Resources: IRE Conference Audio and Tip Sheets Available

Streaming audio and tip sheets from the 2011 Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Orlando are now available at the IRE site. A great resource for newbies and vets of the business. The IRE's site is a trove of other great material worth exploring, including its journal, searchable story and tips database, forums and beat guides.

Investigations: Mouldy Homes for Haiti

Check out the Canadian Centre of Investigative Reporting's newly revamped website. The redesign coincides with the release of an interesting new CCIR-backed story investigating the troubled international efforts to help Haiti rebuild after 2010 devastating earthquake.

One rebuilding project, supported by Bill Clinton's humanitarian foundation, saddled Haitians with shoddily constructed, mould-ridden shelters, the story found. Air samples taken inside them contained carcinogens. The story was done in collaboration with The Nation magazine. (Disclosure: I'm the president of the CCIR's board.)

Awards: Congrats to Me!

Congratulations to me! I just won a Canadian Association of Journalists award for best investigative reporting in a Canadian magazine. Thanks, CAJ! The winningest story was this piece in Vancouver's Georgia Straight weekly on how Canada's food inspection system is failing to ensure the safety of meat, even after a tainted meat outbreak that killed 23 people.

I was also nominated for two National Magazine Awards for this investigation of the coming health impacts from climate change and how Canadian medical authorities and governments are doing little to prepare. The story reported that rising summer temperatures are expected to kill 15,330 to 27,150 Montrealers and cost up to $124 nationally in added health expenditures and lost productivity between 2010 and 2100, according to a federally funded study done last year.

Update: My climate change story shared in a gold prize for editorial packages from the NMAs.