Conference Participants

Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for New York City-based The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe.

Conference chair Adrian Harewood is an associate professor at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication. He completed a BA in Political Theory & History at McGill University and a MA in History at Carleton University. In 2023, he was the inaugural winner of the Faculty of Global and Public Affairs award for contributions towards equity, diversity, inclusion and decolonization. Adrian has been a journalist for three decades. He was the host of CBC Ottawa’s All in a Day for three years, and then anchor of CBC Ottawa’s News at Six for 13 years. He was a 2017 nominee for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Interviewer, and in 2020 he won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Local Anchor. For seven years, Adrian hosted the CBC weekly cultural magazine show Our Ottawa. Adrian has guest hosted many national and local programs on radio and television, including The Current, As It Happens, Sounds Like Canada, The House, Counterspin, Hot Type and Power & Politics. Adrian was also the host of a series of programs on BRAVO and PBS including Literati, The Actors, The Directors, Playwrights & Screenwriters. Adrian also hosted CBC Radio’s 2010 FIFA World Cup Show.

Andy Clarke is a professor of journalism and the journalism program coordinator at Loyalist College in Belleville. He came to Loyalist from the CBC where, among other things, he ran the CBC Ottawa newsroom . During his time at Loyalist, he has shepherded a number of projects focused on politics, including a journalism student-led youth voter engagement project called “So You Think I Should Vote?”  He also led a project designed to improve local news coverage in the Bay of Quinte region. Generally popular with students, he gets complaints every year for making them read staff reports in the posted agenda before they cover city council meetings.

Christopher Dornan is a retired Carleton journalism professor and co-editor of a  forthcoming volume on The Canadian Federal Election of 2025 — the latest in a long-running series of post-vote essay collections co-edited with Carleton political scientist Jon Pammett. Dornan holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University, an M.A. in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Communication from McGill University. He taught for two years at Cornell University before joining the faculty at Carleton in 1987. He has worked as a reporter for the Edmonton Journal, an editor and editorial writer for the Ottawa Citizen, and a columnist for The Globe and Mail and CBC National Radio. He was a principal writer and editor for both volumes of the 2012 government-mandated Aerospace Review (the Emerson Report), the Canadian Space Agency’s 2014 Space Policy Framework, and the Public Policy Forum’s landmark 2016 report on the state of the Canadian news media, Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in the Digital Age. Dornan’s recent writings, including many features and columns published by The Hill Times, appear at educatedguesses.ca.

Kathryn Gretsinger is an associate professor of teaching in the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at the University of British Columbia. She is a longtime public broadcaster at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with a record of creating award-winning work at the local and national level in Canada. Kathryn is also a Killam Teaching Prize winner and she was named as one of North America’s top innovative journalism educators in 2018. Kathryn leads the School’s Integrated Journalism course, where students learn about professional practice, journalism skills and digital technologies. She also coordinates the School’s internship program and supports students transitioning into professional practice. She has helped to place students in professional practicums across the country and around the world.
She is a key member of the Global Reporting Centre, where she works as an instructor and producer for the annual Global Reporting Program projects and helps to shape conversations about local and global journalism. She is also an instructor for UBC’s unique Reporting in Indigenous Communities course.

Conference coordinator Ely Pittman is a second-year student in the Carleton’s Master of Journalism program. They completed an English Literature degree (Hons.) at Memorial University where they were an active leader in student governance, disability justice and community organizing. They enjoy colour-coded spreadsheets, reading books on rainy days and trying out different tea blends.

Tim Abray has been a communications, policy and strategy leader for three decades, working at the intersection of the public and private sectors. In early 2024, he completed a doctorate in politics at Queen’s University, studying the effects of political communication on voter cognition, behaviour, and decision-making. Tim began his career as a radio news reporter and anchor and continues to draw on those early experiences in his work with diverse organizations and publics.

