Talking about the history of free speech, with students at LICCSAL college in Freetown, Sierra Leone, spring of 2010. Very impressed with how the students were engaged and how sharp their questions were. The college was new, the building didn’t even have power. But the students wanted to learn and that’s what matters. 
Presenting at Fourah Bay College, 2010: a beautiful place high in the hills above Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded in 127, it’s the oldest university in West Africa and the country’s leading educational institution. Great group of students.
Three weeks in Sierra Leone was mostly spent in or near beautiful busy crazy Freetown, but I did get away one weekend. The trip included Outamba-Kilimi national park. Park buildings and services hadn’t been restored much from damage in the 1991-2002 civil war (or Liberian incursion, depending how one views it.) But it was still worth the several hours each way to get there by way of Makeni and Kamakwie. We had a hired car and driver, so I didn’t worry about the ferry as much as I might have. Seeing the hippos in the Kabba river was a highlight. They’re among the most dangerous of animals – you can only approach by canoe, with a park guide who knows to keep his distance. 
Freetown is named for Africans who returned from Britain, USA, Jamaica and my home province of Nova Scotia, Canada (where they had fled slavery in America) when what is now Sierra Leone was the main destination for them after slavery was outlawed, first by Britain in 1833, then USA in 1863. 
A day trip up the bay from Freetown toward the river estuary included a sombre visit to Bunce Island, and the ruins of a British slave company’s fort dating to 1670. Tens of thousands of Africans went through the area, stolen away to slavery, mostly in the U.S. states of Georgia and South Carolina.
Spent a bit more than a week in Ghana in spring of 2010, on behalf of Journalists for Human Rights. Had great discussions and presentations at some media houses, and with some student groups and interns. Here I’m at the Ghana Institute of Journalism in Accra (it’s universal, no one ever sits in the front row!) I spoke to the students about the history of free speech; the slide shows that at that moment, I was speaking about Canada’s Charter of Rights guaranteeing free speech and free media, which was only enacted in 1982. 
While in Ghana I enjoyed a quick trip north to the centuries-old town of Tamale, and from there northwest to Mole National Park for a night. The monkeys were cute — and would steal your food if you turned away for just a few seconds. 
The warthogs were interesting (Pumbaa was my favorite character in the Lion King, which I saw about 40 times…) But when the trees started to shake and then parted to reveal these big fellows and several more, all my attention went to them. An amazing sight.
We arrived at the Panam City ruins the same time as a bus full of students from a Dhaka boys school, and were greeted like rockstars 🙂
Panam dates to the 13th Century, though these ruins are about half that age.
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Receiving one of several Michener Award citations the Edmonton Journal won in my time as editor-in-chief (and the main award, 1992.) It’s Canada’s top journalism award, for journalism in the public interest.
(My hair? What can I say, grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s.)
This is one of my award winning editorials… The Vriend Case
This is how we met, covering a horrible news event. A jail fire in Saint John, New Brunswick, killed 21. We were early in our careers, working at the Toronto Star. That day, Murdoch was an overnight “rewrite desk” reporter, Michael an editor on the national desk. The Star newsroom had about 500 people, and we mostly worked in different bureaus or different shifts and had never met.
When the news broke around midnight, Murdoch made calls to the city, to get ahead of the news wires, as was always the Star’s ambition. Michael handled the copy. As the scope of the tragedy grew, the editor in charge told Murdoch to charter a jet to get a Star crew to the site in time to file for the coming first edition and several later ones (it was an afternoon paper back then.)
At about 2 a.m. this Lear jet flew us the two and a half hours to Saint John. Famed Star photographer Boris Spremo snapped this photo on arrival while we awaited a taxi and then got busy digging. Several days later we flew home on commercial planes.
Davis, Cooke Media 