Justin Campbell

Justin was born in Ottawa and grew up in Parkwood Hills, Nepean.

He comes from a family with military and diplomatic backgrounds, exposing him to well-travelled relatives from a young age. He has always been creative with few limits, whether visually, musically, or with the written word. His chief passion is research and interpretation of the world and being able to convey it to a general audience, taking things apart and understanding where they came from, how and why. Distilling from the theory, getting back to basics of what is meant or implied, and perceiving where people come from to create a mutual understanding is a significant tenet to his approach to journalism.

Justin has college diplomas in Professional Writing and in Photography from Algonquin College, and he has worked as a writing coach at Carleton where he has developed an approach of 'seeing' his clients to cultivate a negotiating, suggestions-based, relationship-rich approach to tutoring.

In his spare time, he enjoys reading, shooting/documenting using film photography, and learning from others. He also participates in a weekly social language exchange to practice French and meet others from different cultural groups.

Ottawa-Based Journalist

Capital Current •

Riverkeeper panelists say 'swimmability' emerging as key quality-of-life indicator in major cities around the world - Capital Current

The head of the Ottawa Riverkeeper advocacy group says it’s time to change the public’s longstanding perception that the Ottawa River isn’t clean enough to swim in.


Riverkeeper CEO Laura Reinsborough — who also holds the title “Riverkeeper” — hosted a recent panel discussion at the NCC River House that highlighted how a city’s “swimmability” is emerging as a key quality-of-life indicator in major urban centres around the world.


And Reinsborough cited Abacus/Riverkeeper polling data from 2...
Capital Current •

Nighttime river boat cruises highlight tourism funding for after-dark Ottawa - Capital Current

Ottawa has gained a nightlife boat cruise series this summer, partly thanks to an Ottawa Tourism funding initiative to support after-dark activities in the capital.


Th Ottawa Boat Cruise’s “Sunset Party Cruise” series brings Ottawa in line with other Canadian locales, such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, that offer evening party events on the water. Nightlife cruises are being hosted weekly aboard the Ottawa River Queen, an electric vessel, Thursday evenings from 8 to 11 p.m.


In May, O...
Capital Current •

Strike careful balance when using AI, urge panelists at annual conference of Canadian Association of Journalists - Capital Current

A plenary discussion of the role of artificial intelligence in journalism kicked off the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Journalists June 12-13 at Carleton University.


The event’s opening panel featured four speakers and was moderated by Nikita Roy, a journalist and Harvard-trained AI futurist. Themed as the “battle for information sovereignty,” the panel consisted of Lisa Hepfner, Liberal MP for Hamilton-Mountain and a former television news journalist; Grant Ellis, executiv...
Capital Current •

Poet's 'Forest Teachings' workshop brings Indigenous ways of knowing to forefront of Ottawa's 200th anniversary - Capital Current

Ottawa’s former English poet laureate and Indigenous cultural leader Albert Dumont hosted a film screening and art-making workshop on July 14 at the Diane Deans Community Centre in Greenboro.


The event was facilitated by the School of Never-Ending Learning, a local intergenerational education initiative that secured grant money from the city’s 200th anniversary fund. The workshop series — titled Forest Teachings by the Pazaman (Smudging Fire) Circle Collective — runs at various community cen...
Capital Current •

Advocates cheer bird-friendly status for city, push for stronger embrace of nature - Capital Current

Nature advocates behind a four-year effort to make Ottawa an officially “Bird Friendly City” are celebrating the achievement this spring, but also pushing for more ways to protect wildlife habitat and promote environmental sustainability.


Nature Canada announced May 5 that Ottawa and four other Canadian municipalities had earned certification as Bird Friendly Cities, becoming part of a network of 41 communities across the country that have qualified for the designation under criteria establis...
Capital Current •

NCC gathers public feedback on updated master plan for Greenbelt lands - Capital Current

The National Capital Commission has hosted a series of open houses and conducted an online survey to gather initial public input into its new draft master plan for managing the region’s extensive Greenbelt lands.