Trish Audette-Longo teaches digital journalism and reporting. She holds a PhD in Communication Studies from Concordia University, an MSc in Media, Communication and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University. Trish has covered the environment, politics and crime beats for The Edmonton Journal and managed digital engagement for National Observer. Her reporting has appeared in a cross-section of Postmedia publications, J-Source, Alberta Views, and the Hill Times, and her academic work has been published in the International Journal of Communication, Resilience, Topia, Development in Practice and the Canadian Journal of Communication. Trish’s research interests include: digital, start-up and alternative journalism and media; journalism education; climate change and petroculture studies. She is the recipient of the 2022 Faculty of Public Affairs Teaching Fellowship Excellence Award.

Candis Callison is the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous journalism, media, and public discourse and an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, jointly appointed in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies. She is the author of How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts (Duke U Press, 2014) and the co-author of Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities (Oxford U Press, 2020). Candis is currently working on a long term research project about the role of journalism and media in Arctic and northern regions. She is a member of the Tāłtān Nation and a regular contributor to the podcast, Media Indigena.

Joanne Chianello was an award-winning reporter and broadcaster for more than three decades, during which she worked for The Financial Post, Ottawa Citizen and, most recently, CBC Ottawa. She made her mark covering Ottawa City Hall for more than a decade, and her work included investigations into the troubled LRT – resulting in Ontario’s first-ever provincial inquiry – and abuse of power by one of council’s longest-serving members. Since leaving journalism in 2023, Joanne has been a Senior Advisor on municipal issues with consulting firm StrategyCorp, and volunteers with several community organizations to support their advocacy efforts. Joanne graduated with a combined Honours of Bachelor of Journalism and Political Science degree from Carleton University quite some time ago

Veldon Coburn is an Anishinaabe associate professor and faculty chair of the Indigenous Relations Initiative at McGill University. He is also an assistant professor in the Institute of Canadian and Aboriginal Studies at the University of Ottawa. He holds a PhD in political studies from Queens. Veldon’s areas of interest include identity politics, settler colonialism, postcolonial theory, Canadian-Indigenous politics and state and power.

Andrew Cohen is an author, columnist and broadcaster who was a full-time professor with Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication from 2001 to 2024. He is currently an adjunct professor. In a career of 40 years, he has worked in Ottawa, Toronto, Washington, London and Berlin. He has written for The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, United Press International, Time, CNN.com, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among other publications. His books cover subjects ranging from Canada’s constitutional politics to national character to Arctic exploration. His study of Canadian foreign policy — While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World — was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. His other best-selling books explore the lives of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Lester B. Pearson. His latest book is Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy’s 48 Hours That Made History, which has been optioned as a feature film in Hollywood. Cohen has won two National Newspaper Awards, three National Magazine Awards and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal. He wrote a syndicated column for The Ottawa Citizen and is a political commentator on CTV News Channel. A native of Montreal, Cohen attended The Choate School in Connecticut, followed by McGill University, Carleton University and the University of Cambridge. He has degrees in political science, journalism and international relations.

Desmond Cole is a journalist, activist and author based in Toronto. His work focuses on struggles against state violence, particularly local policing. He has produced works for live news radio, podcasts, magazines, and newspapers in Toronto and across Canada. Desmond’s 2020 book, “The Skin We’re In, A Year of Black Resistance and Power,” is a national bestseller. In June of 2024, Desmond received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Ontario Tech University for his work combating anti-Black racism.

Ethan Cox is the co-founder and senior editor of Ricochet Media and a 2021 Michener-Deacon Investigative Fellow. His writing has appeared in many national and international outlets, and he has won three national awards for investigative journalism. Ethan is also a television pundit in Montreal and a board member with Montreal-based refugee sponsor For the Refugees.

Christopher Curtis the co-founder of The Rover, a news website that specializes in long form storytelling and investigative journalism. He spent his formative years working in construction before doing a nine-year stint at the Montreal Gazette. He’s won two Canadian Association of Journalists awards, was awarded the Medal of the National Assembly and the Prix Judith Jasmin, the highest honour in Quebec journalism.

