Showing 14 results

Authority record
Journalism
Fairbairn, Garry
Fairbairn, Garry
Person · 1947-2010

Garry Lawrence Fairbairn began his journalism career with Canadian Press in 1969. His first two years were spent covering stories in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. From 1971 to 1973, Fairbairn was posted in Ottawa and was later moved to Regina where he worked until 1976. His work in Regina received attention and he was given an international assignment spending two years in Washington, D.C. After getting married, he requested a transfer back to western Canada and in 1978 he was assigned to the Canadian Press post in Calgary which he held until 1981.

As his career progressed, people noticed his talents and he frequently garnered accolades from his colleagues. Fairbairn was instrumental in the development of the Saskatchewan Journalist’s Association. Despite his successes as a journalist, by 1981 he was restless and felt the need for a change. He entered into a competition to write a history commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. His reputation and his proposals paid off and he was awarded the commission. In 1984, From Prairie Roots: The Remarkable Story of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool was published. He later joined The Western Producer, a weekly farm newspaper owned by the Pool, and worked there until 1999. He is currently retired.
Bonneau, Gabriel
Person · 1904-1988

Gabriel (Lucien) Bonneau (1904-1988) In February 1943, Commandant Gabriel Bonneau official took up his position as the representative in
Canada of Charles de Gaulle’s Free French (later Fighting French) resistance movement. He served in that position until January 1945 when he returned to France. Working in very delicate political circumstances, Bonneau proved himself to be an able diplomat. He was instrumental in uniting the Free French committees in Canada and in winning the support of both the Canadian government and the Canadian people for the Gaullist movement and, later, for the new French provisional government. After his return to France, Bonneau had a distinguished diplomatic career, serving first as Director for Middle- East affairs and then as French ambassador to Mexico, Sweden, Uruguay, and Switzerland. Commandant Bonneau did not have the typical background for a diplomat of the period. Born in 1904 into a modest provincial French family, Bonneau had—-as his son Michel has testified—-a difficult childhood. He took refuge in his studies and through his own efforts and determination became a schoolteacher in a suburb of Paris. Later he taught in Turkey and Persia. He became so fascinated with the Middle East that
he returned to Paris and graduated from the prestigious Ecole des Langues Orientales. He joined the French diplomatic service and was posted as a translator to Tabriz and later to Teheran. In 1934 he was appointed as attaché to the French Legation in Kabul, Afghanistan. Bonneau, his wife, and young family were still in Kabul when France fell to the German armies in June of 1940. When he heard from a British colleague on June 18, 1940 that there was a French general in London who wanted to continue the fight, Bonneau immediately sent a telegram to de Gaulle volunteering his services. However, he had to wait until a diplomat was appointed to replace him in Kabul before he could travel to the Middle East to join the Free French forces. He served as a lieutenant in the Free French unit fighting the Italians in Eritrea. He joined the diplomatic service of the Free French movement in May 1942. Meanwhile, in April 1941, his wife, Sylvie, brought their two sons to safety in Vancouver. Madame Bonneau, a former ballerina, built a successful career in Vancouver as a teacher of dance, specializing in training ballet students in the Cecchetti method. She and the children joined her husband in Ottawa in late April 1943. Together Commandant and Madame Bonneau not only convinced politicians and government officials in Ottawa of the importance of the Gaullist cause but they travelled across Canada, gaining the support of Canadians from Halifax to Vancouver. With her warmth and experience, Sylvie Bonneau contributed greatly to the success of the Gaullist cause in Canada. NOTE: The archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the archives of the Institut Charles de Gaulle in Paris are the primary source for the career of Gabriel Bonneau.
Bell, Charles
Person · 1916-2011

Charles Edward Bell was born in La Prairie, Manitoba in 1916 to parents E.G.W. Guy and Jean Bell. The family moved to Weyburn for a time and in 1924 settled in Regina. Charles attended elementary school at Thompson and later Central Collegiate.

Active in the sport of rowing, Charlie was a member of the Regina Boat Club and in 1935 became a Navy Cadet while working for the Canadian Farm Loan Board. He joined the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1938 and was called to active service in 1940. After the war he returned to Regina and rejoined the Naval Reserve and Her Majesty's Canadian Ship (HMCS) Queen. Bell enjoyed painting and in 1947 was hired by the Regina Leader Post as a cartoonist where he spent the next 35 years working in various editorial positions, including Associate Editor before he retired in 1982.

Charles Bell’s paintings are included in the permanent collections of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the City of Regina and various private collections, he was a member of the Navel Officers Association of Canada and the Royal United Services Institute. Charles Bell passed away in January 2011.
Arnold, Gladys
Arnold, Gladys
Person · 1905-2002

Gladys Maria Marguerite Arnold was born in Macoun, Saskatchewan in 1905. She taught in various rural schools before joining the Regina Leader-Post in April 1930. Arnold began as an editorial assistant but was soon writing editorials, feature articles, and news stories that were picked up by other newspapers.

Seeking adventure, Arnold left her job in 1935 and traveled to Europe. Arnold began submitting freelance pieces to the Canadian Press (CP) and shortly was hired as their full-time Paris correspondent. In the next four years she reported from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy and from the Spanish border during the Spanish civil war.

Gladys Arnold was the sole Canadian correspondent in France at the outbreak of the Second World War and she covered the early days of the conflict, the so-called “phoney war”, until the German occupation of Paris in June 1940. Returning to Canada, Arnold served with the CP Bureau in Ottawa until 1941 when she left CP to help set up the Free French Information Service in Canada. After the war this service was attached to the French Embassy in Ottawa and Arnold served as its Director until her retirement in 1971.

In 1987 Arnold published her memoirs about her wartime experiences, One Woman's War: A Canadian Reporter with the Free French (Toronto: J. Lorimer, 1987). For her service to France she was named Honorary Brigadier in the French Free Forces in 1940, and Chevalier de la legion d'honneur in 1975. In 1988 the University of Regina presented her with an honorary Doctor of Laws.

Gladys Arnold died in Regina in 2002.