Tributes pour in for trailblazing journalist Christie Blatchford
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Topless golf, that phone book flung across the newsroom, a capacity for cussing to make a longshoreman blush: There are 6 million Christie Blatchford stories in the big city, and they will all live on.
Her death on Wednesday at 68 is a terrible loss to her family (especially to niece Jennifer Robinson, who nursed her throughout) and to the wider family of Blatchford’s readers across Canada.
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The one positive thing in all this is that Blatchford had a chance to find out how she is loved and respected; as soon as word got out last fall that she had cancer, the whole world came calling.
Blatchford had high-profile visitors in her hospital room, of course — judges, lawyers, fellow bull terrier fan Don Cherry, Mayor John Tory and innumerable other dignitaries.
And then there were the friends who showed up from every corner of her life.
“Her childhood friends have come by, her friends from her Ryerson days, her [marathon] running friends, newspaper friends — everyone,” said the
Toronto Sun’s Sam Pazzano, a work colleague and friend of three decades.
That’s because, according to Pazzano, Blatchford’s real gift was her capacity for friendship. That was her true forte.
“She was a terrific friend. She was an incredible journalist, but an even better human being. She’d go to the wall for her friends.”
She was also formidable and competitive, says Pazzano, but the first to congratulate you if you got a story before she did.
“Look at Rosie,” he said, referencing high profile Toronto Star journalist Rosie DiManno, one of Blatchford’s closest friends.
Rosie would be her rival — but they were best of friends.
Pazzano is one of several people who say that the ostensibly tough Blatchford got emotional covering devastating crime stories.
Pam Davies, a court artist (for the Sun and other publications) worked side by side with Blatchford and reporters Scott Burnside and Al Cairns for months during the trial of murderer and rapist Paul Bernardo in 1995. That, says Davies, was a bonding experience for everyone involved.
“Her absolute respect for the trial process unfolded in that courtroom and instilled in me my work ethic. That experience really introduced me to this magnificent woman, a gutsy reporter with the biggest heart. I can’t count the times in court, Blatchford, said Davies, was well known for extending a helping hand to young or green reporters — and for always having a kind word for anyone shaken by the courtroom experience.
Julie Kirsh, who ran the Sun’s library and research team, also remembers Blatchford being overcome during the Bernardo trial.
“She just wept in the newsroom, broken-heartedly,” said Kirsh, noting that she thinks that case scarred Blatchford for life. “She was very strong, but also so vulnerable.”
Paul Godfrey, Executive Chairman of Postmedia, came upon Blatchford crying quietly in the newsroom as she worked on a story about the Jane Creba murder of 2005.
Her death, he says, feels like a loss in the family, “not just the loss of the best journalist in Canada.
“It breaks my heart, and it will break the hearts of everyone who read her every day. She was a one-of-a-kind journalist and a one-of-a-kind person.”
Godfrey confesses that he and Blatchford also shed tears together twice, first over the death of his dog, and then over the death of hers.
No surprise there.
“Her love of animals was legendary,” said Rita DeMontis, national lifestyle editor for the Sun chain — and Blatchford’s colleague in the lifestyle section at the Toronto Sun.
“Everyone knew her dog Blux —the Wonder Dog! — who would hang out near her, happily snoozing up against the wall of the library. He’d lie on his back with his legs open and his, um, credentials, up in the air.
“One day, columnist John Downing meandered over and harumphed over such a spectacle. Without missing a beat, Christie said, ‘Well, John, if you were as well hung as Blux, you’d lie there the same way.
That forthright personality is what Lorrie Goldstein, a friend for 40 years, remembers about Blatchford.
Christie was fearless, a straight-shooter, no B.S. She didn’t suffer fools gladly, was a mortal enemy of pack journalism and was always ready to speak truth to power. She hated injustice, had a great sense of humour, a quick wit and a kind heart. We’ve lost one of the great ones.”
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