The Fifth Estate (TV program)

This article is about the Canadian television program. For the 2013 film, see The Fifth Estate (film). For other uses, see Fifth Estate (disambiguation).

The Fifth Estate
File:Fifthestate.JPG
Starring	Gillian Findlay Bob McKeown Mark Kelley
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	40
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Original release
Network	CBC
Release	1975 – present

The Fifth Estate (stylized as the fifth estate) is an award-winning Canadian television newsmagazine, which airs on the English language CBC Television network. The name is a play on the fact that the media are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, and was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into original journalism. The program has been on the air since September 1975, and its primary focus is on investigative journalism. It has engaged in co-productions with the BBC, The New York Times, the leading Canadian newspapers The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star, and often with the PBS series Frontline.

The series began its 40th season in October 2014.

Programs

News reports aired on The Fifth Estate have included investigations into and reports about:

• 9/11 Truth movement
• Death of Ashley Smith
• Airbus affair, Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber
• William Francis Melchert-Dinkel
• Airport Security
• Al-Qaeda in Europe
• Benny Hinn
• Brendan Burke
• Brandon Crisp
• Chris Benoit, Wrestler: Fight to the Death
• Chuckie Akenz
• Scouts Canada
• Communications Security Establishment
• David Frost and Mike Danton
• Jian Ghomeshi
• Rob Ford
• Dick Cheney
• MIM-104 Patriot and its ineffectiveness during the Gulf War as a missile defense system
• Guy Paul Morin
• Jane and Finch
• Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation ("Luck of the Draw")
• Pierre Vallières
• Polygamy in Bountiful, British Columbia
• Enemies of the State
• Steven Truscott
• To Sell a War
• Tunagate
• David Russell Williams
• Mark Twitchell
• Julian Assange

Journalists

Journalists associated with the show, past and present, include:

• Theresa Burke
• Marie Caloz
• Stevie Cameron
• Harvey Cashore
• Adrienne Clarkson
• Neil Docherty
• Gillian Findlay¹
• Hana Gartner
• Ron Haggart
• Bob Johnstone
• Mark Kelley¹
• Linden MacIntyre
• Bob McKeown¹
• Sheila MacVicar
• Victor Malarek
• Eric Malling
• Ian Parker
• Francine Pelletier
• Sally Reardon
• Peter Reilly
• Glenn Sarty
• David Studer
• Robin Taylor
• Warner Troyer
• Anna Maria Tremonti
• Jim Williamson
• Trish Wood

1. ^ Currently hosting the show

Season 39

The 2013-2014 Television season was the 39th season of The Fifth Estate.

Episode	Title	Original air date
1	Made in Bangladesh [1]	October 11, 2013
2	The Murder and the Money Trail [2]	October 18, 2013
3	Elephants on Board: A Journey to Remember [3]	October 25, 2013
4	The Strange World of Julian Assange [4]	November 1, 2013
5	The Rob Ford Story [5]	November 8, 2013
6	The Sextortion of Amanda Todd [6]	November 15, 2013
7	The Conspiracy Files: JFK and 9/11 [7]	November 22, 2013
8	The Last Great Escape [8]	November 29, 2013
9	Silence of the Labs [9]	January 10, 2013
10	The Man Who Hears Voices [10]	January 17, 2014
11	Walk the Line [11]	January 22, 2014
12	Voyage of the Black Dragon [12]	January 31, 2014
13	Rabbi of the Pure Hearts: Inside Lev Tahor [13]	February 28, 2014
14	The Rise and Fall of Mike Duffy [14]	March 7, 2014
15	Return to Paradise [15] (Pesticides used in a tropical resort hotel room may have killed guests.)	March 14, 2014
16	Dead Enough [16] (Canada's varying standards for declaring death affects organ transplants)	March 21, 2014
17	Your Tips, Our Stories [17] (Stories from viewer tips: a man deceives Canadian women into supporting him financially; the Halifax death of a young blind woman is re-examined; the worst case of small-town corruption)	March 28, 2014
18	To be announced

Season 38

The 2012–13 Television season was the 38th season of The Fifth Estate.

Episode	Title	Original air date
1	Into the Death Zone (Death of Canadian Shriya Shah-Klorfine on Mt. Everest)[18]	September 12, 2012
2	Kingston Pen: Secrets and Lies [19]	September 21, 2012
3	Runaway Fighter (F-35 fighter jet purchase)[20]	September 28, 2012
4	The Widow's Web (So-called "black widow" Melissa Friedrich)[21]	October 5, 2012
5	The Life and Death of Gloria Taylor (First Canadian to have the right to ask for a doctor's assistance in dying)[22]	October 12, 2012
6	Whistleblowers: Moment of Truth (What happened to well-known Canadian whistleblowers?) [23]	October 19, 2012
7	Lost in the Struggle: The Next Chapter (Return to Jane and Finch)[24]	October 26, 2012
8	Lucky 7 (Stolen lottery win is recovered) [25]	November 2, 2012
9	The Elephant in the Room (Retiring zoo elephants)[26]	November 9, 2012
10	Left for Dead (Struggle for survival in icy waters near Baffin Island)[27]	November 16, 2012
11	Lance Armstrong: Master of Spin [28]	November 23, 2012
12	Hunting Magnotta (Could the gruesome crimes of double murderer Luka Magnotta have been prevented?) [29]	November 30, 2012
13	Costa Concordia: The Captain's Tale [30]	December 7, 2012
14	The Imperfect Spy (What exactly did Jeffrey Delisle do, and why?) [31]	(Air date unknown)
15	The Last Race (Death of Canadian ski cross competitor Nik Zoricic in World Cup competition) [32]	January 18, 2013
16	Death in Paradise (Unexplained tourist deaths may be linked to pesticide use)	January 25, 2013
17	Target bin Laden [33]	February 1, 2013
18	Crossfire (National Rifle Association's influence in USA and Canada) [34]	February 8, 2013
19	The Unrepentant (Canadian psychopaths "Lightning" Lee, Russell Williams, Karla Homolka, and two young offenders) [35]	February 22, 2013
20	The Vanishing (Disappearance of Wendy Ratté) [36]	March 1, 2013
21	Second Wave (Debris from 2011 Japanese tsunami begins to reach Canadian coasts) [37]	March 8, 2013
22	Ironman (Russ George's massive iron fertilization project off BC's West Coast) [38]	(Air date)
23	Mission Improbable (Cythia Vanier, SNC Lavalin, and an alleged plot to smuggle Saadi Gadhafi and his family into Mexico) [39]	March 29, 2013
24	Rate My Hospital [40]	April 12, 2013

