Stevie Cameron, a Canadian journalist, author and philanthropist whose work spanned decades, died August 31, CBC News reported. She was 80. During her journalism career, which began in the mid-1970s and lasted until the early 2000s, Cameron worked at many of Canada's major news outlets--including the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, and Maclean's--as a columnist, editor or reporter. She also hosted CBC's The Fifth Estate in the early 1990s.
Cameron was not just a political journalist, but also a food writer, the author of six books, a social activist and feminist who gained the loyalty and admiration of fellow journalists and a wide circle of friends, the Globe & Mail reported. When she published On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years in 1994, it was an instant bestseller that "turned its author into a national media star, a controversial figure in her own right, and [former prime minister] Brian Mulroney's nemesis."
"She was a pioneer in investigative journalism in Canada," said Bob Rae, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations and former Ontario premier. "She was hugely courageous and fearless."
Cameron's investigation for On the Take, which involved revelations about the purchase of new Airbus jets, was assailed by her critics, especially allies of Mulroney, who denounced her work. While Mulroney said nothing publicly, he fumed privately. The Toronto Star noted that Cameron was accused of being an informant for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when they launched their own investigation--a characterization that was later called into question and that she strongly denied.
Amy Cameron said her mother believed in speaking truth to power, but power sometimes fought back, and the accusation that she was a police informant was particularly hard: "It was an incredibly difficult position for her to be in because how do you defend yourself when you've spent a lifetime trying to keep yourself out of the story? And she truly was not a part of the story and yet had been painted in that way.... She knew that when people reacted in that way and when power reacted that way, that she had touched a nerve and she felt, on balance, that it was important to tell that story."
Cameron's other works include two books on serial killer Robert Pickton--The Pickton File (2007) and On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women (2010), as well as Blue Trust: The Author, the Lawyer, His Wife and Her Money (1998). Cameron was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2012 for her journalism career and volunteer work.
"She had gotten many of her scoops in Ottawa about politicians because she knew all the decorators and designers and the food people," author and journalist Jan Wong told the Toronto Star. "It's a huge loss for Canadian journalism because she was one of the most skilled investigative reporters."