Straight after graduating with my Master’s degree in journalism, I was hired on as a trainee reporter at The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper, where I primarily covered the police beat. My very first shift being a rather slow news day, I was thrilled to make the front page with a story about a bear cub stuck up a backyard tree. Throughout my year and a half there, the rigorous demands of working in a high-pressure newsroom took my reporting and writing skills a great leap forward.
Two stories in particular stick out in memory from that time: When an Air France plane veered off the runway while landing at Toronto’s Pearson airport, I tracked down the airport employee who pulled passengers from the burning plane (image right). Click here to read his story. I also wrote about a family’s quest for justice after their brother was shot and killed in police custody. (Both links open PDFs)
Since moving to Europe in 2005, I’ve helped the Star cover Europe with locally reported stories: when then-presidential candidate Barack Obama visited Berlin in 2008, for example, or when a notorious serial killer suspect on the lam from Canada was arrested in a Berlin internet café in 2012.