Canadian Media Sources Guide
Introduction
“When local news disappears, misinformation thrives.” - The Walrus
This guide is maintained by a single person and may contain errors. Please suggest corrections for any fact-based news sources that should be included.
Inclusion Criteria
- High standards for journalistic integrity
- Funding from the Canadian Local Journalism Initiative
- Qualified donee status as a registered journalism organization
Media to Avoid 🚫
Postmedia Network
Postmedia Network Canada Corp. is an American-owned Canadian-based media conglomerate that owns:
- Canada.com
- National Post
- Financial Post
- Calgary Herald
- Edmonton Journal
- Telegraph-Journal
- The London Free Press
- The Brantford Expositor
- The Gazette
- Ottawa Citizen
- Sudbury Star
- Windsor Star
- Saskatoon StarPhoenix
- Regina Leader-Post
- Vancouver Sun
Sun Media
- Calgary Sun
- Edmonton Sun
- Ottawa Sun
- Toronto Sun
- Winnipeg Sun
Saltwire Network
- The Chronicle Herald
- Cape Breton Post
- The Telegram
- The Guardian (Charlottetown)
Canadian Alternatives 🇨🇦
Français ⚜️
| Les médias | Propriété | Type de propriété | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radio Canada | Patrimoine canadien (Gouvernement du Canada) | Gouvernement | TOU.TV L’EXTRA |
| TFO | Office des télécommunications éducatives de langue française de l’Ontario TFO (Gouvernement du Ontario) | Gouvernement | Don |
| Télé-Québec | Société de télédiffusion du Québec (Gouvernement du Québec) | Gouvernement | - |
| La Presse | La Presse Inc. | À but non lucratif, organisations journalistiques enregistrées | Don, CanaDon |
| L’Acadie Nouvelle | Acadie Nouvelle ltée. | À but non lucratif | Abonnement |
| Coop Media NB | NB Media Co-op | À but non lucratif | Don |
#### À but lucratif
| Les médias | Propriété | Type de propriété | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Le Devoir | Le Devoir Inc. | Organisations journalistiques enregistrées | Don |
English 🦄
Non-profit and Government Media
| Media | Ownership | Ownership type | Donate |
|---|---|---|---|
| CBC News | Canadian Heritage (Government of Canada) | Government | CBC Gem Premium, CBC Shop |
| TVO | The Ontario Education Communications Authority (Government of Ontario) | Government | Donate |
| APTN News | APTN | Government | Contribute |
| Investigative Journalism Foundation | Investigative Journalism Foundation | Non-profit | Subscribe, IJF Shop |
| PressProgress | Broadbent Institute | Non-profit | Membership |
| Rabble.ca | Self-owned | Non-profit | Donate |
| Halifax Examiner | Self-owned | Non-profit | Subscribe, Donate |
| The Walrus | The Walrus Foundation | Non-profit, registered charity | Donate |
| The Narwhal | The Narwhal News Society | Non-profit, Registered journalism organization | Donate, CanadaHelps |
| Chek News | Employee-owned | Non-profit | Chekplus |
| The Tyee | Appears to be self-owned | Non-profit, Registered Journalism Organization (pending) | Donate |
| The Breach | Breach Media Canada | Non-profit | Donate |
| The Grind | Arts and Labour Media Inc. | Non-profit | Membership |
| Briarpatch | Briarpatch Inc. | Non-profit | Donate |
| West End Phoenix | West End Phoenix | Non-profit | Subscribe |
| The Local | The Local TO Publishing | Non-profit, Registered Journalism Organization | Donate |
| The Maple | The Maple | Non-profit | Membership |
| Unrigged News | Collaboration between non-profit outlets | Non-profit | - |
| Prince Albert Daily Herald | Employee-owned & operated | Non-profit | Subscription |
| NB Media Co-op | NB Media Co-op | Non-profit | Donate |
| The Line | unincorporated | unincorporated | - |
#### For-profit Media
| Media | Ownership | Ownership type | Donate/Subscribe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada’s National Observer | Observer Media Group | For-profit | Donate, Subscribe |
| The Canadian Press News | The Globe and Mail, Torstar | For-profit | - |
| The Globe and Mail | The Woodbridge Company | For-profit | Subscribe |
| Toronto Star | Torstar | For-profit | Subscribe |
| Reuters | Thompson family | For-profit | Subscribe |
| Global News | Corus Entertainment | For-profit | - |
| Winnipeg Free Press | FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership | For-profit | Donate |
| Canadaland | Appears to be self-owned | Appears to be for-profit | Patreon, Canadaland store |
| Cult MTL | Cult MTL Media Inc. | For-profit, Local Journalism Initiative recipient | Donate via Stripe |
| Spacing | Spacing Media | For-profit | Store |
Additional Resources
Political Commentary
News Aggregator
Organizations Countering Dark Money
Critical Thinking Resources
| Organization | Social Media |
|---|---|
| Centre for Inquiry Canada | YouTube |
| Humanist Canada | YouTube |
Honourable mention: The Conversation Canada, Australian owned, with a Canadian newsroom.
Image is licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0.
Consider adding The Maple, they do some good work.
Excellent, they’ve been added.
