Maggie Siggins

SIGGINS, Maggie (b.1942)
Journalist, Writer

Maggie Siggins is a journalist, writer, and broadcaster of national stature.  Born in Toronto in 1942, she received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism in 1965 from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and began her career as a reporter for the Toronto Telegram.  During the 1970s she worked as a political reporter, commentator, interviewer, and producer for CBC and CITY-TV Toronto.  As a freelancer, her work has appeared in such major national magazines as Chatelaine, Macleans, Reader’s Digest, Today Magazine, and Financial Post Magazine.  She wrote a monthly political column in Toronto Life from 1981 to 1983.  She has produced documentaries for CBC and CITY-TV and spent 1985-1986 in China, where she worked at the New China News Agency and taught at the Beijing Broadcast Institute.

Siggins is the author of numerous books. She has won a number of awards and honours.  In 1985 her book on the JoAnn and Colin Thatcher murder case, A Canadian Tragedy, won the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award. Revenge of the Land received the Governor-General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 1992.  The City of Regina Best Book Award was won by Siggins for Riel: A Life of Revolution; In Her Own Time:  A class Reunion Inspires a Cultural History on Women and Bitter Embrace:  White Society’s Assault on the Woodland Cree.  Love and Hate, a 1989 CBC television miniseries was based on her book on the Thatcher case.  It has aired in Canada, the United States, Britain and over forty other countries.  A miniseries, based on Revenge of the Land was broadcast on CBC and CBS.

Siggins has lectured widely and taught journalism, holding the Southam Fellowship for Journalists, University of Toronto (1973-1974), and the Max Bell Chair in Journalism at the University of Regina (1983-1984).

Siggins is the Vice-President of 4 Square Productions and has written over 50 hours of television.

Written with information from
Maggie Siggins

Archival Collections (Finding Aids in PDF format)

84-4 - Various Authors Papers, Various Organizations and Publications. 1961-1982

84-26 - Research Materials for Brian and the Boys. 1973-1984

86-15 - Research Materials for A Canadian Tragedy.

87-46 - Research Materials for A Canadian Tragedy.

88-65 - Thatcher Trial Tapes from CBC Love and Hate.

90-1 - Materials relating to Thatcher Trial.

92-63 - Research Materials for Revenge of the Land.

94-67 - Research Materials and Manuscripts for Revenge of the Land and Riel: A Life of Revolution. 1987-1994

96-37 - Manuscript for Riel: A Life of Revolution. 1993

2000-23 - Research Materials for In Her Own Time.

2002-43 - Research Materials for Canadian Tragedy, In Her Own Time, and Riel: A Life of Revolution.

2005-30 - Personal Papers. 1985-2004

2008-18 - Personal Papers. 1974-1990

2013-22 - Compact Disks of Bitter Embrace Interviews. 2003-2004

2015-56 - Bitter Embrace Interview Tapes, 2003-2004