Wendy Mesley

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Wendy Mesley
Wendy Mesley at the 18th CFC Annual Gala.jpg
Mesley at the 18th CFC Annual Gala, 2012
Born
Wendy Mesley

(1957-01-08) January 8, 1957 (age 64)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Alma materRyerson University
OccupationBroadcast journalist
Years active1976–present (radio), 1979–present (television)
Known forThe Weekly with Wendy Mesley & The National
Spouse(s)
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1989; div. 1992)​
  • Liam McQuade
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1998)​
ChildrenKate Rae McQuade
Awards3 Gemini Awards, Gold Medal for Best Magazine Format at the New York Festival's International Television Awards, 2006 John Drainie Award

Wendy Mesley (born January 8, 1957) is a Canadian television journalist, reporter, and former host of The Weekly with Wendy Mesley, a Sunday morning talk show about media, politics, and technology that aired for three seasons, from 2018 to 2020, on Sundays on CBC Television and CBC News Network.

Broadcast career[]

Mesley applied to summer jobs with both CBC and CTV in 1979. She received job offers with both. She opted to work for CTV in Quebec. By 1981, however, she had found herself shifting over to CBC.[1]

Mesley hosted CBC Television's consumer investigation series Marketplace, and was also a frequent back-up anchor for CBC's flagship evening news program The National. She co-hosted Test the Nation with Brent Bambury. In 2001 and 2002 she co-hosted the investigative newsmagazine CBC News: Disclosure with Diana Swain,[2] and previously hosted the media and technology series Undercurrents from 1995 until 2001.[3][4]

From October 2009, Mesley had a greater presence on CBC's nightly newscast The National, and in 2010 she became the program's regular Sunday anchor.[5]

In January 2018 Mesley started hosting a new Sunday morning talk show on politics and media: The Weekly with Wendy Mesley.[6][7]

On June 9, 2020, Wendy Mesley was suspended from CBC's The Weekly for saying the word "nigger" in reference to the book White Niggers of America, written by Pierre Vallières, while she was hosting an editorial meeting about race issues. Mesley immediately apologized.[8][9]

On July 5, 2021, Mesley announced her retirement from CBC.[10] On July 7, 2021, an opinion piece written by Mesley appeared in The Globe and Mail, entitled, "I made mistakes. But my departure wasn’t the solution to the CBC’s problem with racism," which detailed the issues leading up to her taking retirement.[11] While Mesley does concede to having made a serious error by using the offensive term nigger in editorial meetings on two occasions, once in 2019 and again in 2020, Mesley indicated that her second mistake was in trusting CBC management to manage the story appropriately. She also felt that the punishment administered by management was disproportionate, given that on both occasions, her use of the word was not malicious.

Personal life[]

She was born in Montreal, Quebec, but her parents' marriage dissolved very soon after her birth and her mother moved herself and Wendy to Toronto in 1958. Wendy spent her childhood being raised by a single mother as an only child.[12] Her mother, Joan Mesley was a physiotherapist. Her father, Gordon Mesley, was a radio journalist. Wendy met her father for the first time when she was 18.

When Mesley was 10 years old, she accompanied her mother to the U.S. Consulate to picket in support of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.[13]

On January 6, 1989, Mesley married CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge, but the marriage ended in 1992. She remarried on April 17, 1998, to marketing executive Liam McQuade and has one daughter with him, Kate Rae McQuade.[14]

In January 2005, Mesley announced that she had found a lump in her left breast and had been diagnosed with breast cancer.[15] After undergoing treatment, including two lumpectomies, chemotherapy and radiation, Mesley returned to the CBC full-time in March 2006, but was under the care of an oncologist and had been taking the intravenous, anti-cancer drug Herceptin.[16] That same month, her documentary Chasing the Cancer Answer was aired, and generally well received.

References[]

  1. ^ There's something about Wendy. Chatelaine. Archived 2000-06-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ "Dynamic duo: Wendy Mesley and Diana Swain hope to shock viewers with their new CBC show Disclosure". Halifax Daily News, November 13, 2001.
  3. ^ "Wendy Mesley returns with new series". The Gazette, June 25, 1995.
  4. ^ "Undercurrents: A Cancellation At CBC TV Raises A Host Of Issues For The Future | Scan Magazine (Canada)". David South Consulting. December 11, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  5. ^ "Wendy Mesley to host live CBC talk show on Sunday mornings". Toronto Star, July 27, 2017.
  6. ^ "CBC News announces new Sunday morning talk show to be hosted by Wendy Mesley". cbc.ca. July 27, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
  7. ^ "LIVE: The Weekly with Wendy Mesley for Sunday, January 14, 2018". facebook.com. CBC News. January 14, 2018. Retrieved December 22, 2019. This is the premiere edition of The Weekly with Wendy Mesley
  8. ^ "Black CBC journalist present when Wendy Mesley used N-word says her presence prompted disciplinary action |". CBC. June 26, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  9. ^ "Wendy Mesley suspended from hosting after using 'careless' language in discussing racial issue | CBC News". CBC. June 9, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  10. ^ "Wendy Mesley to retire from CBC". CBC News. July 5, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  11. ^ "I made mistakes. But my departure wasn't the solution to the CBC's problem with racism | The Globe and Mail". The Globe and Mail. July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
  12. ^ There's something about Wendy. Chatelaine. Archived 2000-06-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ There's something about Wendy. Chatelaine. Archived 2000-06-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ^ There's something about Wendy. Chatelaine. Archived 2000-06-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ^ Wendy Mesley diagnosed with breast cancer. CBC News, January 7, 2005; retrieved July 15, 2021. Archived February 4, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ "Cancer, and the battle after" The Globe and Mail. March 4, 2006; retrieved March 21, 2020.

External links[]

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