controversy regarding the approval of a deal under the Obama administration which gave Russia an interest in U.S. uranium production. CBCnews.ca provided analysis because the issue was back…

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    CBC Ombudsman: Recording conversations – consent and its limits

    The complainant, Matt Whitman, is a Halifax city councillor. He did a phone interview in which he said he was never told he was being recorded, nor that the interview was on the record. The reporter said that she had informed Mr. Whitman that she had turned on her recorder. Since the tape was deleted,…