Brian Daly is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax where he teaches reporting and editing across all platforms. He joined King’s following a 26-year career as a newspaper, television, and radio journalist. Brian broke political and justice stories, at the New Brunswick legislature, for The Canadian Press where he also reported from Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill. He was CP’s lead reporter at the Gomery inquiry into the federal sponsorship scandal and was a decision-desk producer, on two Quebec elections, at CTV News. Brian has covered numerous elections and budgets across five provinces at all three levels of government.

Brooks DeCillia spent more than 20 years reporting and producing news at CBC. These days, he teaches at Mount Royal University’s School of Communication Studies. His research focuses on the nexus of media and public opinion. 

Mickey Djuric is an Ottawa-based reporter with Politico covering federal politics. Mickey was previously a reporter with the Canadian Press in Ottawa and Saskatchewan, CBC Regina and Global News in Saskatchewan. Mickey was the founder, editor and publisher of the Daily Jaw news site serving Moose Jaw and was previously with the Moose Jaw Times Herald.

Amira Elghawaby was appointed Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia in January 2023 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Ms. Elghawaby, an expert on issues of equity and inclusion and a human rights advocate, was previously a journalist. A frequent media commentator, she has delivered keynote presentations and workshops to a wide variety of audiences. Ms. Elghawaby previously worked as Director of Strategic Communications and Campaigns at the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and was a contributing columnist for the Toronto Star. She also previously held  communications roles in Canada’s labour movement and at the National Council of Canadian Muslims. She started her career at the CBC,  where she worked and freelanced as a reporter and associate producer over the span of 14 years. Ms. Elghawaby holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Journalism and Law from Carleton University.

Charelle Evelyn is managing editor of The Hill Times. Raised in British Columbia, she graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University in 2008. Formerly a reporter with the Prince George Citizen, she joined Hill Times Publishing in 2016, where previous roles include reporter and associate editor of The Wire Report, and deputy editor of The Hill Times. Charelle regularly appears as a panellist on CBC’s Power and Politics and CTV’s Question Period, and teaches journalism at Carleton University.

Justin Fiacconi is in the final year of the Master of Journalism program at Carleton University. Before this, he obtained his MA degree in International Affairs from Carleton University. He hopes to produce journalism relating to themes such as human rights, international political conflicts, foreign policy, elections, and socio-political movements. However, his primary area of interest is the overlap between international politics and global sports and the concept of “sportswashing.” Justin has had internships with Farm Radio International and the CBC Parliamentary Bureau. He is from Sault Ste. Marie, and he loves to travel and play sports in his spare time.

Robert Fife is the Ottawa Bureau Chief of the Globe and Mail. Covering national politics since 1978, Fife began his career in the parliamentary bureau of NewsRadio and later United Press International (Canada). He worked as a senior political reporter for Canadian Press and spent a decade as Ottawa Bureau Chief and Political Columnist for the Sun Media chain. Before joining the Globe and Mail in 2015, Fife was CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief and host of Question Period. Fife is also the author of several books: A Capital Scandal: Politics, Patronage and Payoff; Why Parliament Must Be Reformed; and Kim Campbell: The Making of a Politician.

Brett Forester is a reporter and broadcaster with CBC Indigenous in Ottawa. His work focuses on national Indigenous issues, politics, human rights, government accountability and freedom of information. He is a proud member of the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation in southern Ontario who previously worked as a reporter, host and producer for APTN News.

Rick Harp was bit hard by the radio bug at Carleton University’s campus/community station CKCU-FM back in the ’90s. His 30-odd-years in broadcasting includes national and regional stints at CBC Radio, NCI-FM, and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). The founding host/producer of the Indigenous current affairs podcast MEDIA INDIGENA (now in its eighth year), he also anchors the APTN News Brief podcast. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Rick is part of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in what’s presently known as Saskatchewan.

