Emma Paling is an award-winning investigative journalist based in Toronto, currently serving as a staff writer for The Breach. Her work focuses on three core areas:
When approaching Paling with story ideas:
"Follow the paper trail – her most impactful work begins with leaked documents rather than anecdotal evidence."
She does not cover entertainment, sports, or lifestyle topics. Pitches requiring celebrity access or product reviews will be disregarded. Current focus areas include pension fund investments in defense contractors and AI-driven analysis of broadcast media narratives.
Emma Paling has established herself as a formidable voice in Canadian investigative journalism, specializing in exposing systemic inequities across political, environmental, and media landscapes. Her career trajectory reveals three distinct phases:
"While Canadians choke on toxins, Big Oil hides behind smoke and mirrors" – A 2023 investigation into fossil fuel disinformation campaigns [1]
Her recent work for The Breach combines quantitative analysis with document leaks to scrutinize:
This January 2024 investigation analyzed 147 CBC articles through computational text analysis, revealing systematic avoidance of visceral language when describing Palestinian casualties compared to Israeli victims. Paling obtained internal style guides showing explicit editorial directives to avoid terms like "massacre" for Gaza operations. The piece sparked parliamentary questions about public broadcaster neutrality and was cited by UN special rapporteurs reviewing Canadian media practices.
Through leaked financial documents and shareholder reports, Paling traced Bank of Montreal’s $90M credit line to Elbit Systems – a manufacturer of drones used in Gaza. Her forensic accounting revealed how Canadian pension funds indirectly funded these investments. The exposé led to divestment campaigns targeting 23 institutional investors and revised ESG guidelines at three major banks.
Partnering with data scientist Katia Lo Innes, Paling applied sentiment analysis to 634 CTV News segments. Their study found Palestinian perspectives received 73% less airtime than Israeli officials, with casualty figures frequently presented without context. The methodology has since been adopted by media watchdogs in six countries as a template for bias auditing.
Paling consistently utilizes leaked internal documents to expose corporate greenwashing. A 2023 piece on Suncor’s climate denial lobbying [1] combined executive emails with emissions data. Pitches should identify undisclosed corporate communications or regulatory evasion strategies, particularly in the energy sector. Example: Unexamined correspondence between oil sands companies and Alberta regulators.
Her innovative use of NLP tools to quantify media bias sets a new standard for accountability journalism. Successful pitches will propose replicable methodologies to analyze coverage of underreported issues like Indigenous land rights or union strikes. Include potential datasets like broadcast transcripts or social media metadata.
The BMO-Elbit investigation [1] exemplifies Paling’s focus on financial pipelines enabling conflict. Pitch ideas tracing Canadian institutional investments to controversial defense contractors, emphasizing pension fund connections. Include leads on shell companies or tax havens obscuring these transactions.
Won for her Elbit Systems financing exposé, beating 217 entries. Judges noted the "unprecedented access to banking records that reshaped public understanding of corporate complicity in conflict."
Recognized for developing interactive tools allowing readers to explore media bias metrics in her CTV analysis. The open-source codebase has been forked 89 times by newsrooms globally.
Her collaborative investigation into education worker rights influenced Ontario’s repeal of Bill 28. The series combined union testimony with legal analysis, setting a precedent for labor reporting.
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Politics, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
