Julian Sher is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
investigative journalist, filmmaker, author and newsroom trainer based in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
, Quebec. He was an investigative producer for ten years then a senior producer for five years with the
CBC's ''
The Fifth Estate''. He has written extensively about
outlaw motorcycle gangs,
child abuse and the justice system.
Career
Sher began work at CBC in Montreal as an on-air radio journalist and show producer from 1983 to 1986. From 1986 to 1989, he was an investigative reporter for CBC Television in Montreal. He became a producer for the CBC network program ''
The Fifth Estate'' from 1989 to 2001, where he covered wrongful convictions, police corruption, war criminals and biker gangs.
Sher played a leading role alongside
Daniel Burke and
Hana Gartner in exposing Inspector
Claude Savoie ''For the policeman, please see Claude Savoie .''
Joseph Vincent Claude Savoie (July 30, 1916 – May 29, 1990) was a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
A legislature is an assembly with the authori ...
of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as corrupt. The scandal ended with Savoie committing suicide in his office at the RCMP's national headquarters on 21 December 1992. Sher stated in 2022 about Savoie's suicide: “I didn’t kill him, I didn’t load the gun, I didn’t put the gun to his head. He made his choices. I’m not responsible but if Dan and I had decided not to do the story, if we had not covered this stuff, would he be alive? He might have decided to kill himself when the RCMP investigated him...The lesson I learned from that is the consequences of our work. For many of the people we tell stories about, it’s their lives and sometimes their deaths."
Sher then worked as an investigative reporter for the
Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it f ...
and the
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
. He returned to be the Senior Producer for CBC's ''The Fifth Estate'' from 2012 to 2018.
From 2001 to 2013, he wrote six investigative books. His book ''Somebody's Daughter: The Hidden Story of American's Prostituted Children and The Battle to Save Them'' was described by Publishers Weekly as a “thorough, deeply affecting study...
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
strikes a rare balance between revealing trauma and hope.”
His other book on child safety, ''One Child at a Time: Inside the Police Hunt to Rescue Children from Online Predators'' was described by newspaper reviewers as “riveting” “eye-opening” and “gripping”.
His writings on child abuse have appeared on the front page of the
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
, the cover of
Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...
magazine and the
OpEd
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
page of
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
.
He co-authored two books on
outlaw motorcycle gangs, ''The Road to Hell: How the Biker Gangs are Conquering Canada'' and ''Angels of Death: Inside the Biker's Global Crime Empire'', which was called “a devastating indictment of the gangs' drug-running and racketeering across three continents by the
London Daily Mail and has been translated into several languages in seven countries.
His book ''Until You Are Dead: Steven Truscott's Long Ride Into History'' about Canada's most famous murder trial helped lead to an official re-opening of a 40-year-old case and clearing a man who was wrongly convicted.
His first book ''White Hoods: Canada's Ku Klux Klan'', an expose of racism in Canada is cited as the main source of the subject in the encyclopedias.
He has filmed, written, directed and produced documentaries on scandals, wars and corporate intrigue in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, South Africa, Somalia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Holland, France, England, the United States and Canada.
Sher taught journalists at
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, in newspapers and TV networks across Canada. He has been a guest speaker and trainer at conferences for the
(IRE) and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ). He also trained in Bangladesh for FOJO and MRDI, with Syrian journalists in Turkey for
, and in the African countries of Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria.
In 1990, Sher was president of the
. He now sits on the advisory board of the Investigative Journalism Bureau at the
.
''
* 2006: Governor General of Canada's Michener-Deacon Fellowship
* 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award
''
* 2014: International Emmy “Made in Bangladesh” CBC The Fifth Estate (Senior Producer)