The Institute for Investigative Journalism (IIJ), is a

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

, Montréal, Québec-based institute, founded in 2018 by Patti Sonntag, that teaches, promotes and engages in investigative journalism on Canadian issues. The institute partners journalism students with reporters and editors from Canadian media outlets to work collaboratively on large-scale public service investigations. In 2019, the IIJ's "Tainted Water" project was a finalist for the

Michener Award The Michener Award is one of the highest distinctions in Canadian journalism. The award was founded in 1970 by Roland Michener, who was Governor General of Canada at the time, and his wife Norah. The idea for the award was developed in 1969 with Bi ...

for public service projects. The collaboration included 143 journalists from Canadian journalism schools and news organizations—''

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'', ''

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'', ''

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'', ''

Global News Global News is the news and current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as local news on its 21 owned-and ...

'', '' National Observer'', and Star Halifax/Vancouver/Calgary/Edmonton. The IIJ's project resulted in "Canada-wide commitments to replace lead pipes and test water more rigorously". The IIJ project was described as a "new way to produce great public-service journalism".

Overview

The institute supports "accountability and investigative reporting" Canada-wide. Patti Sonntag, who leads the IIJ, was previously a managing editor at the news division of ''

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''. The institute works across "institutional boundaries and provincial and national borders" in collaborations that include seasoned investigative reporters and student journalists. The institute was launched on June 14, 2018, with its headquarters in the Department of Journalism at Concordia University. Its founding supporter is the Rossy Foundation. The Montréal-based McConnell Foundation awarded a CA$600,000 grant to the IIJ to "train more students, produce more work, and develop a sustainable business model". The grant covers 2019 to 2022. The second collaborative project, "The Price of Oil", was a national collaboration between students from four universities, the ''National Observer'', the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', and ''Global News'' — funded by the Michener Awards Foundation, the Corporate Mapping Project, the University of Regina and Patti Sonntag — "investigating the impacts of the oil and gas industry on Canadian communities". They published their first report in the October 1, 2017, in the ''Toronto Star'', ''Global News'', and the ''National Observer'' on October 1, 2017, and by March 2018, the "Price of Oil" project had "produced more than 70 publications and broadcasts". It received an honourable mention for national journalism from the 8th Canadian

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. The journalism schools at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

Humber College The Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning, commonly known as Humber College, is a public College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1967, Humber has two main campuses: the Humber North c ...

Mount Royal University Mount Royal University (MRU) is a public university in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. History Mount Royal University was founded by Alberta provincial charter by the Arthur Sifton government on December 16, 1910 and officially opened on September 8 ...

, Ryerson University,

University of King's College The University of King's College, established in 1789, is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.Roper, Henry. "Aspects of the History of a Loyalist College: King's College, Windsor, and Nova Scotian Higher Education in the Nineteenth Century." Anglic ...

, the

University of Regina The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchew ...

, and the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

participated in the IIJ's founding project in 2018 and 2019. In 2019, the IIJ's "Tainted Water" project was a finalist for the Michener Award. The "Tainted Water" project was a collaborative effort that included 143 journalists from journalism schools across the country and the ''Toronto Star'', ''

'', ''

'', '' National Observer'', and Star Halifax/Vancouver/Calgary/Edmonton. Following the publication of the tainted water series, commitments were made to "replace lead pipes and test water more rigorously". The Michener Foundation said the IIJ's project was a "new way to produce great public-service journalism". The project included more than 800 FOI requests. In 2020, the "Tainted Water" collaboration won a

Canadian Association of Journalists The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ; french: Association Canadienne des Journalistes) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that offers advocacy and professional development to journalists across Canada. The CAJ was created to pro ...

(CAJ) award, with certificates going to all participants from the nine universities and ten media organizations that had collaborated. FOIs had gathered the results of municipal tests on 79,000 samples in older homes nationwide and the compiled data revealed that one-third had "exceeded the national safety guideline of five parts per billion".

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/journalism/research/investigative-journalism.html Investigative journalism Freedom of information Types of journalism Canadian journalism organizations

Overview

See also

References

External links