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Remembering June Callwood, journalist and activist

Broadcast Date: March 23, 1984

June Callwood, a prolific Canadian writer and dedicated social activist, has died at the age of 82.

In this 1984 radio clip, Callwood discusses a turning point in her life. It was the 1960s and she was fascinated by the freewheeling hippie movement in Toronto's Yorkville. But she noticed that after all the middle-class hippies went home, there was a group left behind "whose teeth were all rotting out of their heads and they were shooting speed."

These homeless hippies were being shunned by society, Callwood tells radio host Ian Alexander. They were clearly suffering. Nobody seemed willing to help them. "That politicized me; that did it," she explains. Callwood felt she had to do something. So she opened up a "safe haven" for them called Digger House in Toronto. This was the beginning of the writer's tireless devotion to social activism in Canada.

You can find much more about her life at the CBC Archives topic June Callwood: Canada's Conscience.

Remembering June Callwood, journalist and activist

• June Callwood was born on June 2, 1924. She grew up in Belle River, Ont. Her childhood was filled with poverty and instability. Her father was irresponsible and frequently absent, and her mother was distant.
• Callwood was an extremely bright student. But before she could complete high school, she dropped out in order to earn money.
• At the age of 16, she got her first full-time job as a reporter at the Brantford Expositor.

• In 1942, Callwood moved to Toronto to write for the Globe and Mail. While there she met Trent Frayne, a sports reporter. They married in 1944.
• Callwood has said she picked Frayne out as a prospective husband when she first arrived at the Globe. He was stable and dependable — quite the opposite of her father — and this drew her to him.

• Frayne and Callwood had four children: Jill, Brant, Jennifer and Casey.
• After giving birth to her first child, Jill, Callwood left the Globe and began a highly successful freelance career. She wrote for numerous magazines, and was a frequent contributor to Maclean's. Among her more famous Maclean's articles was one about the Avro Arrow — a 1958 article called "The Day the Iroquois Flew." During her journalistic career, Callwood became a regular commentator on the Avro Arrow affair.

• Callwood wrote close to 30 books. Several of these were "autobiographies" she ghostwrote for other people, including famous Americans such as film director Otto Preminger and journalist Barbara Walters. Books written under her own name include:
• Love, Hate, Fear and Anger (1964)
• Emma: Canada's Unlikely Spy (1984)
• Jim: A Life With AIDS (1988)

• Callwood also dabbled in broadcasting. From 1975 to 1978, she hosted the CBC TV show In Touch. From 1991 to 1996, she was host of Vision TV's National Treasures. And in the late 1990s, she hosted a TV show called Caregiving with June Callwood on Prime TV.

• As explained in this clip, Callwood became an activist during the 1960s when she opened Digger House. She went on to open several other Toronto institutions:
• Nellie's Hostel for Women in 1974
• Jessie's Centre for Teenagers (a drop-in centre for teenage mothers) in 1982
• Casey House, a hospice for AIDS patients, in 1988.
• She was instrumental in countless causes over the years, including free speech, battered women, abortion rights and child poverty.

• In April 1982, Callwood's 20-year-old son Casey was killed by a drunk driver. She never got over his death. In a 1987 CBC radio interview, Callwood said that she had an extremely hard time each April around the anniversary of his death. "April is crappy," she said, sadly. "I hate April." She went on to say that she kept as busy as she could to keep herself from crying all the time.

• In 1992, several members of the board at Nellie's, the women's shelter Callwood had founded, accused her of racism. She left the Nellie's board of directors as a result. The well-publicized accusations were never proven, and many observers have since said they were unfounded. Callwood was extremely hurt by the accusations. She has said it took her years to stop being angry about what happened.

• Despite the Nellie's setback, Callwood continued to work diligently for her many causes. She felt it was her duty. In a 2001 Globe and Mail article, she discussed her hectic schedule: "Usually I am frazzled… I have a lot of commitments in a week and people are always asking me to help out and, when I look at my schedule and see half an hour, I will stick them in."

• When she found out she had terminal cancer, Callwood chose not to get chemotherapy. In a June 2004 Globe and Mail article, she said she was ready for death. "I don't want to be the frail old lady that people have to worry about," she said.
• Callwood died on April 14, 2007. She was 82 years old.

Remembering June Callwood, journalist and activist

Medium: Radio

Program: Arts National

Broadcast Date: March 23, 1984

Guest(s): June Callwood

Host: Ian Alexander

Duration: 3:13

Last updated:
Dec. 15, 2010