National Observer (Canada)
Canada's National Observer is an online daily news publication launched in 2015 as an offshoot of the "Vancouver Observer". The national site focuses on investigative reporting and news on energy, climate, politics and social issues. They self-describe as a progressive news organization. Overview. Canada's "National Observer" was described as a "daily news site covering issues like government, the environment, health, climate change, and human rights, all with a progressive bent" in a 2018 profile of editor-in-chief Linda Solomon Wood by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. "National Observer"'s owner, Observer Media Group , was a certified B Corporation. By 2015, they had a Vancouver office and later opened offices in Ottawa and Toronto. History. In their 2016 Kickstarter campaign they described themselves as raising funds for a "dramatic new series about the world's fight to beat climate change." Their original team included Charles Mandel, Elizabeth McSheffrey, Bruce Livesey, Sandy Garossino, Jenny Uechi, Mike De Souza, Valentina Ruiz Leotaud, Bruno De Bondt, and Solomon Wood as editor-in-chief." Through the campaign they crowd-sourced $70,863 from 784 backers. Their 2016 Kickstarter campaign listed issues that their investigative journalists would cover, including  the role of corporations that impede change, climate policies related to the 2015 Paris Agreement—part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, food security, the oil sands, hydraulic fracturing in Canada, and animal welfare. The centre piece of the "Observer"'s launch was Bruce Livesey's May 4, 2015 article, "How Canada made the Koch brothers rich." On January 1, 2016, the "Observer" published the first in a special series of articles on the Great Bear Rainforest in partnership with Tides Canada, Teck, and Vancity. In October 2017, "National Observer" teamed up with The "Toronto Star", "Global News , the Michener Awards Foundation, the University of Victoria-led Corporate Mapping Project and four journalism schools, for the largest collaborative journalism project in Canadian history." The "Price of Oil" project was created for the purpose of "tracking oil industry influence in partnership with investigative journalism students from across the country." Linda Solomon Wood. According to J-Source, in August 2014, Linda Solomon Wood, who is CEO Observer Media Group announced the planned launch of a national version of the "Vancouver Observer", an online journalism site that she had created and managed since 2006. Solomon Wood moved from New York City  to Canada in 2001, partly because of air pollution fall out after 9/11. On January 1, 2016, the "Observer" published the first in a special series of articles on the Great Bear Rainforest in partnership with Tides Canada, Teck, and Vancity. "Canadaland"'s Jesse Brown questioned how funding from philanthropists influences the "Observer" s journalistic objectivity. During a 2015 "Canadaland" interview, Solomon Wood said that the original idea behind "National Observer" was "to counter the influence of the energy industry's multi-million dollar spending on ads and editorial partnerships with mainstream media through factual independent reporting". Sandy Garossino. Sandy  Garossino is a writer and a national affairs columnist for National Observer. She is a former Crown prosecutor and media commentator, according to The Tyee. The Tyee said her son-in-law, "at least unofficially, is Elon Musk. Garossino’s daughter is Claire Boucher, a.k.a. Grimes, the musical superstar." Garossino broke the story for National Observer about Senator Mike Duffy's redacted diaries that had suggested that Enbridge pipeline company had regularly lobbied Duffy to reach then Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2012, while Harper was engaged in "scorching attacks on environmental activists and charities." The redacted diaries story was  covered in a number of media outlets including the Calgary Herald the Huffington Post, the Narwhal, and CBC. Bruce Livesey. One of "National Observer"’s first reporters was Toronto-based Bruce Livesey —an investigative journalist and author, formerly with CBC and Global. In 2014, Livesey had been commissioned to produce an investigative documentary for Global Television, about the American billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch, who own Koch Industries, a "global behemoth" with extensive holdings in Alberta's oil sands—"from 1.1 million to as much as two million acres" worth "tens of billions of dollars", and "their interest" in the  construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. "Canadaland" reported on February 5, 2015 that Global had pulled Livesey's "Global News" article and the documentary two days before it was to be aired. Although Livesey says he had nothing to do with the "Canadaland" report, Global fired him immediately. Livesey undertook further research on the Koch brothers connections to the oil sands, and published the article, "How Canada made the Koch brothers rich" on May 4, 2015 as part of the launching of the "National Observer." In the article, he described how the Koch brothers had launched attacks on numerous media  outlets, including an attack against "Edmonton Journal"'s reporter, Karen Kleiss, for her 2011 article that said that the Kochs had hired a lobbyist in Alberta. His and other "National Observer" reporters' coverage of the oil and gas industry's push to build or enlarge pipelines across Canada has sparked interest amongst politicians, journalists, commentators, academics, NGOs, and social media influencers. In 2017, Livesey's 8-part series entitled for the House of Irving for "Observer" on K. C. Irving's family won a National Newspaper Award. When Livesey's series won the award, Tracy Glynn, the NB Media Co -op editor, said that he ""National Observer" is changing the media landscape in Canada, showing that business can be reported on in a way that has the public interest at heart, which is the task of journalism". Livesey's series on the Irvings was a follow-up to his February 26, 2016 Globe and Mail article, "Is the secretive Irving family ready for its close-up?." Mike De Souza. Mike De Souza, who is managing editor of investigations with "Global News", served as the "Observer" managing editor from April 2016 to 2019. Da Souza, who was originally from Montreal, had  covered politics at the National Assembly of Quebec, Parliament Hill in Ottawa and Calgary, which included eight years writing on energy issues for "Postmedia" s at their Ottawa-based parliamentary office. De Souza broke a story that became known as 'the Charest affair' in July 2016. Through Freedom of Information requests, he discovered that Quebec's Jean Charest gave political advice to members of a federal panel reviewing a major TransCanada Corporation pipeline project in a private meeting while he was under contract with the Alberta-based company. This story sparked reactions across the country and was quoted by dozens  of other media outlets, including the "Montreal Gazette", "Toronto Star", "CBC", "Le Devoir", and "Le Soleil". In June 2017, De Souza was named a finalist for the 2017 Michener Award for his reporting on the Charest affair. Controversies. In his 2016 article, "National Post" journalist Terence Corcoran described a "newspaper war" between the Postmedia Network and the "Toronto Star" and criticized "Torstar"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "series of personal and corporate attacks" on "Postmedia", in general, and National Observer reporter Bruce Livesey's massive "5,000-word take down" of "Postmedia" in particular. Livesey's article was published in both the "Observer" and  in the "Star". Corcoran said that Livesey was "a master of the inappropriate juxtaposition of fact and conclusion", and the "National Observer" was a "left-wing Vancouver online magazine".