The Canadian Association of Journalists’ misinformation training program provides training for post-secondary students in every province and territory on disinformation and misinformation and a gold-standard research guide all Canadians will be able to use to improve their digital literacy.
This two-hour workshop covers a variety of practical tools for fact-checking and verification, as well as some of the ethical considerations when reporting on misinformation.
Interested in getting involved? Email misinfo@caj.ca
Upcoming Sessions
There are no other sessions scheduled for the Misinfo 101 series. Please stay tuned in early 2023 for our research guide and handbook, and any other plans for the program.
Previous Sessions
Iqaluit
The final session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by APTN’s Kent Driscoll, and was held online on Thursday, December 15, 2022 from 6:00-8:00pm ET. This event was postponed from its original slotted day and time in September.
Kent Driscoll is APTN National News’ Iqaluit Video Journalist, and has been reporting from Iqaluit since 2007. As the only APTN employee in Nunavut, he ends up covering everything from office management to breaking news.
Calgary
The fourteenth session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by MRU’s Dr. Brooks DeCillia, and was held at Mount Royal University on Wednesday, December 7 from 6:00-8:00 PM local time.
Brooks is an assistant professor in Mount Royal University’s School of Communication Studies. He is a longtime journalist and public broadcaster. For more than a decade, Brooks was a national reporter with CBC News, first in Saskatchewan and then in Alberta. His reports regularly aired on CBC Television’s The National and CBC Radio One programs, including the World at Six and World Report. Brooks covered stories across Canada, South Asia, Europe and the United States, and was embedded with Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. After working in network news, Brooks became the executive producer of CBC News in Calgary. Brooks’ research explores misinformation and disinformation.
Fredericton
The thirteenth session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by CBC’s Jocelyn Elsdon, and was held at St. Thomas University on Thursday, November 17 from 6:00-8:00 PM local time.
Jocelyn Elsdon is an award-winning journalist and Senior Producer for CBC New Brunswick. She previously worked as a producer for CTV News, Canada AM, and field producer for CBC’s The National. Jocelyn is also a part-time professor in the Journalism program at St. Thomas University. Originally from Toronto, she moved to Fredericton in 2018 with her partner and their two children.
St. John's
The twelfth session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by the College of the North Atlantic’s own Anthony Germain, and was held at the College on Wednesday, October 26 from 6:00-8:00 pm local time.
In addition to being an instructor at the College of the North Atlantic’s journalism program in St. John’s, NL, Anthony also hosts CBC’s On The Go, the provincial afternoon radio show. Anthony has won national and international news and investigative awards in a variety of roles during his 30 year long career. He was a foreign correspondent in China, a political correspondent on Parliament Hill, and a war zone correspondent in several conflicts. His most recent international assignment was covering the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Regina
The eleventh session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by CBC’s Alexander Quon, and was held at the University of Regina on Thursday, October 20 from 6:00-8:00 pm local time.
Alexander Quon is a journalist that has worked on Canada’s east coast and is now based in his home province of Saskatchewan as a reporter for CBC News. He’s interested in data journalism, politics and you can find him on Twitter at @alexanderquon.
Whitehorse
The ninth session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by CBC Yukon’s Chris Windeyer, and was held at the Whitehorse Public Library on Wednesday, September 21.
Chris Windeyer is a reporter and editor with CBC Yukon. He is the former editor of the Yukon News and was a 2018-19 Southam Journalism Fellow at Massey College. He has worked at newspapers and magazines across the North.
Montreal
The seventh and eighth sessions in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series were led by science reporter Bouchra Ouatik. Sessions were held in English and French, in person, at the CAJ’s annual national conference in Montreal.
Bouchra Ouatik is a reporter for the science TV program Découverte at Radio-Canada. She was previously part of the Décrypteurs, a Radio-Canada team that specializes in covering disinformation.
Yellowknife
The sixth session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by journalist and communications specialist Sarah Pruys.
Sarah Pruys is a journalist and communications specialist living in Chief Drygeese territory (Yellowknife). She works for Cabin Radio as a journalist and for Ollie Williams Media doing videography, photography, marketing, and social media. She has a master’s degree in publishing, a bachelor of arts degree, and diplomas in public relations and marketing.
Winnipeg
The fifth session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by longtime investigative journalist Cecil Rosner.
Cecil Rosner has worked as a professional print and broadcast journalist for more than four decades, including 31 years at the CBC. He has delivered journalism workshops in every province and territory, and internationally. He is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Winnipeg, where he teaches investigative journalism.
Vancouver
The fourth session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by investigative journalist and journalism instructor, Francesca Fionda.
Francesca Fionda is an investigative/data journalist and journalism instructor. She’s worked with national investigative teams and community-driven outlets. Her past stories have uncovered fake Indigenous art in the tourism industry, exposed government failures in protecting sensitive health information and revealed new, in-depth data on Canada’s mobile workforce.
Charlottetown
The third session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by Holland College’s Teresa Wright. Watch the recording.
Teresa Wright is a freelance journalist and journalism instructor at Holland College in P.E.I. Teresa has been a working journalist for 15 years, most recently as part of the parliamentary bureau of The Canadian Press in Ottawa. Prior to this, she was the chief political reporter for The Guardian newspaper in Charlottetown.
Halifax
The second session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by University of King’s College professor Terra Tailleur. Watch the recording.
Terra Tailleur is an assistant professor at the University of King’s College specializing in digital news. As a journalism educator, she works primarily at the intersection of media literacy, digital literacy and storytelling. She spent 20 years in newsrooms, mostly with CBC. She’s on the CAJ’s ethics advisory committee and regularly advises journalists and communicators at large.
Toronto
The first session in the CAJ’s national Misinfo 101 series was led by ProPublica’s Craig Silverman. Watch the recording.
Craig Silverman is an award-winning journalist and author and one of the world’s leading experts on online mis/disinformation and digital investigations. He recently joined ProPublica as a reporter investigating voting, platforms, disinformation, and online manipulation. He’s also the editor of the European Journalism Centre’s Verification Handbook series. Craig previously served as media editor of BuzzFeed News, where he pioneered coverage of digital disinformation and media manipulation.
About the Workshops
The CAJ was pleased to have had some of Canada’s top investigative journalists, fact-checkers and researchers working to develop the workshop curriculum. Throughout 2022, journalists from outlets like ProPublica, the Canadian Press, CBC News, Cabin Radio and Radio-Canada taught students and emerging journalists tools for fact-checking and verification, as well as some of the ethical considerations when reporting on misinformation.
Each event was unique, acknowledging different misinformation and disinformation challenges in each province and territory. Some virtual sessions were streamed on Facebook Live and will be maintained in an archive on caj.ca so students and Canadians can access them in perpetuity.
While every effort was made to host these events in person, the CAJ is committed to ensuring the safety of all of our local instructors and participants.
About the National Guide
The workshop curriculum will be compiled into a national research guide and practical handbook detailing how to combat misinformation and disinformation, designed to help journalists and the public build expertise and improve digital literacy skills.
The CAJ wants everyone to be able to learn from and build off of the misinformation training sessions and research guide, which is why some sessions have been posted online and the research guide will be disseminated as widely as possible.
