Spacing journalist denied access to Ontario government press briefing
A journalist with Spacing magazine was denied access to an Ontario government technical briefing on a controversial project to redevelop Ontario Place, a waterfront public property in Toronto.
In the online briefing, an official from Infrastructure Ontario, an agency of the provincial Ministry of Infrastructure, announced the terms of a lease agreement between the provincial government and a private developer working on the project. A media advisory described the briefing as open to “Accredited media only.”
“What’s that about? Picking and choosing the media that covers the [government]?” Spacing journalist John Lorinc wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter), after the magazine was denied access to the briefing.
The magazine has covered the Ontario Place redevelopment extensively. In an email, Lorinc said that he had emailed Infrastructure Ontario three times to request access to the briefing after it was announced, but never got a response. He was eventually able to join the online briefing after another journalist shared the link, and registered with his name and publication. Journalists were able to ask questions after the briefing; Lorinc said that his request to ask a question was ignored.
After Lorinc sent multiple emails to Infrastructure Ontario, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the minister’s office, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Infrastructure emailed back, telling him that Spacing had been excluded from the briefing because it was intended for accredited media only.
“As indicated in the media advisory, [Infrastructure Ontario] invited only accredited news media to attend,” the spokesperson wrote in the email, which has been viewed by the Canada Press Freedom Project.
“I don’t really buy this defence,” Lorinc said in an email. Spacing does not have permanent media accreditation to cover the provincial legislature because the publication doesn’t regularly cover provincial politics, he said, but the publication has covered the Ontario Place redevelopment for several years.
He noted that Canadian Architect magazine, which has also published in-depth coverage of the redevelopment, was denied access to the same briefing.
“The fact that a media relations officer didn’t even bother responding indicates, to my mind, a certain arrogance and high-handedness,” Lorinc wrote. “At minimum, they should have replied, and there’s no reason why two legitimate, well established media organizations with an expressed interest in the issues being discussed at the briefing shouldn’t have been admitted. Unless, of course, the government didn’t want to address our questions.”
The Ministry of Infrastructure and the minister’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.