I try, every month, to put out a reflection. This month has been one of my favourites for this substack. Often, when you support someone like me, it’s hard to remember the work you’ve seen or what we’ve put out. This month has been productive, with some of the best work I’ve ever done. It’s also good to look back and remember some of the things that have happened this month, since things have been moving at a breakneck pace since the beginning of the year.
Canada’s CEOs are making 248 times more than the average worker, a new record.
This little piece was my first “big report” of the year. Breaking down the numbers based on inflation and pumping out a bunch of math, we dove into how people’s wages have overall seen a mild decrease, and we discovered that 80 per cent of Canadians own less than 50 per cent of all wealth in the country. And 40 per cent of Canadians own only 3 per cent of wealth. It was a great way to start off the year, and it kicked off my approach for this year– an approach that prioritizes one weekly report over many smaller reports.
François Legault leaves Quebec worse off than when he started
I refuse to let us live in a nostalgic bubble of better times– I hope that ten years from now when we look back and talk about how much better he was as a leader than whomever we have in 2035, we can look at this piece and remember that the CAQ accomplished little, if anything positive in Quebec.
Better to Be in Jail than on the streets
My little documentary was well liked, but not very viewed. I’m extremely proud of it.
I have two more reports coming out on this in the next few weeks. In this report is the best quote I’ve ever been able to put into an article that I’ve ever been given:
“The current federal Ethics Commissioner is a lapdog, who has shown again and again that he doesn’t care about the public’s right to know the financial interests of Cabinet ministers and MPs, and that he is fine with facilitating and hiding federal politicians’ conflicts of interest from the public,” Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch said.
American Fascism
I’ve received a number of emails and texts telling me that this is the best piece I’ve ever written. I’m not insulted, since this was me testing the waters for a book I’m fifty pages into writing. Hopefully finished and published by the end of this year. If you know a publisher, reach out.
Exclusive: These Federal MPs are spending money on companies that work with ICE
My report this Wednesday was a breakdown of public money being spent on contracts with companies now associating with ICE. Only one MP, Heather McPherson, has responded to it so far. It seems that most Canadian elected politicians don’t want to speak one way or another about the situation, probably out of fear of Trump. Also, the public pressure on Pattison seems to have worked and he announced that he would not be selling his warehouse to ICE. Huzzah! Sometimes everyone working to do things functions. Between journalists talking about this, politicians talking about this,and public pressure, this is an example of real change that can occur.
This month has been my favourite month so far that I’ve done on my Substack. This year is all about doing journalism on my platform. It is highly likely I’ll still do it with others, but I am prioritizing this; because this is what I want to succeed. It’s a mix of gonzo and data journalism, but I think we’re doing some genuinely cool work.
This month I learned how bad the commenters are on youtube. What a wild toxic place! But I don’t respond to toxic stuff, I just delete creepy weirdos and block bad faith stuff– I don’t care what your politics are, but I’m not courting online drama or weird obsessive online behaviour. I know others do that, but I’m not interested in inflammatory stuff. I just want the work to be good, and for me to feel that I’ve done what’s good, and that I’m staying humble.
I have all my reports for the next month basically ready so far, just compiling the formatting and double checking numbers. If you’re part of the subscriber chat, you can keep up with what I’m doing in real time, and I’m thinking of starting a little book club on the paid subscriber chat. Otherwise, we’re off to the races, and I’ll have loads more good reporting coming at you this month!
Impressive output across such diverse topics. The wealth inequality breakdown with that 40%-owning-3% stat is kinda brutal when you see it laid out numerically like that. My uncle works in muniicpal accounting and he always says showing raw percentages makes budget oversight way more accessible than when officials bury it in aggregate line items. The ICE-Pattison result shows what happens when investigative work gets picked up by the right folks at the right time.