Who's who in Canadian 'Independent' Media - Introducing our Media Ecosystem

As a lead-in to the post that follows on the roles everyone plays within this media environment

Overview of the Media Ecosystem in Canada

Our little CanadianShareableNews project has been in existence for roughly seven months. But our awareness of issues around media censorship vs independence goes back many decades. Over time, we became aware of media issues around accreditation and ‘fact-checking’, ‘shadow banning’ and more. We have been following a host of independent journalists and platforms in this country, situated at different posts along the political/economic/social spectrum.

To lead into our the topic of the next post - the different roles the ‘alternative’ or ‘independent’ media outlets play within the entire media ecosystem, and what implications these roles have for the news-following public, we start here with an look at the so-called ‘mainstream’ and the so-called ‘independent’ media in this country - with a focus on hard news reporting (i.e. news that shapes the decisions made by our government/policy makers — decisions that heavily impact our lives.)

Thus far, there have been few journalists who have been ‘crossing the divide’ between ‘mainstream’ and ‘independent’ journalism - people whose ‘day job’ is with a corporate or government-backed major news platform, but who persist in delving into the topics that make up the ‘bread and butter’ of much of the ‘independent’ reporting. Hopefully more ‘mainstream’ journalists will grasp the vital importance of these issues and will push those in charge of editorial decisionmaking TO NOT SHY FROM deep dives into the implications of the Global Governance initiatives currently being discussed by unelected members of ‘globalist’ organizations like the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Economic Forum, the Global Governance Forum, and the like.

A notable exception is Niagara ON Chris George who has been extensively documenting the ‘work’ of the globalists - a topic mainstream has been afraid to touch, to our detriment. To help others orient themselves within the many tentacles of this complex topic, Chris provides this starting point:

The Globalists’ Agendas vs Canadians’ National Interests

Now, over to our classification of who in our mind, constitutes ‘mainstream’ (aka corporate or government backed) media outlets and who makes up Canada’s ‘independent’ media.

For starters, there are TWO organizations of journalists who have the privilege of obtaining regular access to the people and events taking place at Parliament Hill.

• The Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery whose membership hails from the best-known ‘mainstream’ media outlets like CBC, CTV, Global, The Canadian Press, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, the Hill Times, Politico, various francophone news outlets, Aboriginal People’s TV and a few others thrown in. (LINK)

• The Independent Press Gallery of Canada (IPG) is described as a “not-for-profit organization dedicated to independent, non-governmental journalist organisations” which “provides a vital counterbalance to the increasing government control and funding over journalism outlets in Canada. Likewise, IPG provides an alternative to the government-influenced Parliamentary Press Gallery.” (LINK) While the membership list is not posted, signatories of a letter from April 2023 include representatives of The COUNTER SIGNAL, REBEL NEWS, TRUE NORTH and WESTERN STANDARD.

Interestingly, Canada’s Income Tax Act provides criteria under which media organizations can claim certain tax credits. Recently, Rebel News and two other outlets were denied designation as qualified Canadian journalism organizations and thereby deemed not to qualify for these tax credits. (Likely this will be appealed.)Journalism researcher Mark Edge explains more here. It would appear that this tax credit is available to media outlets regardless of whether they are considered ‘mainstream’ or ‘alternative/independent’.

Stories bemoaning the lack of trust Canadians hold for the ‘mainstream’ media now appear with regular frequency. Back in 2021 CBC chose to try to combat that by partnering with censoring agencies to form the so-called Trusted News Initiative, which totally failed to rebuild trust.

Interested readers are invited to visit this two-part ‘Gallery Tour’ in order to learn about important aspects at play within ‘mainstream’ media - the various ethics guidelines that govern the business, the ‘trusted news initiatives’ that major outlets have engaged with, the ‘fact checking’ industry, the fine line between PR services and News Wire services, and much more.

How can we TRUST the Media, when it is constrained by Outside Forces?

Do you see what I see? A guided tour

Meanwhile, smaller scale ‘alternative/independent’ media outlets abound WITHOUT being part of either of the two afore-mentioned press galleries, because they are not based full time in Parliament Hill. Many of these other ‘independent’ outlets have a purely local focus like the Brampton digital news site The Pointer, Calgary’s The Sprawl and the Halifax Examiner.

New Canadian Media refers to itself as “The Pulse of Immigrant Canada” and elaborates “New Canadian Media is a member-based, non-profit that exists to showcase immigrant journalism and amplify the work of journalists from various immigrant/ethnic backgrounds. Immigrants are among Canada’s marginalized communities, meaning that their views are not adequately reflected in public discourse, including through the media.”

Others ‘independent’ media platforms have a social or fiscal ‘left leaning’ bias - for example the Canadian Dimension (in existence since 1963) and some of the outlets mentioned by Maclean’s magazine in 2021. These include the CO2-Climate focussed National Observer and The Narwhal, along with The Logic (a proponent of many BigTech related developments) and the podcast-focussed Canadaland which works with Amazon Music, Journalists for Human Rights, and a philanthropic fundraising service out of New York to help promote ‘independent audio journalism’ as part of its CanadaLabs project.

For a comprehensive list of independent media platforms that mostly existed prior to 2020, see www.unfettered.ca. We note that the compiler of the list did not include The Walrus (but this may have been an oversight). The Walrus claims to provide “independent, fact-based journalism”. Its stated editorial policy is “to explore ideas and issues, and to elevate public discourse on matters of importance to Canadians”. But it appears to have a peculiar understanding of ‘discourse’, which normally is understood as the “exchange of ideas.” In a recent issue, they publish 11 critiques of a potential Conservative government without providing any coverage to voices that could counter the claims made by the critics. It begs the question whether any of the people on the extensive list of donors would drop their funding if The Walrus were to change its format to allow for a two-sided back and forth of viewpoints. (This is being shared here with reference to questions of editorial and financial independence that are being raised in the post that follows.)

Perhaps the most widely travelled and academically rigorous among the Canadian independent media community are two co-founders of the Rising Tide Foundation. These are Montreal-based geopolitical writer Cynthia Chung and historian, filmmaker and cartoonist Matthew Ehret whose work can be seen on their individual Substack pages as well as on the Canadian Patriot Review. An other academic, who will stand in here for the legions of Canadian former or current professors publishing regularly on the uncensored platform Substack, is University of Lethbridge professor emeritus Dr. Anthony Hall who writes not to be popular, but to dig deeply.

The backlash against the federal government’s invasive COVID-19 policies sparked the resistance of the wide-ranging ‘Freedom Movement’. Also part of this resistance was a plethora of new ‘truth media’ platforms, often started by single people with the desire to counteract the ‘official narrative’ being amplified by those taxpayer-supported media outlets that had lost their commitment to objectivity. A number of these new platforms predictably have a ‘right leaning’ small-government, constitutional rights-focused and usually politically conservative bias.

Some of the recently formed ‘independent’ outlets were founded by those with former backgrounds in journalism (like Trish Wood, longtime host of CBC’s The Fifth Estate and Dan Dicks, an investigative journalist and award winning documentary filmmaker who founded Press for Truth, along with Anita Krishna, who is being introduced in the next post.) Many others became accidental journalists, like elementary school teacher Glen Jung, who happened to be in the right place at the right time and saw the need for truthful reporting of the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. His subsequent platform brightlightnews.com is currently being reworked, but for three years, it provided a vital source of news via the interviews with the key scientists pointing consistently at the disconnect between government policy and ongoing research in many fields.

In Canada, a list of such platforms includes fellow Substack-based organisations Freedom Forum News, The Canadian Independent, Our Greater Destiny, and The Richardson Health Report. Similar to CSNews, the people behind People’s World War chose to direct followers to underreported content being broadcast elsewhere. Sites like CanadianLiberty.com also direct people to yet other lists of freedom/truth oriented outlets, institutions and individual researchers.

Within Canada’s ‘Truth media’ the largest and best known by far is DRUTHERS - a monthly print newspaper now into its 47th issue with a print run of 250,000 delivered across the country by a veritable army of volunteers. But there are also very active much smaller outlets - posting on X (like FreeSpeechMedia)or on Rumble (like the Schmidt House Podcast) and on their own in-house media platforms.

Theo Fleury and Joseph Bourgault broadcast interviews with key (underreported) news makers under the name Canadians for Truth, while another former NFL hockey player, Shaun Newman, has been running the Shaun Newman Podcast for the past four years. Then there is a host of YouTubers and live-streamers. BC mechanic turned news commentator Clyde Do Something will stand in for many others here. He broadcasts news reviews and interviews nearly daily, with his characteristic blend of humour, charm and critique.

Included within the mix is the work of policy and data analysts and other niche specialists also setting up websites as news sources from which others can draw. These include IVIM.ca with a strong focus on seeing evidence from Freedom of Information requests, Lex Acker with a keen eye for financial and statistical data, and David Dickson, retired police officer, forensic investigator and data sleuth posting here and here. Also among those with a specialist focus are multi-disciplinary scientist, Dr. Denis Rancourt and Jason Christoff whose presentations on research into mind control enlighten many. In 2022, researcher and author Julius Ruechel shared a thorough extended essay entitled ‘Our Side of the Story’. It was intended to provide a single point of reference for those new to the experiences and evidence shared among the COVID-dissident community . Now, in 2024, it still provides valuable direction for newcomers to the scene.

Yet others have chosen to set up full scale broadcast studios to provide regular news shows. These include libertytalkcanada.ca, TFM Report, the Iron Will Report / Strong and Free Canada, What’s UP Canada and others.

Operating out of Quebec, we have the French language LibreMedia and Radio Quebec. Posting on Facebook from Wakefield Quebec is community organizer Sylvain Henry. His focus is reporting on local events and on individual citizens who cause positive change. His comments on the future of journalism are very insightful. We should strive to create “perennial generative journalism” By ‘generative’ he means “reporting on things that can cause change that can motivate people to do things to connect with each other to create more unity and community.” And by ‘perennial’ he was referring to stories that are so powerful that they can live beyond the reach of the journalist who first launched them, and can repeatedly take root in other communities, inspiring positive actions over and over again. In other words, drop the focus on the 24 hour news cycle and report for the long term!

A recent addition to the Canadian ‘alternative/independent’ ‘media ecosystem’ is talknation.ca with former radio personality Randy Taylor. As this ramps up, it will provide a much needed outlet for the many underreported news stories in the country. Included among the colourful variety of Canadian independent media are also a number of outlets founded by those who feel called to make their Christian faith public as they seek to unravel the complexities of the stories they cover. These include www.lauralynn.tv, Talk Truth, and Liberty Coalition Canada.

Even others have joined together in the form of the Looking Glass Media Coalition for mutual tech support offering “a content creator and community friendly hub that allows for a unique support model for creators…Direct to creator support and multiple channel direct viewing is making us the first truly independent journalist/community driven live stream aggregate generator on the Internet.” This is a testament to the professionalism and organization found among the many varied members of Canada’s ALTERNATIVE/INDEPENDENT/FREE/OPEN/TRUTH media. (Musings on possible nomenclature will follow in the next post.)

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