CBC/Radio-Canada's Iconic Women

Michelle Tisseyre 1918-

Michelle Tisseyre (nee Ahern) was born in 1918 in Montreal. Training to become a teacher, she studied in French at the Sacré-Cœur de Sault-aux-Récollets convent, then in English at McGill University. In 1946, after 10 years of marriage, she divorced her husband to wed French writer and journalist Pierre Tisseyre, founder of Éditions Pierre Tisseyre.

From the 1940s until the 1970s, she enjoyed a successful career as a host and anchor of Radio-Canada news and current affairs programs. From 1942 to 1944, she became the first woman to anchor Radio-Canada's flagship radio newscast. In 1945, she joined CBC's International Service, where she co-hosted La voix du Canada, a program produced for Canadian troops stationed abroad and French-speaking audiences deprived of news coverage during the German occupation.

After working as a freelancer for several years, Tisseyre returned to Radio-Canada at the dawn of the television era. From 1953 to 1962, she hosted Rendez-vous avec Michelle, a talk show featuring interviews with leading figures from all walks of life except politics, interspersed with artistic performances.

From 1955 to 1962, she hosted Music Hall, a new variety show created to promote the top French and French-Canadian artists. By 1958, the program was drawing over 444,000 viewers a week in Quebec (or 53% of the target audience at the time), and had welcomed on approximately 4,500 guest performers. Then, between 1963 and 1969, she co-hosted Aujourd'hui, Radio-Canada's first major weekday current-affairs program.

Her career wasn't limited to broadcasting, however. She was also a stage actress who performed many leading roles. In 1965, she worked on the Encyclopédie de la femme canadienne as an author and manager. She was also involved in print journalism, contributing to a number of magazines. In 1970, she started working with her husband and founded the Collection des Deux Solitudes, which translated the works of English-Canadian authors such as Robertson Davies, Mordecai Richler and Morley Callaghan for French-speaking readers.

Michelle Tisseyre won the Frigon Trophy for best television host, as well as the title of Miss Radio-Télévision for most popular artist in 1959. In 1976, she was named to the Order of Canada and, in 1997, received the Médaille d'or de la Renaissance française for her contribution to improving the quality of the French language. In 1998, she published her autobiography, Mémoires intimes, with Éditions Pierre Tisseyre.

Judith Jasmin 1916-1972

Judith Jasmin was born in Terrebonne, Quebec, in 1916. Coming from a modest background, she wasn’t able to attend university, but this was no obstacle to her enjoying a brilliant career. Indeed, nearly 40 years after her death, she remains one of the pillars of Quebec journalism.

During the 1940s, she lent her voice to a Robert Choquette radio drama called La pension Velder and became an overnight sensation. But steady work proved hard to come by, leading her to join CBC’s International Service toward the end of the decade. It was there that she met René Lévesque. He taught her the ropes of a profession she understood intuitively. She would end up up having a brief love affair with him. During this period, she hosted the radio show Carrefour with Lévesque.

In 1953, she joined the Radio-Canada TV news team, making a name for herself on such shows as Reportages and Conférence de presse. In 1966, Radio-Canada made Jasmin its United Nations reporter and later, its Washington correspondent.

Throughout this time, she was very involved in social movements and didn’t hesitate to take to the streets in support of causes she believed in. She was a founding member of the Mouvement laïque de langue française, among other activities. In 1996, when Colette Beauchamp released her biography of this legendary journalist, Judith Jasmin, de feu et de flamme, Joane Prince described Jasmin as a woman who “defied taboos.” She was considered by peers as a role model for working women and earned the admiration of her male counterparts.

After winning the Olivar Asselin award in 1972, Ms. Jasmin discussed her life and career with Wilfrid Lemoine, host of the program Format 60. During the interview, she expounded on the importance of journalistic objectivity. In her opinion, working in news was about presenting the facts without opinion or commentary: “objectivity is the bare facts.” As for the role of television in society, she said that the medium sometimes lacked realism, failing to reflect key cultural developments in society. Among other examples, she cited the lack of programs about Quebec literature.

In 1974, after Ms. Jasmin’s passing, the Judith Jasmin award was created by the Quebec Federation of Professional Journalists. This prestigious annual award honours the best in Quebec print, online and broadcast journalism.

Barbara Frum 1937-1992

Barbara Frum (née Rosberg) was born in 1937 and grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She studied History at the University of Toronto and married Murray Frum.