Tara Henley is a Canadian journalist and the author of the national bestseller Lean Out: A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life. Her 22-year career spans TV, radio, online media, magazines, and newspapers. She has worked as a producer on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight and on current affairs morning and afternoon shows at CBC Radio, in both Vancouver and Toronto. Henley’s CBC radio documentary “39” was a finalist at the New York Festivals International Radio Program Awards. A former books columnist for The Toronto Star, and for Metro Morning, Toronto’s top morning radio show, Henley is a contributor to the books section of The Globe and Mail. Her writing has appeared in outlets across Canada and around the world, and she now runs a popular current affairs Substack newsletter, Lean Out. Her weekly interview podcast of the same name has listeners in more than 150 countries and 5,000 cities worldwide. Henley wrote the 2024 Massey Essay on the media, a partnership between Massey College at the University of Toronto and the Literary Review of Canada. 

Erica Ifill is an economist and journalist who founded Not In My Colour, an equity and inclusion consultancy that builds inclusive workplaces. She is the co-founder and co-host of the Bad + Bitchy podcast, which focuses on politics and pop culture from an intersectional feminist perspective. She is a columnist for The Hill Times, where she writes about federal politics and economics with an equity lens, and her bylines have appeared in Maclean’s, Press Progress and The Globe and Mail. Ifill can also be seen speaking about equity and politics on CBC, CTV and CPAC.

Omayra Issa is a news anchor at the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC). Prior to her January 2024 appointment to the CPAC team, Issa was a national reporter for CBC News, where she co-created and co-produced the series Black on the Prairies. Issa began her career at Radio-Canada in Saskatoon and anchored Téléjournal Saskatchewan. The former board member of the Canadian Association of Journalists was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Black Women to Watch (2019) and nominated for a YWCA Women of Distinction Award (2019).

Evy Kwong is an independent journalist and storyteller whose passion is getting equitable information and news to a wider audience. She started at the Toronto Star, building millions of diverse followers and younger audiences across the newspaper’s social platforms to drive back to the website with columns like Millennial Money and #InTheirOwnVoices. After seven years, she moved to VICE News to cover US politics, world politics, and cults. She also managed the social team at VICE News, guiding and training reporters, editors, and producers on how to tell visual stories on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, growing millions of followers. Now, she’s the acting associate director at WIRED managing a team across the US and UK on technofascism and guides on social platforms from Bluesky to Threads. She’s an avid food lover, you can probably find her in Toronto’s Chinatown, and is currently working on a personal project on retracing her lineage.

Luke LeBrun is an investigative reporter and the Editor of the non-profit news organization PressProgress. His reporting is focused on federal public policy along with right-wing politics and far-right extremism. Joining shortly after the Broadbent Institute launched PressProgress in 2013 as its news division, Luke has overseen the growth and evolution of the online publication as its team of full-time unionized reporters has expanded to several provinces. Luke’s original reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic, Freedom Convoy and many election campaigns have been cited widely by media outlets across Canada. Luke’s writing on Canadian politics has also appeared on occasion in the Toronto Star and the Hill Times. He was named by the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression as 2024 winner of the The Arnold Amber Award for Investigative Journalism.

Catherine Lévesque is a parliamentary reporter at the National Post. Prior to this, she worked for the Canadian Press and HuffPost reporting on parliamentary affairs. She also makes occasional appearances on CPAC and CBC News: The National.

April Lindgren is a professor at the School of Journalism at Toronto Metropolitan (formerly Ryerson) University, the founder and co-director of the Local News Research Project. She is also editor-in-chief of the Local News Data Hub, a reporting initiative committed to training early-career data journalists and shoring up local journalism by supplying newsrooms with data-driven stories. Her research, which includes co-creating and managing the crowd-sourced Local News Map to track changes to local news ecosystems, investigates local news poverty and the role of local journalism as critical community infrastructure.

