For the Record

The retired CBC journalist Brian Stewart is renowned for his coverage of the 1984 Ethiopian famine. His reports accompanied by shocking images of the starving victims brought the scope of the disaster to world attention. They mobilized an international relief operation to bring tonnes of food to millions of those afflicted. Only the CBC and the BBC were permitted by Ethiopia’s Marxist regime to enter the country, and Stewart’s team spent the most time there exposing the horror. In reviewing the footage from the field, journalists in the newsroom back home broke down in tears before sending it to air. After Brian Mulroney watched one report at home with his family, he immediately committed his Progressive Conservative government to mobilize international efforts to save Ethiopia’s suffering people.

Stewart’s distinguished career spanned almost six decades, mostly as a foreign correspondent. Although he covered major stories from the 1960s to the early years of this...