Barbara Frum didn’t get her start in journalism until the 60’s after having spent many years as a devoted mother and wife. She made her foray into journalism when she wrote an exposé for the Toronto Star on the topic of a Toronto charity. Not long afterwards, in 1967, Ms. Frum became the co-host of CBC The Way It Is, a public affairs show, alongside Patrick Watson. It was on that radio program that Ms. Frum established herself as a tough, fearless journalist.

In 1971, she made her segue to CBC Radio. She was one of the voices of As it Happens when the medium was struggling to keep its audience with the rising popularity of television. As it Happens was an innovative, primetime show which transformed the traditional call-in show: the hosts performed interviews, making outgoing calls from the studio to catch up with various newsmakers, politicians and cultural leaders of the day. The program still exists today and retains the same format.

Ms. Frum’s work as host didn’t go unnoticed: in 1975, she was awarded the National Press Club of Canada Award for her outstanding contribution to Canadian journalism. Then in 1979, she was named to the Order of Canada.

In 1982, in the company of Mary Lou Finlay, Barbara Frum began working on The Journal, a 38- minute current affairs program. This move to CBC Television coincided with the revamping of CBC’s primetime television format. With not one, but two female hosts, the creation of The Journal was viewed as a victory for feminism in Canada.

Throughout her career in journalism, Barbara Frum possessed an instinctive interest in people living under extreme adversity, as exemplified in her 1990 interview with Nelson Mandela. Many people did not realize that Ms. Frum was also enduring long-term adversity: she had been living for many years with Leukemia. In 1992, shortly after interviewing Mordecai Richler, Ms. Frum was admitted to hospital. She died suddenly from her illness, leaving many Canadians with a sense of great loss.

In June of 1993, Gérard Veilleux, then president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, unveiled the Barbara Frum Atrium at the CBC broadcast centre, in honour of this “leading light” in Canadian journalism. That same year, the CBC and University of Toronto announced a scholarship in her name. In 1996, Ms. Frum’s daughter, Linda, published Barbara Frum: A Daugher’s Memoir in which she pays homage to her mother and remembers her intensity and passion for life.

Carole Taylor 1945-

Carole Taylor was born in Toronto in 1945. She attended one of Toronto's oldest secondary schools, Weston Collegiate, and later earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Toronto’s Victoria College.

Ms. Taylor began her television career while still in high school with a program for teenagers called After Four, which was broadcast on CFTO in Toronto. She later appeared on several other CFTO shows, including Toronto Today, Topic and her own Carole Taylor Show. She was then chosen to be one of the first two hosts of CTV’s Canada AM. Taylor also became the first woman to host CTV’s W5, where she did several reports from such trouble spots as Honduras, Chile (during the revolution) and Israel, where she covered the Yom Kippur War.
In 1976, Ms. Taylor married Vancouver mayor Art Phillips and began her career at CBC/Radio-Canada. Over the next 10 years, she hosted several CBC Television series, including Pacific Report, Authors, Scene from Here and Vancouver Life.

Carole entered politics in 1986, when she was elected to Vancouver City Council. She continued to do occasional television appearances, including shots as guest panelist on CBC’s Front Page Challenge.

In May 2001, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed Carole Taylor as Chair of the Board of Directors of CBC/Radio-Canada, where she worked passionately towards regional and multicultural representation during a tumultuous time for public broadcasters worldwide.
In an interview with Shelagh Rogers on This Morning, Ms. Taylor said, “We don't exist as a public broadcasting system unless we really, truly are hearing regional voices. But what I don't like is when people talk about regional being people in B.C. talking to people in B.C. or people in Newfoundland speaking to Newfoundlanders. I want to hear those stories out of St. John's and I want people in Halifax to hear the stories out of Saskatchewan.”

Ms. Taylor served as Chair for nearly four years, before resigning in March 2005 in order to return to politics. In 2005, she was elected as the Liberal MP for Vancouver-Langara and became the province’s Minister of Finance. She later became Chair of the Economic Advisory Council.
In 2009, she decided not to run again for office, and joined the Vancouver Office of law firm Borden Ladner Gervais, as a senior adviser on public policy, corporate governance, and economic and trade matters. In June 2011, Carole Taylor was appointed Chancellor of Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver for a three-year term.

