Paul Christopher Webster is a freelance writer and documentary film director based in Toronto, Canada. He has reported from 20 countries since 1992.
Paul's work in film has appeared on the Arte, BBC, CBC, Deutsche Welle, Discovery, National Geographic, Slice, SWR and Vision Television networks. His work as a writer has been published in dozens of magazines, journals and newspapers across Canada, the U.S, and Europe.
He has won four national magazine awards for his writing, and Tier One Journalism Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. His work on documentary films has garnered awards from the Canadian Association of Journalists, Hot Docs, the Canadian Academy of Film and Television, and PARISCIENCE, the international festival of scientific films.
Paul’s work focuses on themes in business, science, and politics. For samples of his work in these categories, please click on the links to articles below.
Recent Publications
Indigenous Canadians confront prescription opioid misuse
Past actions by the Canadian Government and the medical system have left Indigenous communities to deal with a legacy of opioid drug addiction.
The Lancet April 27 2013
In the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which encompasses most of Ontario’s northern land mass, with a total Aboriginal population of around 45 000 in 49 communities, more than 50% of the adult population are prescription opioid drug misusers in need of treatment, according to a 2011 assessment prepared for the Nishnawbe Aski chiefs.
Experts split on adequacy of surveillance since SARS
CMAJ April 8 2013
A decade ago, after the SARS epidemic killed 44 people, the ensuing federal expert panel identified scores of "systemic deficiencies" in Canadian health care and made 118 recommendations. What has been achieved?
Adverse Reaction
Vancouver Magazine April 2013
British Colombia's firing of scientists closely involved in staging major studies of physician prescribing practices, and the safety of a wide array of drugs is a situation that Dr. David Henry, CEO of Toronto’s Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Canada’s preeminent centre for science-based health policy development, describes as extremely distressing. “The most comprehensive data in Canada has been denied to us,” he says, noting that the B.C. government has failed to respond to repeated inquiries from alarmed scientists across Canada.
Roots of Iraq's maternal and child health crisis run deep
The Lancet 16 March 2013
10 years after American and British forces toppled Saddam Hussein and helped initiate a decade of intense violence, life expectancy at birth in Iraq is 59 years—at least 12 years less than in Egypt, Syria, Morocco, and Jordan, all of which are far poorer countries. The rate of children dying in the first year of life is 32 deaths for every 1000 livebirths—about the same as it was in 1989. Iraq's maternal mortality figures are equally disturbing. With 84 women dying in childbirth per 100 000 livebirths, Iraq is among the group of 68 countries that account for 97% of all maternal and child deaths globally.
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Report on Business, Nov. 29, 2012
Can Canada reckon with its health costs?
The Lancet, Volume 380, Issue 9845, Pages 875 - 876, 8 September 2012
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CANADA'S MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR eHEALTH CONUNDRUM:
A 35-part series of articles investigating why Canada lags the world in building a public health infostructure. | |
In Russia’s remotest corner the descendants of gulag prisoners and guards now work side by side under Canadian bosses.
The Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine, March 23, 2011
To read the article, click on poster above.
Iraq is a Hard Place (cover story)
Iraq boasts the world's fourth-largest proven oil reserves. The daunting risks of drilling in the world's most violent oil frontier are offset by the fact that it is also the world's most promising oil frontier.
Report on Business Magazine, February 27, 2009
Hard-Hat Heaven
A powerful alliance of builders, bureaucrats and bankers is quietly sliding an entirely new foundation across some of the Canadian economy’s most important terrain. “There’s no magic in it,” says Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty “You just want to do it in a way that doesn’t saddle your kids with excessive payments.”
Report on Business Magazine, February 25, 2010
A Religious Revival:
Buddhism is Big Business in China
Phoenix is one of China’s largest private television networks, broadcasting to over 40 million Chinese homes, and bringing in more than US$100 million in annual advertising income. Although the network is partly owned by Rupert Murdoch, the world’s richest media baron, the majority owner is 57-year-old Liu Changle, who ranks 179th on Forbes’ most recent list of China’s richest people. His net worth is estimated at US$440 million. Phoenix, behind its low-budget façade, is a major money-maker.
Canadian Business, December 8, 2008
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See more business articles by Paul |
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GLOBAL HEALTH: AN EVERYDAY HOLOCAUST OF PREVENTABLE DEATHS
A 28-part series including field reports from Belize, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Iraq, India, Russia and Uganda. | |
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ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE MOVING FROM SOUTH ASIA TO EUROPE TO NORTH AMERICA: A GLOBALIZING HEALTH CRISIS
To see articles from this 13-part series, please follow this link | |
To view these films, click on the links below.
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Two documentary films about the ring of volcanoes surrounding the Pacific Ocean, from prospecttv
La Ceinture de Feu du Pacifique-2
From: prospecttv | 2 juin, 2011
La ceinture de feu du Pacifique - Kamtchatka, Hawaii et Alaska
un film de Jürgen Hansen et Paul Webster
Montage: Frédéric Frankel
La Ceinture de Feu du Pacifique-3
From: prospecttv | 2 juin, 2011
La Ceinture de Feu du Pacifique - Mexique et Guatemala
un film de Jürgen Hansen et Paul Webster
Montage: Frédéric Frankel |
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See more science articles by Paul |
JAPAN’S NUCLEAR CRISIS IN CONTEXT
Should the U.S. More Tightly Control Nuclear Fuel It Makes?
Some say the U.S. government should reexamine its legal obligations under the law and add safety rules to the agreements countries sign when they buy U.S. fuel or reactors.
ScienceInsider, 29 March 2011 |
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To see more articles on nuclear power and nuclear weapons, please follow this link. |
Why is nuclear safety always shrouded in secrecy?
The Japanese Government was quickly accused of hiding the full extent of the danger at the Fukushima nuclear facility. Why is nuclear safety always shrouded in secrecy?
CBC Radio, The Current, March 22, 2011 | |
To view Deutsche Welle's English-language version of this film, click on poster above.
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A 30 minute documentary film for SWR and Deutsche Welle International Television, Germany
Canadian Aboriginal People can block multi-billion dollar industrial mega-projects including the Northern Gateway pipeline proposed by Enbridge Inc. to connect Canada's controversially dirty oil sands with markets in Asia. Enbridge admits it may cost upwards of a billion dollars to win Aboriginal support.
Deutsche Welle English web English-language broadcast Feb 8, 2010.
SWR German website German-language broadcast Feb 3, 2010. |
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See more political articles by Paul |
Contact Paul via email |