Harrison Lowman is the Managing Editor of The Hub, one of Canada’s fastest growing digital news and commentary sites.  He has worked for more than a decade in journalism, including at TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, CBC News, CTV National News,The Literary Review of Canada, The Munk Debates, Tara Henley’s Lean Out podcast, and had a brief stint at the BBC World Service. He’s also a Carleton J-School grad and an enthusiastic Scout leader.

Martin Lukacs is a journalist and the managing editor of The Breach, an award-winning independent outlet launched in 2021. He’s a former environmental writer for The Guardian, and has written for The New York Review of Books, Toronto Star, Walrus, CBC, and other Canadian publications. He’s the author of The Trudeau Formula: Seduction and Betrayal in an Age of Discontent.

Duncan McCue, an award-winning CBC broadcaster and leading advocate for fostering the connection between journalism and Indigenous communities, joined Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication in 2023 as an Associate Professor specializing in Indigenous Journalism and (Story)telling. In addition, McCue is working with Carleton colleagues to launch a new journalism skills certificate on the ground in Indigenous communities. McCue was with CBC News for 25 years. In addition to hosting CBC Radio One’s Cross Country Checkup, he was a longstanding correspondent for CBC-TV’s flagship news show, The National. McCue comes to Carleton with extensive experience as an educator, having taught journalism and created courses at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism and Toronto Metropolitan University and also as a visiting fellow at Carleton. Over the years he developed a unique online resource, Reporting in Indigenous Communities, which inspired his latest work, a new textbook called Decolonizing Journalism: A Guide to Reporting in Indigenous Communities. McCue studied English at the University of King’s College, then did his law degree at UBC. He was called to the bar in British Columbia in 1998. McCue is Anishinaabe, a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation in southern Ontario.

Emma McIntosh is an Ontario reporter for The Narwhal. She was part of the joint Narwhal-Toronto Star team that won a Michener Award for their coverage of the Greenbelt scandal. Emma McIntosh is a reporter based in Toronto who really likes being outside. She started her career in newspapers, working for the Calgary Herald, the Toronto Star and StarMetro Calgary before finishing her journalism degree at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2018. Before coming to The Narwhal, she also spent two years at National Observer. She became the treasurer of the Queen’s Park Press Gallery in 2021. Alongside The Narwhal’s managing editor Mike De Souza, she won the 2019 Journalists for Human Rights/Canadian Association of Journalists Award for human rights reporting for a story about how a leak from the Alberta oilsands affected the Fort McKay First Nation. Stories she’s worked on have also been shortlisted for a host of other awards, including the Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Jackman Award for excellence in journalism and the Canadian Hillman Prize. Emma is a former Seattleite and a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada.

Angela Misri is a Toronto journalist and novelist and an assistant professor of journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University. Angela worked at the CBC for 14 years before becoming the Digital Director for The Walrus. She writes about digital journalism, technology, politics and pop culture for many different media outlets,  including the Globe and Mail, CBC, The Walrus, Global TV, and is the author of seven novels.

David Moscrop is a freelance writer, author, and podcaster covering Canadian and US politics. His work has appeared in major news outlets in Canada and around the world, including the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, and the Guardian. His first book Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones was released in 2018. He also runs a popular Substack cleverly titled David Moscrop. He lives in Ottawa.

Andrew Mrozowski is the president of the Canadian University Press, North America’s largest student newspaper cooperative. He is also the executive editor of the Silhouette at McMaster University, where he strives to ensure the student newspaper is giving a platform to marginalized communities or voices that need to be amplified. Andrew graduated from McMaster in 2021 with a bachelor of arts in political science.

Emilie Nicolas is an anthropologist, consultant and columnist for Le Devoir and Libération and previously for The Montreal Gazette. She hosts the Canadaland podcast Détours. She’s also a member of the Master of Public Policy teaching faculty at McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy. A long-time social justice advocate, Emilie is a co-founder of Québec inclusif (2013), a movement that actively unites citizens against racism and social exclusion. She also initiated a coalition campaigning for equality and against systemic racism in Quebec (2016). Her writing is widely published, both in French and English, and she is a frequent media commentator, analyst and public speaker on human rights issues.

