This is an open letter to the parties involved in a smear campaign against Jian Ghomeshi and members of the mainstream media who’ve forsaken journalism ethics and integrity in general, to miss the larger picture altogether.

Dear Toronto Star, Michael Cooke, Kevin Donovan, Jesse Brown, Glenn Greenwald, Bill Owen, Andrew Mitrovica, organized Labour, CBC, major news outlets, the public audience and elected representatives,

My letter will touch on a number of topics that may appear to meander, but they’re all connected by this Jian Ghomeshi report and I ask that you have patience to let this narrative develop. The consequence of shoddy journalism has immense ripple effects that further reflect on our democratic institution, as do the players involved in promoting it.

Toronto Star Versus Ghomeshi

Please let me begin by addressing an overtly blatant example in the Toronto Star, as it appeared last night.

Editor Michael Cooke justified publishing a Ghomeshi exposé by blaming it on the radio star’s public statement to refute these anonymous allegations.

The Toronto Star claims it was committing responsible journalism and would never have published these unsubstantiated accusations, had Ghomeshi not come forward with the provocation to force the editor’s hand. A similar reason was given during the Rob Ford investigation and Gawker was blamed as the reason Canada’s leading newspaper had to follow suit in such a hurry, not of its own accord.

The only problem is ample proof from the Toronto Star’s reporter, that shows he was previously threatening to publish this article in the days leading up to release. When the original story was printed that said Ghomeshi was taking a personal leave of absence, Jesse Brown refuted that information by telling social media it was untrue and he had proof it didn’t relate to family bereavement.

Mr. Brown is often called an “independent journalist”, but in this case he was working under the Toronto Star for “months”. Both the reporter and the TorStar editor confirmed this development. Therefore, regarding the Ghomeshi story, Jesse Brown was representing the Toronto Star’s investigative actions when he contacted the CBC to press for verification of his work and informed the world of an upcoming challenge to the broadcaster and its journalist.

This public shaming occurred throughout the afternoon of Friday, October 24, 2014. It wasn’t until Sunday, October 26, 2014 that Jian Ghomeshi published his response to the threats.

This means Toronto Star editor, Michael Cooke, gave a false explanation for proceeding with the unsubstantiated story. It was a reporter on behalf of the Star who made it perfectly clear that an article was coming whether Ghomeshi responded or not. It was a reporter on behalf of the Star who threatened this story was coming to refute the CBC‘s explanation of a personal leave of absence. Mr. Brown wanted credit for contributing to Ghomeshi’s termination, when the public was unaware of his and the Toronto Star’s private endeavour.

If it wasn’t for these tweets between Jesse Brown and CBC staff that preceeded Ghomeshi’s response, he wouldn’t have been able to lay suit for a $50 million breach of confidence. That was the precise moment when such a breach occurred. Now the Toronto Star could be held liable for contributing to that transgression, with dogged determination to cause a privacy breach in the first place. Where the CBC used to have friendly and respectful relations with the Toronto Star, there are 50 million reasons why that is no longer possible.

At the same time the Toronto Star’s new friend, Jesse Brown, was hosting Glenn Greenwald in Ottawa. Although the newspaper waited months to run the Ghomeshi story because “it would have been irresponsible”, it became a top priority to harass the CBC for action while the international superstar was in town. Mr. Brown’s tweets alternate back and forth between the Greenwald event and his CBC complaints.

All this attention was used to promote another anti CBC story, where Glenn Greenwald alleges the public broadcaster and the Globe and Mail censored Snowden leaks from being published. For the record I believe him, but CSEC-media issues will be addressed later on.

The point is this: Mr. Brown was using his Greenwald publicity to promote a vendetta against the CBC, at the identical time he was pursuing Ghomeshi on behalf of the Toronto Star. Every single one of these events was occurring on Friday, October 24, 2014 and this is two days before Ghomeshi was forced to publicly respond.

Ambition is an important attribute in the journalism industry, but not when it’s used to destroy a fellow reporter with little more than conjecture, to elevate oneself in the space that was created. The Toronto Star admitted the Ghomeshi story didn’t meet its professional standards, likely due to the alleged victims’ refusal to come forward. Every day the phone rings with unsubstantiated claims a newspaper can’t print, about any number of public figures. This is Ethics in Journalism 101, folks.

