By Tom Godfrey
A memorial service is being held next month in Montreal for Fil Fraser, who is best-known as Canada’s first Black broadcaster; having mentored many young Blacks over the years.
Fraser, who lived in Toronto for a number of years, was based in Edmonton where he worked as a journalist, columnist, author, radio personality, educator, television program director, and radio, TV and feature film producer.
Felix Blache-Fraser, or Fil, as he liked to be called, was born on August 1932 in Montreal. He passed away last December 3 at the age of 85.
His son, Randall, said a celebration of his father’s life will take place on May 20 at the Urgel Bourgie Cemetery, in St. Laurent.
“There will be a program of remembrances, followed by conversation and connection,” Randall told Share. “He loved his time in Toronto, but was also happy to return to Edmonton where most of his family live.”
Fraser, and his wife, Gladys, lived in the downtown area from 1995 to 2000 while he was in Toronto working as Chief Executive Officer of Vision TV, where he is credited for making positive changes.
Former journalist Desmond Brown, who is now a Toronto realtor, called Fraser a good friend and mentor.
“Fil was like a father to me,” recalled Brown. “He was a man of action and had a way of bringing out the best in people, including me.”
He will never forget Fraser mentoring him in the late 1990s to attend journalism school if he wanted to become a successful journalist. He attended university and ended up working for many years at CTV News and the National Post.
“I was 37-years-old and already ten years into my first tenure in real estate,” Brown said. “I trusted Fil, so I applied to Ryerson’s School of Journalism, got accepted as a mature student, and quit my job as a real estate agent.”
The oldest of six children, Fraser experienced discrimination first-hand while growing up as an English-speaker in Montreal. He channelled those experiences into his work.
He went on to become Canada’s first black broadcaster, landing a job at the age of 19 at Foster Hewitt’s CKFH in Toronto, the first of many radio and television gigs he held across Canada. In 1965, Fraser moved to Edmonton and became a senior producer at Canada’s first educational television channel, known as MEETA (Metropolitan Edmonton Educational Television Association).
He became a popular public figure in that city, who was known for his warm and engaging approach on his CJCA Radio talk show, which was the highest-rated local program from 1974 to 1979. Later, he moved to ITV television with The Fil Fraser Show, following up a few years later with Newsmakers.
Along the way he founded the Regina Weekly Mirror newspaper, which ran for some time in Saskatchewan.
During the 1970s he formed his own production company which focused on dramas as Why Shoot the Teacher? and Marie-Anne, about the first European woman at Fort Edmonton. He gained prominence with the release of The Hounds of Notre Dame, about a storied boys’ school in Wilcox, Sask.
Fraser, a member of the Order of Canada, founded the Banff International Films for Television Festival, Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association, and established a master’s program in Canadian film at Athabasca University.
He was appointed Chief Commissioner for the Alberta Human Rights Commission from 1989 to 1992, during which time the body heard complaints about discrimination based on race and sexual orientation.
Fil liked to write and was the author of three books and received the Alberta Award of Excellence in 2015 for his promotion of the arts.
His 2006 book, Running Uphill: The Fast, Short Life of Canadian Champion Harry Jerome, looked at the pioneering Black Canadian track star. He then completed How the Blacks Created Canada, part of a series about how different cultural groups contributed to the development of Canada.
Fraser served on the Alberta Task Force on Film and the Federal Task Force on Broadcasting Policy and was the Governor of the Canadian Journalism Foundation as well as a member of the Canadian Association of Black Journalists. – 30 –