Marie Wilson

Background and Family

Marie Wilson was born in Petrolia, in southwestern Ontario. She attended the University of Western Ontario (now Western University), earning a Bachelor of Arts with honours in French and a master’s in Journalism.

Wilson is married to Stephen Kakfwi. He served as president of the Dene Nation and was premier of the Northwest Territories from 2000 to 2003. They have three children: Kyla, Daylyn and Keenan.

Journalism

In 1982, Wilson became the first host of CBC-TV ’s weekly information program Focus North. She researched, reported, wrote and hosted the broadcasts. She even had the edited tapes flown to Vancouver and Toronto every week to be broadcast across the Yukon, Northwest Territories and northern Quebec. Her stories offered nuanced takes on global and Canadian cultural and political issues from a northern point of view. They celebrated diverse northern cultures and supported the struggle for Indigenous rights in the North and across the country.

In 1995, Wilson created the North’s first daily television news service. Newscasts across four time zones were directly related to the North. They were reported in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. She continued to hire, train and support Indigenous staff and on-air personalities.

In 1980, through the CBC Northern Service (now CBC North), Wilson was influential in founding the True North Concert Series to promote northern Indigenous music and talent. Wilson was appointed CBC North’s regional director. She started the English-language program CBC Northbeat, which was translated into Inuktitut, and CBC Igalaaq, which broadcast in Inuktitut.

Wilson became an associate board member of Television Northern Canada (now the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network). She also served as vice-president of operations for the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Career Abroad

Marie Wilson has also worked extensively as a consultant, trainer and project manager. While working at the CBC and serving on its Training Advisory Committee, she advised the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation on how to cover that country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She also taught at a South African secondary school for a year and helped advance and teach journalism in Europe and South America.

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

In 2009, Marie Wilson was chosen from among 450 applicants to become one of three commissioners on Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). She was the only woman and the only non-Indigenous commissioner, joining Wilton Littlechild and Murray Sinclair. The TRC’s mandate was to allow residential school survivors and their families to tell their stories to help themselves and their communities heal. It also sought to create a historical record of the abuses of the residential school system and to recommend ways for survivors and all Canadians to move forward.

For six years, Wilson and the other commissioners travelled the country hearing from some 6,750 people. In June 2015, the TRC released its six-volume report, which drew from five million documents and included 94 Calls to Action. Wilson then worked to urge the reading and discussion of the Calls to Action, to encourage their implementation. She warned: “Because a lot of talk is a lot of talk. Activity is not consequence.”

After the TRC

In 2016, Marie Wilson was appointed professor of practice at the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University. She also became a mentor at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. She has served on the board of directors of CBC/Radio-Canada since 2017.

Awards

• CBC North Award for Lifetime Achievement (1999)
• Northerner of the Year Award, Up Here magazine (2000)
• Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)
• Grace-Pépin Access to Information Award, Information Commissioner of Canada (2015)
• Member, Order of Canada (2016)
• Order of the Northwest Territories (2016)
• Calgary Peace Prize, Mount Royal University (2016)
• Heart & Vision Award, Toronto United Church Council (2016)
• Meritorious Service Cross (2017)