Panels

The Canadian Association of Journalists, along with the Global Investigative Journalism Network has put together a conference you won’t want to miss.

The Rendition of Maher Arar
Thursday   10:00-11:30
As journalists who hail from more than 30 countries we’ve all heard the stories about Arar. He is a Canadian, falsely detained in the US, secretly sent to Syria and tortured. He survived to fight for a public inquiry and was exonerated by the Canadian government. Yet the US still won’t let him fly into or over US airspace. The Global Investigative Journalism conference is proud to welcome Maher Arar.   Join the journalists who covered him as we discuss and debate how his story was covered and why the narratives that emerged were both powerful and dangerous at the same time.

Investigating Cold Cases
Thursday  11:30-13:00
How does a journalist do what police failed to do years or decades ago?   How do you convince your editor that a story from the past is worth the time and money? Meet the journalists who have followed cases like Steven Truscott’s and the Mississippi cold case who can show you how to follow leads that have gone cold, find the sources to light fires which can lead to real change.

How Terrorism Tools are being used Against Journalists
Thursday 11:30-13:00
The laws put in place in the months and years after the 9/11attacks were meant to give law enforcement officials the upper hand in the fight against terrorism.   So why are they now being used against journalists?  Join this discussion to find out how widespread it is and what journalists are doing to fight back.

How to investigate governments,  military & NGO’s in a humanitarian crisis
Thursday  11:30-13:00
You will how to unpack the spin that governments, military and NGO's might be feeding journalists on the ground and in newsrooms - the nefarious influence of fundraising in an emergency.

Getting out from under the Spin Cycle
Thursday  11:30-13:00
You will how to unpack the spin that governments, military and NGO's might be feeding journalists on the ground and in newsrooms - the nefarious influence of fundraising in an emergency.

Justice and the Media: A Townhall On Creating Common Ground
Thursday  11:30-13:00
Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, last year's winner of the CAJ's Code of Silence Award for the most secretive government department, will make history by being the first recipient to ever show up and receive the dubious award.  This CAJ award is given to politicians and bureaucrats who continue to perfect the art of hiding information, stalling the media and ultimately denying the public valuable information. Ontario’s Attorney General was recognized for imposing the highest fees in the country for public access to court records. Michael created the Panel on Justice and the Media In 2005 as a forum for representatives of the media and the justice system to engage in a dialogue. In 2006, the Panel made 17 recommendations dealing with openness, education, working in the electronic age, and the ongoing relationship between justice and the media.  Michael has committed to implement all of the recommendations that fall within the government's jurisdiction, and will update journalists on the status of these initiatives.

When Police &  Courts come knocking
Thursday  14:00-15:30
More and more often police and the courts are looking to journalists to provide names, tapes, transcripts and documents to bolster an investigation or court case.  In recent years several journalists in Canada and the U.S. have been faced with search warrants and subpoenas ordering them to turn over their research or testify in court.  Journalists and lawyers discuss where the law stands on journalists’ right to protect their research.

Investigating the Pharmaceutical Industry
Thursday  14:00-15:30
Ever wonder why the world’s pharmaceutical companies have such huge profits? They’re experts at selling us sickness and drugs, even the ones they know can do more harm than good. Learn the latest tricks of big pharma and hear from journalists who make it their business to crack their secrets.

Investigating Organized Crime
Thursday  14:00-15:30
Staying on top of criminal groups requires knowledge of the intricate networks that make these groups so powerful.  Meet the journalists who can show you how to track their movements, uncover their trade secrets and publish what you know, with confidence.

Roundtable: Investigating Political Corruption
Thursday  14:00-15:30
Power, the intoxicating fuel for ego and wealth. So many times the political environment leads those astray who forget that money they control is not theirs, but our hard earned taxes. Meet journalists from all over the world who will show you the common traits of the political scandal and how to sniff out the dirty deals.

Staying Sane:  Managing trauma on investigative projects
Friday  9:30-10:30
More and more, journalists are doing their work under extreme conditions – war, terrorism attacks, natural disasters, humanitarian disasters. How to tell when you’re carrying too much baggage.

Investigating the stories nobody wants told
Friday  9:30-10:30
What do you do when the going gets tough? Top journalists from Canada and Peru give you tips on how to keep a story alive until you break it wide open. Hear how to fight big government, opposing interests, reluctant sources, and the naysayers in your own newsroom.     

