The NDP selected Avi Lewis as their new leader after a conference this past weekend. After a long campaign that largely went under-reported due to the party's meagre seat count, we now have a federal party leader pushing for public options, scaling back fossil fuel production and backing peace on the world stage. Independent journalist Nora Loreto spent the weekend at the convention and joins Scott to discuss the vibes, the vote, their critiques and how legacy news has shown they don't care to know about left-wing politics at all.

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Nora's Substack

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Sources and further reading:

https://readthecatch.ca/avi-lewis-more-like-avi-lenin-ft-nora-loreto-podcast

Artwork by Zo at Studio Bonjourhi

Intro Music: Vigilante - Cross Dog

Outro Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ontario premier Doug Ford used his personal cellphone for provincial business, leading a panel of three judges to rule his personal cellphone was subject to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. Now, Ford wants to exempt the premier, cabinet ministers and parliamentary staffers from FOI laws, explicitly saying because of his cellphone use. The move is a brazen attack on the public's right to knowledge about their government, but it's a large and unique piece of a larger attack on freedom of information systems. Justin Ling, investigative reporter and columnist at the Toronto Star, joins Scott to discuss the larger context, the attacks against FOI systems across the country and what news organizations need to do to push back.

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Justin's Substack

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Sources and further reading:

https://readthecatch.ca/the-assassination-of-the-foi-by-the-coward-doug-ford-ft-justin-ling-podcast

Artwork by Zo at Studio Bonjourhi

Intro Music: Vigilante - Cross Dog

Outro Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2019, Canadian journalism outlets meeting certain requirements were able to receive a tax credit under federal law. These were codified under the federal government's Qualified Canadian journalism organization (QCJO) guidelines. Now, seven years later, it turns out at least two government agencies were basing their response to journalist inquiries on these qualifications. The Orchard founder and journalist Jeremy Appel discovered that he initially didn't qualify as a journalist when inquiring Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada about a different story. IRCC has since backtracked, but what does this say about government designation of journalists? Scott and Jeremy discuss.

Check out Jeremy's work at The Orchard.

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Sources and further reading:

https://readthecatch.ca/oops-the-government-determined-who-was-a-journalist-ft-jeremy-appel-podcast

Artwork by Zo at Studio Bonjourhi

Intro Music: Vigilante - Cross Dog

Outro Music: "Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.