Many print news outlets reserve space for reader submissions. Newspapers such as The Globe and Mail contain letters to the editor and also accept pieces of approximately 700 words from the public. Major broadcasting media such as CBC/Radio-Canada accept and encourage video and photography submissions but do not pay for them. The Globe and Mail also hosts speaking events at its Toronto offices for its readership.
Citizen journalism in Canada had a major impact in a story about the taser electroshock-related death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver International Airport in 2007. Paul Pritchard filmed four police officers subduing Dziekanski and turned his video over to police, who claimed it was necessary for their investigation. When Pritchard learned the investigation’s conclusion was not what he had seen and police refused to return his film, he hired a lawyer, held a news conference, and threatened to use legal action to get it back. When his film was returned, he took it to the news media and the resulting outcry resulted in a major investigation into police tactics (CBC News, 2009).
Online comments to news stories have proven more problematic for both journalists who do not appreciate being professionally maligned and news outlets that do not want to be associated with the often-hurtful comments that can appear. Canada’s largest newspaper, the Toronto Star, suspended online comments entirely in 2015, due to what the public editor called “a cesspool of complaints” (English, 2020). The Star quietly reopened comments in 2020. In 2015, CBC News halted comments on its online news stories that specifically dealt with Indigenous issues, due to the “clearly hateful and vitriolic” nature of much of the rhetoric (CBC News, 2015).
While there are avenues for public input, news organisations want to limit incendiary online comments.
