Life of Brian

Updated 27/7/11
Jessica Ferlaino, Brian's cousin in Sault Ste. Marie writes:

"Brian Vallee was many things to many people, but to me he was always an inspiration.

"Growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, I was always aware that my cousin was a successful author/journalist, but it wasn't until I read his work that I truly understood what a crusader he was.

"It's hard to grow up in Sault Ste. Marie with a dream that doesn't involve moving up the industrial ladder, especially if it challenges the status quo. My mom always shared stories about Brian, how he was my grandmother's favourite and how he had so many achievements.

"Recently, I have been spending time on Lake Lauzon being inspired by the beauty of Northern Ontario, when I was informed Brian spent much time out there. I could see what he saw. I could feel what he felt when he was out there.

"I was always hoping to meet Brian, to be able to sit down and talk with him about his work and mine, and how he truly made me believe that no matter where you come from if you want to write and you have a passion for what you do that you can go anywhere with it and be the change you want to see.

"Although I'll never have the opportunity to meet Brian now, the impact he has had on my life from afar will never be forgotten. Thank you Brian. I wish I could have told you in person what you have meant to me and how you have shaped the writer in me.

"Les Pyette, 1970s Toronto Sun city editor and former Sun executive now in retirement in London, Ontario, writes:

"It was  Brian, Ron Base and Lynda Ruddy's  recommendations that got me to the Toronto Sun in 1974. They had stayed all night at my home in Windsor when I was working for the Star.

"Fed them coffee, bacon and eggs in the morning and they headed back to Toronto. Two months later, I left the Windsor Star and was working with them in Toronto.

"For me to get to the Windsor Star in 1971 from the Sault Star, it was Brian who recommended me to the publisher of the Windsor Star.

"We will all miss Chico - my pet name for one of humanity's great ones. Brian was one of a kind, a gentle soul, a great talent and a down-to-earth nice man." 

Bob McAllister: "Lake Lauzon just won't be the same knowing that Brian Vallee isn't at his beloved cottage with a cold beer and a great story for any visitor.

"Then again, maybe Brian will always be at the cottage."

Ray Bennett on his The Cliff Edge blog, with a great photo:

http://www.thecliffedge.com/?p=2341

Ron Base, former Toronto Sun colleague of Brian's and a close friend for 42 years:

http://ronbase.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/remembering-brian-vallee/

John Downing on his Downing's Views blog:

http://blog.johndowning.ca/2011/07/rip-ely-yost-brian-vallee-billy.html

ObitsForLife.com obit

http://www.obitsforlife.com/obituary/375614/Vallee-Brian.php

The U.S.-based Obit Patrol:

http://obitpatrol.blogspot.com/2011/07/brian-vallee.html

Chronicle-Herald (Nova Scotia) obit:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1254848.html

Sault Star obit: 

http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/full_story.asp?StoryNumber=53197

Toronto Sun obit:

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/23/former-sun-columnist-brian-vallee-70

Toronto Star obit:

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1029599--brian-vallee-70-terrific-journalist-was-everyone-s-best-friend

Canadian Press story in the Hamilton Spectator:

http://www.thespec.com/news/canada/article/568135--award-winning-journalist-brian-vallee-dies-at-70

Memories of Brian can be emailed to TSF. 

Condolences are being accepted at the Humphrey Funeral home.

30 - Brian Vallee

Brian Vallee

Brian Vallee, who died from cancer Friday morning, was many things to many people in his 70 years.

He was a good guy, a friend to many.

A poker player.

Press club pianist (of sorts).

And, as longtime friend Ron Base told the Windsor Star, one heck of a story teller.

He told those well-researched and award-winning stories in the  
Windsor Star, Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, CBC's The Fifth Estate and in best-selling books, including Life With Billy.

One of the happiest nights of Brian's eventful life was Oscars night in 1983 when his name was mentioned on stage by winning documentary director John Zaritsky. Brian was associate producer of The Fifth Estate's Oscar-winning Just Another Missing Kid. 

Not bad for a kid from the Soo. 

Brian's stay at the Toronto Sun in the 1970s, as one of the Windsor Mafia, was relatively short, but he remained a Toronto Sun Family member to the core.

(The Windsor Mafia consisted of Sun staffers called up from the Windsor Star in the 1970s and included Base, Les Pyette, Mark Bonokoski, Bruce Blackadar, Lloyd Kemp, Cam Norton, Greg Parent, Ben Grant etc.)

When current and former Sun employees met in 2006 for a Save Our Sun reunion to voice concerns about the direction Quebecor was taking the tabloid, Brian was there.

Most recently, Brian became a book publisher - West-End Books - where Ron Base, friend and former Sun colleague, had two of his novels published.

"I'm working on several book and documentary projects of my own and I plan to publish my own books under the West-End Books imprint," Brian told TSF in March.

Brian always seemed ageless, a young-at-heart writer who would be around forever.

Suddenly, in May, Brian was unconscious in St. Michael's Hospital, where doctors learned he had cancer and it was spreading.

The Windsor Star story says it all about Brian's professionalism and character:

“He was just a very dedicated journalist and more so he was a great person,” said Jim Bruce, retired publisher of the Star, who worked as city editor during Vallee’s reporting days in Windsor.

Brian is survived by his longtime partner Nancy Rahtz and several brothers and sisters.

No funeral arrangements have been announced, but a celebration of life will no doubt be arranged to say farewell to a gem of a man.

Memories of Brian Vallee can be emailed to TSF.

Sports hole

With all the clout the Toronto Sun sports department has at 333, it is a shame it can't  get Quebecor to extend the off-site print deadlines to accommodate night events.