Caroline O’Neill is an instructor in the Media Production and Design program at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication. Caroline is  a Canadian Screen Award-winning producer who most recently spent three seasons working on CTV’s flagship daily politics program Power Play. Caroline started her journalism career as a morning show reporter on APTN’s radio station 95.7 ELMNT FM. She’s a graduate of Carleton’s undergraduate journalism program and is currently enrolled in the J-School’s Master of Journalism program.

Pam Palmater is an award-winning Mikmaw lawyer, Indigenous rights advocate, educator and public speaker from Eel River Bar First Nation. She works through various mediums including podcasts and documentary films. She holds four university degrees, including a doctorate in law focusing on Indigenous rights from Dalhousie University. She was named one of Canada’s Top 25 Movers and Shakers and Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers. She currently serves as professor and chair of Indigenous Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Raisa Patel is a national political reporter with the Toronto Star. She has covered federal politics since 2019. Before joining the Star, she worked as a producer on CBC’s flagship political radio program, The House, and as an online reporter with the broadcaster’s Parliament Hill team. She has also covered local news for CBC Ottawa. 

Amanda Pfeffer is host of CBC Radio’s provincial open line program, Ontario Today. She has been a journalist with the CBC Ottawa newsroom for more than a decade.  Her career has taken her coast to coast for CBC, reporting for newsrooms in Vancouver, Fredericton, Montreal, and Quebec City.  She has been recognized for her work by the Jack Webster Foundation, the RTNDA and the Canadian Association of Journalists, and has sat on the board of the Canadian Association of Journalists.  She received a master’s degree in journalism from Carleton University in 2011, with a thesis focused on the French/English divide in federal election coverage at the public broadcaster.

Kate Porter, a veteran Ottawa City Hall reporter for the CBC, joined Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication in 2023 to teach courses on audio and video journalism, civic institutions, and the future of journalism in the face of misinformation. Porter’s 20 years at CBC began on Ottawa’s local afternoon radio show while studying journalism at Carleton University. She has anchored radio newscasts, provided live analysis during elections, covered the public inquiry into Ottawa’s light rail system, and produced many multi-platform deep dives about urban issues.

Karyn Pugliese, aka Pabàmàdiz, is co-host of the Auntie Up! podcast with Makwa Creative and a member of the board of directors of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. She has previously been the editor-in-chief of Canadaland and Canada’s National Observer. Karyn was also the Managing Editor of CBC’s Investigative Unit, overseeing the team at The Fifth Estate and Marketplace. Karyn is best known for her work as a Parliament Hill reporter and as the Executive Director of News and Current Affairs at APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) where she ran the news department for seven years. She joined Toronto Metropolitan University’s faculty in the Spring of 2020 while completing a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. Karyn has won numerous awards for her work, including the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism, the Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism, and the Elias Boudinot Free Press Award from the Native American Journalists Association. In April 2023, she was awarded the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Charles Bury Award for her “efforts to inspire change in how Canadian journalism covers Indigenous stories.”

Mark Ramzy is an Egyptian-Canadian political reporter in the Toronto Star’s Ottawa Bureau. He has reported from Parliament Hill since September 2023 and is a student at Carleton University.

Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe from Peguis First Nation and a professor at the University of Manitoba, where he holds the Faculty of Arts Professorship in Indigenous Knowledge and Aesthetics in the Department of Indigenous Studies. He is the award-winning author of the national bestseller Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre (McClelland & Stewart, 2024) and was co-editor of Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (Highwater Press), – the book voted by Manitobans in the “On the Same Page” competition as the top book to read in 2012. Niigaan is a multiple nominee of Canadian columnist of the year (winning in 2018) and is a featured commentator on CBC’s Power & Politics who was recently named to the “Power List” by Maclean’s magazine as one of the most influential individuals in Canada. He is also a former secondary school teacher who won the 2019 Peace Educator of the Year from the Peace and Justice Studies Association based at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Sarah St-Pierre is originally from Drummondville, Que. She is pursuing journalism at Carleton after graduating with a B.A. Honours in International Development Studies from McGill University in 2023. Through her studies, Sarah has become particularly interested in the weight of narratives in reporting and the responsibility of ethical, critical journalism owed to vulnerable communities and individuals. After completing the MJ program, she hopes to work in print journalism with a focus on politics, international relations, and the economy. At McGill, she acted as the Editor-in-Chief for Catalyst, the student-run news publication covering international development where she first discovered her love for journalism. She has completed an internship with CIM Magazine, covering the mining industry, and now works as a freelance writer and translator. In her spare time, Sarah is usually trying out new recipes in the kitchen, indulging in fibre crafts, or overthinking about storytelling.

Tanya Talaga is an Anishinaabe journalist and speaker. Talaga’s mother’s family is from Fort William First Nation and her father was Polish-Canadian. For more than 20 years, she was a journalist at the Toronto Star covering everything from health to education, investigations and Queen’s Park. She’s been nominated five times for the Michener Award in public service journalism and been part of teams that won two National Newspaper Awards for Project of the Year. Her first book, Seven Fallen Feathers, is a national bestseller and won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Her second book, All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward, is also a national bestseller. Her latest book, the newly published The Knowing, explores Talaga’s family’s story and is a retelling of the history of the country now called Canada. Talaga was the 2017–2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy and the 2018 CBC Massey Lecturer, the first Anishinaabe woman to be so. Talaga heads up Makwa Creative Inc., a production company focused on amplifying Indigenous voices through documentary films, TV and podcasts. She holds an honorary doctorate from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

Kory Teneycke is the co-founder and CEO of Ontario-based public affairs and government relations firm Rubicon Strategy Inc. He’s also the former vice-president of the Sun News Network. Over the past 30 years, he’s made his mark in politics, lobbying, public relations and the media. He was the Director of Communications in the Prime Minister’s Office under Stephen Harper and the campaign manager for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party during the 2018 and 2022 provincial elections.

Lucy van Oldenbarneveld is the principal at Lucy van Oldenbarneveld Communications and a former news anchor for CBC Ottawa News at 6. Her work with CBC saw her reporting on major stories across the country. She has been involved in journalism training in different parts of Africa, including Abuja, Nigeria. Lucy was previously the host/reporter of the afternoon radio show at CBC Whitehorse.

Marie Vastel is a political columnist at Le Devoir. Before that appointment, Vastel had been a parliamentary correspondent for Le Devoir since 2011. She worked the parliamentary beat for the Canadian Press for two years prior. In 2020, Vastel was a correspondent in Washington during the American presidential elections, and conducted press trips to Europe, Afghanistan, Taiwan and Japan. She regularly collaborates as a news commentator with the French-speaking and English-speaking networks of CBC/Radio-Canada.

Aaron Wherry, CBC senior writer and political affairs columnist, has covered Parliament Hill since 2007. He has previously written for the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s and the National Post. Wherry is the author of Promise & Peril, a bestselling book about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first four years in office. He has also been a sportswriter and music critic.

Patrick White has been a professor of journalism at University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) since 2019. Prior to that, Mr. White was managing editor of Huffington Post Quebec; editor-in-chief of Canoe.ca; chief news editor at Le Journal de Québec in Quebec City; deputy chief news editor at The Canadian Press French news service; as well as correspondent for Reuters and field producer for CTV National News.

John Woodside is Canada’s National Observer’s Senior Ottawa Reporter. He focuses on climate finance, lobbying, energy policy and the climate emergency. Before joining Canada’s National Observer, Woodside was a reporter at allNewfoundlandLabrador, Saint John Editor with allNewBrunswick, and a producer with Cited Media. Woodside’s reporting has been cited in shareholder resolutions, contributed to policy changes, and triggered a call from the White House to Ottawa.

