Robert MacLaren Fowler

Robert MacLaren Fowler

Robert MacLaren Fowler, lawyer, executive (b at Peterborough, Ont 7 Dec 1906; d at Hawkesbury, Ont 13 July 1980). Fowler played many roles but was best known for chairing a royal commission and a federal committee on broadcasting. He attended the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall, and built a career as president of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association. A friend of Liberal politicians and bureaucrats, Fowler was named to head the Royal Commission on BROADCASTING of 1955. His report, tabled March 1957, strongly supported the CBC but called for a new regulatory authority to administer public and private broadcasting. The Conservative DIEFENBAKER government did not accept all the recommendations, and in 1965 Fowler headed a new investigative committee. Widely reported was his comment that in broadcasting all that matters is program content; all the rest is housekeeping. Fowler again recommended changes, and this led to the creation of the Canadian Radio-Television Commission (seeCANADIAN RADIO-TELEVISION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION).