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Gordon Sinclair's fluoride rant

Broadcast Date: Feb. 25, 1959

Rat and bug poison!
Toronto-based broadcaster Gordon Sinclair is vehemently against adding "poison" to our public drinking water. In 1959, the time of this Sinclair commentary on CBC Radio, water fluoridation is once again a hotly debated topic.

City of Toronto had approved fluoridation in 1955, however protests and outcries, many spearheaded by Sinclair, means actual fluoridation of Toronto's water supply doesn't take place until years later.

Sinclair fervently objects to being forced to take medication he doesn't want. He sees it as a gross infringement of his basic rights.

Gordon Sinclair's fluoride rant

• Despite Sinclair's crusading efforts Toronto begins to fluoridate its water supply in 1963. It follows years of tumultuous legal battles and a 1962 plebiscite which results in a hair-splitting vote of 50.1 percent in favour and 49.9 percent opposed.

• The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television hands out The Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism every year to a journalist demonstrating outspoken opinions and integrity in broadcasting.

• Sinclair's other passion was travel. He wrote several books as a result of his trips around the world including Footloose in India, Cannibal Quest, Will the Real Gordon Sinclair Please Stand Up and Will the Real Gordon Sinclair Please Sit Down.

Gordon Sinclair's fluoride rant

Medium: Radio

Program: Assignment

Broadcast Date: Feb. 25, 1959

Guest(s):

Commentator: Gordon Sinclair
Host: Maria Barrett, Bill McNeil

Duration: 4:42

Last updated:
Sept. 1, 2009