Shy & retiring. Well not shy but definitely retiring as J-prof. Author Red China Blues; Out of the Blue; Beijing Confidential; Apron Strings. NNA & Polk winner
Toronto
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#BellLetsTalk gagged me w/ non-disclosure agreement when I suffered depression & @globeandmail fired me. Wielding NDA, Bell/Globe clawed back my $209,000 settlement after I published "Out of the Blue" #BellYouShutUp ‘til you end NDAs @cbmsilence
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#BellLetsTalk You pledged to donate my $209,000 severance you & @globeandmail clawed back after firing me while depressed to @CAMHfoundation. You never did. (Yeah I checked)
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Haha @globeandmail failed to protect me against hate mail & death threats. Instead it accused me of faking clinical depression and fired me.
Canadian media stand united in support of all journalists against online hate, threats and harassment.
For full statement: bit.ly/3DjaEsV
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I was clinically depressed from backlash on school-shooting story. @Bell_LetsTalk owned @globeandmail. They said I was lying, ordered me to work, fired me, forced me to sign non-disclosure. I wrote memoir "Out of the Blue" They clawed back my severance. Yes, BELL, LET'S TALK
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Journalist w/ a Japanese wife who lives in Japan for 25 years — and refuses to learn Japanese. Imagine reverse - journalist in US/Canada who refused to learn English to keep the "mystery" alive.
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Hey .@nationalpost I covered 1989 Tiananmen Sq massacre. @oliviachow is a staunch critic of human rights abuses. Instead of your racist innuendo, ask why a pro-Beijing group would even let her drop by their lunch? D’oh because she’s the frontrunner bit.ly/3ByMcEJ
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Lol On 100th anniversary of Chinese Exclusion Act barring Chinese from entering Canada, an Asian-Canadian woman will lead Canada's biggest city. @oliviachow to be sworn in July 12
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Hey @CBCNews your Buffy Pretendian story rings false. I did quick search of adoptee birth certificates in Mass: “An amended birth certificate, created after an adoption is finished, lists the names of the adoptive parents just as if the child had been born to them originally.”
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So you assume the incumbent has a lock on TO's mayoral race? Vote anyway. Even if you just want city park bathrooms to stay open past Thanksgiving. Vote Gil Penalosa for mayor. I did. @Penalosa_G
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Oops I just violated that confidentiality clause
I'd already been fired by @globeandmail during my severe clinical depression. But Canada's national newspaper withheld sick pay/severance until I signed a confidentiality clause
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White politicians campaign at Chinese immigrant lunches all the time. But when .@oliviachow does that, .@nationalpost writes 1,000 words. #racism
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When you import Fleet Street to run American media, you also import the sleaze
The Washington Post's publisher pushed his executive editor hard to kill a damning story about him. It wasn't the first time - he did the same to me.
My piece for NPR
npr.org/2024/06/06/nx-s1-499…
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I'd already been fired by @globeandmail during my severe clinical depression. But Canada's national newspaper withheld sick pay/severance until I signed a confidentiality clause
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In 2006 when I worked undercover as a maid for a month for series on minimum wage, budgeting as "single mother with two kids," I couldn't afford bus fare, haircuts or movies, let alone clothing or dentist. Our biggest treat: supper at McD's, splitting two meals among three.
Disappointed that @CBCTheNational repeatedly focuses on employers that whine about rising costs, and not the tens of thousands of employees that benefit from minimum wage hikes. How about stories on real people that try to get by on minimum wage?
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On 100th anniversary of Chinese Exclusion Act barring us from Canada, @oliviachow cycles to City Hall & is sworn in as Toronto mayor ... in a white miniskirt hand-painted w/ iconic red streetcar & CN Tower.
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I'm okay with colder. I was sitting w/ Wente and @globeandmail editor discussing crash of Concorde jet in Paris when he rubbed my leg under the table. I was too shocked to say anything.
Once offices adapt to the post-Weinstein era, "the world will be a slightly colder place, writes (sigh) Margaret Wente.
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When you support someone who has no lawn signs to reduce pollution … vote @Penalosa_G for Toronto’s next mayor!!
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My grandfather came here to build the CPR in 1881. He survived.
Today is Chinese People's Railroad Day to remember the over 17,000 Chinese men who built Canada’s national railway–4000 of whom lost their lives in the process.
➡️ Learn more from @HeritageToronto: heritagetoronto.org/explore-….
ALT A photo of the Memorial to Commemorate the Chinese Railway Workers of Canada located at Blue Jays Way & Navy Wharf Court.
