Olivia Bowden
Olivia Bowden reports on how health, policy and systemic inequities intersect, focusing on the human impact of decisions made in institutions and government. She is a freelance journalist whose recent work includes reporting for CBC News and contributing to outlets such as The Guardian, Global News, TVO, The Juggernaut and The Local. Her coverage centres on health, race, culture and social justice, with a consistent emphasis on people who experience gaps in care, safety and support.
Health systems, access and care gaps
Bowden’s health reporting tracks how systems meant to deliver care often fall short, and what that means for patients and communities on the margins. At CBC News she has covered vaccination campaigns such as the expansion of mpox vaccine appointments, looking at how eligibility rules and booking systems create access problems for people trying to get shots.
She has reported on a housing crisis that is pushing more older adults into shelters, using medical experts and new research to show how fragile support structures leave seniors without stable homes or adequate care.
Her work also examines reproductive and preventive health through the lens of policy promises and real-world delivery. In The Guardian she has explored why a national pledge of free birth control under a pharmacare plan has yet to translate into consistent, cost-free contraception for many people, drawing attention to coverage gaps, implementation delays and uneven access. For The Juggernaut, she has written deeply reported pieces on conditions such as anemia, PCOS and hormone disorders, highlighting how diet, environment and medical bias contribute to higher risks among South Asian communities and why diagnosis and treatment often come late.
Across these stories she connects individual experiences with the structures that shape them, whether they are public health agencies, social service systems or insurance frameworks.
Policy decisions, infrastructure and environment
Bowden regularly covers how infrastructure and environmental decisions affect health, safety and daily life. Her CBC reporting on the closure of the Ontario Science Centre follows engineering assessments, government responses and peer reviews to show how technical findings are used to justify shuttering a public institution, and what that means for the communities that rely on it. She has documented flooding in Toronto’s Rockcliffe neighbourhood, focusing on how severe storms repeatedly damage homes and leave residents struggling with recovery in an area already prone to floods. In coverage of Parkside Drive, she reports on residents who describe the street as “incredibly dangerous,” tying road design, traffic policy and delayed safety measures to ongoing injuries and fear.
Her work also connects cross-border environmental events with domestic health measures and political tensions.
In a story on Canada’s air quality warnings triggered by wildfire smoke from the United States, she links these alerts to concerns about respiratory health while situating them within broader trade friction and tariff threats from former president Donald Trump. Coverage of the Canadian National Exhibition after the pandemic explores how economic pressures, attendance forecasts and long-term viability debates intersect with public appetite for large gatherings and the legacy of health restrictions.
Across these pieces, Bowden shows how decisions about buildings, streets, festivals and climate response become health stories when they shape risk and resilience in everyday settings.
Race, culture and community health
A recurring thread in Bowden’s work is the way race and culture influence who is heard, who is studied and who is served in health and social policy. At The Juggernaut she has reported on South Asians pursuing surrogacy and IVF, examining the social stigma, cost burdens and donor shortages that shape reproductive choices and outcomes. She has written on dietary and regulatory issues such as the restrictions on mustard oil and the spread of fake paneer, showing how food safety rules and adulteration directly affect health risks in communities where these staples carry cultural and nutritional significance.
Her features on South Asians going gluten-free, vitamin D deficiency, endometriosis and homeopathy connect cultural practices, colonial legacies and evolving medical evidence, emphasizing how historical power dynamics continue to influence whose symptoms are taken seriously and whose remedies are validated. In The Local, Bowden has reported on the campus Me Too movement, documenting how survivors and advocates at universities are still fighting for meaningful sexual violence policies years after public attention peaked. She has also written about protecting seniors from eviction in social housing, outlining the weaknesses in current prevention programs and how they expose older tenants to instability and stress.
These stories extend her health lens into areas of gender-based violence and housing security, treating them as central to community wellbeing rather than separate social issues.
Formats, depth and storytelling style
Bowden works across formats, from breaking news pieces to long-form features and audio-visual reporting. Her CBC articles on local infrastructure and health topics combine on-the-ground interviews with official reports and expert commentary, building straightforward narratives that still surface systemic patterns. For outlets like The Juggernaut and The Local she favours longer, explanatory stories that follow individuals through complex systems, using lived experience to anchor data and policy analysis.
On her own site she showcases audio and visual work that brings the same focus on inequity to broadcast-style storytelling, including reporting on a death in an Ontario jail that examines accountability and conditions inside correctional facilities. Across platforms, Bowden’s prose is clear and direct, centring affected people while keeping attention on the decisions, policies and cultural forces that shape their options.
Her body of work offers a consistent through-line: health and justice are intertwined, and understanding that intersection requires reporting that stays close to those who bear the consequences.
4 more health journalists.
Alanna Smith
Alanna Smith is a national health reporter whose work links health policy and politics to real access to care, with a constant focus on health equity, infectious disease and the toxic drug crisis. She reports for The Globe and Mail on infectious diseases, hospitals and long-term care, mental health, drug policy and the pressures on health systems in Western Canada. Her stories connect big-picture decisions to patients, families, front-line workers and volunteers, showing how funding, privatization and federal standards shape public care. She has covered trauma care inequities, proposed public‑private models in Alberta, drug toxicity and overdose policy, respiratory virus surges, measles elimination, gene‑editing advances and gender‑affirming health care laws. Her work combines narrative reporting, data, legal and policy analysis, and has been recognized by national journalism and press freedom organizations.
Allan Levine
Allan Levine is a historian and author whose journalism uses the past to explain present-day issues. He writes for the Winnipeg Free Press, including the Now & Then column, which examines current events through history. His subjects include public health, disease, medical treatment, health systems, politics, social conflict, strikes, wars, antisemitism and Canadian public life. His polio reporting traces Manitoba epidemics, hospital pressures, treatment, mortality and the arrival of vaccines through archival data and medical history. He also writes about the Winnipeg General Strike and Jewish communities, including discrimination, rights and security. His work draws on books about Canadian political leaders, Jewish history and the wartime economy, including The Dollar A Year Men. He writes long-form, analytical pieces that combine dates, statistics, policy decisions and narrative storytelling to connect people and institutions with broader historical change.
Angela Amato
Angela Amato is a digital news producer with CTV News, and her coverage is distinct for linking health research and public safety concerns to legal and policy decisions that shape daily life. She reports on health, justice, politics, business, arts and culture, crime and public-interest stories. Her health work covers academic and clinical research, including studies on vaping and lung blood flow, exercise tolerance and early heart dysfunction in young adults. She also reports on motorcycle gang arrests, homicide and death investigations, Indigenous justice stories, wildfire evacuations, ambulance contracts, property taxes, labour negotiations and political advocacy rules. She explains complex findings in plain language and stays close to documents, data and expert sources. Her background includes investigative and daily newsrooms, and she has earned nominations for national journalism awards.
Apoorva Mandavilli
Apoorva Mandavilli covers the collision of infectious disease science, vaccine policy and public health agencies for The New York Times, following how research, regulation and politics shape outbreaks and access to vaccines. She reports on science and global health with a steady focus on infectious diseases and pandemics, including Covid-19, mpox, H.I.V., malaria and tuberculosis, treating them as ongoing global threats. Her work explains complex epidemiology and virology in clear narratives about risk, evidence and the consequences of scientific decisions. She repeatedly returns to vaccine policy, law and misinformation, tracing how court fights and agency disputes affect immunization schedules and public trust. She also reports on global health programs, funding cuts and inequity in care and technology. A longtime science journalist and former founding editor in chief of Spectrum, she has written widely on science and health and received major honors for medical science reporting and pandemic coverage.