LaPierre co-hosted CBC's This Hour Has Seven Days in 1960s
CBC News
Posted: Dec 17, 2012 12:50 PM ET
Last Updated: Dec 17, 2012 3:42 PM ET

Retired senator Laurier LaPierre, who co-hosted CBC Television's influential and controversial current affairs program This Hour Has Seven Days in the 1960s, has died at age 83.

The Senate confirmed LaPierre's death Monday.

Outspoken about social issues and an expert in constitutional affairs, LaPierre was a McGill University professor, author and broadcaster before being appointed to the Senate in 2001 by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. He served until his mandatory retirement at age 75 in 2004.Born in Lac Megantic, Que., on Nov. 21, 1929, LaPierre received a PhD in history from the University of Toronto.

He came to national prominence on This Hour Has Seven Days, the weekly news and current affairs program that aired on CBC Television from October 1964 to May 1966. LaPierre and co-hosts Patrick Watson, John Drainie and Dinah Christie mixed news, interviews, documentaries, commentary and satire in an innovative program that often raised the ire of critics and even CBC brass.

LaPierre was known to bring passion and emotion to the program, which often rubbed politicians and critics the wrong way.

His reaction to an interview with the mother of Stephen Truscott, the 14-year-old boy sentenced to life in prison for the murder of an Ontario girl in a case whose seeming rush to judgment split the country and renewed debate about the death penalty, was widely seen as hastening the cancellation of the program.

Following the interview with Doris Truscott, LaPierre wiped tears from his eyes while noting a bill to abolish the death penalty was before Parliament. He was harshly criticized in the media, and CBC president Alphonse Ouimet called his reaction "unprofessional."

Less than three weeks later, Watson and LaPierre learned their contracts would not be renewed. Viewers wrote letters and picketed the CBC offices, and a parliamentary committee was even struck, but the program was finished.

LaPierre ran federally for the New Democratic Party in the 1968 election in the Quebec riding of Lachine but was defeated. He returned to a career in broadcasting and writing. He was active on gay and lesbian issues and came out himself during an event on Parliament Hill in March 1988.

LaPierre received the Order of Canada in 1994. He is survived by his partner, Harvey Slack.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2 ... tuary.html

Program archives from This Hour Has Seven Days, one of the best current affairs programs ever.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital+Archiv ... even+Days/