R.I.P.: Christine Blatchford, Toronto Journalist, CFRB Commentator

Christie Blatchford has died in Toronto died Wednesday morning in hospital at age 68, The Sun reports.

Christine Blatchford

The respected Canadian journalist was diagnosed with cancer in November 2019; she had lung cancer that had metastasized to her spine and hip.

In the same month as her diagnosis, Blatchford was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame. In a statement at that time, Blatchford said the most meaningful work in her career was as a war correspondent reporting on Afghanistan, where she travelled in 2006-07.

(Her book on those experiences, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army, won the Governor-General’s Literary Award in 2008. Blatchford also wrote four other non-fiction books and published two collections of humour columns from the Toronto Sun.)

Her first choice of war correspondent notwithstanding, Blatchford became a superstar of journalism through her coverage of crime and the courts. Her writing changed the face of court coverage.

Blatchford worked for every major newspaper in Toronto: The National Post, the Sun chain, Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail.

Besides crime and the courts, she wrote everything from sports and politics to personal lifestyle stories.

Blatchford began her career at The Globe and Mail almost 50 years ago, starting while she was still a student and landing a full-time job in 1973 when she graduated from Ryerson. Within two years, she broke gender barriers by becoming a sports columnist at the paper. There were no more than about six women writing sports in North America at that time.

Her media presence was huge. Blatchford had a voice on News/Talk CFRB 1010 AM Toronto for years and was a welcome guest/commentator on television.