Spring 2023 Mentor Bios
Listed below are the mentors for the Spring 2023 round of the mentorship program, complete with their bios, who they are looking to mentor, languages spoken, the region they are from, and all listed alphabetically.
Submit your application before 11:59 pm ET on March 28, 2023.
About: For the last four years, I’ve worked as a host and producer on COMMONS, a documentary podcast on the Canadaland Network. I’ve also worked as a reporter for Xtra, Canadian Lawyer, Canadian Business and the Toronto Star.
Languages: English
About: I lead editorial directives for Black Press Media’s Canadian division. I began my journalism career in hyperlocal community news, reporting on my hometown. I became a provincial reporter with Black Press Media based out of B.C., covering social and health policies – specifically the ongoing toxic drug poisoning crisis – as well as a variety of other news from 2016 to 2020. Today, I work with 80 newsrooms, and my passion is to build community through storytelling and grow engagement, two elements integral to building a sustainable journalism model.
Languages: English
About: I am Wolf Clan from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. I have a master’s degree in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. I am a laureate of The Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Award. My latest film, a micro short, Lyed Corn with Ash (Wa’kenenhstóhare’) is completely in the Kanien’kéha language.
Languages: English
About: I am a freelance photographer in Toronto, covering news for wire services, newspapers and magazines. Before freelancing, I was a staff photographer at the Toronto Star for 13 years, covering local, national and international news. I am a Pulitzer Prize finalist and was awarded photo of the year by The News Photographers Association of Canada. I am a member of Diversify Photo and a mentor with ROOM, a photojournalism mentorship program for BIPOC photographers.
Languages: English
About: I am the executive editor and co-founder of The Narwhal. I have been reporting on energy and environmental politics for more than a decade. My career began writing and conducting interviews for The Canada Expedition, a non-governmental sustainability initiative, and while working in dispute resolution with communities affected by resource scarcity. I have a Master’s in English Literature from York University where I studied political theory, natural resource conflicts and Indigenous Rights. I also have a Master’s in Philosophy in the field of phenomenology and environmental ethics and have a PhD in English, with a specialization in Cultural, Social and Political Thought (CSPT), from the University of Victoria. When I’m not on my computer, you can usually find me in some ocean, somewhere, free-diving or surfing.
Languages: English
About: I have more than 40 years experience in print and broadcast journalism, with most of my career devoted to producing and supervising enterprise and investigative journalism. I have assigned and overseen everything from quick turnaround enterprise scoops to Fifth Estate documentaries. I also wrote Behind the Headlines: A History of Investigative Journalism in Canada. I am currently an adjunct professor at the University of Winnipeg.
Languages: English
About: I’m the editor for The Weather Network’s new-ish Climate Change vertical. I’ve been in journalism for close to two decades, starting out as a culture and politics reporter for Eye Weekly and others before shifting into editor roles at The Grid and overseeing newsrooms at VICE Canada and The Weather Network where I was the Editorial Director and Managing Editor, respectively. While I work mostly in digital and video these days, I’m still very much obsessed with print magazines.
Languages: English
About: I’m a freelance photojournalist with 14 years experience working in newsrooms big and small to freelancing for news wires covering regional and national news. My photos have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated, La Presse, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, and Canadian Business Magazine.
Languages: English
About: For the last two years I’ve been an Ottawa correspondent for The Logic, covering the federal government, health, telecom, space, infrastructure and macroeconomics. I came here from The Canadian Press, where I was the news editor and then chief of the parliamentary bureau, supervising the wire’s coverage of the federal government. Before that, I spent many years at the Ottawa Citizen (and, later, Sun), as an editorial writer, general-assignment reporter, assistant city editor, city hall reporter, provincial-affairs writer and politics columnist.
Languages: English
About: I’m currently the host/producer of APTN National News and Face to Face on APTN. Before taking on the host/producer role, I was a general assignment reporter for APTN News, covering daily news and breaking on the ground news such as the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock. I also did work with APTN Investigates and won a CAJ award in 2016 for the story A Soldier Scorned. Prior to joining APTN News, I was a reporter for Thunder Bay Television and CHAT TV in Medicine Hat, where I also worked in every job from master control to TV promotions.
Languages: English
About: I am a senior writer, feature host, producer and radio host at Sportsnet, a newsroom I joined in 2013. My work often touches on the intersections between sports and race, politics, gender and pop culture. I’ve been nominated for both a Gemini and Digital Publishing Award for my storytelling on multiple platforms. I’ve covered a range of sports including football, basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey and amateur sports for both Sportsnet and The Score Television network, where I got my start in 2007. While Canadian amateur sports have remained one of my true passions, my career has taken me to some of the largest sporting events in North America, including the NCAA Final Four, NBA Finals, NBA All-Star game, NBA Draft, NBA Summer League, Grey Cup and MLS Cup Final. I’m now the host of the “Going Deep with Donnovan Bennett” podcast.
Languages: English
About: I’m a Canadian author and journalist. Until recently, I worked for the Globe and Mail, where I wrote an opinion column and feature stories. I was also the paper’s Arts and Books editor. I’ve lived in and reported from London, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Berlin. I was also the editor of Elm Street magazine. I’m currently freelancing and working on new book projects.I have a special interest in reporting on gender equality. I’m the author of two books, a novel and a collection of essays about contemporary feminism.
Languages: English
About: I am the Quebec Bureau Chief for CTV National News. Since 1995, I have covered the most significant moments and the most important issues unfolding in my home province of Quebec, including the 2017 mosque attack in Quebec City, the deadly Lac-Megantic trail derailment in 2013, for which I was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award, as well as the Dawson College shootings in 2006. I have also travelled outside the province to deliver frontline coverage of major news events, including the Christchurch, New Zealand mosque attacks in 2019, tensions between North and South Korea in 2018, the Brussels bombings in 2016, the coordinated Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015, the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Pope Francis’ 2013 Papal inauguration in Rome, the Shafia honour killing trial in 2011, the Newtown, Conn. school shooting in 2012, and the September 11 terrorist attack in New York City. I have a Bachelor of Science in Anatomy and Cell Biology from McGill University, and went on to study journalism at Concordia University. I worked at the local CBC News station before joining CTV News in 1997.
Languages: English, French
About: I am the visual editor/creative director for Headway, a longform team, at The New York Times. Before joining the Times, I was the deputy head of visuals at The Globe and Mail and led the photo, design, graphics, interactive, and video teams there. I have also worked at the Toronto Star and weeklies in Toronto and Ottawa. Outside of newsrooms I’ve been on the board of The Society for News Design, a judge for numerous design/journalism competitions, and have also spoken at dozens of conferences across North America on the topic of design and visual storytelling.
Languages: English
About: I’m a freelance journalist, editor, and teacher, with a focus on how communities interact with the environment around them. My work has taken me across the Canadian Arctic as well as to Russia, China, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Greenland, and the Turkey-Syria border, for stories on suspicious pings, a budding Chinese environmental movement, war refugees, the impacts of climate change and other environmental degradation and the efforts to do something about it. I have received grants and awards like the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and Humber College StoryLab grant for his Webster-award-winning work on Indigenous Guardians, a silver investigative National Magazine Award, a CAJ award for environmental reporting, an Edward R. Murrow Award, an Anthem Award, and several others. I currently teach science and environment journalism at UBC’s School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, where I myself graduated in 2012. I have been published by the likes of The Narwhal, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, CBC, PBS NewsHour, The Walrus, and Hakai Magazine. I am the former editor of Capital Daily in Victoria, B.C.
Languages: English
About: I am a correspondent for CTV National News, based in Ottawa. I specialize in politics and investigations, with a commitment to covering stories focusing on marginalized communities. I began my career in journalism as a television reporter for A Channel News in Edmonton, and have previously worked as an investigative journalist at CBC. Throughout my career, I have covered a wide variety of international news events, ranging from police misconduct to human rights court challenges and the #MeToo movement. I have reported live from disaster zones, investigated terror suspects, and shone a light on sexual assault within the music industry. I have been recognized by the Canadian Screen Awards and National Magazine Awards with multiple nominations. Originally from Vietnam, I was four years old when my family fled the country to escape persecution. My harrowing story inspired one of Historica Canada’s Heritage Minutes. In my spare time, I mentor immigrant journalists at New Canadian Media and volunteer with refugee organizations.