An open house at the Nepean Sportsplex on May 20 offered members of the public an opportunity to look at display panels detailing various planned updates to the commission’s Greenbelt Master Plan.


The original plan dates to 2013, and the NCC runs an amendment cycle roughly every d...
Capital Current •

Fair brings showcase for creative, accessible ‘artist books’ to the capital - Capital Current

An exhibition at Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre in downtown Ottawa was brimming with creative energy on May 8 as the second Object/Project Art Book Fair, hosted by Possible Worlds, showcased the work of 62 artists and publishers.


Two rooms at the centre were set up like a flea market of artists’ tables, while a third was reserved for artist and panel discussions scheduled throughout the evening. The fair also had a space for workshops, including one that focused on scrap binding, a quiltin...
Capital Current •

Capital Coun. Shawn Menard celebrates park victory, confirms re-election bid - Capital Current

Capital Coun. Shawn Menard led members of the Ottawa East community in celebration Saturday after a beloved patch of parkland was recently saved when a 50-year-old plan to build a freeway through the green space was scrapped.


Menard also said the neighbourhood’s victory in the battle to preserve the “People’s Park” has helped convince him to run for re-election as ward councillor in this October’s municipal vote.


Menard confirmed to Capital Current at the event that he intends to run for a...
Capital Current •

Canada’s next GG has been a Supreme Court judge, war-crimes prosecutor, inquiry leader — and film subject - Capital Current

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s pick for Canada’s next governor general, former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour, has a very accomplished backstory — including one phase of her life that was even dramatized in film.


Arbour was appointed chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda at The Hague, Netherlands, in 1996, and she set a precedent in 1999 by indicting then-Yugoslav and former-Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic for alleged war crim...
Capital Current •

Gas prices remain high compared with other costs, leaving Ottawa residents scrambling to cope - Capital Current

Alexa Chort, a single mother continuing her studies at Carleton University, has switched to online learning, all because of the cost of gas.


She had a 76-kilometre commute to her classes. She often was paying up to $80 a week to fill up, which amounts to $320 per month.


“It was never a question years ago – how will gas affect the budget if I need to drive my kid to a practice twice a week,” Chort told Capital Current.


Similarly, Sarah Benell, a third-year psychology student at Carleto...
Capital Current •

Ottawa crime writers gather grim tales in new anthology set in the capital - Capital Current

Buried remains dug up in Barrhaven reveal a 90-year-old mystery. A murder occurs during a fiery plane crash at an Orléans convent in the 1950s. These locally focused stories are part of a new crime anthology offered by the Crime Writers of Canada and Capital Crime Writers. A Capital Mystery is the first of its kind based here.

The anthology contains the work of 21 new and established local authors, whose stories are set in Ottawa past and present.


“I like to work on collaborative projects,”...
Capital Current •

BlaBla language exchange fosters community amongst Ottawa's multicultural melting pot

Multilingual conversation buzzes across the crowded patio at Elgin Beer Project one recent evening as locals and newcomers expanded their social and cultural horizons by talking.


BlaBla, a weekly, year-round informal language exchange, is open to anyone who walks in and takes an interest.


BlaBla brings together culturally diverse people of various ages to talk about their backgrounds, as well as provide a space for those wanting to improve language skills.


“It’s just a very diverse, ecl...
Capital Current •

NCC envisions 9,000 homes as Tunney's Pasture aims to cut federal office space - Capital Current

On a bright winter day, the wind howls across Tunney’s Pasture, the federal government campus envisioned seven decades ago as a way to move federal government buildings some distance from the downtown of the National Capital.


In Tunney’s Pasture, the roads are narrow and the campus buildings are far apart. Government employees huddle for a smoke against buildings, while others walk long distances to their cars for the commute home.


“It’s a bit of a hike all the way to the Brooke Claxton bu...

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