How would Michael Cooke or Jesse Brown feel if I collected a few unnamed women to say they were sexually abused by these journalists? If I didn’t provide their information or even the details of an allegation, it would revoke your ability to respond or defend your reputation. The allegations made by Jesse Brown and the Toronto Star are criminal in nature and by failing to offer alleged dates of assault, you’ve revoked Mr. Ghomeshi’s Charter right to be informed or offer an alibi. This is why criminal allegations aren’t tried in the media and belong in a court of law, because the justice system has rules that reflect the Constitution to make our process fair.

Every person I’ve named is familiar with the power of media and the solemn duty to use that power responsibly. That’s why news must be substantiated, by more than the paper’s own threats that are hardly independent and reflect a vested interest.

But Jesse Brown was given carte blanche to schedule Jian Ghomeshi’s sex life for trial in the public arena, without so much as providing a witness who would support the allegation on any record whatsoever. For six months neither the Toronto Star nor Jesse Brown could convince the latter’s sources to substantiate their allegations by reporting to police. How male journalists and editors counselled alleged sex abuse victims during this time without the expertise remains curious. Instead, these men led the females to believe that criminal allegations can be tried by a newspaper and not a court of law that is guided by the Charter to protect everyone equally. They took the law into their own hands and turned the Toronto Star into little more than a Jerry Springer episode, contrary to every libel law on the books.

The exposé boils down to vilification of a respected sex industry and plays on the public’s misunderstanding of bondage, discipline, dominance and submission (BDSM). For those who are snorting at the “respected” part, please bear in mind the same crowd stood behind Terri-Jean Bedford as she elevated BDSM to the Supreme Court of Canada and won a landmark case that deemed sex industry laws to be unconstitutional. The same people looking to destroy Ghomeshi for the identical behaviour were cheering loudly when Bedford was selected for a civil liberties award, and they still do as she continues the fight against Bill C-36.

Is it sexism that determines a female dominatrix is acceptable, but a male dom in a consensual BDSM relationship is not? Does sexism make this behaviour constitutional for one gender, but not the other? Is it possible that Jesse Brown fails to grasp BDSM and this is the reason his sources refuse to come forward?

We will never know these answers because the Toronto Star played judge, jury and executioner before a case could be presented and it didn’t bother to assemble one. To all the confused feminists who believe criminal allegations should be tried by media and not investigated by law enforcement, may I remind you that you’re playing into the patriarchy by giving women more reasons to keep their abuse silent, if indeed it is abuse.

The Toronto Star set a prime example, to show the public it doesn’t need to report and anonymous, unsubstantiated claims will be prosecuted by their journalists to keep all parties from being subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Believe it or not this affects females when they’ve been falsely accused of violence too, without evidence to support, dates alleged or accusers to investigate for motive. Just ask the mothers who’ve lost custody of their children and went through years of fighting the system to prove they were fit to get them back. The erosion of our collective legal protections by a newspaper is damaging to the entire country and not just Jian Ghomeshi, or a competing news outlet.

If the Toronto Star or Jesse Brown were legitimately concerned for the sources’ safety, then where is their account of approaching bona fide counsellors to speak with the women in all this time? Or did these females face two male reporters who wished to exploit their story and for six months had to explain less controversial reasons for failing to speak up? Reportedly the messages shared by Ghomeshi with CBC lawyers were enough to ward off criminal concerns because his evidence proved consent. Furthermore that evidence was widely forthcoming, because Ghomeshi hasn’t been informed of an accuser’s name to formulate a specific response. That information is a primary requirement in the Charter, but he could only bear his soul with every detail about his sex life, to combat a competing newspaper that was threatening his employment as the primary means of dealing with this issue. That goes to show a personal vendetta and doesn’t reflect the public good.

Because Michael Cooke denied the Toronto Star’s harassment of Ghomeshi at CBC, we also couldn’t know if these women consented to the story being published at all. The Star says these young ladies refused to come forward and their accusations couldn’t be supported. They rushed the article because Ghomeshi attempted to save his job. They didn’t claim the story was splashed across the front page because any woman pushed for action to coincide with a Glenn Greenwald visit and a second damning story about the CBC. Instead they played on the public’s misunderstanding of BDSM to sensationalize these relationships and everyone on the political spectrum forgot to ask if the women were victims of media pressure, to help a journalist get a story in the moment he wanted it.

A can of worms has certainly been opened and the only mechanism that can sort this out is an impartial judge. This goes beyond the threshold of complaints to the press council and has carelessly imperilled the rest of another reporter’s life. What journalist could trust the Toronto Star when it treats the industry’s voices like collateral damage to sell an unsubstantiated headline now?

C-13 And Government Censorship

Speaking of which, the Toronto Star lost its religion entirely and this example reinforces a second transgression against respected journalists that happened within the same week. This is also where the narrative of Jesse Brown, Glenn Greenwald, the CBC and the Toronto Star will meet, to demonstrate the larger problem that gave rise to this bad behaviour throughout the industry.

I’m an investigative journalist and a media critic of sorts, similar to Jesse Brown on his better days. Being an ethical media watchdog entails constructive criticism wherever it may be due, regardless of friendships or ambitions. With that said, criticism is warranted and the current leaders of journalism have clearly lost their way, in a manner that threatens all Canadians.

I published an article about the Ottawa shooting on October 23, 2014, a full day before the Ghomeshi and Greenwald developments. It was an exclusive investigation that identified the passage of Bill C-13 in the House of Commons, but it was done in haste and concealed by a terrorist line from the government and media. I was the only person in the country to report this major alteration to the core of our legal fabric. Canadians lost their Charter rights in legislation that contained warrantless surveillance powers the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional in a related case. Measures in Bill C-13 were the same as Bill C-30 and the #TellVicEverything campaign that managed to spark a national revolt. This time however, the public wasn’t aware of the second coming because the press was preoccupied with getting their terrorism stories approved.

My investigation achieved viral status with more than 112,000 unique readers and that number continues to rise by the minute. For Canada, that statistic is amazing and it surpasses the daily circulation of most newspapers. It also thoroughly surpasses television audiences from flagship news programs on any given night.

For the second time my work trended on Facebook and that’s not an easy feat for an independent journalist who is up against the entire mainstream, like CBC and the Toronto Star. As the Star covered Islamic terrorism on Parliament Hill, I covered the Star’s secret editing that replaced articles entirely, with a different set of government approved facts that discredited their own journalists’ work.

I was trending so much that the RCMP responded, to quell additional upset about an American outlet providing the shooter’s name on Canada’s behalf, as I alleged. They did this through a CBC radio program that receives lower ratings than the 6 o’clock news, a day later on October 24 and rather inconspicuously. It was the same day Jesse Brown began his public brouhaha with the CBC over Ghomeshi.

On a different CBC radio program, an intelligence expert revealed the photo of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau that was used to assert terrorism actually arose from the Ottawa Police tip line. On the same day, also censored from the 6 o’clock news, a small audience was told that ISIS lifted Bibeau’s picture and put their stamp on it, but no one inquired how ISIS obtained this evidence from the Ottawa Police before the public or Canadian news agencies were informed.

We have a serious issue of American intelligence interfering in a Canadian tragedy, to re-label a mental health event as an act of terrorism and matter of international security. In the meantime our government rush-passed Bill C-13 and every news outlet in the country refused to cover. It even hit an historical milestone for achieving the quickest successive readings in senate.

Instead of reporting a word about constitutional infringements on collective Canadian freedoms, the Toronto Star edited their original story about the Quebec incident to toe the government’s line on terrorism, without indicating the fundamental and factual changes to five of their reporters’ published work.

Now we’ve established behaviour at the Toronto Star that began before the Ghomeshi incident. This applies to CBC too, for concealing the information on radio programs from being translated to television and general news distribution. Some are trying their hardest, but it only gets mentioned on specialty programs. No response has been offered to my investigation that details these examples either. I’ve gone viral as the both of you remain silent and more than a hundred thousand audience members are left waiting.

Surveillance Of Journalists

In March 2014, I was in contact with Greenwald’s Intercept to discuss my submission about CSEC, the NSA and international matters of privacy. I was informed by Micah Lee in phone and PGP conversations about the group’s decision to decline, due to a lack of resources for Canadian content and expertise about our country. No journalists are dedicated to Canadian leaks or surveillance and no libel lawyers are familiar with our national security issues to vet our investigations. Once again I’m part of a small contingent that’s been trying.

