Joe Schlesinger

Joe Schlesinger, CM (born May 11, 1928) is a Canadian television journalist and author.

Early life and career

Schlesinger was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, in 1928. He was raised in Czechoslovakia. After that country was occupied by Germany in 1939, he was sent to England by his parents as part of the kindertransport that rescued thousands of Jewish children. His parents were later killed in the Holocaust. Schlesinger pursued a journalism career after the war, first working at the Prague bureau of the Associated Press in 1948. He left Czechoslovakia after its Communist government began arresting journalists. In 1950, he arrived in Canada. After studying at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, he reported for the Vancouver Province and the Toronto Star, and edited for UPI in London and the International Herald Tribune in Paris.^[1]

Career with the CBC

He joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1966. He retired from full-time employment in 1994, but continues to produce essays and special reports for CBC News.^[2] He was a host on CBC Newsworld and producer of commentaries and documentaries for CBC Prime Time News.

In 1990, he wrote his autobiography, Time Zones: a Journalist in the World, which became a bestseller.^[2]

In 1994, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.^[3] He was nominated for 18 Gemini Awards and won three awards, for "Best Reportage" (1987 and 1992) and "Best News Magazine Segment" (2004). He was also awarded the John Drainie Award (1997) and "Best Performance by a Broadcast Journalist (Gordon Sinclair Award)" (1987).

On June 7, 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Queen's University in Kingston^[4] and delivered the convocation speech to a part of the graduating class of 2010 from Queens' Faculty of Arts and Sciences. On June 8, 2011, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Alberta in Edmonton for his long and distinguished career,^{[citation needed]} and also delivered a speech to part of the U of A's 2011 graduating class of the Faculty of Arts.

References