Peter Downie

Peter Downie worked as an award-winning regional and national host with CBC Television (Midday, Man Alive) and Radio (As It Happens, Morningside, Cross Country Check-up) for 25 years across Canada and around the world. He also conceived/produced and hosted the CBC Radio documentary program Tapestry which explores issues of personal ethics and the larger challenges of leading a life of meaning and worth. His documentary work has received numerous national and international awards and has focused on issues as diverse as street kids in Bombay to satanic worship in Alberta to the phenomenon of global pilgrimages.

He is affiliated with McGill University’s World Platform for Health and Economic Convergence project and leads annual Think Tank sessions with international scholars and activists on areas of pressing concern from childhood obesity to international food supply and security to the challenge of chronic diseases worldwide. He is a patron of Child Haven, a Canadian organization that serves as a sanctuary for destitute women and children in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.  He is now researching and writing his MA thesis examining the impact of the 2010 Haitian earthquake on the practice of journalism.

Prof. Downie won the 2007 Michael Monty Award for Excellence in Broadcast Teaching, awarded by the Canadian Radio Television News Directors Foundation.  He was awarded the Kyoto Prize Journalism Fellowship in the fall of 2008 to cover the ceremony in Kyoto where, for the first time, two Canadians were honored.

Educaton

BA Political Science/Sociology, University of New Brunswick (Fredericton)

MA in Journalism Studies, Concordia University, June 2012, Thesis: The Renewal of Journalistic Practice in Disaster: Reporting from the 2010 Haitian EarthquakeCurrent Research Interests: The use of journalism in the struggle for human rights and the loss of local voices from Canadian radio

Courses taught

Fall
Jour 221 Introduction to Audio-Visual Journalism
Jour 530 Advanced Radio News

Winter
Jour 330 Advanced Radio News

Author

Healers at Work: Firsthand Accounts of the Difference Alternative Healing Makes
Fresh Air: The Private Thoughts of a Public Broadcaster

Think Tank, McGill World Platform for Health and Economic Security
The Power of Healing Through Prayer
Great Pilgrimages
Beaumaris – Centre for Creative Growth