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The Niagara Star
Independent coverage of Niagara's councils, construction, canal, and casinos, fact-checked to roughly the same standard as a Clifton Hill wax figure.
Is any of this real?
No. The Niagara Star is a satirical news site. Our stories are made up, and so are the people quoted in them.
The places are real, though, and so are the bridges, the construction, and the traffic on the QEW. A real business or institution sometimes shows up in a story, but nothing we report about it actually happened. If a relative forwarded you one of our stories as news, now you know.
What we cover
All twelve of Niagara's municipalities, from Grimsby to Fort Erie, and everything that happens between them: Regional Council and its committees, the Welland Canal and its bridges, Clifton Hill and the casinos, wineries and tender fruit farms, Brock University and Niagara College, and the roads connecting all of it. When world events reach the region, usually by way of the Peace Bridge, we cover those too.
The newsroom
Our reporters live all over the region, so at least one of them is always stuck behind a raised bridge. Between them, they have sat through every Regional Council meeting since 2014, worked at three separate haunted houses, judged three butter tart competitions without naming a winner, and been assigned geese.
Editorial standards
The stories are invented, but we try to get the real details right: street names, which municipality a road belongs to, which bridge is which, and how long the QEW takes at 5 p.m. If we get one wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.
The jokes are aimed at institutions, bureaucracy, and traffic, not at private individuals.
Stay in touch
The Lock Report is our morning briefing. One email each weekday with the bylaws moving, the council meetings running long, and which bridges are currently up. You can also follow the RSS feed or write to the newsroom.
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