View source for Bruce Phillips (journalist)

{{Short description|Canadian journalist}}
'''James Bruce Ross Phillips''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|OC}} (June 6, 1930 – December 6, 2014), known professionally as '''Bruce Phillips''', was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] television journalist and civil servant.<ref name=globeobit>[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/in-his-own-words-bruce-phillips-was-a-newspaperman/article22287703/ "In his own words, Bruce Phillips was a ‘newspaperman’"]. ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', January 4, 2015.</ref> He was best known as the [[Parliament Hill]] bureau chief of [[CTV News]], and host of the political talk show ''[[Question Period (TV series)|Question Period]]'', from 1968 to 1985.<ref name=globeobit/> As host of ''Question Period'', he was particularly noted for his year-end interviews with [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Ministers]].<ref name="globeobit" />

Born in [[Fort William, Ontario|Fort William]], [[Ontario]], in 1930, he had his first job out of high school as a reporter for the ''[[The Chronicle-Journal|Port Arthur News-Chronicle]]'';<ref name=globeobit/> his father, Alexander Phillips, was at the time the editor of the competing ''Fort William Times-Journal''.<ref name=listened>"A voice we listened to". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', December 18, 2014.</ref> He later worked for the ''Portage la Prairie Press'', the ''[[Calgary Herald]]'', [[Canadian Press]] and [[Southam News]].<ref name=globeobit/> He won the Bowater Award for Business and Economics Journalism in 1960, and a [[National Newspaper Awards|National Newspaper Award]] in 1961.<ref name=listened/> Colleague [[Charles Lynch (journalist)|Charles Lynch]] described Phillips as the best writer ever to grace the [[Parliamentary Press Gallery (Canada)|Parliamentary Press Gallery]], stating that he was "capable of prose that came close to poetry".<ref name=listened/><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=A funny way to run a country : further memoirs of a political voyeur|last=Lynch|first=Charles|date=1986|publisher=Hurtig|isbn=9780888302946|location=Edmonton|oclc=16052147|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/funnywaytoruncou0000lync}}</ref> He was Southam News' [[Washington, DC]] correspondent in the 1960s before joining CTV in 1968.<ref name=listened/>

As the Southam correspondent in Washington during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, his coverage of American involvement in the [[Vietnam War]] so irritated administration officials that the U.S. State Department reportedly pressured Southam to recall him early, which precipitated a shift to CTV as Ottawa bureau chief.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Bill Fox, "A voice of context, and wise counsel Bruce Phillips protected right to know, right to privacy". ''[[National Post]]'', December 18, 2014.</ref>

He left CTV in 1985 to become press officer for the [[Embassy of Canada, Washington, D.C.|Embassy of Canada to the United States]], and was succeeded in his parliamentary bureau role with CTV by [[Pamela Wallin]].<ref>"Wallin to head CTV's Ottawa bureau". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', January 25, 1985.</ref> After two years in Washington, in 1987 he became [[Director of Communications (Office of the Prime Minister)|Director of Communications]] in the office of Prime Minister [[Brian Mulroney]].<ref>"Mulroney shuffles aides in wake of unpopularity". ''[[Vancouver Sun]]'', March 11, 1987.</ref> In 1990 he was named as [[Privacy Commissioner of Canada]];<ref>"Privacy watchdog (Bruce Phillips) appointed". ''[[Halifax Chronicle-Herald]]'', June 8, 1990.</ref> although the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] caucus in both the House of Commons and the Senate tried to hold up the appointment on the grounds that Phillips was too close to Mulroney to credibly serve in a non-partisan watchdog role,<ref>"Senate blocking appointment of Bruce Phillips as privacy commissioner". ''[[Ottawa Citizen]]'', June 21, 1990.</ref> he was ultimately approved in 1991.<ref>"Phillips approved as privacy chief". ''[[Toronto Star]]'', April 18, 1991.</ref> He held the position until his retirement in 2000, having received a two-year extension to his term by Prime Minister Jean Chretien, approved unanimously by the House of Commons and the Senate.  During this time he succeeded in persuading Parliament to pass the [[Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act]] (PIPEDA), which extended Canadians' privacy rights to the private sector. He was succeeded as privacy commissioner by [[George Radwanski]].<ref>"Privacy czar defends his successor". ''[[Sault Star]]'', August 3, 2000.</ref>

He was named an [[Officer of the Order of Canada]] in 2009.<ref name=listened/>

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Bruce}}
[[Category:1930 births]]
[[Category:2014 deaths]]
[[Category:Canadian television journalists]]
[[Category:Canadian newspaper journalists]]
[[Category:Canadian male journalists]]
[[Category:Communications directors of the Canadian Prime Minister's Office]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:Writers from Thunder Bay]]
[[Category:CTV Television Network people]]
[[Category:Privacy Commissioners of Canada]]