My story about the technology now used by the Harper Government was ignored by every mainstream source I approached. As a result I had to establish Free The Press Canada and take the risk of publishing this surveillance information myself.

Simultaneously I was being harassed in a longstanding campaign by Conservative members who sought to remove me from the CBC, when I was covering provincial and federal elections with a critical eye toward their policies (an unpaid internship that was extended for many months, spanning television news, additional programs, internet reporting and features).

In another tawdry example, not completely dissimilar to what Ghomeshi is facing, I was humiliated by false allegations that targeted my son in a silencing campaign, related directly to my work at the CBC. Our constitutional rights were breached more than once. No accuser’s name or details of an allegation were provided. A tremendously skilled lawyer had to be called upon to vindicate my boy, after powers were abused to distribute his information without a warrant or allegation as a minor. My only option was sharing this humiliation in an effort to protect my most cherished family member from the political repercussions of my work.

In this way I can relate to Jian’s experience far too well, being forced to come forward with ambiguous reputation attacks that couldn’t be fully explained or defended at the onset, because no one would provide the details. It took three years to clear my son’s name and for half that time we didn’t know the complete allegation to build a defence. Once we did, it resulted in a court order in our favour, to call for a provincial inquiry into abuses of power.

A publication ban protects most of this because my son was not an adult. That didn’t stop the Toronto Star from approaching me to report though. It was a big, unmentionable fiasco at the time and they wanted to find a way to relay the news of a journalist under attack through their private life. I was the one who had to decline to ensure legal orders were observed, but they didn’t extend the same respect to Jian Ghomeshi and saw one of us as a victim, while deeming the other to be a criminal who didn’t deserve a response.

I don’t mean to liken my family’s situation to the allegations against Ghomeshi, but the method of attack was grossly similar, equally disgusting and the effects were nearly identical. I was terminated by CBC within a short period of this happening, despite my own lawyer and the broadcaster’s lawyers clearing my work and defending a slew of ambiguous allegations. Some of them accused me of child exploitation for being a foster parent.

I gave the only interview about this conflict between politics and the press to Glen Wosnock at The View Up Here. It’s 2 hours long and I suggest cuing the audio to 3:15 to avoid some technical difficulties. From beginning to end, it will take you through the mainstream censorship caused by political interference, to the abuse of power and resulting repercussions when the fourth estate loses sight of its purpose and democratic mettle.

I then spoke with the organizer of the Glenn Greenwald event in Ottawa. Bill Owen discussed my CSEC information at length, but decided he wasn’t prepared to include this Canadian content or make space for its mention, because the loss of our constitutional rights wasn’t deemed “compelling enough”. He described Mr. Greenwald as a personal friend who was doing him a favour, to earn some money by hosting a book release engagement. This wasn’t planned to create a stir and Owen sought a quiet affair to generate a bit of revenue.

I was incensed, especially in light of the Intercept declining Canadian material because the editors weren’t familiar with our legal structure. How could the most prominent security journalist attend Canada during such a tumultuous time and decline to be abreast of our issues? Mr. Owen said he would ask Greenwald to read my work and study our matters before attending, but he couldn’t make any promises.

The host of The View Up Here, Glen Wosnock, also contacted Mr. Owen to rally for the information from my CSEC investigations to be included. To anyone who’s heard it, I admit it’s rather alarming. But he was met with the same denial, that explained the event was only meant to generate money and they had no intention of addressing these current security issues.

Prior to this, the office of Michael Cooke at the Toronto Star sat on one of my investigations for a week. I came to the attention of national security due to my coverage of government issues, as well as environmental challenges that CSEC openly surveils as the greatest threat for terrorism. First it was my investigation into the Canada Pension Plan being used to fund the war in Iraq and ties to Nigel Wright that was suffocated (part 1 and part 2). Then it was government conflicts of interest that helped some of these challenges take shape.

