When Kaufman, Malarek and the crew returned from Nova Scotia, they brought the footage to David Studer, then executive producer of the fifth estate. It was Studer’s decision whether to use the footage or not. The typical fifth episode takes months to research, film and edit. Every episode is reviewed multiple times by producers and lawyers. […]

Malarek ambushed Stevens as she exited a grocery store in Joggins. With the camera following closely behind him, Malarek asked Stevens if he could talk to her about her testimony in Young’s trial. Stevens, visibly distraught and caught off guard, ran towards a car, yelling “get the fuck out of here!” Sobbing, she rushed into […]

After their interview requests were ignored, the fifth estate team debated whether to ambush Sharon Stevens in her new home in Joggins, Nova Scotia. Executive producer David Studer recalls consulting CBC policy on jump interviews: Producer David Kaufman explains his own reasoning for undertaking the encounter. This story seemed to fulfil all three requirements for a CBC […]

One mid-September night, Donzel Young found himself at a party in Scarlettwood Court, an Etobicoke-area public housing project. Young went with his friend, Andrew “Blacks” Reid, along with a handful of others. [1] But two other men present would die that night. They were lured to Scarlettwood Court to settle a feud, and by the […]

Jump interviews should be a last resort, after all other interview options have been tried, according to many reporters and producers interviewed for this story. Otherwise, they warn, journalists risk damage to their credibility when coming across as unnecessarily combative or unfair. As Dean Jobb points out, journalists should “treat sources and the subjects of stories with respect. […]

Anyone who makes a false statement to court “with [the] intent to mislead” is guilty of perjury, an indictable offense punishable by up to fourteen years in prison. [1] Perjury is the uncharitable interpretation of Sharon Stevens’ actions. It is impossible to know whether she wittingly or unwittingly misled the court when she testified in […]

This kind of aggressive investigative journalism may raise a problem of balancing an individual’s rights to privacy and the public interest. In Canada, there are two federal privacy laws — the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act — and each province has its own privacy legislation. In Jones v. Tsige, the […]

An “ambush,” “jump interview,” “unplanned interview” or “unscheduled interview” are just some of the terms used to describe what happens when a journalist surprises an interview subject and approaches them without their consent. [1] When talking about the history of jump or ambush interviews, it is hard not to talk about the legacy of Mike […]

What would you have chosen to do as a journalist in this situation? Because this case study is intended primarily as a teaching resource, a password is required to view the epilogue. The purpose is to encourage readers to pause and think about how they would resolve the difficulty, before learning how the journalist(s) involved […]