Investigative journalist Stevie Cameron dies at residence in Toronto, age 80

An investigative journalist who authored books that tackled subjects starting from a first-rate minister’s involvement in jet purchases to the murders of ladies on a British Columbia pig farm has died.

Stevie Cameron died Saturday at residence in Toronto from Parkinson’s, her daughter Amy Cameron mentioned, noting her mom additionally had dementia.

She was 80.

Amongst Cameron’s best-known works is an investigation she did into then-prime minister Brian Mulroney’s involvement within the buy of latest Airbus jets.

Cameron was accused of being an informant for the RCMP once they launched their very own investigation, however these accusations have been later recanted.

Amy Cameron mentioned her mom believed in talking fact to energy however energy typically fought again, and the accusation that she was a police informant was significantly onerous.

“It was an extremely tough place for her to be in as a result of how do you defend your self if you’ve spent a lifetime making an attempt to maintain your self out of the story? And he or she actually was not part of the story and but had been painted in that method,” Cameron mentioned in an interview Sunday.

“She knew that when individuals reacted in that method and when energy reacted that method, that she had touched a nerve and she or he felt, on stability, that it was vital to inform that story.”

Cameron’s credentials additionally embody two books on serial killer Robert Pickton, a stint as host of CBC’s “The Fifth Property” within the early Nineteen Nineties, and dealing as a contributing editor of Maclean’s, from 1993 to 2001, amongst different issues.

She was additionally a co-founder of Out of the Chilly, a volunteer program at St. Andrew’s Church in Toronto, that gives meals and clothes to the homeless.

Cameron was acknowledged for that volunteer work, in addition to her journalism, when she was awarded the Order of Canada in 2012.

“Stevie Cameron is one among Canada’s foremost investigative journalists and a dedicated volunteer. For many years, her award-winning books and investigative experiences have uncovered wrongdoing and uncovered buried truths,” a bio of her on the Governor Basic’s web site notes.

Born in Belleville, Ont., Cameron’s profession in journalism started as a meals, journey and life reporter for newspapers in Toronto and Ottawa within the Nineteen Seventies. Her resume lists a certificates from Le Cordon Bleu academy in Paris from the early Nineteen Seventies.

However she had an curiosity in crime and politics, her daughter mentioned, and she or he started writing in these areas after pitching concepts to an editor.

Creator and journalist Jan Wong, who remembered Cameron inviting Wong, her husband and her mother-in-law to Christmas dinner when she was new to Toronto within the Eighties, mentioned Cameron’s expertise as a chef and life reporter led to some huge tales.

“She had gotten a lot of her scoops in Ottawa about politicians as a result of she knew all of the decorators and designers and the meals individuals,” Wong recalled.

Wong mentioned when Cameron was accused of collaborating with the RCMP, she depleted her personal financial savings to pay for a lawyer and fellow journalists held a fundraiser to assist her out.

“It is an enormous loss for Canadian journalism as a result of she was some of the expert investigative reporters,” Wong mentioned of Cameron’s dying.

Amy Cameron mentioned she remembers her mom being meticulous with ensuring she had the proof to again up the claims in her work, including she did her finest to maintain the households of the individuals she was writing about out of the story.

“She did not need to hurt unnecessarily or dig into the lives of people that hadn’t chosen to reside a public life or who hadn’t brought on hurt in the direction of different individuals,” she mentioned.

Cameron is survived by two daughters, and her husband David Cameron.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Sept. 1, 2024.