Languages: English
About: I’m a Kanien’kehá:ka journalist from Kahnawà:ke, south of Montreal, with almost 15 years of journalism experience. I started working for The Eastern Door community newspaper in 2008 while I was pursuing post-secondary education (shocker, it wasn’t j-school). I learned everything on-the-job, and often the hard way. In 2018, I joined CBC News and am currently a reporter with the small but mighty CBC Indigenous team, covering Indigenous communities across Quebec.
Languages: English
About: I am a founding editor at New Lines Magazine, which is dedicated to longform reporting and essays, where I edit the publication’s Middle East coverage and write and edit its newsletters. Prior to that, I was the Middle East and Turkey correspondent at the Guardian, based in Beirut and then Istanbul, where I covered the war in Syria, refugee issues, terrorism, Turkish politics and elections, and social and cultural stories. My work covering the 2017 chemical attack in Syria on the ground was nominated for a Frontline Club award in print journalism. I also wrote for the Arabic satirical publication AlHudood, which covers the Middle East using dry humor in the vein of The Onion. I also trained numerous young Arab and Turkish journalists as part of the Guardian Foundation’s outreach in countries that persecute journalists. I hold a master’s degree in war studies from King’s College London, where I wrote my dissertation on the psychological impact of drone strikes in Yemen.
Languages: English
About: I’m a senior foreign correspondent with CBC News based in Washington, D.C. Prior to this assignment, I spent six years covering federal politics in Ottawa, and before that, roughly 8 years in Toronto working in various newsroom roles. I focus primarily on politics, conflict, and breaking news — publishing stories on multiple platforms, with an emphasis on broadcast media.
Languages: English
About: I am an investigative reporter with the Winnipeg Free Press. I have worked at publications across Canada, including the Toronto Star, the Hamilton Spectator and the Daily Gleaner in New Brunswick, and I’ve travelled overseas for reporting projects. My specialty is reporting on issues of privacy, secrecy and government transparency, though I also like a quirky story uncovered via a freedom of information request.
Languages: English
About: I am the Atlantic reporter for The Globe and Mail. I’ve worked as a journalist for more than a decade, as a reporter at daily newspapers in Halifax and as an award-winning freelance journalist with stories published in The Globe, The Narwhal, Atavist, The Walrus, Maclean’s and CBC. I love (and often hate!) to write long-form narratives, often with deep investigative elements, and I’m here for all chats about how to bring these stories to life on the page through structure, pacing, voice and scenes. I am particularly interested in human stories as they relate to police accountability, climate change and gender-based violence.
Languages: English
About: I am an investigative journalist, essayist and poet in Toronto. A contributing editor at Toronto Life and Maclean’s, my work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Walrus, Slate, Poetry, and elsewhere. I have worked as a books columnist for The National Post and as the poetry editor of The Walrus. I am the author of four books, my most recent being The Human Scale: Murder, Mischief and Other Selected Mayhems, which is forthcoming in May. I was the 2017 Margaret Laurence Fellow at Trent University, and the winner of the National Magazine Award Gold Medals for both Investigative Reporting and Long Form Feature Writing. My story “The Sting” is being adapted by Adam Perlman, Robert Downey Jr., and Team Downey into a television series for Apple TV+.
Languages: English
About: I’m a national reporter with the Globe and Mail, where I write primarily about issues relating to crime and social justice. Over the last five years, that work has included both daily reporting and deep dives on topics ranging from organized crime and police accountability, to tow truck turf wars and intimate partner violence. Prior to joining the Globe in 2017, I spent five years at the Hamilton Spectator.
