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Behind the Reporting: Masih Khalatbari Uncovers the Hidden Truth About ‘Forever Chemicals’ in North Bay
On a cloudy day last spring, I found myself in the dining room of a home in North Bay. After a long drive from Toronto, I watched a deer stroll out from behind the trees in the backyard, and trot through the melting snow around Lees Creek – a quiet current that leads to the… Read more
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Feds ‘covered up’ toxic forever chemicals in the water of this Ontario city for 5 years
The federal government concealed toxic water contamination in North Bay, Ont., for almost five years before warning residents of a dangerous chemical spill from the city’s airport and a nearby military base, according to records obtained by the Investigative Journalism Bureau. In 2012, the Department of National Defence (DND) discovered the elevated levels of so-called… Read more
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IJB welcomes award-winning investigative reporter Emma Jarratt to new role focused on child exploitation
The Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) is pleased to announce that award-winning investigative reporter Emma Jarratt has joined the team in a new role dedicated to uncovering child exploitation. Jarratt brings a wealth of experience, having led and contributed to investigations into human rights abuses, controversial surrogacy laws, medical malpractice, workplace misconduct and the exploitation of… Read more
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Ontario failed to toughen rules on lead in water despite advice, documents show
For at least four years, Ontario officials have known that the provincial safety limit for lead in drinking water doesn’t go far enough to protect the public, newly released documents show. But despite internal proposals about taking action, and dialogue with municipalities regarding changes, no new lead quality standard has been introduced. Officials at the… Read more
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Ontario opioid deaths nine times higher among First Nations people amid questions over treatment
The treatment meant to save Niibin Pahpeguish’s life began to feel like a prison. After almost a decade battling an addiction that began with prescribed painkillers and later escalated to street opioids, she entered a treatment program in 2009. There, at a facility in Brantford, Ont., she was put on methadone, a drug prescribed to… Read more
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Health officials call for action following ‘Bad Practice’ journalism collaboration
There have been calls for a systemic overhaul of monitoring systems following an international investigation by 48 media partners in 46 countries — including Canada’s Investigative Journalism Bureau. The collaboration, led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Times of London and Norway’s VG, detailed how physicians in Europe and North America have sometimes skirted sanctions, avoided… Read more
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Bad Practice: How doctors jump borders to leave troubling pasts behind
In 2018, family physician Ken Shafquat Intikhab Abrahim was reprimanded by Florida’s medical board and banned from prescribing certain pain medications after being accused by officials of providing “potentially lethal” amounts of addictive drugs to patients. Four months later, he was reprimanded by North Carolina’s medical board for “willfully concealing” the Florida matter from them. … Read more
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INSIGHTS: Our way of thinking about informed consent has evolved over the last century. In a world of human guinea pigs, does it need to evolve further?
By Jonathan Moreno Jonathan Moreno retired as a Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, of History and Sociology of Science, and of Philosophy, at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a prolific author and writer. The IJB report on so-called “professional guinea pigs,” people who loan their bodies to clinical research organizations (CROs) in… Read more
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Numerous dogs ‘humanely sacrificed’ as test subjects at private lab in Toronto area
The vast majority of Canada’s leading university research labs have stopped using dogs as test subjects in scientific research — a practice that Ontario Premier Doug Ford has promised to ban with forthcoming legislation. But pharmaceutical testing on dogs continues in lesser-known, often private research firms, including a large Scarborough research facility where the animals… Read more
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Myrialine Catule begins tenure as the fourth Canadian Journalism Foundation/Investigative Journalism Bureau Black Journalism Fellow
Myrialine Catule, recipient of the 2025 CJF-IJB Black Investigative Journalism Fellowship, will spend the next six months working on public-interest investigations with the IJB. “As an emerging journalist, I am proud to take my first step in the investigative field with the Investigative Journalism Bureau,” says Catule, a native Montrealer and recent graduate of Concordia… Read more
