Canadian journalism schools and the internship issue… Work for pay or pay to work?

by Sara Tatelman   “Volunteer to do something which is at least somewhat related to your expertise,” Stephen Poloz, governor of the Bank of Canada, urged unemployed youth in a widely criticized November 2014 speech. More often than not, following this advice would mean undertaking an unpaid internship rather than helping at a food bank, […]

Posted on April 2, 2015 at 9:00 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , ,

The Unpaid Internship Conspiracy

Why Toronto Life’s first intern backs the Ontario labour ministry in shutting down the magazine’s twenty-one-year-old internship program and others that don’t pay   by Derek Finkle I won’t lie: when John Macfarlane called me in May of 1993 and offered me a four-month internship at Toronto Life, the magazine he then edited, I was overcome. I […]

Posted on March 31, 2014 at 9:15 am by editor · 18 Comments · Tagged with: , , ,

Crackdown on unpaid internships a positive step, but the collective struggle must continue

  This week, the Ontario Ministry of Labour told The Walrus and Toronto Life to bring their internship programs into compliance with the Employment Standards Act (ESA). Both publications had a long history of offering full time, months-long, unpaid internships for contributing to the main work of the publication. Instead of apologizing and figuring out […]

Posted on March 28, 2014 at 2:20 pm by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , , ,

Canadian Intern Association holds first Vancouver meeting

The Canadian Intern Association is holding its first Vancouver meeting tonight at the Firehall Branch of the public library. The Association was founded last year by University of Ottawa law student Claire Seaborn, who noticed a dearth of advocacy groups to address the growing problem of illegal unpaid internships. Over the past year, the group has launched a Claim Back […]

Posted on August 28, 2013 at 9:03 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , ,

Unpaid internships under the microscope at last

It seems as though the issue of unpaid internships has reached a breaking point this summer. The watershed Black Swan ruling last month appears to have led to a flood of lawsuits by former interns alleging breach of labour laws. U.S. publishers Gawker and Condé Nast have been hit with intern lawsuits over the past few weeks. And here […]

Posted on July 4, 2013 at 9:05 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , ,

Straight talk about unpaid internships

Last month’s Will Work For Exposure conference at Ryerson University may have been the first time a public conversation was held in Canada about unpaid internships. The panel on internships included this presentation from Andrew Langille, a Toronto-based lawyer and graduate student. Langille is responsible for Youth and Work, a website that provides information for young people […]

Posted on November 9, 2012 at 8:30 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , ,

Experience or exploitation? Conference ramps up debate on unpaid internships

By Anqi Shen The culture sector, long known for its precarious working conditions, is shaping up to be more arduous for its workers. On October 19, a mix of students, professionals, artists and union leaders converged in Toronto to talk labour injustice at the ‘Will Work for Exposure’ conference at Ryerson University. Organized by Ryerson’s Centre […]

Posted on October 24, 2012 at 8:00 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , ,