Accession 84-26 - Maggie Siggins

Maggie Siggins is a journalist, writer, and broadcaster of national stature. Born in Toronto in 1942, she received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism in 1965 from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and began her career as a reporter for the Toronto Telegram. During the 1970s she worked as a political reporter, commentator, interviewer, and producer for CBC and CITY-TV Toronto. As a freelancer, her work has appeared in such major national magazines as Chatelaine, Macleans, Reader’s Digest, Today Magazine, and Financial Post Magazine. She wrote a monthly political column in Toronto Life from 1981 to 1983. She has produced documentaries for CBC and CITY-TV and spent 1985-1986 in China, where she worked at the New China News Agency and taught at the Beijing Broadcast Institute.

Siggins is the author of numerous books. She has won a number of awards and honours. In 1985 her book on the JoAnn and Colin Thatcher murder case, A Canadian Tragedy, won the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award. Revenge of the Land received the Governor-General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 1992. The City of Regina Best Book Award was won by Siggins for Riel: A Life of Revolution; In Her Own Time: A class Reunion Inspires a Cultural History on Women and Bitter Embrace: White Society’s Assault on the Woodland Cree. Love and Hate, a 1989 CBC television miniseries was based on her book on the Thatcher case. It has aired in Canada, the United States, Britain and over forty other countries. A miniseries, based on Revenge of the Land was broadcast on CBC and CBS.

Siggins has lectured widely and taught journalism, holding the Southam Fellowship for Journalists, University of Toronto (1973-1974), and the Max Bell Chair in Journalism at the University of Regina (1983-1984).

Siggins is the Vice-President of 4 Square Productions and has written over 50 hours of television.