Our vision: The Maple is an independent and 100 per cent reader-funded publication. Our reporting is fiercely critical and always factual. We tell stories that others don’t.
Our mission is to develop political consciousness and challenge power in Canada through long-form news reporting, explainer journalism and commentary that examines key policy decisions and political issues, and how they impact people’s lives.
Journalistic standards: Our work is dedicated to serving the public interest. By “public interest,” we mean information regarding government policies, elected officials, employers and other high-profile individuals and entities that have the power and means to substantially impact ordinary people’s lives or the public discourse.
The Maple is committed to fairness and accuracy. We treat sources with skepticism, and only publish information that we are fully confident is true, accurate, and fair. We take steps to verify any information that we publish in our original news reporting by independently corroborating source documents and media, or seeking input from experts or individuals with credible, first-hand knowledge of the information being published.
Before publication, every article is reviewed by the publication’s editors, who edit each piece for accuracy of information, credibility of sources and quality of reporting.
Sources: The Maple relies only on credible sources for our reporting and commentary, such as public documents, data, academic sources, verified media or first-hand accounts from individuals with the appropriate knowledge, experience, or expertise to speak on a given topic.
In cases where information already reported by other trustworthy news outlets serves as a premise for our articles, we credit the publication by name, note when the story was first published and include a link to the original story. We do not cite opinion articles or commentary as fact.
We may use anonymous sources when important information can’t be obtained any other way, and if the source is likely to face retribution for speaking to a journalist. When anonymous sources are used, we take additional steps to verify their credibility and the accuracy of the information they share.
Content labels: The Maple publishes four primary types of content: newsletters, news, opinion and podcasts.
We publish two newsletters.
The first, Digest, is written by managing editors Alex Cosh and Davide Mastracci, and contains both news editions and opinion editions. The news edition includes a feature section that typically unpacks an important issue or news story with original quotes, observations, analysis and/or relevant contextual information, as well as a roundup of other major stories driving the news cycle. The opinion edition provides a roundup of selected commentary and analysis that unpacks the biggest issues of the day and more. This is a daily newsletter.
The second, Class Struggle, is written by Adam King, and covers the economy, unions and labour from a pro-worker perspective. This is a weekly newsletter.
Our news stories are authored by the publication’s news editor or freelance professional journalists who are paid at a rate agreed upon before their work begins. Prior to commissioning an article, we discuss the sources the journalist intends to use, ensuring that they adhere to our journalistic standards.
The stories we publish typically examine an important policy matter or political issue with the goal of bringing to light new information, enriching our readers’ understanding of the issue, looking at issues from an original angle or including perspectives that might otherwise be missing from existing reports.
Broadly, our original reporting and analysis focuses on exposing economic inequality and social injustice, challenging Canada’s political establishment, and critically examining the effects of Canadian foreign policy.
Once the journalist has submitted a draft, The Maple’s editors conduct a fact check, ensuring all the sources are credible and adhere to our journalistic standards and mission. The editors may ask the journalist to seek out additional sources to verify particular statements or claims, or remove sources that do not meet our journalistic standards. This often involves back and forths between editors and writers in order to ensure that the finished articles meet our journalistic standards.
Once we are fully confident that a piece is fair, accurate and factual, the editors proofread and edit the article with an eye for clarity, style, and quality before publication.
Bylines: We include author bylines for every piece of content. This includes a short 1-2 sentence author biography located at the bottom of the article, with a link to the author’s bio section on our website. In that section, users are able to browse other articles written by that author for the publication.
Corrections: As part of our commitment to fair and accurate reporting, we add corrections or clarifications to articles if they are found to contain inaccurate or incomplete information.
Whenever corrections or clarifications are added to articles after publication, we include an editor’s note with the date the changes were made, and an explanation of what was changed and why. Corrections made are then compiled and published in our annual transparency reports.
In exceptional circumstances, we will fully retract a story if its central premise is found to be false. In such cases, we will publish a brief explanation of what the story got wrong and why it was retracted. To date, The Maple has never had to retract a story.
If new information comes to light within 24 hours of publishing a story that substantially changes facts contained within it, we add updates through an editor’s note explaining the new information, and point out where readers can learn more about the new information.
We welcome feedback if we get something wrong in our reporting. If you would like to submit a correction request, please contact: corrections [at] readthemaple [dot] com, and write “Correction” in the subject line.
Reader feedback: As an entirely reader-funded publication, we regularly conduct reader surveys to get a sense of the issues our readers would like to see being given better coverage in the press. These surveys also help inform our planning for new projects.
Legal or copyright complaints: If you have any legal complaints about our work and wish to reach us, please email hello [at] readthemaple [dot] com.