Persona

Weiers, Margaret K.

1928-2018

Born on a farm near Viceroy, Saskatchewan in 1928, Margaret (Kesslering) Weiers graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a BA (English) in 1949. As an early feminist, social reformer and fierce nationalist, she embarked on a 40-year career in journalism that began with the Regina Leader-Post and ended with the Toronto Star. In 1969, she won the Canadian Women’s Press Club Memorial Award for best news story. Weiers was the first journalist to receive a special award from the American Association on Mental Deficiency. She left the Leader Post in 1955 and joined the Canadian foreign service, serving as vice-consul for the Canadian Consulate General in New York City and a press officer for the Canadian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1957, she married Robert Weiers (U of S BA’47, BEd’48, BComm’52). Marriage marked the end of her foreign service career, as the Department of External Affairs required women officers to resign after they married. In 1960, the Weiers went to Ghana on a 15-month foreign aid assignment. While her husband helped set up a school of business at the University of Accra, Margaret Weiers worked as a freelance writer for radio and television. They returned to Canada and in 1963 she joined the staff of the Toronto Star. For the next three decades Weiers worked as a reporter, a feature writer and most notably a member of the Star’s editorial board. Weiers retired from the Star in 1991. She went on to write a book about women in the Canadian foreign service. Published in 1995, Envoys Extraordinary: Women of the Canadian Foreign Service chronicles the experiences of 22 female career officers struggling to succeed in a predominantly male world. Among her many honours was an Honourary Doctor of Letters at 2010 University of Saskatchewan spring convocation.