Canadian Association of Journalists announces the 2025 finalists for Canada's preeminent awards program /CNW/ - The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) is pleased to share its finalists for 2025 CAJ Awards. Recipients in each category will be announced at...

Congratulations to CNO's @rorywh.bsky.social @davidmckie.bsky.social and @cloelogan.bsky.social for their @cajournalists.bsky.social award nominations today! Nominations are for data journalism and environment and climate change reporting, the core of our work.

CNO is seeking a Growth Manager

🚨JOB ALERT: @NationalObserver is seeking a Growth Manager

Own the execution of our business strategy and help us reach the readers who need our climate reporting most

#JournalismJobs #MediaJobs #Hiring #Journalism

CivicSearchlight - by Canada's National Observer Search transcripts of municipal meetings across Canada. Find discussions about topics that matter to your community with Canada's National Observer's search tool.

You are correct! But I use a browser extension that extracts it fast—Video DownloadHelper. I used to have to play and record in realtime. Also @nationalobserver.com recently launched CivicSearchlight which has transcripts + vid of #yyccc meetings. A godsend! civicsearchlight.nationalobserver.com

A gold and red graphic with logos of the 2026 CJF Hinton Award for Excellence in AI Safety Reporting finalists.

A gold graphic with a quote by The Canadian Journalism Foundation President Natalie Turvey about the 2026 CJF Hinton Award for Excellence in AI Safety Reporting finalists.

TORONTO, April 8, 2026 /CNW/ - The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) is proud to announce its shortlist for the inaugural CJF Hinton Award for Excellence in AI Safety Reporting. Read more: www.newswire.ca/news-release... #CJFAwards

It’s been such a great experience working on Civic Searchlight with @rorywh.bsky.social + @jameswsthomson.com, and getting to see how it’s being used by journalists, researchers, and advocacy groups. It’s an honour for the @nationalobserver.com to be nominated for it.

i recalled the city manager making this commitment but couldn't remember the specifics of the exchange. civic searchlight was a huge help, what a great tool - ty!! @jameswsthomson.com @rorywh.bsky.social @nationalobserver.com

Three quarters of data centre sites planned in Alberta are in high water stress areas Canada’s National Observer analyzed the locations of 38 data centre campuses proposed in the province, and found that three quarters of them are in regions where water use is already in shorter supply...

As competition for water peaks during hot summers, @policyalternatives.ca researcher @hadrianmk.bsky.social called for developers to disclose their water use “not on an annual basis, which is misleading, but on a peak basis.” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/23/i...

Three quarters of data centre sites planned in Alberta are in high water stress areas Canada’s National Observer analyzed the locations of 38 data centre campuses proposed in the province, and found that three quarters of them are in regions where water use is already in shorter supply...

We analyzed the locations of 38 data centre campuses proposed in Alberta.

Three quarters of them are in regions under high or extremely high water stress. Only three have been planned in low water stress regions, which comprise the majority of Alberta’s land mass.

Are you nominating yourself?

Three quarters of data centre sites planned in Alberta are in high water stress areas Canada’s National Observer analyzed the locations of 38 data centre campuses proposed in the province, and found that three quarters of them are in regions where water use is already in shorter supply...

"National Observer analyzed the locations of 38 data centre campuses proposed in the province, and found that three quarters of them are in regions under high or extremely high water stress."

www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/23/i...

Three quarters of data centre sites planned in Alberta are in high water stress areas Canada’s National Observer analyzed the locations of 38 data centre campuses proposed in the province, and found that three quarters of them are in regions where water use is already in shorter supply...

Three quarters of data centre sites planned in Alberta are in high water stress areas www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/23/i...

Three quarters of data centre sites planned in Alberta are in high water stress areas Canada’s National Observer analyzed the locations of 38 data centre campuses proposed in the province, and found that three quarters of them are in regions where water use is already in shorter supply...

@natashabulowski.bsky.social and I analyzed the locations of 38 proposed data centre sites in Alberta for this investigation. The results aren’t pretty.

www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/23/i...

Canada’s National Observer lands two nominations for National Newspaper Awards CNO is nominated in the Innovation in Journalism category for Civic Searchlight, while Arno Kopecky's tenacious coverage of the Poilievre campaign earned a nomination for the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Award...