Also, stay tuned for a secret project I’ve been working on.
Could you add The Line? https://www.readtheline.ca/ (political commentary, some original journalism)
Added!
Thanks!
A little late to the party but there’s also the West End Phoenix and The Local
If magazines count, Spacing is a great one focused on urbanism.
Noted: but it’s getting late, so I’ll do it tomorrow! (p.s. I will also verify their background, as I do with all the others, so it’s not as simple as just adding them to the list).
No worries, keep up the good work!
My research found that West End Phoenix, The Local, and Spacing are all Canadian. But only West End Phoenix and The Local are non-profit (and therefore acquisition resistant), and are eligible to be featured on the infographic.
keep up the good work!
p.s. I’m secretly working on something more impactful… stay tuned.
The Torstar group - the Toronto Star - aren’t here - are they actually still Canadian?
The Toronto Star exists in the post body. However, the infographic only features acquisition resistant, Canadian owned and operated media, of which the Toronto Star is not.
Is it surprising that the American owned media tend to be highly in favour of corporations?
The most promising counters to dark money:
- Democracy Watch
- The Investigative Journalism Foundation
- Council of Canadians
- Protecting Canada
- Canadians for Tax Fairness
- PressProgress
- Fair Vote Canada
- Bluesky Starter Pack: Ontario journalists that cover work & wage issues.
Obligatory, come join us over at !fairvote@lemmy.ca . We are trying to restore control of government back to the people!
Saskatoon StarPhoenix and Regina Leader-Post newspapers are owned by Postmedia Network now and should also be in the Media to Avoid list. Great resource! It helped me curate my RSS feeds.
In the future, I’m planning on making an Add-on that will tell you which sites are non-Canadian. Stay tuned!
I wish more of these sites had RSS feeds. I know The Narwhal and CBC do, but most don’t seem to use it.
Also, thanks for making this list! :)
If you’re francophone (or just a francophile) I highly recommend La Presse and Le Devoir. The former is a non-profit and considered a “newspaper of record”, the latter isn’t non-profit but is still an independent publication and is also often considered a newspaper of record.
And of course there’s Radio-Canada, the French language publication of the CBC.
The French avoid list for me mostly revolves around Québecor — but this is more of a journalistic integrity issue rather than an American media problem. I find it important from a moral and ethical perspective to avoid media megacorp conglomerates (and this is also yet another reason to avoid Postmedia).
One more thing on franco media, reading the news is a great way of developing vocabulary in your second language. Give it a shot, it’s really fulfilling and in this case unlocks some great independent / non-profit options :)
Thanks! Especially for the link to the newspaper of record, it’s important we have reputable sources.
https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/
The Canadian Press is Canada’s national news agency.
Fantastic list.
Without the Narwhal, most of us would have no fucking clue what DoFo and Co were up to with the Greenbelt since 2018. Just as a for instance.
Someone posted a story yesterday from a new print paper called The Grind, and it’s really decent. Looks on the level so far. idk if it makes your cut for the list, but anyone looking for a free local paper in Toronto you can read irl like it’s 2010, they’ve got some drop locations in the city (Gateway news stands in the TTC, some record and book shops).
https://briarpatchmagazine.com/ out of Regina is another classic. Been around since the 70s and it’s unionized afaik.
I hate to post another comment, but another great tool for media reading in general is RSS feed aggregators. Yes they can be janky, but it is the easiest way to explicitly choose what media you receive, rather than relying on algorithms in news apps / social media to dictate all that you read.
NetNewsWire is a great option for Apple devices Feedbro integrates into your web browser And Feeder is the one I use on my Android phone.
Here is a general comparison list on Wikipedia of different feed aggregators.
If you are a bit more technically inclined, I highly recommend hosting your own feed aggregator online (allowing you to sync your saved articles / read articles between devices, and better battery life on mobile devices). The two apps I usually see recommended for this are tt-rss “Tiny Tiny RSS” as well as FreshRSS.
Can you add theconversation.com/ca
https://theconversation.com/ca/who-we-are
Their Canadian newsroom is in Toronto, and all articles are editorials from Canadian institutions. They’re also non profit and a registered charity now.
The Conversation is high quality, except that it’s not Canadian owned, it’s Australian.
I think that’s a fair reason to exclude it
I’ll add them as an honourable mention!
Thank you for your effort and time!
Glad to be supported by the broader community!
And while you’re here, come join us over at !fairvote@lemmy.ca. We are trying to restore control of government back to the people!
No Reuters?
One of the best wire agency/news networks in the entire world is Canadian, kind of shocking to see it not mentioned here.
My apologies, it’s just a single person (me) doing all of this, to reduce corporate/American influence. Thanks for letting me know, I’ll add it shortly!
I’m sorry for the aggressive tone as well, your tables and lists made it look professional so my standards may have been too high lol
More gracefully, Global might be worth adding too given they are owned buy CHORUS
A good replacement for Saltwire is the Halifax Examiner.
I haven’t seen the Halifax Examiner before. Looking more into, they look like an excellent news organization, community owned and Canadian!
Thanks!
They only really cover Nova Scotian news, so I wasn’t sure if we’d care to include it, but Saltwire was included so I figured I’d mention it 👍
