A First Time For Everything: Court Reporting at Osgoode Hall

Being a first year student in the Journalism program at Humber, there is a compulsory course I am taking this semester called Foundations of Newsgathering. In this course, the class is required to do assignments where we go into the field and write about stories in four categories: crime, courts, city council meetings, and the community. Having already finished the crime assignment, the class now has to sit in on a court case of our choosing and take notes on what we heard and saw.

Osgoode Hall at 130 Queen Street West in Toronto

So, I decided to go to Osgoode Hall, where the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Divisional Court of the Supreme Court of Justice, and the Law Society of Upper Canada all reside.

When I first walked into the building, I didn’t quite know where to go, but a security guard checked me in and let me into the courthouse. After passing security, I felt like a fish out of water. With all the lawyers in their polished black robes walking around and so many foreign corridors to go into it, the courthouse was just overwhelming. After a couple minutes of going into wrong rooms and wandering around, I finally found the notice board that listed all the cases for the week, what courtroom they were in, and a map of the entire building (which I had to consult a couple times throughout the day).

My Literary Journey

Me and my dad, reading the news together.

I guess you can say that it all started when I was a baby. My love of reading and writing, that is. You see, from the time I was born until I was in my pre-teens, my dad has read stories to me; however, these stories weren’t your average children’s picture books like Robert Munsch. Instead, my dad read to me classics such as Tom Sawyer, Alice in Wonderland, and even The Hobbit.

Flash forward a few years later and you’d find me, a little girl with every children’s book series imaginable under my belt. From Anne of Green Gables to A Series of Unfortunate Events to Little House on the Prairie, I would spend hours in my room reading anything and everything I could get my hands on. I guess that emphasis on reading my dad had when I was a baby never went away.

Now, my love for writing came a little after my love of reading did. I remember being in grade 6 and bored out of my mind (like most 11 year olds are), so I decided to try out writing my own stories for fun. After that, I tried my hand at everything I could – from songs to journals to short stories to poetry. Even if I didn’t quite understand how to write it, I wanted to learn! Essentially, I was addicted.

It wasn’t until high school where I discovered how much I enjoyed journalistic news writing. After getting one assignment on a news story and another on a journalistic essay, I knew I wanted to be a Journalist. So, I enrolled myself in Humber College’s Bachelor of Journalism program, which I just started this September. And so far, I’m loving every bit of it!

Finally, I get to do my passion everyday and hopefully, will make a living out of it someday.