Ms. Taylor is an Officer of the Order of Canada. She holds honorary degrees from Simon Fraser University (SFU), British Columbia Institute of Technology, the B.C. Open University and the Justice Institute of B.C. She is the recipient of SFU’s 2010 Community Leadership Award, with husband and former Vancouver mayor Art Phillips.

Michaëlle Jean 1957-

Michaëlle Jean was born in Port-au-Prince, Haïti, in 1957. In the late 60s, she fled to Canada with her family to their new home in Thetford Mines, Quebec. Ms. Jean pursued a Baccalaureate in modern languages and literature. Comparative literature was the focus of her Master’s degree. She married French film director Jean-Daniel Lafond.

Having grown up in a home of domestic violence, Ms. Jean had a vested interest in helping women and children victimized by such violence. This compassion also inspired her to participate in the establishment of emergency shelters across Canada. After coordinating a major study on spousal abuse and doing documentary research in Haiti on the condition of women, Ms. Jean started her career at Radio-Canada. She was the first black francophone reporter to appear on the televised news in Canada.

Throughout her career in journalism, Ms. Jean dealt with a diversity of important topics ranging from the Olympics and educational reform to censorship, Alzheimer’s disease and Catholicism. From 1991 to 1999, she appeared on Radio-Canada’s Virages and Le Point. On RDI, she worked on Le monde ce soir, L’Édition québécoise, Horizons francophones, le Journal RDI, RDI à l’écoute and Les grands reportages. Her journalism also graced CBC Newsworld on programs like The Passionate Eye and Rough Cuts. Starting in 2004, she hosted her own current affairs program called Michaëlle.

Then in 2005, while she was the anchor of Radio-Canada’s Téléjournal, another milestone: she succeeded Adrienne Clarkson as the nation’s first black Governor General. Of her appointment, Prime Minister Paul Martin said, “She represents the story of Canada. She represents what we are, who we are and what we want to be.”

Ms. Jean said that “breaking down solitudes” were her words to live by throughout her mandate. That motto continues to become reality thanks to her demonstrated dedication to freedom, equality and civic cohesion for all social groups in Canada and her outreach activities — like those of her Foundation that addresses social change in underprivileged communities, supports arts and youth as agents for change and sensitizes Canadians to the ways that the arts promote social harmony.

Ms. Jean’s journalism has been rewarded by a number of prizes including a 2001 Gemini as well as the inaugural Amnesty International Canada Journalism Award. In 2009, she was awarded the United Nations Development Fund for Women Canada Award for her efforts at advancing gender equality. The same year, she received the Board of Governors Recognition Achievement Award from the National Quality Institute for improving the quality of life of Canadians.

Adrienne Clarkson 1936-

Born in Hong Kong in 1936, Adrienne Clarkson (née Poy) arrived in Canada with her parents as a refugee in 1942. She obtained a Bachelor and a Master's of English Literature from Trinity College (University of Toronto). Her studies also include post-graduate work at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.

Boasting an accomplished career focused on public service and responsibility, Adrienne Clarkson got her start at CBC/Radio-Canada. Engaged with current affairs, Ms. Clarkson was, during her time in broadcasting and journalism, adept at demystifying a variety of social issues. She presented balanced ideas from across the ideological spectrum.

For instance, in the late sixties and early seventies, she first appeared as co-host of the show Take 30 alongside Paul Soles. A weekday afternoon television program with a mainly female audience, the show did anything but maintain status quo. Ms. Clarksonbrought awareness to issuespreviously considered taboo, such as teen pregnancy, violence against women and their oppression, censorship and pornography. On Take 30, she also interviewed many Canadian cultural icons like Joni Mitchell, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Leonard Cohen and Margaret Atwood.

Ms. Clarkson then moved on to Adrienne at Large, a documentary series that would later become the fifth estate, a public affairs show that examined the ways social institutions can change individuals' lives for the worse — and held them to account. Her contributions to the fifth estate brand have been lasting: it continues to be Canada's premiere investigative show and still airs on CBC Television.

Crowning her career at CBC/Radio-Canada was Adrienne Clarkson's Summer Festival, later called Adrienne Clarkson Presents. This decade-long primetime show tapped into the secrets of the artists of the day, including author Michel Tremblay and musician-composer Diana Krall.

