In recent years there have been increased discussions about what ethical true crime creators should and shouldn’t be doing. It's an important discussion to have, and Canadian True Crime has been following along.

In our experience, victims are not a monolith and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to ethics in true crime—especially when covering cases that are recent, historic, and everything in between.

At every step of the process, careful decisions are made with the intent of reducing direct or indirect harm to the subjects of the stories and the audience.

Case selection

In deciding what cases to cover, we consider the purpose behind telling a particular story and the risks of harming someone involved.

We try to strike a balance between the public's right to information about the criminal justice system, and issues of privacy and potential exploitation.

With this in mind, we no longer cover cases that are less than ten years old except in special circumstances - for example, victims who have proactively reached out to us, cases where the victim's identity is under publication ban, or high-profile cases involving multiple victims.

Engaging with victims and survivors

Through experience we’ve learned that it's not always appropriate to contact those on the victim’s side for several reasons.

All of the information in our episodes is already in the public domain, and we don’t speculate, make jokes or give personal opinions in our presentation.

When deciding whether it is appropriate to contact victims, our intention is to minimize the potential for additional harm. As such, we take a number of factors into consideration, including:

• How long ago the crime was committed.

• Where the case currently stands in terms of court process.

• Previous interactions with or statements given to the media by those on the victim’s side.

• Evidence of recent or ongoing advocacy - for example a dedicated website or facebook page/group for the case that is able to be found via a basic search.

• Evidence that they have made themselves available to be contacted in this context. We consider snooping through social media profiles to be an invasion of privacy.

Canadian True Crime episodes are written using facts curated from the public record including court documents, news archives, inquiry reports and other sources.

The full list of resources and credits can be found on the dedicated page for each episode.

• Minor factual errors:
  We present cases in good faith with no agenda other than a fair and balanced portrayal, and while we make every effort to verify facts through multiple sources, sometimes small errors are caught by observant listeners. Errors can originate from primary source materials like media reporting and court documents, but they can also result from human error on our end.
  If an error is pointed out that’s important to correct, we will make every effort to make that correction. In cases where a small inconsequential error is observed, we’ll make a note for next time and hope that listeners can appreciate the spirit in which the episode is presented.

• Images:
  To avoid potential copyright infringement, we no longer publish images on episode pages or social media unless they were provided to us by the families or under special circumstances.

Canadian True Crime is still an indie passion project with a small team, and every case is chosen with care. We aim to offer a unique perspective through deeper context, thoughtful analysis, careful sourcing, and a trauma-informed approach that respects everyone involved.

Getting it right and maintaining the quality you’ve come to expect means we sometimes need extra time.

For listeners, we know it can be frustrating to when there are longer gaps between episodes or series, so your patience and understanding is really appreciated.

With a flexible schedule, it means we have the space to be responsive when we need to. It also makes the podcast sustainable in the long term, which ensures we can keep telling these stories in a meaningful way.