Robert Fisk has covered numerous wars, invasions and conflicts throughout his 30-year career in journalism, including the U.S.-led attack on the al-Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan. He has worked in the Middle East since 1976, starting with The Times before moving to The Independent in 1988. His in-depth knowledge of the region's history gives his writing the kind of rich context and analysis that have earned him 24 British and foreign press awards, more than any other British journalist.

Sally Armstrong, former editor-in-chief of Homemaker's Magazine, is currently editor-at-large of Chatelaine Magazine and is the author of Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan (2002). A human-rights activist and documentary filmmaker, Armstrong has made women and their stories the focus of much of her work. She has tackled issues such as child prostitution in Bangladesh, war crimes in the Balkans, discrimination, and abuse in women's prisons. She was named to the Order of Canada in 1998 and she won the Amnesty International Media Award in 2000.

Anatomy of an Epic Project:
Armstrong will discuss how a five-year study of the lives of Afghan women led to her compelling book published in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Return to Workshop Menu

In addition to being an executive producer and writer with Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order, René Balcer has contributed stories to Law & Order: SVU, NYPD Blue, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. A native Montrealer, he was also a combat cameraman in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and worked as a reporter for the Montreal Star and as a filmmaker for the National Film Board of Canada. His awards include two Edgars, a Peabody, the Golden Laurel from the Producers Guild of America and a Silver Gavel.

Law & Order, Fact and Fiction:
Balcer will give an insider's perspective of how Hollywood turns fact into entertaining fiction, drawing on Law & Order's popular formula of making compelling dramas from stories ripped from the headlines. He will also offer tips for journalists on how to use script-writing techniques to write more compelling narratives and bring out the personalities of each story's sources.

Return to Workshop Menu

Maria Eftimiades has written countless profiles and supervised the production of numerous others during her time at People. She is the author of five books, including Sins of the Mother: The Susan Smith Story and Lethal Lolita: The Amy Fisher Story.

A native of San Francisco, Liz McNeil joined People's bureau there in 1987 and covered a variety of news and human interest stories across the Pacific Northwest, including the San Francisco earthquake. She moved to the New York newsdesk in 1993 and three years later became the New York correspondent and then Deputy Bureau Chief in 2000, where she helps run the bureau and works with People's numerous freelancers. Much of her recent work has been showbiz coverage, with scoops on Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts and John F. Kennedy Jr. She also contibuted to People's on-deadline coverage of Sept. 11 and supervised much of the follow-up coverage and the one year anniversary reporting. She has appeared on CNN's Larry King Live, MSNBC and Extra.

The Art of the Profile:
Eftimiades on Saturday and McNeil on Sunday will guide journalists through People Magazine’s popular formula for profile writing, from the first gleam of an idea and the research to the writing, the editing, even the photography leading to the finished product on the newsstands.

Return to Workshop Menu

Montreal-born Lysiane Gagnon has been a political columnist for La Presse for more than 20 years. She has also written a weekly column on Quebec for The Globe and Mail since 1990. She is the winner of two National Newspaper Awards and she is the author of three French-language non-fiction books.

Column Writing:
Gagnon will discuss her approach to political column writing and how to address varied readerships.

Return to Workshop Menu

Hubert has been a working journalist for more than 35 years, first in print with The Gazette and the defunct The Montreal Star where he was in turn, bureau chief in Quebec City and senior national political correspondent. After joining the CBC in 1979, he worked on many special projects including programs on the 1980 and 1995 Quebec referendums. He was Quebec bureau chief for the CBC current affairs program The Journal. He has produced many documentaries for CBC and Radio- Canada including: Inside TV News (1982), The Wounds of Oka (1991) and Behind the Uniforms (1993). Hubert was also the Senior Producer in Montreal for the acclaimed CBC-Radio Canada series Canada, A People's History (2001).

The Challenge of writing historical documentaries for a mass audience :

Writing for historical documentaries is more than merely conveying information. The words are just one instrument in a large symphony of sound and pictures that give each film its character and sensibility. Examples from Canada, a People's History and lessons from three master craftsmen: Ken Burns, Peter Watkins and Donald Brittain.