The Toronto Star took a long time to decide against challenging the federal government. Other outlets like the Vancouver Observer explained a hesitancy to work with me due to the ambiguous attack on my son that took even longer to set the record straight. Postmedia offered to buy my work as research, so I wouldn’t be able to publish it. The government accomplished exactly what it wanted by watch-listing my work to blackball me from publishing in the mainstream anymore.

Similar tactics were used against larger names than mine. I met with the parents of Matt DeHart, who are both retired NSA staff. They’re seeking asylum for their son in Canada, regarding allegations of torture to silence him from becoming a whistleblower against security practices across the border. The Toronto Star nor CBC is covering that exceptional plight, so it didn’t surprise me when Greenwald claimed the Canadian press shut his work down as well. On this file, the American press is doing the same. What the young DeHart is facing resembles the attack on Julian Assange and there is a definite pattern of humiliating, unsubstantiated, sex-based complaints against anyone who has the platform to be critical of the government.

That’s why my early investigation into the who-and-how is so important, because it can happen to anyone who uses social media now, let alone the reporters who are attempting to protect our freedoms. The Five Eyes have numerous media surveillance programs that target us and our audiences directly, but you won’t hear the Toronto Star or CBC reporting about dangers to their own staff.

Greenwald Event

Bringing us back to Jesse Brown, he was sent my viral piece about the parliamentary passage of Bill C-13 amid the government’s terror accusations. When he introduced Glenn Greenwald for the event in Ottawa, he cited my work but failed to provide credit and only touched on part of the story. He told the audience C-13 passed, but he wouldn’t say the mainstream press concealed this information to alert them it was happening unnoticed and unchallenged. You don’t lift part of a fellow journalist’s work without credit and you don’t misconstrue the story to mislead your own audience.

I watched the event on livestream and noticed that no sponsor made an effort to advertise, with tickets still available that night. Yes, that means you, Rabble and OpenMedia, who normally get the benefit of the doubt under less consequential circumstances. Who the heck schedules Glenn Greenwald and doesn’t advertise to capacity?

Afraid of the self-imposed controversy to address Canadian warrantless surveillance, even the livestream topped out with 700 viewers. As seven to eight hundred participants listened to Greenwald censor our issues, there were 112,000 people reading whatever facts I could provide. Mr. Greenwald received my work too, but he wouldn’t mention it, or Bill C-13, or the surveillance of our media to impose the most ominous forms of censorship.

Instead Mr. Greenwald, for all his good intentions, allowed his name to be used to take down another journalist at the CBC with unsubstantiated allegations. Jesse Brown began quoting Greenwald on the importance of reporting responsibly, as he and the Toronto Star threatened Ghomeshi for his job before going to print with sources who refuse to support the allegation on any record. It was like listening to a parrot after the livestream event in an alternate reality, but that’s what happens when international stars can’t be bothered to learn the local politics before they try to influence a country’s affairs ambiguously.

I have no doubt the NSA is laughing its ass off. With Greenwald in town, American sources dictated the Canadian terror narrative and the government revoked the public’s constitutional rights without him noticing as a lawyer and journalist. The commotion drastically stole attention from his visit, which in turn stole the media’s attention from what was happening.

Greenwald spoke on Saturday, October 25, 2014 at 6:30pm local time. At 3pm on the same day, a third shooting incident happened in Ottawa, barely 10 minutes away from Parliament Hill and the speaking venue. An OPP officer in plain clothes fired his pistol at a suspect, who was running through traffic and punched an officer in the face. This major street was closed by police for the next four hours to conduct an investigation.

This story only received 1,100 shares on social media and it missed major news broadcasts altogether. It wasn’t deemed a terrorist act and police firing guns in the capital has become so acceptable in the terror-narrative-immediate, that it didn’t deserve mention on Jesse Brown’s front page of the Toronto Star.

Political Control Of Canadian Press

Most Canadian news is owned or run by Conservative party figures. There is hardly a shred of independence from the current government remaining. The Postmedia and former Canwest publications were purchased by a group under CEO Paul Godfrey. Mr. Godfrey led the National Post, that was started by a handful of fellows from the Fraser Institute and he is well known as a Tory politician.

The Quebecor chain purchased the Sun Media chain most recently. Previous Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney sits on the Quebecor board of directors.

Sun News is different from Sun Media, that was also restructured. The Sun News Network was absorbed by subsidiaries of Quebecor and its operations are run by Kory Teneycke, who is better known as the former director of communications for the current Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.

