June Callwood
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June Rose Callwood, (June 2, 1924 – April 14, 2007) was a Canadian journalist, author and social activist. She was known as "Canada's Conscience". Callwood achieved acclaim and a loyal following for her articles and columns written for national newspapers and magazines, including Maclean's and Chatelaine. She solidified her name by founding charities focused on certain communities in Canada, including Nellie's, one of Canada's first shelters for women in crisis, Jessie's Centre for Teenagers, now the June Callwood Centre for Women and Families, and Casey House, Canada's first HIV/AIDS hospice.


Childhood

Callwood was born in
Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
,
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 ...
and grew up in nearby Belle River, with her younger sister Jane. Her mother was the daughter of a Métis bootlegger and her father was the son of a magistrate. Her parents' marriage was deeply troubled, and despite the affection shown to her by her grandparents, Callwood's childhood was marked by adversity. They were desperately poor, moving at night from one house to another. Finally her childhood came to an abrupt end when her father left the family and she was forced to drop out of high school to earn an income.


Career

Callwood began her journalism career at her high school,
Brantford Collegiate Institute Brantford Collegiate Institute and Vocational School, also known as "Brantford Collegiate Institute" or "BCI", is a secondary school in the city of Brantford. It is a member of the Grand Erie District School Board, a medium-sized school board in ...
, where she was editor of the school paper. She later worked for the ''
Brantford Expositor The ''Brantford Expositor'' is an English language newspaper based in Brantford, Ontario and owned by Postmedia. It provides the readers with coverage of local news, sports and events to the community as well as coverage of provincial, national a ...
,'' as a cub reporter. During this time, in the midst of World War II, June was earning $7.50 a week, half of which she gave to her mother for rent. In 1942, she was offered a job with ''
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 ...
'' and moved to Toronto. She married journalist
Trent Frayne Trent Gardiner Frayne (September 13, 1918 – February 11, 2012) was a Canadian sportswriter whose career stretched over 60 years. Pierre Berton described Frayne as “likely Canada's greatest sportswriter ever." Early life "Billy" Frayne, as he ...
two years later, but continued to use her own surname because ''The Globe and Mail'' at that time did not employ married women. Callwood left ''The Globe and Mail'' to raise a family but later resumed her career by becoming a freelance journalist, writing books and magazine pieces, many for ''
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 perspe ...
''. In the spring of 1957, she interviewed
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
in Toronto, during the singer's first tour of Canada. Soon after, she ghost-wrote autobiographies for such prominent Americans as broadcaster Barbara Walters, film director
Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...
and Dr.
Charles William Mayo Charles William Mayo (July 28, 1898 – July 28, 1968) was an American surgeon and a member of the board of governors of the Mayo Clinic beginning in 1933. He was the son of Mayo Clinic co-founder Charles Horace Mayo and Edith (Graham) Mayo. Li ...
. Frayne and Callwood also hosted the
CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
talk show '' The Fraynes'' in the 1954-55 television season. Callwood later entered television journalism, hosting the series '' In Touch'' on
CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
from 1975 to 1978. She also hosted two series, ''National Treasure'' and ''Caregiving with June Callwood'', for
Vision TV VisionTV is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel that broadcasts multi-faith, multicultural, and general entertainment programming aimed at the 45 and over demographic. VisionTV is currently owned by ZoomerMedia, a company ...
. Callwood's career was marked by a strong concern for
social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
, especially on issues affecting children and women. She became one of Canada's most famous social justice activists, founding or co-founding over 50 Canadian social action organizations including youth and women's hostels. She founded Casey House (a Toronto
hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by ...
for people with
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
), Jessie's (now called Jessie's: The June Callwood Centre for Young Women),
PEN Canada PEN Canada is one of the 148 centres of PEN International. Founded in 1926, it has a membership of over 1,000 writers and supporters who campaign on behalf of writers around the world who are persecuted, imprisoned and exiled for exercising their ...
, the
Canadian Civil Liberties Association The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA; french: Association Canadienne des Libertés Civiles) is a nonprofit organization in Canada devoted to the defence of civil liberties and constitutional rights.Dominique ClementCase Study: Canadian ...
, and
Feminists Against Censorship Feminists Against Censorship (FAC) is a large network of women founded in 1989 in the United Kingdom to present the feminist arguments against censorship, particularly of sexual materials, and to defend individual sexual expression. FAC originall ...
. In 2004, Callwood went public about her battle with
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
. She refused treatment and continued to be active until she succumbed to the disease in the morning of April 14, 2007. Callwood was last seen on TV on April 2, 2007 in the CBC show '' The Hour'', interviewed by George Stroumboulopoulos. A biography, written by Anne Dublin and entitled ''June Callwood: A Life of Action'', was published in March 2007.


Activism

Despite her rich career, Callwood felt the strong urge to not simply write about the injustice she came across as a journalist, but also to intervene. Charities Callwood founded include: * Digger House (established in the 1960s), a shelter for homeless youth * Nellie's (1974), one of Canada's first shelters for women in crisis * Jessie's Centre (1982), a centre for pregnant teens and young mothers * Casey House (1988) a residence for patients with HIV/AIDS. At the beginning of its establishment, Casey House was the first hospice in the world to provide support and palliative care for people with HIV/AIDS. Callwood was also a founding member of PEN Canada and Maggie's Toronto Prostitutes' Community Service Project. She fought for women's right to reproductive choice at a particularly contentious time. She also co-founded the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Feminists Against Censorship, wading into three bitter debates about pornography and freedom of expression.


