Dennis Trudeau, a prominent and beloved Montreal presence in radio and television who also made his mark on national airwaves, has died.
The former CBC reporter, radio host, and news anchor was 77.
Julian Sher, a former senior producer with The Fifth Estate and a longtime colleague of Trudeau’s, describes him as someone who loved the city of Montreal and ”knew its English and its French culture.”
“He really understood the city in a way that many people working for English radio or even English journalism back then didn’t,” said Sher.
“Quebec and Montreal were going through a lot of turbulent times and Dennis was able to draw on his understanding of Quebec history, of Montreal history. He was able to draw on his deep roots in both communities.”
Trudeau studied political science and philosophy at the University of Ottawa, where he was active in student radio, and earned a graduate diploma in journalism from Western University.
He had been working as a journalist for several years before he joined CBC in 1979. Among his roles, he hosted CBC Montreal’s Daybreak for eight years. He became a national radio host with the programs As It Happens and Cross-Country Checkup.
Sher, who worked with Trudeau while he was with Daybreak and then Newswatch during the 1980s, said Trudeau loved the CBC and everything it stood for.
Sher remembers poring over French newspapers with Trudeau early in the morning, well before dawn, getting ready for their local radio show.
“He was just a terrific journalist to work for because he had that one quality that is so important in journalism, and that’s curiosity,” said Sher. “He was always inquisitive. Always digging, in quite a powerful way, which is what I liked.”
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After CBC, Trudeau briefly hosted a morning radio show at Corus Entertainment in 2007 and 2008. For the last 18 years, he owned Dennis Trudeau Communications Inc., offering a range of services, including moderating discussions and facilitating national and international events, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He also wrote an urban affairs column for Magazine Montréal centre-ville from 2006 to 2020 and provided daily world affairs commentary for the radio show Dutrizac l’après-midi from 2009 to 2011.
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Trudeau has volunteered with Reporters Without Borders, serving as vice-president of its Canadian section from 2006 to 2010, advocating for press freedom, representing Canada at annual meetings in Paris and fundraising for the organization.
According to Sher, he represented the “best of CBC and the best of Montreal.”
Dennis Trudeau and Lupita Kerwin on CBC’s Quebec A.M radio program. (Radio-Canada)
Generous, kind and the energy of the show, says former colleague
Lynne Robson, a former CBC reporter who worked with Trudeau for many years starting in the late 1980s when they were both on CBC’s supper hour show Newswatch, remembers her very first experience in television news — one that was marked by Trudeau.
Robson assigned TV cameras at CBC while waiting for a career opportunity in television.
One day, when all the reporters in the Montreal newsroom were assigned, Robson says a “terrible accident” occurred on Highway 20. She recalls Trudeau pointing at her and saying: “Send her.”
And without any experience, she did her first TV live hit.
“The next day, Dennis came over to my desk and I thought: ‘Oh my God, this is the end of me,'” Robson said.
“He said: ‘You’re going to be a reporter soon and you’re going to be great.'”
Dennis Trudeau has hosted CBC’s Newswatch, a supper-hour TV newscast, for years. (Radio-Canada)
A month later, Robson became a reporter and sat near Trudeau in the newsroom. She described him as generous, “the energy” of the show and a “very, very kind person.”
“If you are so lucky as to have been in his orbit … If you needed information, any phone number, any context, any contacts, he had a memory like I’ve never met before,” Robson told Daybreak‘s Sean Henry.
Anna Asimakopulos, retired CBC reporter and assignment editor, said she learned a lot from Trudeau.
“He was just somebody that you would want to sit around and listen to,” she said.
“I still remember when he first became a granddad, how absolutely delightful he was. He was just always charming, funny, smart and considerate.”
