By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Paula Vallee, had a relative die in a car crash. While she herself was not contacted, she alleged the reporter was insensitive and insistent with other family members. She also said some reports had errors and her messages were ignored. CBC News staff in Edmonton acted appropriately in…
By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Mary MacDonald, thought Anna Maria Tremonti was hostile and biased in an interview with Conservative Party leadership candidate Kellie Leitch. The topic was a proposal to have a values-screening of immigrants. The interview was challenging, the questions were appropriate, and the interviewee was able to present her views…
By Sylvia Stead for The Globe and Mail In just over a week, the United States will go to the polls in an election that has been unprecedented – not just because of the bizarre nature of the campaign, but because of the impact it has had on journalists, both personally and professionally, in their…
By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Geoffrey Pounder, questioned the value and journalistic purpose of an Ideas programme called “Contrarians”. He said it was dangerous and deceptive to give air time to two climate change deniers. Part of their remarks from a conference aired on the programme. He thought it violated all the principles…
By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Will Dubitsky, thought characterising the 1995 Quebec referendum as the “abyss of ethnic nationalism” was Quebec-bashing and tarred all Quebec nationalists as xenophobes. It was a passing comment and an opinion expressed in context. One might not like or agree with the sentiment, but it doesn’t cross a…
By Esther Enkin for the CBC The complainant, E. Gelb, accused CBC of bias by omission in a story that dealt with Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigration. Failure to mention the ban would be until officials “figured out” what is going on, was an attempt to discredit him, according to her.…
By Esther Enkin for the CBC The complainant, Stephen Birch, took issue with a Metro Morning interview with Finance Minister Bill Morneau. He said the minister had made a false statement about how Canadians are taxed and it was the responsibility of the program host to challenge it. It is not at all clear that…
By Jane Gerster In her first column as the Toronto Star’s public editor, Sharon Burnside wryly noted, “Readers will look after the swelled head.” It was March 2005 and she’d held the post all of seven hours, had already written five corrections and was working on two more. The phone had rung: one caller angry…
By Patricia Graham for the Brunswick News On the night of June 13, a vigil was held in Fredericton to mourn those killed and injured at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. The vigil was mentioned in a story in The Daily Gleaner about the response to the tragedy by St. Thomas University and the…
The complainant, Andrew Sprague, said that CBC News wrongly identified the status of an emotional support dog that was banned from an Edmonton base.