CAJ Investigative award goes to Selena Ross for Maisonneuve magazine cover story

Illustration by Anna Minzhulina

"One hard thing was sorting through the city documents. I only needed information about a few hundred contracts, but they were buried in thousands of pages of paperwork. It also took some time to get people in the industry to open up to me. I talked to most of them two or three times so that they would get to know me a little. It also took me awhile to understand how the whole administrative side works, like the bidding process for public contracts and how the boroughs are managed."

-- Selena Ross, quoted by OpenFile about challenges in her cover story "Getting Plowed" for Maisonneuve magazines's Winter 2011 issue, a story that just won her an investigative reporting award from the Canadian Association of Journalists. The story was about corruption and collusion in the Montreal snow-removal industry.
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•  Maisonneuve magazine investigation exposes corruption in Montreal snow-removal industry

Canadian Association of Journalists on ropes; pleads for support and members

In an open letter to its members and the wider journalistic community, the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) is appealing for help, money and members.

The appeal, published today on J-source.ca, was over the byline of CAJ president Mary Agnes Welch, a reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press, who said the organization -- which has lost 36% of its members in the last year and put its longtime executive director John Dickins on part-time pay -- was "in crisis".

There’s no point mincing words. The last year has been our toughest one in 15 years, and certainly the toughest since I joined the board nearly five years ago. The same financial turmoil that resulted in well over 1,000 layoffs at newspapers and broadcasters in Canada has also battered the CAJ. We’re at a crossroads.

Not only has membership declined as journalists are laid off and traditionally generous large publishers such as the Toronto Star cut back on their sponsorship, but the organization has had a difficult time conveying the value of a $75 membership fee. Volunteers to maintain a network of chapters across the country are simply too thin on the ground, she said.