The CBC is a Canadian public treasure, but it was also realigned with and by the current government. Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed ten of twelve board members as Conservative party donors.

That left us with the Toronto Star as one of few remaining independents, but they were forced to partner with the Globe and Mail to cut costs on distribution in 2012. The latter is predominantly owned by Bell, or rather BCE. The Globe and Mail was hit with additional controversy when Jesse Brown reported impropriety that led to the paper endorsing Conservatives.

Then the Globe faced controversy over its decision to run branded content, or what is more commonly referred to as an “advertorial”. This means a corporation or government can pay a reporter for positive coverage, that is written to appear like a news article but it’s really an advertisement undercover. This behaviour is opposite to the duty of a fourth estate, to hold its government accountable through ethical reporting. Without a fourth estate we cannot have a democracy.

The issue of advertorials was also leaked to Jesse Brown and reported in kind. A strike was narrowly averted and this requirement was a factor for journalists, as well as a dispute about wages. However, a former Globe and Mail deputy editor explained to J-Source why advertorials are required for newspapers to survive in the digital media age. He defended many large names for pursuing this type of fabricated journalism and J-Source doubles as a handbook for aspiring journalists who are trying to navigate the cutthroat landscape.

Advertorials may not be a contract requirement in some news agencies, but it’s still on the table for those who wish to prosper and accommodate. This gives the government complete control of Canadian news, whether through payment, friendly pressure or the national security surveillance of journalists if they dare to sing their own tune.

The Toronto Star shocked me when it came to heel and changed the spirit of terror articles to trumpet the government’s line. They stopped questioning and in the splendour of Greenwald’s attention, assisted a campaign to remove progressive personalities from CBC that has long been in the crosshairs of this government. They did it by lying about their actions and provocation. They did it without a source to confirm. They did it after ignoring the media surveillance information I made a concerted effort to provide them with. They even did it without details or a name, so the journalist they were witch hunting couldn’t defend himself. They hurled a slur you can’t take back, by inferring sexual abuse that will forever stain Ghomeshi, even if he can prove his innocence for an allegation that was never made.

If you put this in perspective of the government, the Toronto Star and every other newspaper would decline similar gossip against a member of parliament. They would automatically know that anonymous allegations would land them in enough hot water to fire someone. So why have they treated Ghomeshi with less respect and no ethics at all?

The reason traditional news is suffering on the internet is due to journalists like me. Mike DeSouza is another casualty for reporting critically about the government, but I don’t see many colleagues reading the personal blog he’s been demoted to today. The reporters who still hold staff positions are too busy sniping each other out, to be the top dog of government PR and advertorials that skew the real issues or conceal them completely. The world wants factual news about the consequences that affect them and they’ve learned not to seek it through branded content, no matter how fancy a media website appears.

I had one of the most viral articles and because I did, none of you would tell the public about losing its constitutional rights in C-13. That’s a pissing contest that benefits no one and with all due respect, I don’t have a penis to want to play. My work is more important than vying to become part of the new generation of old boys who censor everything important to benefit themselves in the hunt for prestige. So I might be the one who’s unemployed, but I can still look at myself in the mirror. I can also chat with 112,000 concerned people, as opposed to your 700.

Finally, I thought the underhanded loss of constitutional rights would be important to formidable opponents like Andrew Mitrovica. He’s been a champion of Jesse Brown, but even he wouldn’t mention C-13 as a spokesperson for the counter culture offensive. He was too busy hobnobbing about the mainstream to care about things it had actually done to harm the public.

I respectfully ask that you all smarten up. Your duty is greater than self worship and profit, at the expense of truth and the lives of fellow journalists. CBC Radio was the only source to confirm my investigation, but there you were destroying a CBC Radio host with conjecture on behalf of the government interest. You were played like a fiddle in the same moments this was happening and every last one of you failed to recognize that reality. A mea culpa is due and no amount of excuses will convince the public you’re not being manipulated by the government. Excuses won’t restore constitutional rights in place of responsible reporting, nor will it stop your audience from being bullied as C-13 provides CSEC with permission to surveil and target them.

Yours very truly,

Amy MacPherson