Michael Terry Harris (born 1948) is a Canadian investigative journalist, radio personality, documentary filmmaker, novelist, iPolitics columnist and the author of nine books.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, to Audrey McDonald (née Tilley) and James McDonald, Harris is a graduate of York University in Toronto, and was a Woodrow Wilson Scholar (University College in Dublin, Ireland). His work has sparked four Royal Commissions of Inquiry.

Harris went to Newfoundland in 1977, as a story editor for CBC Television owned-and-operated station CBNT's newscast Here and Now, There he broke the Mount Cashel orphanage abuse story and the Sprung Greenhouse boondoggle. Michael Harris Live on CFRA Ottawa was cancelled February 9, 2012. He is now a columnist for the website iPolitics.

His 1986 book Justice Denied: The Law Versus Donald Marshall detailed the story of Donald Marshall, Jr.’s wrongful conviction in 1972. His investigative journalism culminating in the book Unholy Orders: Tragedy at Mount Cashel, triggered the Hughes Inquiry into the allegations of abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage. Harris also authored Rare Ambition: The Crosbies of Newfoundland, Con Game: The Truth About Canada’s Prisons and Lament for an Ocean: The Collapse of the Atlantic Cod Fishery. Elizabeth May, the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada called it "The definitive book on the cod catastrophe ... After reading this book, you wouldn't trust Fisheries and Oceans Canada with your aquarium". His 1976 novel Outrider on Yonge Street was never published.

Harris is married and has two daughters. he hosted Ottawa's annual "Alzheimers Flame of Hope Golf Tournament" (his mother, who died in 2009, suffered from the disease), and divided his time between his homes in Ottawa, Ontario and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. He was the visiting Irving Chair in Journalism at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick.

  • Con Game: The Truth About Canada's Prisons (2002), McClelland & Stewart,
  • Party of One: Stephen Harper And Canada's Radical Makeover (2014), Viking,

Movies

  • Unholy Orders (based on the book)
  • Vanishing Point (based on Lament for an Ocean: The Collapse of the Atlantic Cod Fishery)
  • Murder, Most Likely (based on The Judas Kiss: The Undercover Life of Patrick Kelly (1999)

Awards and honours

Awards

  • Unholy Orders: the Tragedy at Mount Cashel received the Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters' Book of the Year award.
  • "Unheard Cries: The Burial of Sexual Abuse at Mt. Cashel Orphanage" in The Sunday Express won a 1990 Centre for Investigative Journalism Award.
  • Rare Ambition: the Crosbies of Newfoundland was the 1994 winner of the TORGI Talking Book of the Year, the Foundation for The Advancement of Canadian Letters Book of the Year Award<!-- and the 1989 -->
  • The Prodigal Husband: the Tragedy of Helmuth and Hanna Buxbaum won the 1995 Arthur Ellis Awards / Prix Arthur Ellis prize for the best true crime book in Canada
  • Lament for an Ocean: The Collapse of the Atlantic Cod Fishery was short listed for the Donner Prize in 1998
  • Forest For Christmas won the 2014 Amazon.ca First Novel Award

Honours

Michael Harris was awarded a Doctor of Laws by the Memorial University of Newfoundland for his "unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us."

He was the visiting Irving Chair in Journalism at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick.

References