Normand Lester (born July 10, 1945) is an investigative journalist from Quebec. Though he built his reputation through investigations of the

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; french: Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité, ''SCRS'') is Canada's primary national intelligence agency. It is responsible for collecting, analysing, reporting and disseminating int ...

(CSIS), the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

(RCMP) and the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

, he is best known for the controversy created in Canada after the publication of his book ''

Le Livre noir du Canada anglais ''Le Livre noir du Canada Anglais'' (''The Black Book of English Canada'') is a series of three polemical books written by Quebec journalist Normand Lester. Les Intouchables published the first volume in 2001. The essays relate from the author's ...

'' ("The Black Book of English Canada") in 2005.

Biography

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 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

, in which he found himself posted around the Western world, being posted in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In 1986, he was posted as parliamentary correspondent in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. He began to investigate and study the activities of the

, 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 René Lévesque (; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Québécois politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to attempt ...

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 The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society (french: Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste) is an institution in Quebec dedicated to the protection of Quebec francophone interests and to the promotion of Quebec sovereignism. It is known as the oldest patriotic assoc ...

awarded him the Prix Olivar-Asselin for both his courage and excellence in investigative journalism. On December 5, 2001, after 35 years of service, Lester quit Radio-Canada. Since then, he has written for various newspapers, such as ''

le Devoir ''Le Devoir'' (, "Duty") is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and throughout Canada. It was founded by journalist and politician Henri Bourassa in 1910. ''Le Devoir'' is one of few independent large-c ...

''. In 2002,

TVA The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a Federal government of the United States, federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, an ...

hired him as a news commentator. In September 2005, he decided to quit for a similar job at

TQS Noovo is a Canadian French-language terrestrial television network owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. The network has five owned-and-operated and three affiliated stations throughout Quebec, although it can also be seen over-the-air ...

, with Jean-Luc Mongrain. In 2006, he co-authored with

Robin Philpot Robin Philpot (born 1948) is a Quebec journalist and 2007 electoral candidate for the Parti Québécois. Background Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, where his father Roderick Philpot was an alderman of the city of Fort William, Philpot is ...

a book denouncing the actions of Option Canada, one of the organizations supporting the No side in the 1995 Quebec referendum. The actions of this group were alleged to have violated Quebec provincial laws and several key players in the organization would later be investigated for links to the

sponsorship scandal The sponsorship scandal, AdScam or Sponsorgate, was a scandal in Canada that came as a result of a federal government " sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec involving the Liberal Party of Canada, which was in power from 1993 to 2006. T ...

On May 25, 2013, at the age of 67, Normand Lester suffered an acute

myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may ...

while driving his car on Côte-Sainte-Catherine boulevard in Montreal, causing him to lose consciousness and rear-end another car at a red light. He was taken to the nearby

Jewish General Hospital The Jewish General Hospital (JGH; french: Hôpital général juif), known officially as the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital (french: Hôpital général juif Sir Mortimer B. Davis) since 1978, is an acute-care teaching hospital in M ...

and promptly transferred to the

Montreal General Hospital The Montreal General Hospital (MGH) (french: Hôpital Général de Montréal) is a hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada established in the years 1818-1820. The hospital received its charter in 1823. It is currently part of the McGill University ...

for open-heart surgery. He returned home on June 17 and has been feeling well since.

Bibliography

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

: ''L'Affaire

Gerald Bull Gerald Vincent Bull (March 9, 1928 – March 22, 1990) was a Canadian engineer who developed long-range artillery. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite using a huge artillery piece, to which end he des ...

. Les Canons de l'apocalypse'', Méridien, Montreal *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

: ''Enquêtes sur les services secrets'', Éditions de l’Homme, Montreal, 384 pages, * 2000: ''Alerte dans l’espace'' (with Michèle Bisaillon), Les Intouchables, Montreal, 124 pages, *

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

: ''Prisonnier à Bangkok'' (in collaboration with Alain Olivier), Éditions de l'Homme, Montreal, 256 pages, *

: ''

'', tome 1, Les Intouchables, Montreal, 302 pages, * 2002: ''Chimères'' (with Corinne De Vailly) *

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

: ''

'', tome 2, Les Intouchables, Montreal, 302 pages, *

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

: ''

'', tome 3, Les Intouchables, Montreal, 349 pages, *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

: ''Mom'' (in collaboration with

Guy Ouellette Guy Ouellette (born December 13, 1951) is a Quebec politician from Canada, police officer and author. He is the current Member of National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Chomedey (electoral district), Chomedey in Laval, Quebec, Laval. Elect ...

), Les Intouchables, Montreal, 169 pages, *

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

: ''Les Secrets d' Option Canada'', Les Intouchables, Montreal, 168 pages, * 2006: ''Verglas'' (with Corinne De Vailly) * 2011: ''Poing à la ligne, Chroniques 2010 et écrits polémiques'', Les Intouchables, Montreal, 352 pages, * 2012: ''Contrepoing'', Les Intouchables, Montreal, 344 pages, * 2013: ''À brûle-pourpoing'', Les Intouchables, Montreal, 354 pages,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Normand Canadian political journalists Canadian people of Romanian descent 1945 births Living people