Season 37

The 2011–12 Television season was the 37th season of The Fifth Estate.

Episode	Title	Original air date	CBC viewers
1	Truth and Lies: The Last Days of Osama bin Laden	September 9, 2011	599,000
2	Swissair 111: The Untold Story	September 16, 2011	775,000
3	Gatti-vs-Gatti	September 23, 2011	436,000
4	Mayday	September 30, 2011	482,000
5	Colonel Gadhafi: Palace of Secrets	October 7, 2011	577,000
6	True Confession	October 14, 2011	504,000
7	Scout's Honour	October 21, 2011	567,000
8	'Til Death Do Us Part	October 28, 2011	482,000
9	Stories from the River’s Edge	November 4, 2011	509,000
10	Murder, he wrote	November 18, 2011	535,000
11	A Cold Case	November 25, 2011	612,000
12	Holiday Hell	December 2, 2011	722,000
13	Behind the Line	December 9, 2011	568,000
14	Escape From Justice	January 6, 2012	853,000
15	Diagnosis Murder	January 13, 2012	646,000
16	The Lies People Tell	January 20, 2012	752,000
17	Who’s Killing the Rizzutos?	January 27, 2012	622,000
18	The Wreck of the Costa Concordia	February 3, 2012	1,317,000
19	The House of Shafia	February 10, 2012	470,000
20	The Lost Boys	February 17, 2012	565,000
21	Fearless	February 24, 2012	298,000
22	Fast Break	March 2, 2012	203,000
23	Time Bomb	March 9, 2012	895,000
24	Lost on the Ice	March 23, 2012	300,400
25	Kidnapped	April 6, 2012	1,200,000

Season 36

The 2010–11 Television season was the 36th season of The Fifth Estate.

Episode	Title	Original air date
1	Enemies of the State	October 15, 2010
2	The Confession	October 22, 2010
3	The Fall and Rise of Theo Fleury	October 29, 2010
4	The Life and Death of Abdinasir Dirie	November 5, 2010
5	Behind the Wall	November 12, 2010
6	The Girl in the Suitcase	November 19, 2010
7	The Legacy of Brendan Burke	November 26, 2010
8	Presumed Dead	December 3, 2010
9	After the Earth Shook	January 7, 2011
10	Justice for Nadia	January 14, 2011
11	Death of the Don	January 28, 2011
12	WikiRebels	February 4, 2011
13	Death at the Olympics	February 11, 2011
14	The Devil You Know	February 18, 2011
15	You Should Have Stayed At Home	February 25, 2011
16	Missing	March 11, 2011
17	Getting Off Easy	March 18, 2011
18	My Friend the Bank Robber	March 25, 2011
19	A Question of Innocence	April 1, 2011

Awards

The Fifth Estate has won many awards, including Gemini Awards – among them ten for Best Information Series, numerous domestic investigative journalism awards, many New York and Columbus awards, International Emmys, and in 2000 and 2010 the Michener Award, Canada's top journalism prize, which is open to all media and has only one annual winner. A 2003 co-production with The New York Times and PBS's Frontline was recognized with the Pulitzer, Peabody, Polk and other awards.

The Fifth Estate is one of two television series (with The Twilight Zone being the first) to win an Academy Award, a prize presented to theatrical films: Just Another Missing Kid, originally a The Fifth Estate episode, was released in theatres in the United States and won the 1982 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Controversy

The CBC was successfully sued for libel over an episode that aired on February 27, 1996. Dr. Myers asked for an apology plus $25,000, while Dr. Leenen asked for an apology plus $10,000, but the CBC decided to fight. Dr. Myers was awarded $200,000, plus interest and costs, while Dr. Leenen won $950,000, plus interest and costs that could total over $2-million, a record for Canadian libel. The CBC has no libel insurance. Both judges ruled that the journalists had twisted the facts and acted with malice, with one writing in his discission "This was sensationalistic journalism of the worst sort and should serve as an embarrassment to this so-called 'flagship' investigative program." The episode's host Trish Wood, producer Nicholas Regush, the researcher and executive producer David Studer with punitive and aggravated damages. [41]

External links

• Official website
• The Fifth Estate at IMDb