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Lack of responsiveness by the Times Colonist in regards to its journalism begs the question of whether or not the TC is writing articles in good faith.


By Sasha Izard
Dec 30, 2025


You may recall an article that I wrote a few months ago:

How a groundless narrative cooked up by elected officials and the press of “boisterous” and “raucous” meetings, was used to justify major claw backs in open public input to Saanich Council. – CRD Watch Homepage

That article exposed that the journalists and editors that were generating a narrative about the Saanich public, were unable to provide a basis for what they had written about when I asked them afterward.

In that article, I showed how the Times Colonist writer Andrew Duffy, admitted that the editor had put in the word “boisterous”, rather than himself in an article about Saanich’s last off-site Town Hall. (Saanich shuttered off-site town halls after.) When asked for more details about how he came up with that article, Duffy like other journalists pushing a narrative of an out of control public at town halls, fell silent.

There were no recordings of the town halls. The council (with the exception of Councillor Chambers), didn’t want them to be recorded. With one exception, it seems no press were present at the them – leaving the creative writing departments at newspapers, to fill in the void on what happened, to their audience after.

This is not public interest journalism, this is yellow journalism.

Andrew Duffy, reminds me of that lyric from Billy Joel’s Pianoman about a real estate novelist. His writings appear mostly about real estate, and development, and the content is often exclusively taken from statements by lobbyists and politicians.

Here’s some examples articles that Duffy wrote.

Saanich says it’s working to speed up housing approvals – Victoria Times Colonist

Victoria’s new fees could damage development, experts fear – Victoria Times Colonist

Notice a pattern? In both articles he quotes the same 2 Executive Directors of lobbies for real estate and development. He also quotes a Mayor in each article.

Where is the other side of the story? He doesn’t provide any.

Both Mayors mentioned attended this lobby event together:

FOI Request to BC Transit yields information about the UDI event: “Pathways to Progress: Uniting Land Use and Transit Strategies for Sustainable Growth” which took place the same day that Saanich adopted its new Official Community Plan and rendered its Local Area Plans legally non-binding. – CRD Watch Homepage

So what the public gets in regard to real estate and development policy at the local government level from reading the Duffy articles mentioned, is a narrative coming from industry lobbies and the same Mayors that attend industry lobby events. Most of these events are UDI events, which the taxpayer subsidizes.

The Times Colonist was and may still be a paying media partner and sponsor of the UDI.

I made the following petition a couple years ago: Petition · Withdraw the Times Colonist from Development Lobby Membership and Media Partnership – Canada · Change.org

Above: Screenshot from the UDICapitalregion.ca before it was pulled down at the end of 2023. The Times Colonist at the time was a paying member, media partner and sponsor the Urban Development Institute (UDI) a registered lobbying organization for billions of dollars of corporate interests in real estate and development.

I also wrote an article about the TC’s parent company at the time:

A Quick Glance At Glacier Media’s Real Estate Connections – Sasha Izard

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More unresponsiveness in regard to the TC’s ‘journalism’:

The TC likes to complain that the government is uncooperative in regards to journalism, by putting $10 fees on FOI requests. It’s had more than one article on this subject. Bring up that they sometimes charge up to $2000 for FOI requests and the TC doesn’t mention anything.

Index of Exorbitant Cost Estimates Provided for Freedom of Information in British Columbia – CRD Watch Homepage

How about the TC’s own lack of responsiveness in regards to its own published material, when asked basic questions about it?

On Nov 13, 2025 I sent the following email to the TC’s editor Dave Obee:

Hello Dave Obee,

In today’s Times Colonist is a Commentary title: 

Save Our Saanich encourages mob behaviour that silences voices

Was that title created by the Times Colonist, or by the author of the commentary?

Thank you,
Sasha Izard

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Obee did not respond to the question. That’s OK though, the TC is fine not responding to such a basic question after framing the public in its titles as it demonstrated with the “boisterous” title that the editor came up with previously about the off-site town hall, which no person at the TC witnessed.

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On Dec 17, 2025 I wrote Andrew Duffy,

I read your article in today’s Times Colonist:

https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/councils-crd-seek-input-on-bill-that-would-reduce-development-oversight-11631173

Your article showed a Saanich Councillor, the City of Victoria, and the CRD, calling out the Province for a lack of consultation regarding proposed bill M216.

Then you wrote: “Similar concerns were raised two years ago when the province implemented Bill 44,”

Who raised similar concerns, 2 years ago, regarding Bill 44, and what were those concerns?

Thank you,
Sasha Izard

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Duffy did not respond.

What’s the big deal? Why won’t Duffy answer the question?

I’m concerned that Duffy might be engaging in revisionist history, inadvertently or otherwise, in this regard.

Reading his article, one might get an erroneous impression that the councils mentioned, opposed Bill 44 at the time. Below is a time capsule of reporting that shows that not to be the case.

Here is how the TC and other news media’s coverage actually looked like at the time:

The following are screen captures of TC articles from 2 years ago, whereby Kahlon made announcements of housing bill 44 and housing targets, with Saanich’s Mayor Dean Murdock standing like a good trooper, loyally in support.

Opinion: Public hearings curbed in housing bill – Victoria Times Colonist

Province sets home-building targets for municipalities – Victoria Times Colonist

The following are screen captures of the Black Press article at the time about the housing targets, with the politicians standing loyally in the background.

Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay must build 10K housing units in 5 years: B.C. | Victoria News

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Conclusion:

When it comes to official government press releases, the TC can be counted on to have their cameras ready at hand. What happens though, when it is a public protest
against government plans, like the imminent disabling of Saanich’s Local Area Plans, which took place in 2024? In such examples, is unlikely the media will be present.

If it’s a town hall, they are almost certainly not going to be present, but they will write about it, as if they were there, and that narrative can be used against the public, as it was when Saanich removed off-site town halls.

The Times Colonist and other news outlets should be transparent and accountable to the public for the journalistic content, that they feed to the public. When they write about civic events they didn’t see, using colourful adjectives, this is not journalism, this is creative writing. At what point is such yellow journalism, actually misleading and fake news? The non-responsiveness of those, writing/publishing the content, when asked simple questions about their own material, speaks volumes.

Are such journalistic practices ethical? Is such journalism in the public interest? Is there a conflict between the source of advertising much of it coming from realtors, and the narrative surrounding local government policy, that the TC propels?

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See also:

Index of articles regarding questionable media coverage of local government and public participation. – CRD Watch Homepage

Public Release of the Urban Development Institute (UDI)’s hidden members directory dated to the beginning of 2024. The directory contains dozens of government branches that are hiding their memberships in the registered lobbying organization for development and real estate interests from the public. – CRD Watch Homepage

The Times Colonist continues its misleading smear campaign against Saanich residents. – CRD Watch Homepage