Return to Workshop Menu

A journalist for more than 25 years, Linda Kay worked as a reporter and columnist in the United States, covering everything from sports to politics, before moving to Montreal 12 years ago. A Pulitzer-Prize winner and author, Kay continues to freelance for various Canadian magazines and newspapers.

Covering Violence:
Has the coverage of traumatic events changed? Has it changed enough? How should reporters cover traumatic events? Sept. 11 marked a turning point in covering violence and with the advent of round-the-clock news coverage, the shortcomings show up glaringly. How can the media still cover a traumatic event with sensitivity?

Return to Workshop Menu

Murray Lewis has held the top editorial job at Reader's Digest Canada for four years. A native Montrealer, Lewis was the editor of CHIMO!, a national Canadian lifestyle magazine, and news editor of the Catholic Times before joining Reader's Digest in 1990.

Just the Facts Ma'am: Lewis will give an overview of the magazine's thorough fact-checking system and offer tips to journalists on how to gather accurate research from the get-go. Lewis will also share his thoughts about writing strong and colourful narratives.

Return to Workshop Menu

A former parliamentary correspondent with the Vancouver Sun, John Sawatsky left daily journalism in 1979 to embark on a career as the author of several acclaimed books. His works include Men in the Shadows: The RCMP Security Service (1980) and Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition (1991). Sawatsky has taught investigative journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa for 20 years and currently teaches interviewing techniques to journalists worldwide.

Interviewing Do's and Dont's:
Sawatsky offers interviewing tips and provides numerous examples, both good and bad, that will help even seasoned reporters get the answers they need.

Return to Workshop Menu

Julian Sher is also the author of the national best-seller Until You are Dead: Steven Truscott's Long Ride in History, which won the Canadian Authors Association award for Biography of the Year. He was a producer with the CBC's flagship documentary program The Fifth Estate for ten years, winning a Gemini and numerous other awards for his work. He is currently working on his third book, The Road to Hell, about biker gangs in Canada.

Turning Your Investigative Story into a Book:
The power and perils of book writing. Sher will share his thoughts and insights on how to do it and how to survive, as well as how to bring the past to life. He'll also offer tips for using creative fiction techniques to weave a powerful tale.

Return to Workshop Menu

Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart is the author of the national best-sellers Blind Eye, an investigation of the medical profession, Den of Thieves, about Wall Street in the '80s, and Blood Sport, about the Clinton White House. His book Follow the Story: How to Write Successful Non-Fiction was published in 1998. He is currently editor-at-large of SmartMoney magazine, a contributing editor with SmartMoney.com, a contributor to The New Yorker and formerly page one editor of the Wall Street Journal.

James B. Stewart will present two Workshops:

Narrative writing:
Can non-fiction aspire to the artistic level of fiction? Why not? Tom Wolfe wrote that with novelists abdicating the pressing issues of our time, it was up to non-fiction writers, using literary craft, to fill the void. This presentation will outline a step-by-step process, from the inception of an idea to finished manuscript, that will enable any writer to transform standard journalism into something deeper and more compelling. I will use illustrations from my own work, especially my book "Follow the Story," and will discuss the evolution of "Heart of a Soldier" from a newspaper story to a New Yorker article to a best-selling book.

Business scandals:
When subpoenas are flying, how do you get people to talk? How do you write a compelling story about accounting irregularities too complicated for most people to understand? This presentation will explore the unusual challenges posed by investigative reporting and writing in the world of business, using illustrations from my work, including "Den of Thieves," about crime on Wall Street in the 1980s.

Return to Workshop Menu

Bernard St-Laurent is a 25-year veteran of political reporting who has covered all the major political events in Québec from the election of the Parti Québecois in 1976 to the 1995 referendum and the PQ's re-election in 1998.

Political Writing on Deadline:
St-Laurent will draw on his vast experience as a political reporter to help others write better stories under the deadline pressures of daily journalism. He'll also offer tips for including the context and analysis necessary to make political stories relevant to listeners no matter where they live

Return to Workshop Menu

Of course, there will also be time for you to squeeze in a visit to beautiful Old Montreal, to stroll through the trails of Mont-Royal or to enjoy some serious shopping and delectable dining.