FEATURE
BY DANIEL PI
Crossing the
49th parallel
Journalists
from the United States and Canada recently met to compare notes
at a first-ever, cross-border meeting in Vancouver
Ihope everyone knows
one, where the coffee is, and two, where the restrooms are,”
said Brant Houston, executive director of the Americanbased Investigative
Reporters and Editors (IRE). And with that announcement, the inaugural
event, hosted by the IRE and the Canadian Association of Journalists
(CAJ), began.
Crossing the 49th: Investigative Journalism Techniques from Both
sides of the Border started on the cloudy morning of Oct.5th at
a hotel in the heart of Vancouver. In a yellow-cast ballroom,
that was later split into two rooms by a pullout wall, 85 journalists,
16 from the U.S. and the rest from Canada, sat in rows of chairs
while speakers, also from media-related jobs, presented new ways
to gather information and report on stories.
It is a significant event because never before have Canadian
and American journalists met officially to discuss strategies.
“We really like the idea of sharing expertise from both
sides of the border,” says Robert Cribb, CAJ president and
an investigative reporter for The Toronto Star.
“Although we do the same kind of work,we do it in different
environments and sometimes that leads to different approaches.”
With hands in his pockets, Cribb nudges his briefcase with his
foot and predicts that the partnership between the CAJ and IRE
will lead to better journalism.
“It gives them [journalists] the ability to walk in the
newsroom on Monday morning and tell better stories.”
That is an attitude shared by the American journalists. “We’re
furthering the co-operation between reporters from both countries,
which can only improve the value of the reporting,” said
Houston.
Crossing the 49th also examined the issue of how some stories
are now written in one country,but are published or broadcast
in another. So knowing the Canadian or American legal system makes
it easier for reporters to avoid problems. The case of Robert
William Pickton,the Vancouver man accused of killing 15 of the
63 women who have vanished from skid row in Vancouver’s
Eastside, is a case where this legal dilemma could come into play.
“Stories have no respect for geographical borders,”
Houston said.“But journalists have to have the skills to
file their stories, so that involves knowing the resources in
other countries.”
David Sutherland, a lawyer from Vancouver who recently acted
as counsel for a source in a case against reporter Rick Ouston
of the Vancouver Sun, has a slightly different take on the issue
of crossborder reporting.
“When you publish into different legal systems you need
to know how to cover yourself.”And his session with American
lawyer,Bruce Johnson,called “Watching out for Legal perils:
Tips from both countries’ lawyers,” focused on just
that.
Some of the other presentations dealt with 9/11 and terrorism,businesses,local
governments,access to information, trade issues and computer-assisted
reporting.
All of them, according to the journalists who attended the event,were
useful,practical and timely. “Journalism is international
and more and more journalists need to collaborate on the skills
that they need to deliver on increasingly complex stories.”
For the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Lise Olsen, journalism
as an international body is not new. Olsen once acted as the director
for IRE in Mexico and helped set up two cross-border conferences
between Mexico and the United States.
“It’s been a really great experience and it’s
interesting to see how people look at the same stories so differently.”
She hopes that one day, journalists from all three countries
can come together just as Canada and the Unites States have at
Crossing the 49th.But in the meantime, it’s great for Canadian
and American journalists to finally meet face-to-face, she says.
“I was hoping to meet a lot of Canadian reporters and have
some discussions on things we cover in common and get some new
ideas.” The chance to learn new techniques was what brought
Brian Boyle to the cross-border meeting. Lowering his cup and
sucking the coffee from his mustache, the reporter from CBC North,
Yukon, explains how the cross-border event has exceeded his expectations.
“I have a bunch of new tools in my toolbox and I can hardly
wait to use them,” he said. One topic that Boyle is particularly
interested in is the difference in obtaining information through
access-to- information and freedom of information from the two
countries.
“It appears to be quite different on either side of the
border and some doors that are closed to us here [in Canada],may
open on the other side [in the US],” he said.“There’s
a good chance to cross the border electronically and get information.”
The event in general had a great atmosphere. CAJ president, Robert
Cribb, described it as a “good buzz” while IRE director,
Brant Houston, got a little more elaborate. “Despite the
fact that it hadn’t been done before… despite terrible
economy, tight budgets, low staffing, my expectations were that
we’d
fill these two rooms up and everything would turn out fine.”
By the few empty seats in the sessions, the disappearance of
all the complementary pens provided by the hotel and the reactions
of the participating journalists, it seems everything did work
out and Crossing the 49th was a success.
Daniel Pi is a journalism student at Kwantlen College’s
school of
journalism.
