Alumni Memory: Julia Morton, BJ ’06
A Snowy Report
I was at the National Press Club with Rebecca Lau, my J-school partner in crime, where we were doing an interview for our documentary project about the Chinese head tax reparations. I think this was in 2005. While there, another reporter let us know that a historic press conference was about to begin in Parliament on the very topic we were reporting on. He said if we hurried, we could make it there in time.
Of course, this being wintertime in Ottawa, it was snowing heavily. We packed up our camera kit on our dolly (those kits were BIG and HEAVY back then!) and made our way up the Hill, trudging through 2 feet of fresh snow, cutting a diagonal line across the lawn. I’m sure we looked insane, but we were determined. We got to the front entrance, told security we were Carleton Journalism students and were ushered in with our equipment without so much as an ID check. It was a very different time.
We quickly found the room the conference was in and burst through the doors – huffing, covered in snow and with plenty of stares from the professional reporters who had clearly arrived early enough to set up their cameras without causing a scene. In the end, we got the shot and made a piece we were proud of. I will never forget the pain and misery of lugging a camera kit across Ottawa in the snow! – Julia Morton (BJ ’06)
Alumni Memories are part of Carleton Journalism’s 75th Anniversary.
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Friday, May 21, 2021 in 75th Anniversary - Alumni Memory
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