We embarked on an experiment
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
Ontario muzzled a council tasked with protecting the Greenbelt. Alberta’s oil industry used the pandemic to push a wish list. Fisheries and Oceans Canada stopped monitoring as pipeline work killed fish.These are all investigations we’ve published — and they all came to be thanks to an experiment we embarked on here at The Narwhal.
These days, everyone is besieged with news all day, every day. But in a cruel twist of fate, journalists often hit a wall when they try to dig deeper to get information that ought to be public in the first place.
Government offices work very hard to keep things hidden from our reporters and in doing so they’re violating your right to know. So we asked ourselves, what would happen if we supported our team in filing as many freedom of information requests as their reporterly hearts desired?
Those efforts are paying off: in just the past six months, The Narwhal’s reporters filed a whopping 233 requests — and with those, they unearthed a veritable mountain of government documents to share with readers across the country.
But the reality is this kind of digging takes lots of time and no small amount of money. Those 233 requests? They cost The Narwhal $9,926.
I’D LIKE TO HELP FUND INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM We don’t put a limit on our reporters’ requests because we know they can lead to some pretty major stories that would otherwise go untold.
That’s why today I’m turning to you, our loyal newsletter subscribers. Will you help support our independent, investigative journalism by chipping in what you can each month or year? Bonus: join today for any amount you can afford and we’ll send you one of our limited-edition Narwhal tote bags.
As many newsrooms in Canada cut staff, The Narwhal has doubled down on hiring reporters to do hard-hitting journalism — and we do it all as a small-but-mighty non-profit news organization.
Here’s the thing: we’re only able to do this kind of important work because of readers just like you who step up to support environmental journalism they can’t find anywhere else.
By becoming a member of The Narwhal, you’re providing us with security in knowing we can support our reporters as they file dozens of requests and spend weeks poring over documents to hold the powerful accountable.
Thank you for believing in what we do.
Arik Ligeti
Director of audience
P.S. We only have 100 totes left in our office. Become a member today at any amount and we’ll send one in the mail as a thank you for supporting our investigative journalism.
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