Wednesday, 29 December 2021
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Sunday, 12 September 2021
Toronto Sun In Memoriams 1971-2021
It has been truly a family effort in memory of the many colleagues we lost along the way, far too many gone before their time.
If you know the email addresses of relatives of deceased colleagues, please share the YouTube page links with them.
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Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Open Forum: Spring/Summer 2018
The beat goes on, but with fewer TSF blog insiders, the pulse is much weaker.
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Sunday, 18 March 2018
At 30 - Jean Houghton
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Jean Houghton |
Jean passed away from a heart attack on January 31, 2018. She is greatly missed by daughters Elizabeth and Sarah (Andy); son Drew (Corina); her wonderful best friend Robin; and her very favourite people in the world, her grandsons Noah and Jacob. Big thanks to the staff at St. Mike's for their stellar care of Jean.
Memories of Jean Houghton can be emailed to thecos@the-wire.com
John Cosway (TS 1975-1994): "I never knew a woman who could curse you up and down as Jean did before breaking the ice with a smile. The tiger lady, Les Pyette’s main woman in the 1970s, was really a teddy bear in disguise. Condolences to the family."
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Monday, 2 October 2017
Fall/winter 2017/18 open forum
Another season, another reason for Toronto Sun Family members to stay in touch.
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Sunday, 1 October 2017
At 30 - Crime Flashback's Max Haines
On a sad note, we say farewell to Max Haines, the Toronto Sun's crime writer who turned murder and mayhem into an industry. Mike Strobel came out of retirement to pay homage to gentle Max, who died Sept. 30. Feel free to add your comments.
By Mike Strobel,
Death was Max Haines’ stock in trade. No one could write murder and mayhem like Max.
In his deft hands, death came alive — for 34 years, 28 books and 2,500 wildly popular Crime Flashback columns in the Sun.
Name the demise and Max wrote about it, with a twinkle and a wry
touch: Decapitation, poison, strangling, shooting, stabbing, vats of
acid, bludgeoning...
Max made murder fun, death droll.
But there is nothing fun or droll about progressive supranuclear
palsy (PSP). It is a rare, slow and incurable neurological scourge akin
to Parkinson’s disease.
It claimed Max Haines, at age 86, in the wee hours of Saturday at his Etobicoke home.
There never was a newspaperman quite like him. A story-teller without peer.
Funny, but it all started with faulty pantyhose.
Max had sallied forth from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, to conquer the
world of women’s undergarments. He set up shop in Toronto. Business was
brisk — but brief. One fateful day, Max forgot to check the elastic
waistbands on a big shipment of pantyhose leaving his factory.
Soon, a hue and cry arose from women across Canada — and Max looked around for a new career.
His passion was writing true crime stories and in 1972 he walked into
the Sun newsroom with a sample, about iconic axe-murder suspect Lizzie
Borden. It was the best $15 managing editor Ed Monteith ever spent.
Max, triumphant, returned to his car, where the lovely Marilyn and daughters Susan, Maureen and Eleanor were waiting.
“We all went out for ice cream,” Marilyn tells me Saturday, from her home, as the family gathers.
As any longtime Sun reader knows, Lizzie Borden was just the start.
Over three decades, Max’s columns were gathered into books like
Bothersome Bodies, Doctors Who Kill, Multiple Murderers II, and
Celebrity Murders and Other Nefarious Deeds.
My favourite Max Haines fiends included the snake Bob James, who
arranged for a rattler to bite his wife and Englishman John Haigh, who
dissolved six victims in sulphuric acid and poured them in his back
yard.
The heinous Mr. Haigh did not know gallstones are too gritty even for acid — an oversight that helped hang him.
I asked Max how to commit the perfect murder. (Hypothetically, of course.)
“Move to Texas,” he replied. “Everyone has a gun down there. The good
wife always says, ‘Gee I thought it was an intruder and it was dark and
I plugged him in the heart.”
