Kevin Weedmark
Kevin Weedmark is a Canadian journalist. He is editor of the World-Spectator, a community newspaper based in Moosomin, Saskatchewan, and of Plain and Valley, a regional publication covering southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba. Reaching 28,000 households with the print edition alone, Plain and Valley has a larger circulation than either of Saskatchewan's daily newspapers. While based in rural Saskatchewan, he has reported from Afghanistan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. He is known for his work on business reporting, pipelines, the resource industry, economic development, and international development.
Born in Regina in 1966, Weedmark started work as a reporter at the World-Spectator in Moosomin in 1988, after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Regina. He was appointed editor of the World-Spectator in 1990, and purchased the company in 2002.
He twice won the Canadian International Development Agency's Award for Excellence in Writing on International Co-operation. These awards led to CIDA-sponsored trips to report on development projects in the Philippines and Vietnam. He travelled throughout the Philippines, from Manila and Los Banos to several locations in Mindanao, including Bukidnon, Cagayan de Oro and Lanao del Norte, including a trip to a Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) camp. He travelled throughout Vietnam, reporting from Hanoi, Da Nang, Hoi An, Ho Chi Min City, Soc Trang, and villages in the Mekong Delta accessible only by watercraft.
In 2004, the World-Spectator and the Canadian International Development Agency embarked on a special project through which Weedmark reported from Afghanistan snd Pakistan. He was based in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif while reporting from Afghanistan. He stayed in Mazar-e-Sharif at a time there were no international forces there. He visited many areas of Kabul and rural areas outside Kabul while staying there. The articles and photos were distributed to, and published by, newspapers across Canada, and were on display on Parliament Hill for MPs and Senators for International Development Day 2005. He has spoken about his experiences in Afghanistan to dozens of groups since the trip.
He twice won the Media Human Rights Award presented by the League for Human Rights of B'nai B'rith Canada. This was an open award for all print media in Canada. One of the awards was presented for "Freedom of Speech vs. Freedom from Hatred," which examined the relationship between the right to free speech and laws against hate speech in Canada. The other was for an investigation into the history of the Ku Klux Klan in Saskatchewan, a little-known episode in the province's history until Weedmark's article. He has been guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Saskatchewan Association for Human Rights, and was invited to speak on the Media and Human Rights at a special conference held to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In 2010, his investigative reporting on the Sun Country Health Region led to the resignation of Sun Country vice-president of finance Hal Schmidt after the World-Spectator reported that Schmidt had been fired from a previous job as CEO of IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia for falsely claiming to have earned his Chartered Accountant Designation, and that Schmidt had borrowed $75,000 in public funds from St. Mary's Health Centre in New Westminster, B.C., failed to repay the loan, and had an outstanding civil judgement against him from courts in British Columbia. Based on Weedmark's reporting, the provincial health ministry investigated hiring practices in the Sun Country Health Region, and CEO Cal Tant was fired by the board the day it received the report.
In 2017, Weedmark wrote a series of articles about the Santos family of Moosomin, who had come to Canada as refugees, fleeing for their lives from Honduras. They had been issued a deportation order, but after Weedmark's articles were published in the World-Spectator, the community rallied around the family, a petition was sent to Ottawa, an event was held in Moosomin to rally support for the family, and the federal government issued a two-year residency permit to the family at the ministerial level to allow time for them to apply for permanent residency based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. In December 2018 the family was notified they passed the first part of their humanitarian and compassionate application.
In 2018, Weedmark wrote an extensive series of articles on the issues surrounding the cancelled Energy East pipeline and the problem of getting Canadian energy products to market, after the town and RM of Moosomin began an initiative to restart the national discussion on Energy East. Energy East was a pipeline proposed by Trans Canada (Now TC Energy) that would have transported Western Canadian crude to eastern Canada to replace imported oil in eastern markets, and to be exported. Throughout the second half of 2018 Weedmark interviewed business leaders, TransCanada board members, provincial and federal politicians, and TransCanada executives who had been involved in the original Energy East proposal to give the World-Spectator's readers a thorough understanding of the issue. Many of his articles can be seen at www.moosomin.com/energy-east
Weedmark is editor and publisher of The World-Spectator and Plain and Valley, president of Weedmark Communications Ltd. and McKay Publications Ltd., secretary of the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Moosomin Housing Authority board of directors, a member of the Moosomin Economic Development Committee, and a member of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors.