PORT ROYAL - A story that kept changing every day - and in some cases, every hour - in late February showed the powerful connection between Isle Madame residents and Telile Community Television.
A decision by Nova Scotia's Department of Public Works (DPW) to remove the Port Royal Bridge, a longtime transportation link for multiple communities in western Isle Madame, resulted in an angry response for several local residents. In less than a week, over 200 people had joined a Facebook group calling for preserving the bridge, which had been inactive since 2017.
The bridge, connecting Port Royal to such nearby communities as St. Mary's and Janvrin's Harbour, was the subject of a political promise in the dying days of the 2021 Nova Scotia election. Then-Premier and Liberal Leader Iain Rankin arrived at the bridge to announce a $2-million commitment to repair and reopen the structure while providing upgrades to nearby MacEachern Road, which had been serving as a detour since the bridge's closure. However, the commitment was contingent on the re-election of the governing Liberals, which did not happen locally or provincially. Rankin stepped down as Liberal Leader five months later.
Telile's English-language LJI journalist, Adam Cooke, was in attendance at a Richmond Municipal Council meeting on February 25 in which Isle Madame resident Mat Whitman urged council to write a letter opposing the DPW's planned removal of the Port Royal Bridge. While Warden Amanda Mombourquette insisted that the bridge was a provincial responsibility and that there was little that the municipality could do, Whitman and Deputy Warden Shawn Samson both noted that DPW heavy equipment had already arrived at the site. With this in mind, the council passed a motion in favour of writing to DPW senior officials to pass along the concerns of local residents.
Knowing that this story would likely take a prominent place in one of his upcoming hour-long news programs for Telile, Cooke interviewed the warden about the situation following the meeting and started preparing a formal story about the issue, bolstered by confirmation from DPW communications officer Gary Andrea that the removal of the bridge and refurbishing of MacEachern Road would proceed within the coming weeks.
And then, on Thursday morning, with the latest episode of Cooke's series Roundtable in its final hours of editing and production, Cooke received a text from Port Royal resident Ethel Kipp that would force him to rip up his script and start over: "They are taking down the Port Royal Bridge this morning."
Cooke hopped in his car and drove through high winds and heavy rain to reach the bridge site and film heavy equipment doing its preparatory work. On the east side of the bridge, Cooke was able to keep his camera and tripod steady; on the west side, the wind and rain proved too dangerous for a full camera shoot, and Cooke improvised by shooting footage on his iPhone 8.
He wasn't the only one using his phone to capture the event. Kipp sent him three short videos of the site filmed by her device, and Cooke wound up using the footage - and acknowledging Kipp - in the story that launched the newest episode of Roundtable.
The community engagement didn't end there. The new Roundtable episode has received 179 views on YouTube, putting it within striking distance of becoming the most-viewed news video on Telile's YouTube channel in the past 12 months. On Telile's Facebook page, Cooke's coverage of the bridge dismantling resulted in one of the single-highest social media engagement levels for any LJI-produced content over the past four years - a whopping 49 shares, 30 comments and 26 reactions.
The story of the Port Royal Bridge has yet to reach its final chapter, but Telile Community Television's LJI participation has enabled local residents to contribute to the tale in a variety of different methods.
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About LJI
LJI Impact is the section of commediaportal.ca where the journalists and their organizations participating in CACTUS' Local Journalism Initiative can share their greatest successes.
Through the written stories, photos and videos you see in the LJI Impact section, you'll be able to read first hand accounts about how the presence of a community journalist is making a difference in communities across Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative and the Community Media Portal.
The Community Media Portal is a gateway to the audio-visual media created by community media centres across Canada. These include traditional community TV and radio stations, as well as online and new media production centres.
Community media are not-for-profit production hubs owned and operated by the communities they serve, established both to provide local content and reflection for their communities, as well as media training and access for ordinary citizens to the latest tools of media production, whether traditional TV and radio, social and online media, virtual reality, augmented reality or video games.
The Community Media Portal has been funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (the LJI) of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) in association with the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (the Fédération). Under the LJI, over 100 journalists have been placed in underserved communities and asked to produce civic content that underpins Canadian democratic life.
