The 16-year-old me would have been insatiably giddy that I got to tag along with both Susan Ormiston AND Andrienne Arsenault on some shoots today. (Ok, so I might have still been giddy, but I think I kept a cool facade.)
I know it’s royal news, but I have evidence of my first contribution here in London! I went out and asked Londoners what they thought of the prank (around 1:45) for Susan Ormiston’s pack last night.
T-minus 12 hours till my CBC internship begins
My internship starts tomorrow. And yes, this is after 2 months working at a pet accessory store, but I’m back on the journalism wagon. More about chihuahua tutus later..
Rejected by the BBC, but not all is lost!
Finally got an email from the BBC Trainee Scheme. It was a rejection, but at least I made it to nearly the end of November—from what I saw on Twitter, people started getting rejection emails from mid-October.
*Sigh* well, upwards and onwards. Onto the CBC London internship in 13 days!
Working through nerves and nightmares for my CBC documentary
I woke up this morning vomiting, in pain and ready to go to work at CTV. Whether I was struck by nerves or food poisoning is still to be determined.
An expected 6-hour trip back to Vancouver from Grand Forks ended up taking around 9 hours and I was doing my best the whole day not to lose my stomach in the car. It may have been the terrible eating schedule and poor food choices I made in Grand Forks, but I was clearly overwhelmed in anticipation of my documentary airing on The Current today.
You can listen to it here.
The Current on CBC Radio One isn’t just another program for me. It’s measuring stick of poignant, in-depth and challenging reporting. So, two months ago when a CBC contact got me in touch with producers from The Current, I was absolutely thrilled**. I remember calling my Baba Savinkoff to tell her that I couldn’t believe I was actually walking to the bus stop with CBC recording equipment. It was a dream come true.
**Sometimes I conduct interviews and ask myself: “What would Anna Maria Tremonti ask?” Yes. I am a CBC nerd.
I was cc’d on a handwritten letter from a Mrs. Bernice Logan from Tangier, Nova Scotia this past week. This is definitely the first time that my name has been sandwiched between CTV’s Lloyd Robertson and CBC’s Peter Mansbridge.
Here is an excerpt from Mrs. Logan’s five-page letter addressed to Felicia Yap from ATV Halifax, regarding Indian Residential Schools and boarding schools:
All aboriginal children were not forced into boarding schools. Those who attended boarding schools were there because 1) they were orphans, 2) they came from broken or dysfunctional homes, 3) they lived in isolated areas of Canada where no schooling was available, 4) most importantly were there because their family wanted them to go.
It is simply not true, Felicia, that the government and the churches went out and “grabbed” them from their homes and “tried to beat the Indian out of them.” I can only reiterate over and over but you choose not to believe me then I must let things be.
Mrs. Logan wants to change the perception of the residential schools, and has established the Association of Former Indian Residential School Workers. A few bad apples have sullied the reputation of hardworking staff, she says.
Mrs. Logan was a staff member at two residential schools in the 1950s, one in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, the other in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. You can read her short biography in the Algoma University Archives.