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Slavery was legal. So was the Chinese head tax. So were Germany’s laws forcing Jews to wear yellow stars
Canada has rules. We have laws. You can’t break them just because you think you are right.
nationalpost.com/opinion/ant…
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#BellLetsTalk fired then gagged me w/ non-disclosure agreement when I suffered depression. After I published memoir “Out of the Blue,” Bell & @globeandmail clawed back my $209,000 settlement AND forced me to pay their legal costs. #BellYouShutUp ‘til you end NDAs @cbmsilence
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Hey @globeandmail It's 2021! In the 62 years since 1959 when you opened 1st Beijing bureau of any Western paper, I have been the only woman & only non-white correspondent.
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.@MichaelChongMP is right. Beijing interference isn't new. My 2005 story about Chinese diplomats pressuring Canadian politicians, including .@oliviachow: "Feeling the long arm of China" tgam.ca/3AYJng6
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For Toronto mayor: vote Gil @Penalosa_G I just did
Please share. Housing for Everyone. Parks for Everyone. Equity for Everyone. Sustainability for Everyone, Safe Streets for Everyone. Opportunity for Everyone. Healthier… Everyone. Happier… Everyone. A MAYOR for EVERYONE. #Gil4Mayor
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Flying is bad enough. Would hate to be on a free-speech flight where any moron can grab the mic
Pierre Poilievre says WestJet union should apologize for trying to ‘silence’ free speech dlvr.it/Sw6FzY
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Just finished @Billbrowder latest true story of holding Putin & fellow oligarchs accountable. Gripping, horrifying, ultimately optimistic. Read it!
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Not a Chinese proverb.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” - Chinese Proverb
I, along with many of my fellow Americans, made a mistake in not abandoning @realDonaldTrump sooner. But today is the next best day to leave the cult. Let’s fix this together.
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Joni Mitchell, 78, and Neil Young, 76, both had polio as children. The disease weakened her left hand, forcing her to compensate when playing the guitar. Young got polio in 1951 at 5. He still limps. He was vaxxed in 1955 at school when vaccine was widely disseminated
Joni Mitchell said Friday that she would remove her music from Spotify, joining Neil Young in his protest against the streaming service over its role in giving a platform to Covid-19 vaccine misinformation. nyti.ms/35zZgNB
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For Canada's next Governor General, I nominate Cindy Blackstock .@cblackst Fierce critic of Trudeau's cruel foot-dragging on culturally based equity for Aboriginal children/families. (Also, she's kind to her staff.) Is @JustinTrudeau courageous enough?
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La Presse never apologized for publishing a racist cartoon of me
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J-students: pay attention to this obit lede
"Rush Limbaugh, the sex tourist and drug addict whose four marriages, mockery of people after their deaths and overt racism and misogyny made him a beloved icon of American conservatism, is dead at 70." -@Beschizza
boingboing.net/2021/02/17/ru…
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The logic of the ruling means editors can’t assign combat veterans to cover wars, someone who plays music to cover the arts, a former teller to cover business, anyone who’s ever worked in a restaurant to cover the food industry. I stand with Felicia
"Ms. Sonmez’s lawyer, Sundeep Hora, said that they planned to appeal the decision.
'We’re disappointed in the ruling and we strongly disagree with the ruling,' he said."
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Grandfather Chong arrived 1881 to build the railway. Later as a "houseboy" in Victoria, he was paid $1 a month. My 3 other grandparents each paid the $500 head tax = $7,500 in 2023 dollars, or $22,500
Remembering our history helps avoid repeating it.
People’s stories, and the discrimination they faced, formed our 23 year campaign for an apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act.
I spoke to @GlobalNational about the 100th anniversary of that law 👇🏼 globalnews.ca/video/9807194/…
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Am I the last to notice pasta weight sneakily fell by almost 10% even as prices rose?? Doubly sleazy: box containing 410 gr is identical in dimensions to box of 454 gr
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Bell DON’T Talk. Then co-owner of @globeandmail @Bell_LetsTalk gagged me with a non-disclosure when I suffered a workplace depression. Wrote “Out of the Blue” anyway!! Available at all bookstores & online!!
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Make your own food
I’m afraid my wife is poisoning me for my life insurance. What should I do? Ask Ellie dlvr.it/Rv1dfF
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Thank you. Yes I’m better off. I ended up teaching journalism in Fredericton for nine years and got to experience life in the Maritimes. I made some very good friends. And many of my grads are making a difference. Retired just as COVID shut everything down.
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Young Yemeni Girl Is Sole Survivor After Airstrike Topples Her Home nyti.ms/2vzubBR
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My kind of dame: a Toronto restaurant refused to serve her because of her trousers. "In front of maitre d' & whole table [she] unzipped her pants and took them off."
Dolores Claman, the Vancouver-born composer of the Hockey Night in Canada theme song, has died at 94. The song landed Claman a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010. 'She was a good, ripe old age, and she had an incredible life,' her daughter says. cbc.ca/sports/hockey/dolores…
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Not adept at selfies but just got AstraZeneca #2 at a Costco Toronto. Now fully vaxxed!! And it’s NOT the expired stuff either!!
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Powerful people in your newsroom did exactly this to one of your own reporters @feliciasonmez
The playbook typically unfolds like this: Powerful people, usually popular online figures or government officials, target a woman journalist who is subjecting them to public scrutiny, often over allegations of wrongdoing. wapo.st/3RVyHqg
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My mother was the first Chinese Canadian to graduate from nursing school in London, Ontario circa 1945
The first Chinese-Canadian nurse graduated from the college in 1923. The first Indigenous graduate followed in 1928, and the first Black woman graduated in 1951.
These are the stories of Agnes Chan, Mabel Jones and Agnes Clinton: thestar.com/news/gta/2019/05…
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Enjoyed co-hosting @CANADALAND newsroom racism @globeandmail @CBCNews including my own searing experience
Fourteen years ago the Globe and Mail treated Jan Wong shamefully. What happened then, foreshadowed everything that is playing out now in terms of racism in Canadian newsrooms. There's no-one I'd rather discuss it all with than @WriterWong. Check it out.
canadalandshow.com/podcast/2…
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Shyly honked my horn driving home in Toronto just now after Raptors win NBA. At red light 3 young men in next car, a white, a black and an Asian, give me thumbs up and toot back. Felt kinda old when one said politely, “Have a good evening, ma’am.”
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She, along with Orwell, inspired my investigative newspaper series, Maid for a Month. Barbara Ehrenreich, Explorer of Prosperity’s Dark Side, Dies at 81 nytimes.com/2022/09/02/books…
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Only in Canada. Sign-language interpreter keeps calmly translating what protester is yelling as security tackles him behind her. #professionalism
#Toronto mayoral debate at the @DailyBreadTO interrupted after audience member walked on stage.
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How many died so Israeli soldiers could find a few dusty rifles and a laptop near an MRI machine
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FIRST PERSON | Is Asian identity even a thing? Who cares, pass the popcorn for K-drama | CBC News cbc.ca/news/opinion/first-pe…
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Put them in our libraries
NEW - The Ford government is planning to use taxpayer dollars to retrofit the Staples stores that are getting ServiceOntario outlets, sources tell CityNews. The exact dollar amount is not clear. toronto.citynews.ca/2024/01/…
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Disgraceful. A plagiarist appointed a senior fellow? What was Massey College thinking?
university of toronto professor Alissa Trotz has resigned from her positions at @MasseyCollege over the school's appointment of Margaret Wente as a senior fellow. during her journalism career, Wente published racist pseudoscience, and was repeatedly investigated for plagiarism
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Hey I'm on Canadaland
Yes, the Chinese government is aggressively messing with our democracy, but there’s nothing to see here! And Olivia Chow is leading in the polls for Toronto Mayor - how did we get here? @WriterWong co-hosts. buff.ly/3oucF3E
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Donated my papers to Toronto Reference Library Chinese Canadian Archive. They displayed my grade 6 workbook in which teacher red-pencils my bad grammar: “not a sentence”. I also reveal my career hopes & hedge my bets: “Either a reporter or a journalist or a secretary.”
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Boomer mom (me): Don’t forget to change your clocks today. Millennial son (mine): I don’t have any clocks
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I’m good with desperate if we get dental and pharmacare
Interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen has called a new agreement that will see the NDP prop up the Liberal government until 2025, a "desperate" attempt by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to "cling to power." cbc.ca/1.6393205
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I stand with Felicia
I stand by what I wrote in that email. In 2018, I was punished after I told my editors I needed to take a walk around the block after reading a difficult story.
Other colleagues have been punished for their trauma far more recently, but their stories aren’t mine to tell. 1/
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Sarah Polley has endorsed Olivia Chow!
I signed up to volunteer for Olivia Chow for Mayor of Toronto. Join me! oliviachow.ca/volunteer?recr…
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As an ex-BellGlobeMedia employee, I wrote a whole book on how badly they treated me Out of the Blue. My heart and support goes out to Lisa
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Can someone make one of those lettuce heads to see if it rots before John “I’m resigning as mayor” Tory actually quits #Toronto
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I have been to many uni campuses and taught at one for 9 years. I have NEVER seen anyone quietly eating breakfast on the grass.
