The Toronto Star’s chief investigative reporter, Kevin Donovan, spoke to a crowded room of journalists, students, and faculty March 12.
Donovan delivered the 16th annual Kesterton Lecture where he outlined the importance of investigative journalism in Canadian media and offered some words of advice to students hoping to pursue a career in journalism.
Susan Harada, associate director of the School of Journalism and Communication, introduced the event followed by the school’s newest hire, Aneurin Bosley, who worked previously with Donovan at the Star.
“He is demonstrably one of the best investigative journalists working in Canada today,” Bosley said.
And with that, Donovan took the stage. He said he ran the speech by the guy who was fixing the heater in his hotel room. He thought it “ran a bit long,” Donovan said with a laugh before launching into the lecture.
Throughout his talk, he regaled the audience with stories of how he investigated the ORNGE Ontario air ambulance service, watched a cell phone video of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack, and what the loss of provincial funding will mean for the families of people with disabilities.
“It’s detective work without the badge,” he said.
Officials will lie or ignore you as a reporters, but Donovan said it’s a journalist’s job to “stick to your guns and soldier on.”
But before the stories that shaped public policy and public opinion, Donovan started at the Star as a “cub” or junior reporter.
He started his career, as many young reporters do, covering car crashes, burglaries, and speaking to the families of those who recently died.
“It’s harder to talk to a grieving family than going into a battlefield,” he said, adding he actually did spend some years in Afghanistan covering the Canadian forces after 9/11.
In both cases, he impressed to young journalists the importance of getting to know sources and keeping in contact with them afterward. A grieving mother telling the story of her recently deceased son deserves to have her story told respectfully, he said, but if the journalist never asks, there will never be a story.
“When you meet people on the job, keep in touch,” he said. “You never know when they can help you.”
The “cold call,” as journalists call it, might been seen as disrespectful by some, but for Donovan, it was the foundation of his career and taught him the importance of the human aspect to the story.
While Donovan is known now as the reporter who broke the stories of Jian Ghomeshi and Rob Ford—stories he calls personal investigations—he says the ORNGE investigation was one of the stories he’s most proud of as it resulted in major policy changes and possibly saved lives.
He met with the pilots, a bunch of gruff guys, who were initially distrustful of Donovan, but slowly started telling stories of the issues with the planes and helicopters.
“All I had to do at first was listen,” he said.
Donovan is also no stranger to criticism. During the question period, a few audience members asked about the botched Gardasil vaccine story, which Donovan edited.
The story, which alleged the vaccine caused health problems in a number of young women, was labelled as anti-vaccine and prompted the public editor and editor-in-chief to condemn the story and eventually remove the piece from the website. Donovan was defensive of the reporting and article.
Audience members mixed and mingled after the talk and had the opportunity to ask Donovan questions. He said he hoped it inspired students to stick with journalism if they really love it.
“Journalism is a calling,” he said. “Enjoy the ride.”
