Paul McKay, Westport

2005

Paul McKay was born in Toronto in 1953. He graduated from High School at Sir John A. Macdonald C.I. in 1971, with Centennial Award for most promising graduate. Graduated from Trent University, Peterborough, with Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Philosophy 1978.

Selected Publications

• Electric Empire: The Inside Story of Ontario Hydro, 1983 - a full-length book examining Hydro's proposed expansion plans. It warned of future financial, operational and environmental problems due to heavy reliance on nuclear reactors. Foreword by Ralph Nader.
• A Citizen's Guide to the Ontario Legislature, 1984 published by the Ontario Public Interest Research Group.
• The Roman Empire: The Life and Times of Stephen Roman, 1989 - a business biography published by Key Porter. Finalist for the National Book Awards.
• Going green in the burbs

Career

• 1978-1983 - staff director for the Ontario Public Interest Research Group, a university-based affiliate of U.S. campus network founded by Ralph Nader. Led OPIRG organizing drive at Carleton University.
• 1984 - testified as an expert witness before the Legislature select committee on Hydro Affairs, with Ralph Nader.
• 1985 - won a National Newspaper Award for an investigative series on problems at the Ontario Worker's Compensation Board published by the Kingston Whig-Standard
• 1986 - won a National Business Writing Award for exposing government subsidies to a failed computer software development company
• 1987 - won the Centre for Investigative Journalism top prize for stories about a wildlife smuggling ring and a botched prosecution. Authored "The Pilgrim and the Cowboy" true crime book, published by McGraw-Hill.
• 1988 - won a National Magazine Award for an expose on a convicted Nazi collaborator living in Canada.
• 1989/90 - winner of the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, sponsored by the Toronto Star. Produced series on environment called "Plundering the Future".
• 1990/91 - senior policy advisor to the Ontario minister of energy. Drafted new energy efficiency building, appliance and furnace codes; revised renewable energy purchase rates; adopted moratorium on new nuclear plant construction
• 1992 - case manager for the environmental group Northwatch at the Ontario Demand/Supply hearings.
• 1993-April 97 - board director of the Independent Power Producers's Society of Ontario; professional energy consultant, with clients including aboriginal groups, environmental groups, the Ontario ministry of energy and environment, and Ontario Hydro.
• 1994-96 - proponent of a small hydro project in northern Ontario. Won tender bid in subsequently revoked Ontario Hydro Renewable Energy Technology program.
• April, 1997 - resumed career as professional journalist. In May, the Toronto Star published my report on Hydro discharging toxic heavy metals into the Great Lakes for two decades. In June, the Ottawa Citizen published a 3-part series on the technical and financial problems besetting Ontario Hydro.
• July, 1997 - June 2005 - investigative reporter with Ottawa Citizen. Finalist for the 1997 National Newspaper Awards (critical profile of former Westray mine owner Clifford Frame), and Canadian Association of Journalists (3-part series on Ontario Hydro)
• 1998 - finalist for top National Newspaper Award for 24-part series on crooked lawyers in Ontario, and failures of the professions' self-regulation system. This series was also a finalist for the Governor-General's journalism award. A profile of mining monarch Peggy Witte's Kemess gold project in northern B.C. was a finalist for a Canadian Association of Journalists award.
• 2000 - wrote Ottawa Citizen extended series on secrecy and hidden funding for dubious overseas projects by the federal Export Development Corp., how federal political patronage system creates corruption in economically depressed Nova Scotia; corporate bankruptcy scam artists
• 2001 - winner of top National Newspaper Award for 30-part series "Re-inventing Our Wheels", an analysis of auto pollution and North America initiatives to improve fuels, car design and public transit, and reduce sprawl.
• 2002 - wrote the 30-part Ottawa Citizen series of feature stories about unique aspects of music called "The Enchanted Ear"; an investigative report on Ontario psychiatric hospitals 'dumping' deranged patients
• 2002 - Music and the Brain
• 2003 - researched and wrote Ottawa Citizen investigative series on problems in Ontario's nursing home sector; expose' on plans to build a steel smelter in Yukon wilderness area. http://www.healthcoalition.ca/mckay.pdf
• 2004 - investigative report on closure of Perth shoe factory and its re-location in low-wage Brazil
• 2005 - The Brave Teenager Who Escaped from Auschwitz and Told the War What Was Happening There
• 2005 - Save the Arctic! News | Defenders of Wildlife
• 2005 - selected as Pierre Berton writer-in-residence in Yukon Territory
• Articles by Paul McKay have appeared in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Kingston Whig-Standard, Ottawa Citizen, Harrowsmith Magazine and Maclean's Magazine. He has also written and researched documentary stories for television (W5, CBC's The Journal), and radio (CBC Sunday Morning). He is listed in "Who's Who in Canada".

Purchase Paul McKay Books Online at Amazon.ca (click the book)