Aboriginal community loses a friend

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Peter Gzowski, one of Canada's most respected journalists, succumbed to lung disease on Jan. 24. He was 67.

Gzowski warm, gravely voice came across the airwaves and into Canadian homes for more than 15 years as host of CBC Radio's Morningside, and prior to that on the same network's This Country in the Morning.

His respect for Aboriginal people made him many friends in this community. He made a point of speaking regularly with as many Native artists, musicians, politicians, activists, Elders, writers, journalists, and actors as he could.

Tom King, author, photographer, actor and creator of the Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour, heard on CBC, will miss his friend.

"Peter interviewed me as a writer on his show a couple of times. . . He did a great interview. It was wonderful to be interviewed by a man who had such a unique style and who was such a great interviewer.He let you know that not only was he prepared for your interview, in my case he had read my books, but he also let you know that he was truly interested in what you had to say. He was very generous, had a great sense of humor and never made anyone feel less than he was. You were his equal. . .

"Once the Dead Dog Cafe had debuted on CBC and ran weekly during Morningside, I created a character-Spike-whom I wanted Peter to do. I discussed this idea around the CBC studio, but I was unsure of actually approaching Peter with the idea. I didn't think that he had even listened to the show. I was told to just call him up, that he wouldn't bite. I got up the courage and called saying, 'Peter, this is Tom King.' He immediately said, 'I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it,' before I said another word. He did, however, suggest spelling Spike with a 'y' and that he be called 'Spyke with a y'. . .

"His character of 'Spyke with a y' haunted him to this day. As chancellor of Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., someone put his name-tag on his office door as 'Spike with a y' and with his great sense of humor he loved it and left it up. I will miss him."

Singer/songwriter Susan Aglukark has been called by colleagues of Gzowski's "one of Peter's favorites." She spoke emotionally about Gzowski's passing.

"It was too early. What a loss. If I could just for a moment try to explain to people back home in Nunavut or even across the country realize what he gave us just in the Morningside morning show, just the few moments we'd turn the radio on in a blizzard, that was all we had; we'd listen to Peter Gzowski's voice on the radio, and it's gone. It's a loss.

"Even in the studio, one of the things that was calming was the sparkle in his eyes. He had this way of making things settle when you were in the studio. It's your first interview and you're very nervous and he winked at me and said, 'it's going to be OK'. When we took him up to the Arctic, it was like a little boy had come out. It's very flattering when it's your world, and it's your land, when somebody like Peter Gzowski comes up there, three, four times and keeps coming back. It was like the little boy would come out of this person and he was free of something and he was very comfortable there and we welcomed him there. . .

"I remember when I got the call from Peter, an invitation to come on the Morningside program. I have the little cassette tape with his voice on it because I just could not believe that Peter Gzowski called my apartment and asked if I could be on Morningside. The first thing I did was call my mom and told her, 'you'll never guess whose voice I have on my answering service'."

Singer/songwriter, actor, Tom Jackson had a longtime friendship with Gzowski and shared these thoughts:

"He wanted to find a way to discover talent that hadn't had a lot of exposure, myself being one of those fortunate ones. We had many good times together and have been involved in each other's charity events. For many years we've been tighter than peas in a pod. My life has just been absolutely blessed. You know, I hate deathfor taking my good friend, but I love life for having been blessed by his presence."

In 1986 Gzowski founded the Peter Gzowski Invitational Golf Tournament for literacy. Hoping to raise $1 million for literacy, his golf tournaments have raised more than $6 million to date and have been played in every province and territory in Canada.

Stan Dixon, former chief of the Sechelt Nation of British Columbia (1983-87), managing editor of Kahtou, The Voice of B.C.'s First Nations newspaper and city councilor for the District of Sechelt, B.C., had this to say about Gzowski:

"He was very interested in our fight for self-government and did a great interview. He was a really fair person who you knew had done his research before talking with you. He approached all our interviews with common sense and logic. We talked about religion, self-government and many other things. He praised and supported our efforts for attaining self-government. He was a really fair person whom I both liked and admired.

"I remember him asking me what level of education I had, and we talked about literacy and the importance of people learning to read and write properly. He said, 'if a person learns to speak properly, they can be heard. If you learn to read, you can get your message through to people, and if you know your literature, you can make history'.

"Peter Gzowski was a rare individual who lived his beliefs on a daily basis and that is an example that I try to live by. He was a huge influence on Canada, all over this province. We got the CBC station and we were all able to listen to the same stories on his program. He was a role model who has left us a legacy of teaching us about the incredible importance of literacy. He had a huge influence on Native people in this country and on me personally. I'm truly sorry he's gone. We'll miss him."