Todd van der Heyden (born October 16, 1973) 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 ...

journalist and news anchor with

CTV News CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the national ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Education

Van der Heyden was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

from

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

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 ...

. In 2004, he received a graduate diploma in

communication studies Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in differen ...

from

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

in Montreal.

Personal life

Van der Heyden is a native of Montreal. As a child, his family moved around a lot. He has three older sisters, Karen, Wendy, and Cindy. He also has a half-sister, Melanie. His father was born in

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, but immigrated to Canada at an early age. His mother was born in

Carp, Ontario Carp is a compact rural community in West Carleton-March Ward in the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located in the northwestern portion of the municipality on the Carp River. It is about from downtown Ottawa. Prior to amalgamation in 2001, ...

. His parents got divorced in 1993. Although van der Heyden had referenced being gay on air at several points in his career on local television in Montreal, he came out definitively on national television as a member of the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

community during a live TV interview with

Clay Aiken Clayton Holmes Aiken (''né'' Grissom; born November 30, 1978) is an American singer, television personality, actor, politician, and activist. Aiken finished second place on the second season of ''American Idol'' in 2003, and his debut album, ' ...

about the

Orlando nightclub shooting On , 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old man, killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States. Orlando Police officers shot and killed him after a three-hour standoff. In a 9- ...

on 14 June 2016. Van der Heyden has been an active member of the community for decades and has volunteered, donated to and spoken on behalf of several LGBTQ organizations over the years.

Career

From 1997 to 2000, van der Heyden worked as a volunteer at

Vidéotron Vidéotron is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, video on demand, cable telephony, wireless communication and Internet access services. Owned by Quebecor, it primarily s ...

's cable access channel

Canal Vox MAtv (formerly Vox) is a Canadian community channels operated by the cable provider Vidéotron within the province of Quebec. History In the 1970s, the first community radio stations started to appear in Quebec. These were non-commercial radi ...

, as well as freelanced at

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

in Montreal 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 part ...

'' newspaper. Starting in 2000, he worked as news reporter at CFCF which was later rebranded as CTV Montreal. In February 2005, van der Heyden became the co-anchor of the 6pm weekend newscast and later the noon weekday newscast. In July 2008, he also became co-anchor of 6 o'clock newscast.Basem Boshra, "van der Heyden to co-anchor CTV Montreal evening news", ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', Final Edition, page D5, July 29, 2008 On December 2, 2011 it was announced that van der Heyden would be leaving CTV Montreal for a promotion, joining CTV News Channel, the network's 24-hour cable news channel based in Toronto. He has been an afternoon news anchor at CTV News Channel since January 2012. Van der Heyden is also the host of a weekly nationally syndicated radio show "Viewpoints with Todd van der Heyden" which airs on all Bell Media talk radio stations across Canada. The show initially launched in October 2011 on

CJAD CJAD (800 AM) is a commercial radio station operating in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The station has an English language news/talk radio format and identifies itself on-air as ''CJAD 800''. Owned and operated by Bell Media, it has a daytime power ...

Radio in Montreal. The show is also available in podcast form across various platform such as iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio etc. Van der Heyden also frequently acted as a fill-in anchor on CTV’s former morning show ''

Canada AM ''Canada AM'' was a Canadian morning television news show that aired on CTV from 1972 to 2016. Its final hosts were Beverly Thomson and Marci Ien, with Jeff Hutcheson presenting the weather forecast and sports. The program aired on weekdays, and ...

'' and occasionally on ''

CTV National News ''CTV National News'' is the flagship newscast of CTV News, the news division of the CTV Television Network, which airs at 11:00 pm local time on the CTV stations across Canada, and is produced from CTV's facilities at 9 Channel Nine Court in Sca ...

''.

Recognition

Todd has won three

RTNDA The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA, pronounced the same as " rotunda"), formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television, and online news dire ...

awards (Radio and Television News Directors Association) and one CAB award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Der Heyden, Todd Canadian television reporters and correspondents Canadian television news anchors Journalists from Montreal Carleton University alumni Concordia University alumni Living people Anglophone Quebec people 1973 births Canadian LGBT journalists CTV Television Network people 21st-century Canadian journalists Canadian LGBT broadcasters 21st-century Canadian LGBT people