Persona

Siggins, Maggie, 1942-

Maggie Siggins is a journalist and broadcaster of national stature. Born in Toronto in 1942, she received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism in 1965 from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and began her career as a reporter for the 'Toronto Telegram.' During the 1970s she worked as a political reporter, commentator, interviewer, and producer for CBC and CITY-TV Toronto. As a freelancer, her work has appeared in such major national magazines as 'Chatelaine', 'Macleans', 'Reader's Digest', 'Today Magazine', and 'Financial Post Magazine', and she published a monthly political column in 'Toronto Life', 1981-1983. She has produced documentaries for CBC and CITY-TV, and spent 1985-1986 in China where she worked at the New China News Agency and taught at the Beijing Broadcast Institute. She is the author of six major books. Siggins has won a number of awards and honours. In 1985 her book on the JoAnn and Colin Thatcher murder case, 'A Canadian Tragedy' (MacMillan, 1985), won the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis award. 'Revenge of the Land' received the Governor-General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 1992, and 'Riel: A Life of Revolution' won the City of Regina Best Book Award. 'Love and Hate', a CBC television miniseries based on Siggins' book on the Thatcher case, was produced in 1989 and has aired in Canada, the U.S., Britain and forty other countries. A miniseries based on 'Revenge of the Land' is in production. Siggins has lectured widely and taught journalism, receiving the Southam Fellowship for Journalists, University of Toronto (1973-1974), and the Max Bell Chair in Journalism at the University of Regina (1983-1984). She is a member of numerous professional organizations and has served as chair of the Writers' Union of Canada and as a board member of PEN. Maggie Siggins has three children and resides in Regina with her husband, Gerald B. Sperling.