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Zexi Li is the perfect new face of Canada: soft spoken, principled, glam eyelashes and, to TV anchors, an unpronounceable first name
Lead plaintiff Zexi Li says she's suing the horn-blaring trucker protesters because she's fighting for the rights of neighbours. ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?cid=…
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Lol @globeandmail made me pay $210,000 after I wrote Out of the Blue, my memoir of workplace depression
In 1992, he reached a private settlement with Mr. Sobey that bound him to a non-disclosure agreement, meaning he could not share what happened. If breached, he was to pay $20,000 to the man who assaulted him.
tgam.ca/3pD3hYr
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Oh. I didn’t realize SHE MADE HIM interfere politically in a criminal case.
Should Trudeau become the first prime minister to fail to turn a first majority government into a second term in office next October, many Liberals will hold Wilson-Raybould responsible for having sunk the party’s re-election boat, writes @ChantalHbert.
thestar.com/politics/politic…
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Great reporting on troops attacking protestors @NickKristof We both covered 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in Beijing
In Portland’s So-Called War Zone, It’s the Troops Who Provide the Menace nytimes.com/2020/07/25/opini…
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When they start arresting poets
IDF arrested Gaza's most prominent poet Mosab Abu Toha. He wrote this haunting essay about the war for the New Yorker. PEN America has called for his immediate release.
newyorker.com/news/the-weeke…
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lol I'm a legend!
This Asian Heritage Month, we're donating 10% of all of our bookshop's online sales to @NuVoices, whose new podcast ep is now out!
The episode features legendary journalist Jan Wong
@writerwong in discussion with CHINA UNBOUND author @joannachiu!
🎧: bit.ly/435E1M1
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Dear @CBCNews You buried the lede. You wait until 3rd graf from end to tell us doctor wasn’t vaxxed & opposed vaccine mandates: “doctor who died of COVID-19 remembered by loved ones as 'a man who made a difference'”| CBC News cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatche…
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Today D Day remembrance at Juno Beach 79 years to the hour Canadians stormed the beaches at Normandy. I’m here at “Canada House”, a private residence that was the first home liberated in France from Nazi occupation —and the beginning of the end of WWII.
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In 1989 I covered #TiananmenSquareMassacre Authorities killed thousands. 33 years on, forcible amnesia even in HK. Join me tonight 7pm Chinese Consulate in Toronto. Candlelight vigil 8p U of Toronto
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Reminder
In 2021 an Israeli army airstrike destroyed a high-rise building which housed the Aljazeera & AP bureaus. Israeli officials claimed it was a Hamas command center but refused to provide evidence. The White House said there was no evidence of Israel's claims that Hamas was present.
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Lol
Today on CTV Question Period
Vassy Kapelos moderates an ALL WHITE PANEL
To discuss how the Chinese-Canadian community is dealing with all the questions swirling around China
@Garossino @joannachiu @stevenzzhou @WriterWong @chercywong
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Not much progress. 20 years later, in 2007 @globeandmail fired me during clinical depression Except I didn't stay silent. I published national bestseller "Out of The Blue: A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness."
This week’s edition of @CBCSunday feat. @cbcbonniebrown’s radio doc uncovering how 1970’s insensitivity to mental illness cost Supreme Court Justice Gerald Le Dain his position on Cda’s highest court. @CitizenTalin @LouiseBradleyMH cbc.ca/1.4471385
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I waded thru many dreck celebrity memoirs for my old Lunch With column. But @SimuLiu new memoir is brutal, honest, and yet funny. Read it.
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Umm, vote granted only to WHITE women.
In 1897, these women presented a petition advocating for the right to vote. That right was granted to some women in BC 20 years later. Today, 43% of #BCLeg MLAs are women. Much has been done, but there is still much to do! #IWD #InternationalWomensDay #BCpoli #WomenInPolitics
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Women in black. In NYC with Connie Chung, one of my journo role models! We were both interviewed for National Geographic documentary “1989”. Airing January 2019
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In Atlantic Canada St John’s and Saint John are cities in different provinces and different time zones. Many travelers fly to wrong one. In Toronto Royal York subway station is 12 km from Royal York Hotel (or 21 subway stops away)
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We Ontarians need TVO's journalism to hold the powerful to account. I just donated to their strike fund. Will you?
This is week 9 of the TVO/CMG strike. TVO has spent $4.5 million taxpayer & donor dollars on full-time salaries for < full time work, to suppress the salaries of 74 educators, producers and journalists who make all the content.
Please donate actionnetwork.org/fundraisin…
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In a stunning reversal, the International Paralympic Committee barred athletes from Russia/Belarus on the eve of the opening ceremony in the wake of invasion of Ukraine.
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.@nationalpost embraces Yellow Peril journalism. Breathlessly reports Toronto frontrunner mayoral candidate @oliviachow “meets with group aligned with China” AND accepts a gift! (Folks, it’s a vase.)
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