Why We Started The Hatchet — and What’s Coming Up

There's one interview I've never been able to stop thinking about

I’ve worked as a journalist for nearly fifteen years. In that time, I’ve conducted thousands of interviews with every kind of person you can imagine — from convicted criminals to sitting prime ministers.

But there’s one interview that I’ve never been able to stop thinking about.

It was with a woman named Marolyn Morrison.

Morrison spent her life in politics, but she’s by no means a household name. For eleven years, she served as the mayor of Caledon, a sleepy, bedroom-community just outside of Toronto.

During her tenure, one of the most controversial issues that came up for debate was whether or not to approve a major housing development in the town.

Morrison opposed it.

And then strange things started to happen to her.

She noticed that she was being followed wherever she drove. Two men approached her husband, telling him they had compromising photos of Mayor Morrison with other men. And they promised to make them public if she didn’t change her mind about the development.

When her husband rebuffed them, they left. But eleven days later, he was attacked, punched in the face in front of his home. Police believe the assailants used brass knuckles.

The intimidation campaign didn’t stop there. Morrison began to receive threatening phone calls, including from a provincial cabinet minister. And then, strangest of all, a supervisor from Canada Revenue Agency claimed that financial records demonstrated that Morrison had been taking bribes.

She hadn’t been. The CRA official had framed her, and was later arrested and convicted for the scheme.

These are a pretty extraordinary set of events. But even after everything that happened to her, Morrison said she was surprised to hear whispers about just how common political graft is in Canadian life.

Near the end of our interview, Morrison mentioned a conversation she had with the vice-president of one of Canada’s major banks.

“He told me that they would go out for lunch and that the developers would brag…about the brown paper bags that they had to hand out to the politicians for services rendered and getting the right vote.”

“And I thought, ‘are you serious?’ I was a little naive, I guess. And he said ‘yes Marolyn … it happens.’”

I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that interviewing Morrison gave me. That there are powerful forces at work behind the scenes, using money and influence to get their way. And that this kind of thing is common enough that for people in positions of authority, it’s gossip.

So in short, that’s why we’ve started The Hatchet — to shine a light on the people and institutions that shape the lives of Canadians, even when they’d rather stay in the shadows.

We’re going to focus on stories about how Canada really works, and not just on the scandals-of-the-day that political partisans obsess over on social media. Our work will cover corporate Canada, governments, the security state, civil society and much more. And our commitment is to cover stories from all across Canada, and not just downtown Toronto and Parliament Hill. There are pressing issues in every province and territory, in both urban and rural areas.

So that’s the why. But let’s talk a little about what you’ll be getting by supporting The Hatchet.

Some of you might be familiar with the work that Jordan Cornish and I did for six years making the award-winning series COMMONS. We’ll be delivering the same kind of high-quality audio documentaries at The Hatchet. You can already listen to our first episode about the many criminal conspiracies that TD Bank has been involved in.

In addition, we’re going to be doing original reporting, analysis and commentary through the newsletter. Much of the reporting will come from me and Jordan, but we also plan on commissioning work from seasoned journalists.

Just in the next few weeks, we plan to bring you stories about price-fixing schemes, police misconduct and organized crime. But that’s just the beginning. We’ve already begun reporting out stories on a dozen or so other topics that run the gamut from labour to housing to federal politics.

Why you should support us

But in order to do all of this work, we need your help. This is a full-time job for both of us and our only source of income will be completely dependent on how much support we get from you.

Many of you have already been incredibly generous, but we’re still quite a ways away from making this a sustainable endeavour. For the next month, we plan to keep everything outside of a paywall so that everyone can see the work that we’re capable of. But starting in January, some of that is likely going to have to be available only for our paid subscribers.

Jordan and I are also committed to being incredibly prudent with every dollar that you give us. We’re not renting an office or a studio; our whole operation is being run from my living room. In addition to our journalism, we’re handling most of the administrative tasks associated with running a business ourselves. Over the last few years, we’ve learned how to make high-quality audio documentaries with minimal resources. There is no two-person team in this country more capable of doing this kind of work.

We also have ambitious plans for mini-series and ongoing podcasts that we’ll tell you more about in the next few months.

But most importantly, we want you all to know that The Hatchet is for you. We’re not interested in chasing unicorns, whether that’s big IP deals or an illusory American audience. We believe there are fascinating, under-reported stories to be told about Canada and our job is to bring them to you.

So if you can, we’re asking you to help us by supporting us. And make sure to tell your friends, your family and your criminal associates to do the same.