Dennis Lynn Firby, 68, on Aug. 7 at Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital in Burlington. Firby’s broadcasting career began at CKNX Wingham, ON, going on to hold roles with CFTO and YTV in the 1990s, before he moved on to Sun News as Director of Technical Operations, helping launch Toronto 1 in 2003. In 2011, Firby joined Hamilton’s CHCH-TV as Project Manager, Operations, concluding his career with CHCH parent company Channel Zero as Manager, Toronto Operations. He semi-retired in 2018.
Joan Leishman, 67, on Aug. 3. A graduate of Ryerson University’s Journalism program, Leishman was a reporter for CBC for three decades, initially joining CBC Radio in 1986. Starting out as a writer and editor, she co-produced current affairs program, Media File, and was a foreign field producer during the Gulf War. In 1992, Leishman set up CBC Radio’s first bureau in Africa. Based in Johannesburg, she documented South Africa’s transition from apartheid to Nelson Mandela’s election as its first Black president, the Rwandan genocide, and Angolan civil war, among other stories. She was named CBC-TV’s Mexico City bureau chief in 1997, and later joined The National as a documentary reporter, focused on Canadian and foreign affairs. Passionate about human rights, Leishman lent her time to PEN Canada, advocating for persecuted writers and defending their right to freedom of expression, in addition to working with refugee settlement agency, Romero House. In 2023, she was recognized with PEN Canada’s Marie-Ange Garrigue Award in recognition of her human rights advocacy.
Scott Sutherland, 70, on July 24 at Lady Minto Hospital on Salt Spring Island after a battle with cancer. Born in Montreal, Sutherland moved to Toronto with his family in his teens, starting his broadcasting career in radio in the GTA, including a stint in news and traffic at CFNY-FM in the mid-1980s. He eventually joined The Canadian Press (CP), relocating to Vancouver in 1990 and then Victoria where he helmed Broadcast News coverage of the B.C. Legislature. After 14 years in the role and serving as president of the B.C. Legislative Press Gallery for seven, Sutherland moved into government communications and was appointed Media Relations Manager for the B.C. Ministry of Education in 2009. He retired in 2015.
