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Revision as of 01:14, 6 July 2006 by 206.191.56.34 (talk) (rv vandalism)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Mark Bourrie (born 1957) is a Canadian author, blogger, journalist, and a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa. His doctoral work is on the press censorship system in Canada in the Second World War. His master's thesis was on the media's role in banning cannabis in Canada. Born in Toronto and now a resident of Ottawa, Ontario, he has been a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery since 1994.
Bourrie is also an internationally-recognized amateur paleontologist, specializing in trilobites.
Journalism career
Bourrie worked for two decades as a freelance news and feature writer, primarily for The Globe and Mail from 1981 to 1989, and the Toronto Star from 1989 to 1999. His freelance writing has also appeared in the Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Winnipeg Free Press, Windsor Star, London Free Press, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, and Montreal Gazette newspapers. His magazine writing credits include Toronto Life, Ottawa City, Canadian Business, Canadian Lawyer, Law Times, Canadian Geographic, This Magazine and The Next City. His articles carried by the Inter Press Service (IPS) have been republished by newspapers throughout the world.
He won a National Magazine Award (2000) and honorable mentions in 2001 and 2003 . As well, in 2003 he was nominated for a Canadian Association of Journalists award in the magazine writing category. He won a Canadian Archaeological Association public writing award (1989) and several Ontario Newspaper Awards (formerly Western Ontario Newspaper Awards). His 1979 eyewitness account of an F5 tornado in Woodstock, Ontario helped earn his newspaper a National Newspaper Award certificate of merit. Most of his NMA-nominated work focused on issues related to people wrongly accused of criminal offences or terrorism. In the CAJ-nominated article, Bourrie found new evidence that a man hanged in Ottawa in 1936 was probably innocent.
Kinsella lawsuit
In 2006 he posted comments about former aide to Canada Public Works minister David Dingwall Warren Kinsella's role in the hiring of Chuck Guite to handle federal advertising contracts. Kinsella served a statement of claim for libel, demanding $600,000 and saying that the post insinuated his involvement in the sponsorship scandal. Bourrie retracted and apologized without reservation ] and paid Kinsella $1000 towards his costs. The lawsuit has since resumed, with Bourrie now suing Kinsella, a lawyer, for breaching the confidentialty pledge of the settlement.
Family
Mark Bourrie is married to intellectual property law student Marion van de Wetering, who is author of two regional history books, An Ottawa Album (Dundurn, 1999) and A Kingston Album (Dundurn, 2000). Van de Wetering's mother, Maria van Holten, has published several novels based on her experiences as an immigrant fleeing post-war Holland (van Holten's father was murdered in a Nazi concentration camp).
Works by Bourrie
- Chicago of the North (Annan and Sons 1993)
- Ninety Fathoms Down (Dundurn 1995)
- The Parliament Buildings (Dundurn 1996)
- By Reason of Insanity (Dundurn 1997)
- Parliament (text of Malak Karsh's photo essay on Parliament Hill) (Key Porter 1999)
- Hemp (Key Porter 2003)
- True Canadian Stories of the Great Lakes (Key Porter/Prospero 2004)
- Many a Midnight Ship (Key Porter/University of Michigan Press 2005)
References
- National Magazine Awards search site.
- Ottawa Watch (2006). Kinsella v. Bourrie (Google Cache). Retrieved from Google Cache June 30, 2006.