Ms. Clarkson is most esteemed for her role as Canada's 26th Governor General of Canada (1999—2005). In this high profile position, to which Jean Chrétien, then Prime Minister, appointed her, her on-air values of diplomacy and acceptance continued to permeate her work. She was attentive to the need to give each region of Canada, especially the North, prominence and to encourage Franco-Canadian and Quebec linguistic cultures.

No matter what the role, whether president of McClelland & Stewart, film director, jury member for literature and architecture prizes or co-founder of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, Ms. Clarkson is undoubtedly one of our country's most outstanding proponents of Canadian arts and culture.

Ms. Clarkson's work has been honoured both at home and abroad: she holds 26 honourary doctorates, and was appointed a Senior Fellow at Massey College (University of Toronto) and a Honourary Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Margaret Lyons 1923-

Keiko Margaret Inouye was born in 1923 in Mission, British Columbia. She grew up on a berry farm, without electricity, speaking Japanese at home and excelling in English at school.

In 1942, Japanese Canadians were expelled from the Coast by the Canadian government in reaction to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. With her family, she was relocated to Winnipeg where she worked as a domestic for two years.

In 1949, Margaret Inouye, with a degree in economics from McMaster University, married Edward Lyons and moved to London, England. She worked as a radio producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation until returning to Canada in 1960, where she was hired by the CBC.

She arrived at the public broadcaster at a time when audiences for traditional radio programs were in decline, due to the rise in popularity of television. This led to major changes in programming and programs, and Margaret Lyons was instrumental in achieving success in the “new style” CBC Radio.

Ms. Lyons played a pioneering role for women in Canadian broadcasting. As the first female head of current affairs at CBC Radio, she oversaw the genesis of flagship programs such as Sunday Morning, Quirks & Quarks, As it Happens and Morningside.

Along with her vision for current affairs programming, Lyons also had an eye for spotting talent. Ms. Lyons hired Mark Starowicz, who has produced some of the most influential current affairs and documentary programs in Canadian broadcast history. Ms. Lyons also promoted voices such as Barbara Frum’s on As it Happens, and Peter Gzowski’s on Radio Free Friday and on This Country in the Morning.

MargaretLyons went on to become the first female director of CBC’s AM radio channel and the first female vice-president of the entire English radio network. In this role, she helped to extend the FM network — later Radio 2 — across the country to ensure that all Canadians would have access to the cultural life of the country, something she didn’t enjoy as a young person.

In 2009, Margaret Lyons was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate from McMaster University where she has volunteered as a member of various boards.

Trina Mcqueen 1943-

Catherine Margaret (Trina) McQueen was born in Belleville, Ontario in 1943. She received her Journalism degree from Carleton University and also studied at the University of British Columbia on an exchange scholarship.

Ms. McQueen first worked for the Ottawa Journal and was then recruited as a reporter to Toronto's CFTO television station, while also serving as one of two co-anchors of the first year of W5.

In 1967, she was hired as an editor for CBC Television's Toronto local news, later becoming a national reporter. Over the next 27 years with CBC, Trina McQueen would set precedents with a series of firsts for women.

She became the first female on-camera reporter for The National news. After nine years as reporter, producer and assignment editor, she became the first female executive producer of The National in 1976 when she was 33, hiring stars such as Knowlton Nash, Mike Duffy, Peter Mansbridge and Brian Stewart.

In 1980, she became network program director responsible for the entire schedule of CBC Television. Returning to journalism in 1988, as director of news, current affairs and CBC Newsworld, she oversaw the launch and development of CBC Newsworld, and introduced the first series of independent documentaries to the CBC. She was responsible for CBC's coverage of federal elections, a referendum, the Meech Lake constitutional crisis, the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War. In 1992, she became vice-president of English television news and current affairs, the first woman to hold such a high-ranking position at the Canadian network.

After leaving CBC, McQueen participated in the creation of Discovery Channel and became its president. In 1999, McQueen was named executive vice-president of CTV Inc., becoming president and COO in 2000. Trina McQueen now works as adjunct professor of broadcast management at Schulich School of Business at York University.

Throughout her career, Ms. McQueen was active in the industry, chairing the Television Board of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Banff Television Foundation Board, and serving on the boards of Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund. Her report for the CRTC on Canadian drama led to the establishment of regulatory incentives for drama production. She also chaired the all-industry committee that established a ratings system for Canadian television.