Secrets of Interviewing
Friday 9:30-10:30
How to get people to open up.  How to frame questions in neutral terms to avoid biasing answers.  When to ask, ‘why’ and when to ask, ‘explain the reasons’ and the reasons this is crucial to your story.  Why good reporting skills are good dating skills.  How to prepare for interviews.  How to get people to tell you things they would not tell their own spouses – like how much a mistress costs.

Investigating corruption in the world’s biggest entertainment industry:   Sports 
Friday 11:00- 12:30
While most journalists focus on games, fan loyalty, national pride and athletics, others cover the potential for corruption when such huge sums are at stake. Meet the world’s top investigative journalists who make it their business to expose the way we’re all getting ripped off in a world where cheating has become the name of the game.

Tracking U.S Renditions
Friday  11:00-12:30
British journalist Stephen Grey helped expose the Bush administration’s secret CIA rendition flights. 
Fredrik Laurin was part of a team of Swedish TV journalists who tracked the rendition of two Egyptian men from Sweden.  These journalists mined airport logs, ownership records, and the accounts of amateur planespotters around the world  to track the planes that flew the rendition routes to  Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Morocco.   Stephen and Fredrik will not only tell you how they did it, they’ll give you a flight plane you can follow.

Doing International Investigative Co-productions
Friday  11:00-12:30  - Saturday 11:00-12:30
Journalists in many parts of the world are working together on investigative projects.  Some of them will be at the conference to explain how it is done, the pitfalls, the advantages.

Ethics without Borders
Friday  11:00-12:30
Global Journalism ethics – do they exist? What ethical standards are held in common among journalists – for sources – for dealing with police – for paying for information? Join this discussion with journalists and ethics advisors and find out if it’s even possible to talk about common values and practices?

Investigating and Infiltrating Terrorism Organizations
Friday   14:00-15:30
It has always been difficult to do terrorism stories. But it used to be the stories were always ‘over there’. Since 9/11 the terrorism stories are in our own backyards. Panelists will provide the ‘how to’ of  getting sources,  tracking recruitment, meetings, radical imams.

Roundtable: Business Models for Independent Investigative Journalism Organisations
Friday 14:30 - 17:00
What do you do - when you get fed up with the ups and downs of the commitment to investigative journalism in your organization OR you realize your organization is never going to have the philosophical or financial commitment to investigative journalism?   You start your own investigative organization.  Impossible?   Come see how it’s done from people who are doing investigative journalism in small organizations,  in cross-border groups, and independent units that sell their material to the big boys.

Human Trafficking
Friday  14:00-15:30
Slavery is alive and well in the modern world.  It’s going on right under the noses of governments all over the world.  Thousands of men, women and children are sold into slavery and moved across international borders each year.  Come meet journalists who have done in depth investigations of these networks and how they trade in human misery.  They will show you how to recognize the tracks of human trafficking right in your backyard.  It’s a global trade and no community is immune.

Investigative Journalism in the Middle East
Friday  14:00-15:30
How do you journalists in one of the world’s most volatile regions go about the business of uncovering the truths behind the conflicts that form so many of our daily headlines. Learn from journalists who have maneuvered their way around the dangers.

How to investigate in a closed Community
Friday  16:00-17:30
Every country, every culture has communities that for one reason or another are closed or separate from the mainstream.  It can be physical separation through isolation, it can be cultural, philosophical or religious.
Find out from reporters who have crossed the barriers just how to get people to trust you enough to tell you their stories.

Doing Investigative Journalism On Television
Friday   16:00-17:30
Doing investigative stories is dangerous.  Doing these stories with a camera in tow makes a dangerous situation worse and creates its own set of challenges.  Find out how the best investigative television reporters surmounted their problems and got their tape out of some very dangerous places to shine the light on stories that needed to be told.

Turn an investigation into a book
Friday  16:00-17:30
Three writers who found a story that just wouldn’t fit the confines of daily journalism.  

Tracking Militant Islamist Websites
Saturday  9:30-10:30
Hoda Osman of ABC News Investigative unit will show how terrorists are using the Internet.  She will give you practical information on how to find them, navigate and search them and verify the credibility of some of what's posted on those militant forums.