Honours

In 1978, Callwood was made a member of the
Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...
. She was promoted to Officer in 1985, and promoted again to Companion in 2000. In 1988, she was awarded the
Order of Ontario The Order of Ontario () is the most prestigious official Award, honour in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the A ...
. She was inducted into the
Etobicoke Hall of Fame Etobicoke Hall of Fame is a civic hall of fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It began as a project of Etobicoke, a borough of Metropolitan Toronto. Etobicoke is now part of the larger city of Toronto. The project has been continued by the City of Tor ...
in 1992. In 2004, the City of Toronto noted its intention to name a street in Callwood's honour. Callwood requested that an existing street not be renamed for her, and specified that it be a new or currently unnamed street near a school or a playground. June Callwood Way is in the neighbourhood of Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue. June Callwood was named Toronto Humanist of the Year 2004 by The Humanist Association of Toronto. This yearly honour is presented by H.A.T. to men and women who, in their actions, and creative endeavours, exemplify the principles of Humanism: a commitment to reason, compassion, ethics and human dignity. In July 2005, a Toronto park was named after Callwood. A professorship in social justice was also established at Victoria College, University of Toronto in her honour. In 2008, Premier
Dalton McGuinty Dalton James Patrick McGuinty Jr. (born July 19, 1955) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 24th premier of Ontario from 2003 to 2013. He was the first Liberal leader to win two majority governments since Mitchell Hepburn nea ...
declared June 2 of every year to be June Callwood Day. In 2011, June Rose Callwood Public School, located at 84 Edward Street in St. Thomas, Ontario, was named in her honour.


Personal life

Callwood and Frayne had four children together: two daughters and two sons. The daughters are noted authors Jesse and Jill Frayne, and the elder son is Brant Frayne. The second son and youngest child, Casey Frayne, was killed on April 19, 1982, when he was 20 years old, by a drunk driver on
Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provinc ...
as he returned home from Queen's University. This tragedy incited her neighbour John Bates to start a campaign against drunk driving, which resulted in the founding of Citizens Against Impaired Driving (CAID) which is now
MADD Canada MADD Canada is the Canadian arm of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Its stated purpose is to stop impaired driving and to support victims. MADD Canada operates public awareness and education programs which focus on preventing impaired driving. Local ...
, the Canadian branch of
Mothers Against Drunk Driving Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is a non-profit organization in the United States, Canada and Brazil that seeks to stop drunk driving, support those affected by drunk driving, prevent underage drinking, and strive for stricter impaired drivi ...
. Callwood's own death came only days before the 25th anniversary of her son's death. Despite Callwood's accomplished activism career, she faced obstacles that attacked her public image. In 1968 she was arrested and briefly spent time in the Don Jail after siding with homeless Yorkville children in a battle with police. But her most painful passage was in 1991, while on the board at Nellie's, when a number of women she considered friends failed to stand up for her in the face of unfounded allegations of racism. "Nobody asked what happened," says Callwood, "you didn't have to do anything in those days. You just had to be in the way of legitimate rage. It woke people up...but a few of us got our heads kicked in." This controversy forced June to withdraw from public life for a time. Although many who knew her defended her vigorously, and some vindication came her way when she was awarded the Harmony Award in 2003 for her work in fighting discrimination, she was deeply wounded. Callwood eventually returned to work despite the damage done to her reputation, focusing most particularly on being spokesperson for the Campaign Against Child Poverty. During this low period of forced withdrawal from the public, at age 70 Callwood obtained her pilot's licence and maintained the licence throughout her life. "I wanted something to get above the muck and I guess I did it more literally than most people," June said. In response to all of the honours Callwood had received, she was known to laugh at the irony of all these accolades for a high-school dropout "with a criminal record," she was always quick to add. Although Callwood was regularly dubbed "Canada's Conscience," "Canada's
Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was bo ...
" and "Saint June" by the media, she generally shied away from organized religion. "I am missing a formal religion, but I am not without a theology, and my theology is that kindness is a divinity in motion," she said in a 2005 speech delivered as the first lecture in the June Callwood Professorship in Social Justice at Victoria College at the University of Toronto.


Selected works

*''Love, Hate, Fear and Anger'' — 1964 *''Canadian Women and the Law'' — 1974 *''The Law Is Not for Women'' — 1976 *Portrait of Canada — 1981 *''Emma: A True Story of Treason'' — 1984 *''Emotions'' — 1986 *''Twelve Weeks in Spring'' — 1986 *'' Jim: A Life With AIDS'' — 1988 *''The Sleepwalker'' — 1990 *''Portrait of Canada'' — 1991 *''June Callwood's National Treasures'' — 1994 *''Trial Without Endd: A Shocking Story of Women and AIDS'' — 1995 *''The Man Who Lost Himself: The Terry Evanshen Story'' — 2000 (about
CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
player
Terry Evanshen Terrence Anthony "Terry" Evanshen (born June 13, 1944) is a motivational speaker and former star receiver in the Canadian Football League. CFL Drafted by the Montreal Alouettes, Terry went on to have an outstanding career in the CFL playing for ...
)


Archives

There is a June Callwood fonds at Library and Archives Canada. The archival reference number is R5274, former archival reference number MG31-K24. It covers the date ranges 1916 to 2003. The fonds contains 14.6 meters of textual records and a variety of other media.


Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Callwood, June 1924 births 2007 deaths Canadian activists Canadian humanists Canadian secularists 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian television journalists Canadian women journalists Canadian social commentators Canadian television hosts Deaths from cancer in Ontario Companions of the Order of Canada Members of the Order of Ontario People from Chatham-Kent 20th-century Canadian women writers People from Essex County, Ontario Canadian women television journalists Maclean's writers and editors 21st-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian women activists Canadian women columnists Canadian women television hosts