Ms. McQueen is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and has been named to the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame and the Canadian News Hall of Fame. Among other honours, she has received the Canadian Journalism Foundation Award of Excellence and the Banff World Television Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. She also sat on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Jeanne Sauvé 1922-1993

Born in the Fransaskois village of Prud’homme, Saksatchewan in 1922, Jeanne Sauvé (née Benoît) was the daughter of Charles Albert and Anna. Ms. Sauvé pursued her education at the University of Ottawa and completed further studies in French Civilization at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. She married in Maurice Sauvé in 1948.

Growing up, Ms. Sauvé had a very supportive father figure who encouraged her to achieve all that she could and to not view her gender as an obstacle. During a visit to the House of Commons, her father told her that if she were to persist and work hard, she could one day succeed like Agnes McPhail, the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons.

As an outspoken and opinionated young woman, it was natural that Ms. Sauvé should find herself as a journalist with Radio-Canada, first hosting a radio programme Fémina, then quickly branching out into television to cover the political scene. She made appearances on Les idées en marche alongside Gérard Pelletier and, from 1956—1963, hosted her own TV show, Opinions, where she covered a broad spectrum of ideas, some considered quite controversial for the times.

After journalism, the transition into political life was a natural progression. In 1972, she became the Member of Parliament for the riding of Ahuntsic (Montreal), for the Liberal party. In 1974, when asked about her speedy ascension in the world of politics, Ms. Sauvé said that the odds were still against women but that they could be overcome by “working hard and by being conscientious of learning the job and the rules of the game.” That hard work and dedication paid off when Pierre Elliot Trudeau appointed Ms. Sauvé as Speaker of the House of Commons. She was the first women to hold this position in the history of Canada. She is remembered for administrative overhaul she performed, trimming excess expenses and improving overall service.

It was also under the Trudeau government that Ms. Sauvé was appointed as Canada’s first female Governor General of Canada. Looking ahead to her new role, Ms. Sauvé said in an interview with the CBC that “if the Governor General succeeds in giving the population a sense of the country , a sense of the importance of the contribution which every individual makes to his country, to his job and to the community [&ellipsis;] it’s substantial.” For his part, in a ceremony in the Senate chamber, Pierre Trudeau is quoted as saying that the appointment of a woman Governor General “is a welcome evolution of our [Canadian] society.”

Jeanne Sauvé was a Companion of the Order of Canada, a Commander of the Order of Military Merit and a Member of the Order of New Brunswick.

Myra Cree 1937-2005

Myra Cree was born in 1937 into the Mohawk community of Kanesatake. The daughter and granddaughter of Mohawk chiefs, she developed a passion for the complexities of language at an early age. French would later become her language of work. She graduated from teachers’ college in 1958 and worked as an educator for two years before switching to a career in the media.

In 1960, she spent a year as a radio host with CKRS Jonquière. Then, she got a job at the CHLT television station in Sherbrooke.

From 1973 on, she would become a mainstay at Radio-Canada, hosting Actualités 24 and becoming the first female anchor of the Téléjournal evening newscast the following year. She also presented the religious affairs magazine Second regard from 1978 to 1984.

In 1985, Cree made the jump back to radio, hosting the shows L’humeur vagabonde and De toutes les couleurs.

From 1987 to 2002, she delighted audiences with her flair and verve on the Radio de Radio-Canada programs L’embarquement — which she created herself — and Cree et chuchotements.

In addition to her work in the broadcasting industry where she was often referred to as a “voice of audacity”, Cree remained active in promoting Aboriginal language and culture. For example, in 1990, she was one of the founding members of the Movement for Justice and Peace at Oka Kanesatake.

She also sat on the Board of Land InSights, an organization devoted to promoting Aboriginal culture, and published articles in the journal of the same name. In addition to collaborating on Les langues autochtones du Québec published by Quebec’s Conseil de la langue française, she co-presided, in 1995, the 25th anniversary campaign for the review Recherches amérindiennes. She was associated with the Présence autochtone de Montréal First Peoples’ Festival since its inception.

In 1984, Myra Cree received the Judith Jasmin Award for the program Choisir l’espérance. She was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec in 1995.

In 2004, she won the Gilson Award for the special broadcast Il était une foi, as well as the Artiste pour la paix Award. In 2005, Myra Cree died of cancer. The next year, she posthumously received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award.