Since the Montreal launch, six local documenters have been trained — four contributors from L’Itinéraire magazine and two youth from the Mercier-Est neighbourhood, supported by Solidarité Mercier-Est. The L’Itinéraire participants have documented a Ville-Marie borough meeting and a debate at the Montreal mayoral campaign, while the youth attended the Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough meeting.
In addition, students from Konieczna’s JOUR 398 Hyperlocal Journalism have been trained to document one meeting in Montreal. Training and recruitment are still underway.
“Montreal is a perfect city for Documenters, because there’s so much local government – 16 municipalities and 19 boroughs on the island of Montreal and 82 municipalities in the greater Montreal area). That’s a lot of meetings for us to attend,” Konieczna said.
“Providing information is not the only thing Documenters does: it also empowers community members by training them to go to public meetings – the places where decisions are being made on their behalf.”
Alongside Konieczna, Digital Innovation in Journalism (MA) student Chrystel Abi Samra and journalism alumnus Clément Lechat, GrDip 23, MA 25, learned how to work from a community-centered journalism approach, which is “a perspective that differs greatly from traditional newsroom practices,” said Lechat, the Documenters Network Lead. “We can easily be discouraged when witnessing historically low levels of trust in the media, the spread of disinformation, and newsroom closures. But by taking action, we can create hope and imagine a different future for journalism.”