Telling the Truth in a Post-Truth Era

Our guest will be Michelle Shephard, an award-winning journalist, author, filmmaker and podcast host and producer who has covered issues of terrorism and civil rights since the 9/11 attacks. During her two decades at the Toronto Star, she reported from more than 20 countries, including Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan and went behind the wire at the U.S. Naval prison in Guantanamo Bay more than two dozen times. Shephard was the co-director and producer of the Emmy-nominated documentary Guantanamo’s Child, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015 and won Canada Screen Awards for best direction and the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social or Political Program. Her other films include The Man Who Stole Einstein’s Brain, The Perfect Story, The Way Out, and Uyghurs: Prisoners of the Absurd. She is a three-time recipient of the National Newspaper Award; and the Governor-General’s Michener Award for public service journalism, and the author of Guantanamo’s Child: The Untold Story of Omar Khadr, and Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism’s Grey Zone. Her podcasts series include, White Hot Hate (listed as 2021 best podcasts by The Atlantic magazine) about the rise of neo Nazi groups, Brainwashed (Awarded Silver for best serialized podcast by the New York Festivals Radio Awards and garnered an Ambies nomination) on the CIA’s illegal mind experiments, and Sharmini, a true-crime podcast about the unsolved murder of 15-year-old Sharmini Anandavel.

Her talk will be held in-person on Wednesday, February 7th between 6:30 and 8:30 pm in ENG 103 (the Vari Engineering Building, 245 Church Street, Toronto). Attendance is free and everyone is welcome.  

Founded in 2005, the IID is a non-partisan, student-led forum designed to engage all members of the TMU community on major events and issues in contemporary global affairs through reasoned, objective, and scholarly discourse. For further details about the IID and our series please see http://iid.kislenko.com (external link)   or contact the IID student leaders at iidseries@gmail.com