Inside The Narwhal

The most incredible thing — made possible by readers like you

Against all odds, you have helped us shift the landscape of what’s possible both for the natural world and the media world. And right now, you can make double the difference with a donation to The Narwhal

By Emma Gilchrist

Dec. 11, 2023 3 min. read

This article is more than 1 year old

“This country should no longer tolerate a situation where the public interest, in so vital a field as information, is dependent on the greed or goodwill of an extremely privileged group of businessmen.”

It feels like that quote could have been written today, doesn’t it? But get this: it’s actually from a senate report about the state of journalism from more than 50 years ago.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how ever since I started my journalism career 20 years ago, people have been sounding the death knell for this industry. And this year was no different.

In September, Metroland stopped printing 71 community newspapers, resulting in 605 layoffs. This summer Facebook and Instagram — in retaliation to the Online News Act — started blocking news from their platforms. And then just this month, CBC announced it’s laying off 10 per cent of its workforce.

But here’s the most incredible thing: The Narwhal continues to thrive amidst the wreckage of the journalism industry. There’s only one reason for that — and it’s that thousands of people like you decide to support our work.

You don’t do it because we force you to with a paywall. You champion this reporting because you believe telling the truth about what’s happening to the natural world is vitally important — and you want to put your money where your mouth is.

Thanks to readers like you, we’ve grown from being just two young women with a dream to being Canada’s largest environment bureau, shifting the landscape of what’s possible both for the natural world and the media world.

A couple years ago we became the first English-language registered journalism organization in Canada, which means we’re able to issue you a tax receipt for your donations. And not only that, but a generous group of donors has stepped up to match every dollar you give between now and the end of the year. So give $100 today and it becomes $200. Give $250 and it becomes $500.

When you’ve got your head down, trying to do the nearly impossible task of running a sustainable, ad-free, reader-funded magazine doing risk-taking environmental journalism, it’s easy to lose track of how far we’ve come.

But thanks to you, we are making the impossible possible, changing the course of history and keeping our public-interest coverage free of corporate influence — and free for everyone to read.

Every dollar you give helps us do groundbreaking environmental journalism that holds power to account. Thank you for giving what you can today.

Tusks up,

Emma Gilchrist
Co-founder and editor-in-chief

P.S. As a new member said as they signed up recently: “I support The Narwhal because of your fearless dedication to facts, evidence and speaking truth to power.” Speak truth to power by giving what you can to The Narwhal before the end of the year. Bonus: every dollar will be doubled!

Another year of keeping a close watch

Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.

And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.

In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”

We’d like to thank you for paying attention. And if you’re able to donate anything at all to help us keep doing this work in 2025 — which will bring a whole lot we can’t predict — thank you so very much.

Will you help us hold the powerful accountable in the year to come by giving what you can today?

Yes, I’ll support independent journalism

Another year of keeping a close watch

I’ll support independent journalism

Published By

Emma Gilchrist

Emma Gilchrist is a reporter, editor, public speaker and spreadsheet-keeper. She started her journalism career more than 15 years ...

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