How to background people
Saturday  9:30-10:30
Journalists aren't the only ones who dig deep for the details. Private investigators do much the same kind of research that journalists do every day. But they bring a different perspective -- and different tools -- to the task. Kevin Bousquet, a licensed private investigator, shares the hidden tricks of his trade and how they turn up prized information on companies.

Getting the visuals for television and print
Saturday   9:30-10:30
This panel dissects the dilemma every television investigative reporter faces.  Once the research is done, and you have the goods, how do you translate all that information into television?  Meet the experts who will share their trade secrets in how to create the visual narrative that brings to life your investigation.

The Power of One
Saturday  9:30-10:30
How to make sense of numbers for readers by reducing huge numbers beginning with t, b and even m, to just one dollar/pound/etc.  The reasons that numbers have meaning only in relation to other numbers.  How to find and develop numbers to give perspective to stories.

Follow the Money Internationally
Saturday  11:00-12:30
Many local businesses do business internationally.   How do you track them without leaving town?  Find out where to look, what to ask for and how to get help from your colleagues half a world away. 

Censor This: Investigative Journalism when the State turns on you
Friday  11:00-12:30
Journalists will share their tips for getting around laws, restrictions, harassment, seizure and risk of arrest.

Critical Thinking
Saturday  11:00-12:30
How do you get beyond the spin of words and numbers and read between the lines to see what information is real and what is manufactured. Join Renee Pellerin and find out how to train your thinking to be critical and original, in an environment where so much of what is thrown at journalists is designed to fool us.

The Centre of Attention: Being Covered by the Media
Saturday 11:00-12:30
What’s it like to have hordes of journalist show up on your doorstep when you’ve only just found out you lost your child? What’s it like to have a reporter call you when you most want to forget and hide to nurse your sorrow? Meet those people we approach as interviews or sources and walk in their shoes to learn what you could do better.

Investigating Aboriginal Issues 
Saturday   11:00-12:30
How do we in the media affect aboriginal people are treated by others. Do we influence the very outcomes we deplore and condemn in our writing? Meet an activist lawyer who both fought to protect his clients and expose their stories at the same time. Meet the journalists from Canada and Australia who have dared to tell the aboriginal stories and learn how they keep doing it even after the pressure they face from their fellow journalists.

Roundtable:  FOI around the world
Saturday  14:30-16:30
A round table discussion about the declining state of FOI laws around in Europe and North America and fight for FOI laws in other parts of the world.

Chasing Nuclear Secrets, explosives and small arms
Saturday 14:00-15:30
How to investigate the shadowy world of conventionalarms, nuclear technology and explosives.

Going undercover to get a story
Saturday  14:00-15:30
When should you consider going undercover? What is involved – the risks, the isolation?  And the power of the material you can gather.

Investigating the Resource Industry
Saturday  14:00-1530
How to look into the environmental, safety and business practices of one of the big economic engines.

Investigating the Wrongly Convicted
Saturday   16:00-17:30
Journalists hear it all the time from the convicted, ‘I’m innocent’.  How do you know who is innocent and who isn’t?  How do you even begin to investigate a crime or a person the police investigated and the courts have convicted?  Get the answers from the people who have done all that, including starting a grass roots organization to clear the names of the wrongly convicted.

Emerging Investigative Journalism Countries
Saturday  16:00-1730
Come hear from people who are trying to establish an investigative culture in their country, their city, and their newsroom.  Hear from others who are further along that road.  Share your experiences.

Investigating Environmental Issues
Saturday  16:00-17:00
Companies are global, know international laws and adjust accordingly.  But you can track how companies who might a rosy image at home are plundering resources in other countries and often leaving behind a trail of environmental disaster.  Meet the journalists who can introduce you to the networks of reporters across the globe who can help you make those connections and give new edge to your stories on the environment.

How to keep yourself & your story alive in a combat zone
Sunday  10:00-11:00
Most journalists learn how to keep safe by working with more experienced colleagues or by watching others make mistakes.  Journalists who have been in many conflicts and disasters share their tips and tricks for survival. 

How to get going when you land in a strange place
Sunday 10:00-11:00
Disaster strikes, a story breaks and within hours you are somewhere you’ve never been before – expected to get a handle on the situation and file a story within hours.  Find out how to land on your feet and find the people you need to tell the story.

How to tell is someone is lying to you
Sunday  10:00-11:00
Experts outside the field of journalism share their secrets in ferreting out  the liars.