Normand Lester

Born to a Romanian immigrant and a French Canadian mother, Lester started his career in journalism in 1964. Two years later, he began a 35-year career as a reporter for the Radio-Canada, in which he found himself posted around the Western world, being posted in Washington, New York City and Paris. In 1986, he was posted as parliamentary correspondent in Ottawa. He began to investigate and study the activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which had been created that year to take over duties formerly under the aegis of the RCMP. This would be the beginning of a long string of reports, some shocking, on the activities of CSIS, lasting twelve years. He investigated Claude Morin, cabinet minister and close advisor to René Lévesque and also a paid informant of the RCMP. After the publication of the first part of the trilogy that is Livre noir du Canada anglais, Radio-Canada suspended him from his work on November 18, 2001, citing a lack of impartiality. A few days later, Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste awarded him the Prix Olivar-Asselin for both his courage and excellence in investigative journalism.