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Judi Ann T. McLeod (born 1944) [1] is a Canadian journalist who operates the conservative news website Canada Free Press (CFP).

Early life and career

McLeod was born in Prince Edward Island and raised in St. Joseph's Orphanage in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her first article was published in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald when she was 18. ^[1]

Early career controversy

McLeod worked as a city-hall reporter in the Greater Toronto Area for the Brampton Times in 1981, where her husband was the managing editor. ^[1]

When she was removed from the beat in 1983, she alleged that conservatives she had accused of meddling in local politics had put pressure on the newspaper. When her husband reinstated her to the position, the newspaper fired them both. ^[2] The Globe and Mail reported that Canada's multiculturalism minister, Liberal MPP James Fleming, was investigating McLeod's removal from the beat. Fleming believed the reassignment amounted to initimdiation of a reporter doing her job. ^[3] The Ontario Federation of Labour, protested on McLeod's behalf against what they called political intervention. ^[3] Days after being fired, McLeod won the Edward J. Hayes Memorial Ontario award for beat-reporting. [2] ^[1] Broadcast journalist and panelist Peter Desbarats called her coverage the best of any in 22 Ontario dailies. ^[1] The McLeods subsequently filed a lawsuit against The Brampton Times for wrongful dismissal, but later withdrew it. ^[1] Judi McLeod also claimed to have filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission against the Brampton Times.^[4]

Later employment

She helped found The Bramptonian as a rival to her former employer in 1984 ^[5] before moving to the Toronto Sun in 1985, where she was the paper's education reporter. Her columns were highly critical of New Democratic Party school trustees who dominated the Toronto Board of Education at the time. McLeod also called ethnic parents who wanted heritage language instruction "as diabolical as any of the characters from the imaginative pen of Charles Dickens... a nasty lot indeed," and warned people against "multiculturalism gone haywire."^[6]

Fired from the Sun, she moved to Kingston, Ontario for three years where she worked as a reporter and columnist for the Kingston Whig-Standard , according to the Canada Free Press website. [3] In 1991, she returned to Toronto and founded, with help from Tony O'Donohue, Our Toronto, a right-wing monthly newspaper which focused on Toronto City Council. In the 2000s, Our Toronto Free Press evolved into the Canada Free Press, which is now published online only.

Areas of interest

In 2005, McLeod and David Hawkins wrote a series of articles on what they described as the United Nations' "radical socialist agenda executed across Intranets and virtual private networks, operated by the self-styled 'Global Custodians'." They alleged links between "$40 trillion hedge funds, via an online portal on the 79th floor of One World Trade Center, to 'disruptive technologies' developed by Canada for alleged use in the UN Oil-for-Food scam, 9/11 and Kyoto fraud." [4]

McLeod and Hawkins allege that the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States may have been a Mafia plot and not the work of al-Qaeda terrorists. [5]

In August 2005, immediately after the crash of Air France Flight 358 at Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport, McLeod published an article alleging that the crash was the result of a bomb. [6] A subsequent investigation showed that the crash was the result of poor weather conditions and pilot error.

McLeod lodged a formal complaint with the police accusing Toronto city councillor Betty Disero of being linked to the Mafia, and of holding a conflict of interest in her role as vice-chairman of the Toronto Harbour Commission due to a personal relationship. The police investigated and found no evidence of any wrongdoing. [7]

Criticism

Conservative writer Kevin Michael Grace has described McLeod's writing as that of an "emotionally incontinent 9th grader," [8] while Toronto Star columnist Antonia Zerbisias describes her as "eccentric" and the Canada Free Press as a "whacko news site." [9]

Jack Layton and his wife Olivia Chow complained to the Ontario Press Council about McLeod's columns at the Toronto Sun. Both complaints were upheld. McLeod alleged that Layton and Chow were living in publicly subsidized housing in a co-op in the late 1980s, when the couple was actually paying market rates. [10]

Toronto Life magazine reported that McLeod was harassing city councillor Betty Disero. McLeod had been driving past Disero's home, taking pictures. ^[7]

McLeod published the home address and photograph of Cathy Crowe, cofounder of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, in the CFP along with what Crowe's lawyer deemed defamatory statements. The lawyer alleged that McLeod was encouraging her readers to harass and even physically attack Crowe. [11] The paper also published the home address of anti-poverty activist John Clarke along with a photograph of the house he was renting.

McLeod fell victim to a hoax in 2006 when she believed she had been exchanging emails with Hollywood actor Mel Gibson through a blog purportedly run by the actor, which she later discovered was a satirical website. [12]

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Johnson, William. "'Gutsy'" reporter McLeod gets the pink slip, The Globe and Mail, March 23 1983. p. 8 Cite error: The named reference "GMWJ" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^ Kashmeri, Zuhair. "Had criticized Brampton politics Reporter moved from beat: The Globe and Mail. January 27 1983, p. 3
^ ^a ^b Kashmeri, Zuhair. Reporter's reassignment investigated by Fleming. The Globe and Mail, February 3 1983. p. CL8
^ No Byline. "Reporter fights to get beat back" The Globe and Mail, February 10 1983, p. 4 Article doesn't explain why McLeod thinks commission has authority to hear complaint or what possible grounds she has to bring it before commission.
^ No byline. "Year after firing by paper help to publish rival," The Globe and Mail, April 3 1984, p. M5
^ Barber, John. School Board Jungle: "Racists!" shouts the left. "Commies!" the right. Is learning getting lost in the political feuding at the Toronto Board of Education? The Globe and Mail, Toronto Magazine, January 29 1988, p. 28; (ILLUS) "McLeod spends as much time damning conservative trustees who endorse any but the most extreme right-wing positions."
^ No Byline. "The lie (Betty Disero's accusations against Tom Jakobek cost him his job as Budget Chief & turned City Council into a snake pit)" Toronto Life. Toronto: January 1994, (Vol. 28, Iss. 1.) pg. 40

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 ==Criticism==
+Conservative writer [[Kevin Michael Grace]] has described McLeod's writing as that of an "emotionally incontinent 9th grader," [http://www.theambler.com/jul1-15_05.htm#marsden4] while ''[[Toronto Star]]'' columnist [[Antonia Zerbisias]] describes her as "eccentric" and the ''Canada Free Press'' as a "whacko news site." [http://thestar.blogs.com/azerb/komedy_korner/index.html]
 [[Jack Layton]] and his wife [[Olivia Chow]] complained to the Ontario Press Council about McLeod's columns at the ''[[Toronto Sun]]''. Both complaints were upheld. McLeod alleged that Layton and Chow were living in publicly subsidized housing in a [[co-operative housing|co-op]] in the late 1980s, when the couple was actually paying market rates. [http://www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=32805]