RIP Jim Travers–With a Tribute From The Gazette

From the Toronto Star today, we learn that award winning columnist and former managing editor of this paper, Jim Travers has passed away today.

Travers, 62, died after a long illness and surgery at an Ottawa hospital.

“Jim was a first-rate friend of many years and a journalist I enormously admired,” said Star publisher John Cruickshank.

Travers won a National Newspaper Award in 2009 for column writing. His column was entitled: “The quiet unravelling of Canadian democracy.”

“We were all hugely proud of his National Newspaper Award last year. It gave him the recognition his body of work deserved.”

I had no idea he was even sick, as he kept publishing his columns until near the end, never missing a step.

While I didn’t always agree with what he wrote, he was one of the few columnists left who wasn’t cheerleading for the Harpercons.  He knew how to slam the bad guys and never minced words. I will also always remember his insights and analysis on Question Period during the Journalists’ Panels.

I did, as I think many of his readers did,  noticed his despair at the direction our country was taking and shared that with him.  He did fight the good fight as one of the few greats of journalism in a growing sea of  corporate media with a  growing tabloid tone and a Conservative bent.

May he rest in peace and sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues.

UPDATE (from the Montreal Gazette):  An anecdote from a former colleague of his when he was a foreign correspondant in the 70s.

Longtime colleague Doug Fischer said Travers had the biggest personality of anyone he’s ever known in journalism.

 ”He seemed like he could go on forever,” Fischer, the Citizen’s sports editor, said upon learning of Travers’ death. “He was brash and funny. And as anyone who ever encountered him knows, he was also a hard-nosed reporter. He didn’t give up on a story.”

 Once, Fischer remembered, he visited Travers while his colleague was working as the Middle East correspondent for Southam News. They went to a Palestinian village and when Travers saw a young Arab boy being dragged away by the hair by a group of soldiers, he gave his notepad and recorder to Fischer. He confronted the laughing soldiers.

 ”There was a scuffle and he was lucky not to get beaten up or arrested, but he didn’t back down. Eventually, they let the boy go and they pushed Travers away.”

 Travers later admitted it was probably an unprofessional mistake. “But it was typical of him,” says Fischer. “It was his compassion and his finely tuned sense of outrage that made him a superb journalist.”

I wanted to share that particular anecdote published in today’s Montreal Gazette. I think it’s my favourite one about him to date.

Read more of the Gazette tribute here as it gives a more detailed look at Travers’ life and career as well as tributes from other colleagues and politicians.