Paul Soles, 90, on May 26. Soles’ 70-year broadcast career started with part-time stints at CHLO and CKEY, before landing a full-time position at CFPL Radio in London and transitioning into TV in 1953. Commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the RCAF Auxilliary at Station Crumlin, Soles detoured to Zweibrücken, Germany where he spent 1956-57 running the radio station at 3 Wing. He returned to Canada in the early 1960s where he hosted CFPL game show “Take Your Choice” for a year before signing on to host CBC current affairs program “Take-30” for 18 seasons, among other shows. Soles also had a stage and voiceover career, best known for portraying the title character in the original 1967 Spider-Man cartoon and voicing Hermey the Elf in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). Soles was recognized with a 2006 Gemini Award for his role in Canadian mini-series, Terminal City, and won a Canadian Screen Award in 2017 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Digital Production for CBC Comedy web series, My 90-Year-Old Roommate.
Gary Maavara, 68, on May 24, after a five-year battle with cancer. Maavara practiced law with Borden & Elliot, Toronto, before embarking on a 40+ year broadcasting career. He spent nearly 10 years at CTV, starting in 1988, holding roles including Group Vice-President, Programming and served in executive roles during several Olympic Games, including VP of Sports. Maavara joined CanWest Global in 1988, working in Toronto and then Winnipeg, spending six years in various executive roles including Director of Special Projects at Global TV, COO Interactive, and Senior VP Specialty Television. Maavara returned to Toronto in 2004 to serve as Executive Vice-President and General Counsel for Corus Entertainment and was named Corporate Secretary in 2017. He stepped away from Corus in 2019 and formed Maavara Creative Group. Among other industry organizations, he was a past director of Advertising Standards Canada (Vice Chair), the Canadian Digital Media Network, Telelatino, Cosmopolitan Television Canada, Country Music Television, and the Banff World Media Festival.
Ray Waines, 83, on May 24. Waines was part of the team that built the “Electronic Skyway” Trans Canada Microwave system enabling live, coast-to-coast television transmission, before joining CBC Vancouver as a cameraman in 1960. Waines would go on to a 30+ year career with the public broadcaster working on productions from Hockey Night in Canada and the CFL to Vancouver-shot productions like Cariboo Country, Reach for the Top, Some of Those Days, Let’s Go, Beachcombers, and The Irish Rovers. Waines was among those who consulted on BC Place stadium, prior to its 1983 opening, to ensure good locations for television cameras. Waines retired from CBC in 1991, but continued working as a freelance cameraman for the next two decades, well into his 70s.
Cecile Hebert, 67, on May 13. Hebert graduated from the Mount Royal College Broadcasting Diploma program in 1974 and later went on to earn her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from the University of Ottawa. Hebert’s early radio career took her to Williams Lake and a stint with 570 CKEK-AM Cranbrook as news director in the late 1980s, in addition to working with CBC affiliate CFPR-AM Prince Rupert. She went to work with CBC and Radio-Canada as an announcer, writer and reporter in both Edmonton and Vancouver.
