“I have had the privilege of working with
Andy at the Toronto Star for more than a decade. He has played a vital role on
the investigations team at every stage of the process, from vetting data to
determine whether we have a story to cleaning and analyzing large data sets, to
verifying our numbers and conclusions on deadline, to make sure we’re
bulletproof. He has made essential contributions to many award-winning stories
and projects, and always keeps his cool under pressure.”
Rachel Mendleson
Staff Reporter
Toronto Star
“Andy has been an instrumental part of my
work as the Toronto Star’s Labour reporter. His acuity and hard work have
resulted in two award-winning projects that I am very proud to share with him.”
“The first was a Michener-nominated
undercover investigation into the use of temporary help agencies that took over
a year to complete. Thanks to Andy, we were able to prove for the first time in
Canada that temporary help agency workers were twice as likely to be injured on
the job, than their directly-hired counterparts. After these findings were
published, the Ontario government passed new laws that constituted some of the
strongest temp agency worker protections on the continent. Andy’s contributions
were invaluable to that outcome, and the project as a whole.”
“Andy also provided crucial data analysis
for an investigation into labour trafficking prosecutions in Canada. His work
helped demonstrate the rise of these prosecutions and synthesize significant
amounts of data on these cases. In addition to being hugely helpful during the
reporting process, Andy’s work also made these stories more accessible and
digestible for readers. The stories went on to win a National Newspaper Award
for best business story of the year, a CAJ award for labour reporting, and a
SABEW award for investigative reporting.”
“Andy is a joy to work with. He is
meticulous and sharp in his data analysis. But he also takes care to understand
why a story matters, and is truly committed to public service journalism. I
consider myself very lucky to have benefitted from his talent.”
Sara Mojtehedzadeh
Investigations, Work and Wealth
Toronto Star