Natasha Baldin is a fourth-year journalism and linguistics student at Carleton University and is super thrilled to be part of the Reimagining Political Journalism conference news team. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Charlatan, Carleton’s student-run newspaper, where she leads a team of dedicated reporters in producing on and off-campus student-driven news coverage. As a freelance writer and fact-checker, Natasha also has bylines with publications such as the Ottawa Citizen, Victoria News and THIS Magazine.

Nkele Martin is a fourth-year student in the Bachelor of Journalism program at Carleton University and a member of the conference news team. He has reported on social justice issues, sports, arts & culture and more. His work has appeared in New World Athletics, CBC, Canadian Running Magazine and The Charlatan. He was awarded Carleton’s CTV Scholarship in Broadcast Journalism and spend a semester in the Netherlands.

Tamara Merritt is a second-year student in Carleton’s Master of Journalism program and a member of the conference news team. With a Bachelor’s degree in Global and International Studies she is interested in politics both within Canada and outside of it. She has bylines with publications including The Ottawa Citizen, Iceland Review and Capital Current.

Allan Thompson is an associate professor at Carleton University and director of its School of Journalism and Communication. Allan joined the faculty at the School of Journalism and Communication in 2003 after 17 years as a reporter with the Toronto Star and previous work with the Kincardine Independent and London Free Press. He is a graduate of Carleton’s Bachelor of Journalism program (1986) and has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Kent at Canterbury. He spent a year in England and North Africa in 1990-91 on an internship with Gemini News Service. In 1994, he was posted to the Star’s Parliament Hill bureau in Ottawa, where he worked for most of the next decade as a political reporter, specializing in foreign affairs, defence and immigration issues. While at Carleton he published an edited collection called The Media and the Rwanda Genocide and also established and managed a five-year media development project in Rwanda called The Rwanda Initiative. Later he launched the Centre for Media and Transitional Societies here at Carleton. In 2010 he co-authored a journalism text, The Canadian Reporter: News Writing and Reporting with colleagues Catherine McKercher and Carman Cumming. Allan’s most recent publication is the edited collection Media and Mass Atrocity: The Rwanda Genocide and Beyond, published by CIGI Press.

Roger Martin is the Information Technology Coordinator at Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication and Senior Producer of Capital Current, the school’s flagship publication for student journalism. Roger is also the school’s web designer and he set up the website for the Reimagining Political Journalism conference. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University.

Jaime Sadgrove (they/them) is the Communications and Events Specialist at Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication. Prior to joining the school in January 2024, Jaime worked in advocacy and communications in the nonprofit sector, including leading the comms team for a major national 2SLGBTQI+ youth organization. Jaime holds an Honours Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies from Carleton University.  When they aren’t at work, Jaime is active in Ottawa’s musical theatre and choral music communities. They love hiking, overpriced coffee, and testing out overly ambitious recipes.

Randy Boswell is an associate professor of journalism at Carleton University, where he’s been teaching the next generation of news professionals for about 30 years, the last 12 as a full-time professor. A key role as an instructor has been overseeing student reporting for the J-School’s Centretown News and Capital Current publications, and he’s supervising the conference’s student news team. Boswell has worked as a reporter and editor with the Orangeville Banner, London Free Press, Ottawa Citizen, CanWest News Service and Postmedia News, and his political commentary has appeared in the Citizen and other Postmedia publications, iPolitics, Canada’s National Observer, GlobalNews.ca, Toronto Star and elsewhere. A former city hall reporter, he has covered numerous elections at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. He has also written for CBC News, the Globe and Mail, Rolling Stone, The Hockey News and The Conversation, while guest editing and contributing to 12 volumes of history-themed essays for Canadian Issues/Thèmes Canadiens, the flagship publication of the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies.  He has a Bachelor of Journalism (1989) and Master of Canadian Studies (2013) from Carleton.