Almost 300 people came out to the UNIFOR Family Education Centre in Port Elgin on Thursday, October 23rd (2025) to hear one of Canada’s most celebrated journalists and radio personalities, Anna Maria Tremonti.
Tremonti was part of the speaker series being hosted by the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre and that included previous speakers Dr. Brian Goldman and Jesse Wente.
In her long association with the Canadian Public Broadcaster (CBC), Tremonti was a senior reporter for the National News winning two Gemini Awards and a host of The Fifth Estate, has travelled Canada and the globe covering societal change such as the fall of the former Soviet Union and, in Germany, the fall of the Berlin Wall. For several years she was also chief CBC correspondent in the Middle East and also hosted the popular CBC radio program, The Current, for 17 years.
Tremonti said that she has learned over the years that people are not so different from each other and that there are “lots of things that bring us together”.
A self-proclaimed optimist and avid collector of carpets, she said that, “As I sat in carpet shops in the East, I was learning about cultures … and humanity. A carpet is a functional piece of art that tells a story and can be part of history. Often they are a tapestry interwoven from experiences and every carpet is unique.”
Although she created the acclaimed CBC podcast ‘Welcome to Paradise‘ from her personal experience with Intimate Partner Violence’, she only touched on the suject briefly saying that it gave her a level of empathy she did not previously have and taught her to never assume what someone else has experienced.
She said that her wanting to be in war situations was to report about “… regular people and the challenges of being in the violence that they could not control. It isn’t untl we get up close that we realize it’s complicated … someone carrying a gun may not want to be there, he just wants to be with his family and raise his kids.”
In her 40-year role as journalist, she said she also learned that, in time of war, and or crises, conversation really matters. “It’s about talking and dlistening. That’s why I am a great believe in conversation. Life can get complicated and everyone has something to share. There are people who need to be heard even if they are a world away. We are living in a time that is like ‘spatial disorientation‘, in a world that is upside down and where people see things differently and that can polarizes us.”
Tremonti also pointed out that she was part of the generation where women initially began to become integral in the news media. “We wanted to cover politics and war that the men had been doing and we (women) saw things that men didn’t see. The most glaring to me was the L’École Polytechnique du Montréal massacre in 1989 by Marc Lepine. The women in the newsroom at the time saw it as a crime against women but the men didn’t see it that way.”
She also went on to point out that women in the media actually went on to change news rooms and society. “Diversity matters,” she said.
“Public broadcasting is important and politicians who don’t want it should know better,” said Tremonti. “Working for the CBC for 40 years gave me journalistic freedom that I am grateful for. I could cover stories that mattered and bring ideas to the table, and even though I lost a lot fights, that was okay I just kept going. I found community and there was debate and discourse and we challenged each other.”
When it comes to journalism, Tremonti set out her values. “Journalism is about accountability … documenting change … about compassion … about critical thinking .. about responsibility and the search for truth. Those who push for change need to be challenged and explain the reason for the change. To those who say journalism is dead, I disagree.”
She added however, that journalism today faces many hurdles and how to stay relative and solvent. “In this time of disinformation, misinformation and malinformation, we need good journalism. We also need the public broadcaster so that we are informed.”
“We need to acknowledge the human aspect of what we see and what is going on around the world. When you have conversation, you are never alone and there is power in communication and embracing community. Like the carpet threads, we are all intertwined with the textures of our communities.”
When asked how she retains her optimism, she said that, “The unravelling of government I take very seriously, but I have to believe there are more people who want humanity and to help. We all live with the decisions we make and I tend to believe there are more good people in the world than bad. I cling to that.”
At the end of her talk, Tremonti took the time to meet and greet audience members and have photos taken.
“There is no doubt that Anna Maria Tremonti’s presentation gave everyone an insight into her rich life,” said Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre Executive Director, Cathy McGirr, “and her in-depth coverage of world events has been truly remarkable.”
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The event was sponsored by Nuclear Promise X, with additional support from TD Financial Group, the Unifor Family Education Centre & 97.9the Bruce.