Nominations are out for one of Canada’s premier journalism awards. The National Newspaper Awards issued its preliminary decisions on Friday, and Canada’s National Observer is on the list.

Twice!

Aww thanks Cloe!! Great to work with you.

Thanks for the opportunity Jimmy!! It's been an exciting first nine months as a journalist.

#localgovernance #misinformation #democracy #polarization #disinformation #localpolitics #canada #cdnpoli | Climate Caucus Local elected leaders across Canada are sounding the alarm: rising disinformation and polarization are reshaping local democracy. We spoke with Mayor Merlin Blackwell of Clearwater about this growing...

Parts of my latest conversation with Zoe from Climate Caucus.

Ironically I just finished another long interview with Arjun Singh and Brian Frenkel on the state and future of municipal democracy.

www.linkedin.com/posts/climat...

Mayor Merlin Blackwell on the impacts of disinformation and polarization YouTube video by Climate Caucus

Local electeds are sounding the alarm: rising disinformation and polarization are reshaping local democracy.

We spoke with Mayor Blackwell about this growing crisis, whose concerns echo what we’ve been hearing.
youtu.be/hOoGqgUWy3c

#disinformation #cdnpoli #localgovernance #polarization #municipal

Politicians are being sold AI-powered 'digital fighters' A new app gets around bot bans by recruiting real people to post political messages generated by AI.

Here is one reason to care

www.nationalobserver.com/2026/02/24/i...

Federal parties exempt themselves from privacy laws — despite Senate warnings Every national party except the Greens chose on Thursday to grant themselves an indefinite exemption from laws protecting the privacy of Canadians, rejecting Senate concerns about Bill C-4.

New article from me. Bill C-4 is now law, granting federal political parties immunity from privacy laws retroactively to the year 2000. The exemptions were "buried" at the end of the Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act.

Civic Searchlight is a tool that is constantly transcribing municipal meetings across the country. It makes them searchable so if you’re interested in, say, bike lanes, you can search for any discussions happening about bike lanes in any Canadian city and most of its towns.

Kudos for @nationalobserver.com for building this valuable tool and making it free to use.
#journalism

cc @tcitiesdispatch.bsky.social @freshetnews.bsky.social

Juno News can get a reply from an IRCC spokesperson (www.junonews.com/p/immigratio...), but Jeremy can't. Huh!

And so I did. I asked how long this policy has been in place and whether it applies across government. Here’s what they said.

No problem, let me know if you find it useful. We are also working on adding new municipalities.

Civic Searchlight is now free to use You can sign up right now to access our ever-growing database covering hundreds of Canadian municipalities, no subscription required. Search 59,000 hours and counting of transcribed public meetings, a...

CivicSearchlight is now available for free for everyone, built by the amazing @rorywh.bsky.social for @nationalobserver.com. It allows you to search municipal meetings across the country with keywords, and is really helpful for understanding how a topic has moved through time and jurisdictions. ❗☺️❗

"Local reporting matters, and Civic Searchlight offers newsrooms a chance to tap into compelling local stories in real time to bring Canadians the news they need" -

Civic Searchlight is now free to use You can sign up right now to access our ever-growing database covering hundreds of Canadian municipalities, no subscription required. Search 59,000 hours and counting of transcribed public meetings, a...

Civic Searchlight is being used by hundreds of journalists, researchers and staff at big and small institutions alike. They’ve been given early access while we work out the bugs and start our first round of major additions, which are coming soon.

And now it's free — for everyone.

This is awesome! Next up we need a tool that tracks every city's Lobbyist registry!

CivicSearchlight - by Canada's National Observer Search transcripts of municipal meetings across Canada. Find discussions about topics that matter to your community with Canada's National Observer's search tool.

My life has just gotten SO MUCH BETTER thanks to
the National Observer's Civic Searchlight! Love this tool for democratic action.
civicsearchlight.nationalobserver.com

@rwhite12345.bsky.social

Civic Searchlight is now free to use You can sign up right now to access our ever-growing database covering hundreds of Canadian municipalities, no subscription required. Search 59,000 hours and counting of transcribed public meetings, a...

As of today, you can sign up to access the 59,000+ hours of municipal transcripts from across Canada. For free.