William Peter Main Trueman (December 25, 1934 – July 23, 2021) was a Canadian

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and

radio personality A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

, best known for his work for the

Global Television Network The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English language, English-language terrestrial television, terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's se ...

between 1974 and 1977, and from 1978 to July 1988. In the 1960s and early 1970s he was a

reporter A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

and producer for

CBC News CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...

Early life

Trueman was born in

Sackville, New Brunswick Sackville is a former town in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It held town status prior to 2023 and is now part of the town of Tantramar, New Brunswick, Tantramar. Sackville is home to Mount Allison University, a primarily undergraduate libe ...

, on December 25, 1934. He was the son of

Albert Trueman Albert William Trueman, OC, FRSC (January 17, 1902 – June 29, 1988) was an American-born Canadian teacher, professor, cultural and university administrator. Early life Trueman was born in the United States, where his New Brunswick-born f ...

, an academic and arts administrator. His journalism career began as a print reporter with the ''

Ottawa Journal The ''Ottawa Journal'' was a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, from 1885 to 1980. It was founded in 1885 by A. Woodburn as the ''Ottawa Evening Journal''. Its first editor was John Wesley Dafoe who came from the ...

'' in the 1950s.

Career

When Trueman was 23, he moved to the ''

Montreal Star ''The Montreal Star'' was an English language, English-language Canada, Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It closed in 1979 in the wake of an eight-month pressmen's strike. It was Canada's largest newspaper until the 1950 ...

'' to be their

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

-based columnist and would cover the

assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onas ...

for the paper. His print career also took him to the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

''. In 1970, he moved to television as executive producer of CBC's flagship newscast '' The National''. Trueman produced ''The National'' during the FLQ Crisis in 1970. In his memoirs, he recalled being ordered to censor the CBC's coverage of the crisis: "We were to avoid commentary and speculation of all kinds. We were not to use man-on-the-street interviews or shoot film of any public demonstration. We were to air no panel discussions on the October Crisis and were to avoid reporting speculation, particularly speculation about what the government was doing." Trueman also reprimanded reporter Tim Ralfe for his memorable confrontation with

Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was a Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Between his no ...

on the steps of parliament in which Ralfe debated the Prime Minister asking how far he was willing to go which prompted Trudeau's famous "

Just watch me "Just watch me" is a phrase made famous by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on October 13, 1970, during the October Crisis. The term is still regularly used in Canadian political discussion; Justin Trudeau, Pierre's son, has also used th ...

" line. Trueman later apologised for not challenging the CBC's censorship and for reprimanding the reporter saying, "I should have given Ralfe a medal." Trueman became the first

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ', which itself comes from the Greek (). Anch ...

for

Global News Global News is the news and Current affairs (news format), current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as ...

in 1974. He became well known for his commentaries in the last minutes of each broadcast which he would end by saying, "That is not news. But that, too, is reality". Trueman briefly left Global in 1977 to join rival network CTV, becoming one of the co-hosts of ''CTV Reports'', a short-lived, unsuccessful attempt to replace two of the network's news magazine/documentary shows, W5 and Maclear; within a few months, Trueman would return to Global. Trueman retired permanently from Global News in 1988 "in disgust" over the declining quality of news coverage at the network. He later joined

Vision TV VisionTV is a Television in Canada, Canadian English language Category A services, Category A specialty channel that broadcasts multi-faith, multicultural, and general entertainment programming aimed at the 45 and over demographic. VisionTV is ...

to host a 26-part series called ''North-South'' about Canada's relation to the

Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

. Trueman also served as host and managing editor of the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

's award-winning series ''Great Canadian Parks'' in 1996 and oversaw a series of documentaries for the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

featuring national historic sites. In 2002, he hosted ''Destination Parks with Peter Trueman'' on the CTV Travel network.

Awards and honours

Trueman was appointed a member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

in May 2001 and invested in October of the following year. He was conferred the

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal () or The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal was a commemorative medal created in 2012 to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. There are four versions of the medal: one iss ...

in 2012.

Personal life

Trueman married Eleanor in 1956. They remained married for 64 years until his death. Together, they had three children: Anne, Mark and Victoria. Mark joined Global News in 1982 and is senior producer of Global News Toronto as of 2021. One of his grandchildren, Devin, works as a control room operator at Global. After retiring in 1988, Trueman and his wife moved to

Amherst Island Amherst Island is located in Lake Ontario, west of Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Amherst Island, being wholly in Lake Ontario, is upstream, above the St Lawrence River Thousand Islands. The island is part of Loyalist, Ontario, Lo ...

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

. There, he co-founded CJAI-FM, a community radio station which began broadcasting in 2006. He died on July 23, 2021, in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. He was 86, and had suffered from cancer prior to his death.

References

External links

Good Earth Productions biography of Peter Trueman

CTV Travel

Order of Canada: Peter Trueman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trueman, Peter 1934 births 2021 deaths Canadian television news anchors Canadian television reporters and correspondents Canadian newspaper journalists Journalists from New Brunswick People from Sackville, New Brunswick Global Television Network people CBC Television people Officers of the Order of Canada 20th-century Canadian journalists Deaths from cancer in Ontario