Is it surprising that the American owned media tend to be highly in favour of corporations?

The most promising counters to dark money:

1. Democracy Watch
2. The Investigative Journalism Foundation
3. Council of Canadians
4. Protecting Canada
5. Canadians for Tax Fairness
6. PressProgress
7. Fair Vote Canada
8. Bluesky Starter Pack: Ontario journalists that cover work & wage issues.

Obligatory, come join us over at ![email protected] . We are trying to restore control of government back to the people!

In case anyone is wondering about who owns POSTMEDIA NETWORK

Top Shareholders:
Postmedia Network Canada Corp.

• 63% - Chatham Asset Management LLC (a multinational American company)
• 17% - Allianz Global Investors GmbH (a multinational German company)
• 13% - Leon Cooperman (a billionaire Jewish investor from New York)
• less than 1% is Canadian companies
• rest of the percentage is listed as 'unknown'

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/POSTMEDIA-NETWORK-CANADA--42378696/company-shareholders/

Who owns The Beaverton?? LOL

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.

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 :)

The Globe and Mail is owned by a private holding company that is, in turn, owned by the Thomson family, which Wikipedia describes as Canadian.

https://www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/

The Canadian Press is Canada’s national news agency.

Just for clarity, the Vancouver Sun is also owned by Post Media Group.

Postmedia also now owns Saltwire, which operated most of the major newspapers in Atlantic Canada: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SaltWire_Network

Huh, the Gazette is part of Postmedia?

That explains a LOT!

This is a great post, thank you!

Where does Winnipeg Free Press sit?

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.

You should add "Le Devoir" in the french ones. It's by far the best newspaper in Quebec, and internationally recognized.

Thank you for your effort and time!

Ground news is also Canadian, from Kitchener, ON. While not a news network, it is a good news aggregator that shows political bias.

Excellent list. Shouldn't Pivot Québec be on the list? https://pivot.quebec/

I know they are awful but I have wonder how canadian are media companies like rebel media, if nothing else it might be one more reason to stay away

How about Black media, which at one point ran every small town newspaper in BC. Pretty sure that was some billionaire but BC based.

Not gonna say they are good because they definitely have shilled for conservatives in the past. I'm just curious where they are today on this scale. Would not surprise me if they were bought south.

*Edit.. not surprising

Could you add The Line? https://www.readtheline.ca/ (political commentary, some original journalism)

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.

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! :)

Consider adding The Maple, they do some good work.

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.

Canadaland - mostly a collection of podcasts, listener-funded.

A good replacement for Saltwire is the Halifax Examiner.

The Torstar group - the Toronto Star - aren't here - are they actually still Canadian?

Overstory Media Group is probably Canadian

are they wearing flannel, have a mustache, and say eh and i'm sorry a lot?

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.