Tuesday night's extra-innings Toronto/Seattle nail-biter was yet another disappointment for print readers plunking down cash expecting full coverage by the tabloid's crack team of baseball writers.

The game, won by the Jays in the 14th, was done by midnight

It is shameful, inconsiderate management of a morning newspaper.

That also goes for stale, two-day-old concert reviews.

But then Sun print readers have been second-class citizens for more than a decade, despite their dominance in readership surveys.

They carry the ball and get the shaft. 

We get links

The Winnipeg Sun's new three-year contract for 125 unionized employees:

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/07/19/winnipeg-sun-union-agree-to-225-raise

The contract is retroactive to last Jan. 1.

Downing in Sun

John Downing, a Day Oner and former editor of the Toronto Sun, returned to the pages of the Sunday Sun yesterday after a four-year absence with his replay of Hospital Hell. 

The post-Sun Downing first shared his near-death American and Canadian hospital experiences with his Downing's Views blog readers.

The Sun series, which continues next Sunday, isn't the way Downing wanted to mark the Toronto Sun's 40th anniversary countdown.

Globe's roots

Click on the photo for a larger view

Siobhan Moore, Ian Harvey and other "old fogies" were talking on Facebook recently about the Toronto Sun when it had its own presses and the joy of hearing them roar nightly beneath your feet.

This blogger can hear the young newsroom pups fresh off the streets moan about yet another TSF trip down memory lane, but if not for the dedication of newsrooms past, you might not have a job.

Which brings us to a favourite vintage news photo from the early 1960s, snapped by Bob Chow in the Globe and Mail newsroom when the morning paper was located on King St. W., just down the street from the Toronto Star.

This blogger is standing at the teletype machine checking copy while a hive of dedicated editors and other evening staffers do their stuff.

In the forefront, with back to camera, Web Anderson, a veteran rewrite man who took rewrite to a new level for several decades at the Globe.

First rim: Al Dawson in the slot and from his right to left: Photographer John Boyd?; Jim Knack, photo editor; unknown staffer; Joe Gelman; Tony Westall?; Bob Turnbull, city editor; Hugh Thompson, entertainment editor.

Second rim: Martin Lynch, the walking encyclopedia, in the slot and copy editors from his left to right, unknown; Barry Zwicker; unknown; David Spurgeon; unknown; Mike Hanlon; Lex Schrag; unknown; Eric Dowd. 

In the background, Joan Holobon and Rosemary Converey are two of the three women.

It was definitely a different age for newspapers. Teletype machines, typewriters, pneumatic tubes linked to the composing room and a pressroom/newsroom intercom. 

New computerized tools of the trade for newsrooms today, but give the old fogies their memories of the vibrancy of newsrooms past.

Ethics in media

Updated 15/7/11

Sun Media has severed its ties with the Ontario Press Council.

Makes sense. Why would a newspaper chain with ethics that are often questioned by readers volunteer to be challenged by a body that investigates reader complaints?

You have a beef about Sun Media newspaper content? Lump it.

The Globe and Mail story, with more than 225 comments, is here.

Much more here. 

And a UK blogger. 

The Ontario Press Council response in a CP story.

Brad's exit

Brad Honywill

We've been thinking it has been all too quiet out there when it comes to Brad Honywill, president of the 3,000-member CEP 87M (Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild).

A quick visit to his Brad's Blog explains the lack of Honywill commentary. He signed off as president effective June 1, ending a hectic five-year run. 

"I’ve given up my elected position of Local president and accepted a position as staff representative for the Local, starting June 1," Brad says in his blog.

"This means I no longer have to run for office every two years, kiss babies, oversee the administration of the Local and preside over the myriad of meetings that are a crucial part of governing a democratic body. Now I have a secure job and the protection of a union contract, no small benefits in these times."

Brad first got involved in the union in 2004 when elected unit chair at the Toronto Sun. In the five years of this TSF blog, he was always an email away for comment on Sun Media affairs.

He signs off as president by saying:

"Serving as president of this Local was the most satisfying job I’ve had in my life and I’d like to thank all 3,000 members for allowing me the opportunity to perform this role. It was exhausting, challenging, exhilarating, fulfilling and whole lot more adjectives that are probably too colourful for this space. But all of that made it the best job in the world, as far as I was concerned."

Thanks for keeping TSF readers in the loop, Brad. All the best in your new venture.

SONG members who want to comment on Brad's five years as president can email TSF.

Factory 4 ID

"That slim young fellow in the foreground is Sun veteran sportswriter Mike Rutsey," says a TSF reader. "He's with Rick Fraser and an unknown desker.

"Ruts reports that in this photo he looks just like his eldest son does now (minus the early 70s garb)."

Many thanks for the ID.

We'd never suspect that thin, clean-shaven staffer with all of the hair is the same bearded gent who sat at the poker table in the Toronto Press Club in the late 80s - and whose photo is often in the Toronto Sun sports pages.

All we need now is a name for the Drew Carey lookalike with the glasses.

Yardley Jones

Yardley Jones was the first Toronto Sun cartoonist to win an NNA, picking up the 1971 award for editorial cartooning/caricature.

He squeezed in an NNA between the 1970 and 1972 wins by the Toronto Star's six-time winner Duncan McPherson.

Despite four decades of brilliant cartoons, Andy Donato won his only NNA in 1976.

Yardley's first win for the Toronto Sun came to mind while reading an Edmonton Journal article about him and his new Edmonton show.  

The Journal story says The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, a retrospective of personalities, royalty and politicians, opened July 7 at St. Albert's Art Beat gallery.