[URBAN NOTE] "External reviewer called to Toronto Star after suicide"

[rfmcdonald]

MacLean's carries Colin Perkel's Canadian Press article noting the investigation of what seems to be a sad mess at the Toronto Star newsroom.

Canada’s largest newspaper has agreed to an independent review of its newsroom culture in the aftermath of the suicide of a prominent reporter, its chairman and editor said Wednesday.

The newspaper had earlier rejected a union call for an outside probe of the circumstances around the suicide of Raveena Aulakh, saying it would have been too bureaucratic.

In a memo to newsroom staff, the senior executives say a seasoned professional will facilitate the review and come up with recommendations.

“The union has publicly called for an ‘independent investigation’ of the newsroom’s ‘poisonous workplace’ where ‘ harassment’ and ‘bullying’ are rife,” Torstar Chaiman John Honderich and Star Editor Michael Cook say in their memo.

“The union’s assessment is not our view.”