Languages: English
About: I am an Investigative Correspondent for CTV’s W5, Canada’s most-watched documentary series. My passion for social justice stories have taken me to Iraq, Somalia, Bangladesh, Jordan, Haiti, Rwanda, Lebanon, Uganda, United States, France, and England. When I’m not traveling, I backfill anchor on CTV News Channel and Your Morning. I’m originally a prairie girl from Saskatchewan but have moved across this beautiful country and worked in small, medium and large markets. From my early days in journalism, I’ve always craved variety in my career. While I’ve spent most of my time on the TV anchor desk or in the field reporting, I’ve also worked as a script writer, producer, radio reporter, videographer, sports feature host and producer, and have occasionally freelanced print pieces and written columns. As a broadcaster, I worked across multiple networks at a national level for 5 years before joining CTV’s National Team, where I covered federal politics as a Parliamentary Reporter in the early days of the pandemic.
Languages: English
About: I am a veteran broadcast journalist and co-founder of Media Girlfriends, a podcast production company that supports more perspectives in news media. I am currently an associate professor and the inaugural Carty Chair in Journalism, Diversity and Inclusion at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communications. My focus is on how diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging affect journalism practice and society, including self-reflection and strategies for more inclusive storytelling. I am also launching the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre for Journalism and Belonging, a research centre which advocates, supports and participates in inclusive and belonging-focused journalism in Canada. Before joining Carleton, I was a host and producer at CBC Radio for 15 years, with my last position being the host of Fresh Air.
Languages: English
About: I grew up in rural B.C. and contracted the journalism bug writing stories for the University of Victoria student newspaper. After graduating, I wrote a book about a Mountie stationed in the Arctic during the 1930s and then moved to New York for more school and short stops at Newsweek and the New York Post. I’ve worked at the Globe and Mail since 2007, pinballing among various beats and bureaus, filing from war zones and sunflower fields. These days, I mainly write about the country’s halting reconciliation efforts.
Languages: English
About: I am a long-time on-air broadcaster. How long? Since the last century. In fact, I was a working journalist covering the threat of Y2K! I am currently the host of CBC Radio’s Sunday morning flagship show “The Sunday Magazine.” Prior to that, I was the host of “Out in the Open.” But I’ve done a lot of gigs: I started out as a TV reporter for a number of years, and later was the regular fill in host of “The Agenda” on TVO. I have been a radio reporter both locally and nationally in Canada; I’ve hosted nearly every show on CBC Radio (hence the nickname “the swiss army knife”). I was also the Middle East correspondent for Fox Radio for three years, based in Jerusalem. I have covered all kinds of stories — war, natural disasters, to health and education stories, politics, Santa Claus parades, and everything in between. On more personal matters — I happen to be married to CBC business correspondent Peter Armstrong (but don’t let that fool you, I’m pretty cool). We have three kids that I will only talk about if you want me to.
Languages: English
About: I joined the national investigations team with Global News in Spring 2018, after reporting with the Vancouver Province and the Vancouver Sun. I am currently based in Ottawa, and focus on political corruption, financial crime, foreign influence, geopolitics, national security and intelligence, and profiling powerful figures. My book, Wilful Blindness, was released in May 2021 and debuted as the #1 best-seller on the Amazon Canada website. The book provides evidence about how state-sponsored networks have infiltrated financial and political institutions in Canada.
Languages: English
About: I am the editorial lead for The Discourse Cowichan, where I cover and edit stories that centre the community, dig deep into local issues, “complicate narratives” and offer a solutions focus. I also freelance when I can and have mentored journalists through the Didihood and New Canadian Media mentorship programs. I have previously worked as a breaking news, general assignment and community reporter at news outlets in B.C. and Ontario. I have a Master of Journalism degree from Carleton University. I love talking and learning about how to innovate and lead change in the journalism industry, keeping equity, diversity and intersectionality in mind while doing so.
Languages: English
About: I am the current website manager for Radio-Canada in Manitoba. I started my career in France where I worked for several regional dailies. Once in Canada, I worked for Agence France Presse in Toronto and Winnipeg, as well as for local radio stations and newspapers. After joining Radio-Canada, I also did television. I am particularly interested in economics, politics and the environment.
Languages: English, French
