Normand Lester

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Normand Lester (born July 10, 1945) is a Canadian investigative journalist. Though he built his reputation through investigations of CSIS, the RCMP and the Canadian Forces, he is best known for the controversy created in Canada after the publication of his book Le Livre noir du Canada anglais (The Black Book of English Canada) in 2005.

[edit] Biography

He started his career in journalism in 1964. Two years later, he was working for Radio-Canada, in which he found himself posted around the Western world, being posted, for example, in Paris, France from 1983 to 1986.

In 1986, he was posted as parliamentary correspondant in Ottawa. He began to investigate and study the activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which had been created that year to take over duties formerly under the aegis of the RCMP. This would be the beginning of a long string of reports, some shocking, on the activities of CSIS, lasting twelve years. He investigated Claude Morin, cabinet minister and close advisor to Rene Levesque and also a paid informant of the RCMP.

After the publication of the first part of the trilogy that is Livre noir du Canada anglais, Radio-Canada suspended him from his work on November 18, 2001, citing a lack of partiality.

A few days later, the SSJB awarded him the Prix Olivar-Asselin for both his courage and excellence in investigative journalism. On December 5, 2001, after 35 years of service, Lester quit Radio-Canada. Since then, he has written for various newspapers, such as le Devoir.

In 2002, TVA hired him as a news commentator. In September 2005, he decided to quit for a similar job at TQS, with Jean-Luc Mongrain.

In 2006, he co-authored with Robin Philpot a book denouncing the actions of Option Canada, one of the organizations supporting the No side in the 1995 Quebec referendum. The actions of this group were alleged to have violated Quebec provincial laws and several key players in the organization would later be investigated for links to the sponsorship scandal. [1]