“And in Texas, you need two kills to your credit before they take you seriously.”
Max retired in 2006, though Crime Flashback lived on in syndication.
The Sun city desk still gets calls from readers demanding his return.
None of those calls, I’ll bet, was from Dennis Melvyn Howe, the
presumed killer of Sharin’ Morningstar Keenan. The nine-year-old girl
was found strangled in Howe’s rooming house on Brunswick Ave. in 1983, a
case that shocked Toronto out of all innocence.
Max never gave up the hunt for Howe, who is now 77 if he’s still in
our midst. Max chased lead after lead, kept a mug shot in his wallet and
often revisited the case in his column.
“He’s my boogeyman,” Max told me.
Says Marilyn: “Max wanted to find that guy so badly.”
What sweet irony it would be if news of Haines’ death triggers a memory, or stirs a conscience, in someone out there.
What a fitting tribute to Max that would be.
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Sunday, 26 March 2017
Spring/summer 2017 open forum
Another season, another reason to stay in touch...
All of TSF's reliable tipsters have retired, been fired, been bought out or have sold out so feel free to enlighten us with TSF news that counts.
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Sunday, 18 September 2016
Open Forum - Fall/winter 2016 forum
The 45th anniversary of the Toronto Sun will be marked on Nov. 1, 2016. Have your say on the anniversary or any other Sun-related topic.
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Saturday, 12 March 2016
Memories of 333
Toronto Sun employees are packing their belongings for the move to Postmedia on March 25, ending 40-plus years of newspapering at 333 King St. E.
Sun employees moved from the Eclipse building into their new digs in May of 1975. At its peak, 333 had six floors of Sun employees, its own presses, a cafeteria and photo studio.
Current and former Toronto Sun employees who worked at 333 are invited to share their memories.
From Facebook
Errol Nazareth: I can't believe The Sun is moving out of 333. So many memories of working there are flooding back. I have to say this: Regardless what folks think of the paper - and I have criticized its stance on many issues many times - I was treated with complete respect when I worked there.
When Les Pyette hired me in the early 90s - thanks, Tom Godfrey - I was given an amazing opportunity ~ working as a general assignment reporter on weekends and writing what many have told me is that 'legendary Friday write about any artist I wanted and not once was I censored. And every news reporter I worked with was always ready to help me with a story if I needed it.
After being laid off, John Kryk brought me back to write the Friday column. And when I was desperately looking for work about 5 years back, Glen Garnett reached out to me and told me QMI Agency was looking for a writer.
I pass by 333 every day and it's going to take a while for the news to sink in. (Received) a fun plaque they gave me when I left. Jim Slotek...i'm looking at you!
Claire Bickley: I grew up in that newsroom, made lifelong friends and was blessed with colleagues and mentors who left an indelible mark in my life: Jeanie MacFarlane was my coach and rock from the day I began. It was my great, great fortune to work with Kathy Brooks. Before Jean Houghton I knew how to swear but not with style. Jerry Gladman, my extraordinary friend, I still hear your voice in my head.
I will always consider those years, those people and all of those adventures among the best years of my life. To every member of our Toronto Sun Family, every best wish on your path.
Ian Harvey: That's what I miss the most. I grew up there. I arrived as a 23 year old... got married, had kids, got divorced. The one constant were the people at 333. We fought, we argued, we laughed we partied and we worked and played hard.It was a wonderful time to be in the business. The sky seemed no limit. We went into the boards hard against the competition. We revelled in being the underdog.
Pity that the bean counters eventually pissed that value away.
John Fracassi: At my first job in the 1970s, i saw the end of the old fashioned presses and the introduction of the compugraphic. It was the end of one era. The sale of the Sun and the massive layoffs that ensued, was the end of another era.
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Wednesday, 9 March 2016
At 30 in 2015
Toronto Sun
At 30 - 2015
Jennifer Gough, 63 – January 1
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