An article in the March 25 edition of The Globe and Mail looks at the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and its ongoing struggle to win recognition and respect from mainstream viewers and media. APTN’s role in breaking the story of the PMO ethics scandal has done much to raise the network’s profile.

The Globe article, incidentally quotes Karyn Pugliese, a former APTN reporter who now — we’re happy to say – co-hosts ichannel’s flagship current affairs series @issue.

 Here are Karyn’s reflections on her time at APTN:

… there can be real frustration breaking intensely human stories – especially when nobody notices.

Karyn Pugliese, 41, was with APTN for six years beginning with its news programming launch, and now hosts the current-affairs show @issue on ichannel. “One of the reasons that I had to leave APTN was that I was getting too emotional. There are certain stories that I have a hard time talking about without starting to cry because you go into communities and you see who are nice people. They have loving families and they’re living in conditions that are just intolerable.”

Pugliese knew people in those communities often spoke with her – sometimes about a taboo subject, against the wishes of others – in order to effect change. But she also knew her stories wouldn’t necessarily accomplish that.

“You sometimes see W5 or CBC break the story and then at the end of the day when they go for their Canadian Association of Journalists awards they can talk about how that made a big difference. You sit there and you watch over the years the amount of stories that APTN has broken, and the really quality work and quality journalism and facts, and follow the money. They put all this research and all this effort into it, but it doesn’t have the same impact.”

Read the whole article here.

Congratulations to Candice Batista, co-host of ichannel’s current affairs flagship, @issue! Candice has been named among the finalists for the 2011 Green Toronto Awards.

Candice is nominated in the Environmental Awareness category for her series A Greener Toronto on Rogers TV. The Environmental Awareness award, sponsored by Toronto Hydro, “recognizes leadership in environmental education through a variety of media as well as environmentally-themed arts and cultural events.”

Presented by the City of Toronto and Green Living Enterprises, the Green Toronto Awards “recognize the individuals, organizations and companies helping to lead the way to a cleaner, greener Toronto.” The winners will be announced on April 15.

Candice reports regularly on environmental issues for @issue. We’ll be rebroadcasting some of her episodes from this season April 13-15 and April 20-22 at 8 pm ET/PT.

Tonight’s edition of @issue offers a sneak peek at co-host Kevin O’Keefe‘s forthcoming ichannel documentary Bad Habits, a look at the life and times of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Part protest movement, part street theatre, the Sisters are a group of mostly gay men who dress up as nuns to promote safe sex, draw awareness to HIV/AIDS and challenge intolerance. Many Roman Catholics are less than amused by the Sisters’ appropriation of sacred imagery for their own purposes. To find out more about the Sisters and their mission, check out their Web site. 

The Sisters recently established new Canadian “convent.” The Abbey of the Long Cedar Canoe was founded last year in Vancouver. You can follow their blog here.

Check out this short documentary about the Sisters’ efforts in support of AIDS Vancouver.

Further to the discussion of ethical fashion on tonight’s edition of @issue, you may want to check out the Web site for People Tree, a popular UK clothing brand dedicated to eco-friendly, fair trade products. Harry Potter star Emma Watson has designed three collections for People Tree, the last of which was unveiled in late February. You can see her model some of the designs here, and shop the collection here.

For more info and discussion in this vein, you may want to check out Eco Princess, a UK blogger who posts on ethical fashion and beauty.

Every year, Canadians give an estimated $10 billion-plus to charity. But how do you know that your donation is making a difference?

There are more than 160,000 registered charities and non-profits across the country. The vast majority operate honestly — but some do break the rules. In the last year, nearly 600 Canadian charities have been shut down for failing to keep their books up to date. Another 40 have had their status revoked because they weren’t doing the work they were supposed to do.

On tonight’s edition of @issue (airing at 8 pm ET/PT), host Karyn Pugliese investigates the challenge of giving wisely. Among her guests: Newfoundland filmmaker Christopher Richardson, whose documentary Where’s My Goat? offers a lighthearted but incisive look at the subject. Having adopted the practice of “ethical” gift-giving — he buys goats for Third World families as a thank-you gift to clients — Richardson began to question whether his donations were actually helping people on the ground. The film follows him as he travels to Zambia in search of one of the goats he bought online.

Tonight’s @issue also examines the work of Charity Intelligence Canada, a group that evaluates the effectiveness of charitable organziations operating across the country. Charity Intelligence publishes a list of recommended charities and social enterprises.

The Revenue Canada Charities Directorate is also an invaluable source of information on issues related to charitable giving.

This home in Hungary was the target of an anti-Roma attack.

Most of us suppose that refugees come predominantly from violent, war-torn nations in Africa, the Middle East or Asia. Few would guess that Hungary, a relatively prosperous country in central Europe, produces the third-largest number of refugees to Canada.

As host Kevin O’Keefe discovers on tonight’s edition of @issue (at 8 pm ET/PT), the Roma people of Hungary — often tagged with the inaccurate and offensive term “Gypsies” — are subject to systemic discrimination in education, housing and employment. According to a report issued last November by Amnesty International, they have also become a target for racially motivated violence.

Canada’s response to this growing crisis has hardly been exemplary. Of the 1,600 refugees from Hungary who came to this country last year seeking a better life, barely one percent were accepted.

For more on the Roma in Hungary and Canada, visit the Roma Community Centre in Toronto.

Nearly 600 Aboriginal Canadian women have been murdered or gone missing since the 1960s. At least half of those cases remain unsolved. Are Aboriginal women more vulnerable to violence? Amnesty International and other human rights groups say yes, and are urging government, law enforcement agencies and the media to acknowledge and confront the problem.

Are Canadians turning a blind eye to the suffering of women from indigenous communities? That’s the question host Karyn Pugliese investigates on tonight’s edition of the ichannel current affairs flagship series @issue (airing at 8 pm ET/PT). Karyn’s guests include renowned investigative journalist Stevie Cameron, whose recently published book On The Farm is the definitive account of how serial killer Robert Pickton preyed upon vulnerable women — many of them Aboriginal Canadians — from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Families of the victims have insisted for years that police failed to investigate the disappearances with the appropriate diligence and urgency. The provincial government of British Columbia launched an inquiry into the botched investigation last month.

Tonight’s @issue also looks at the groundbreaking 2004 Amnesty International report “Stolen Sisters,” which shed much-needed light on the problem of discrimination and violence against indigenous women.

Also on tonight’s episode:

- Laurie Odjick from the Kitigan Zibi First Nation in Quebec talks to Karyn about the search for daughter Maisy Odjick and her friend Shannon Alexander, who have been missing since September 2008

- Writer Adriana Rolston discusses how the media have handled the story of northern British Columbia’s notorious “Highway of Tears.” Since 1969, 18 women have been slain or gone missing along Highway 16 in B.C. All of the cases remain unsolved, and critics say that — as in the case of the Pickton murders — media coverage has been sparse and indifferent, since many the victims have been Aboriginal women, sex trade workers or otherwise marginalized.

For more information on the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women, the Sisters in Spirit research report from the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) is an invaluable resource.