MacEwan’s first-ever journalistic partnership with Postmedia Network and the Edmonton Journal created a three-part series on food safety in the city’s restaurants – and sparked an overhaul to the inspection system.

“The results shocked us,” says Dr. Steve Lillebuen, associate professor in the Department of Communication. “According to the data, less than a quarter of Edmonton’s food establishments comply with health regulations.”

That discovery was the product of a six-month partnership that involved 200 interviews and had students in Dr. Lillebuen’s BCSC 425: Investigative Journalism course sifting through incredible amounts of data. It all began when the prof pitched the Journal on a partnership to revisit a groundbreaking series on restaurants the paper had published nearly 20 years ago. 

With the Journal onside, Dr. Lillebuen led students through a food safety investigation during the Winter 2025 term. As the aspiring journalists delved into archives, scraped data from government websites and interviewed more than 60 restaurant staff, they learned about open-source investigation, public records searches and Freedom of Information Act requests. 

Throughout the process, the class connected with the Journal’s veteran reporters, editors and data journalists, holding weekly joint editorial meetings to discuss their progress. Reporters Matthew Black and Keith Gerein also made regular visits to the campus newsroom – a helpful reminder that the work students were doing was leading to bigger things, says Dr. Lillebuen.

“It was a true 'teaching hospital’ with students, faculty and professionals all working together,” says the journalism prof. “Getting to work so closely on a series with the Journal was so rewarding for us.”

Working alongside Journal staff and Dr. Lillebuen during the spring, five paid student interns put the finishing touches on the series, which was published in October. Eight articles, published in print and online, two videos, four data visualizations, multiple photographs, a podcast episode, and a series of social media posts shared some shocking results, including the fact that only 23 per cent of inspected city food establishments fully comply with food safety regulations. 

The findings were shocking, but the news wasn’t all bad.

“A lot of people in the restaurant industry care deeply about food safety and the safety of their customers, and they’re speaking out,” said Dr. Lillebuen in a video to promote the series. “They want everyone to see how they run a clean kitchen, and they’re pushing back against those bad operators that give the industry a bad name.”

Now, a month after the series was published, the province has announced new legislation that will overhaul the food inspection system, including tougher enforcement and mandatory food safety training to be phased in over the next two years.

“These were key issues uncovered in our coverage and further evidence that the teaching hospital model approach we used for this project can not only enhance student learning, but produce exemplary public service journalism,” says Dr. Lillebuen. “I’m so proud of our students. Their hard work and persistence have led to policy change.” 

Liam Newbigging and Brooklyn Burns, who both took the course during their final term at MacEwan, say it was “mindboggling” to have the chance to work on such an impactful piece – and so closely with top reporters and editors.

Working with a major news publisher, says Burns, made the stakes feel much higher. “We were getting real hands-on experience, out in the field, even though we were still students. We achieved far more than I ever thought we could.”

Newbigging agrees. “In the journalism industry, there’s often a conversation about doing more with less, but in this class, we were able to do more with more – because all of us were working on it together. The scope of what we were able to target was just so much bigger.”

That’s the power of collaboration and community-based partnerships, says Dr. Lillebuen. Students thrive in environments where they contribute to projects that have a real-world impact. 

“The public benefits as well,” he says. “Working together, we could tackle a significant public interest issue that had not been properly explored in the city for nearly 20 years. I grew up reading the Journal, and I worked there at one point during my journalism career. Getting to reconnect with the team, while giving our students a chance to work alongside top reporters and editors, was a dream come true.”