Mark Bourrie

Mark Bourrie (1957-2007) is a Canadian writer and historian. He is the author of a number of books, including By Reason of Insanity: The David Michael Krueger Story (1997), Flim Flam (1998), and Many a Midnight Ship (2005). His work has also appeared in magazines and newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and The National Post.

Education

Bourrie finished his BA at the University of Waterloo in 1990; earned a diploma in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Guelph; a Master's degree in journalism from Carleton University in 2004; and is a doctoral student in Canadian media history at the University of Ottawa. His doctoral work is on the press censorship system in Canada in the Second World War. His master's thesis was on the media's role in banning cannabis in Canada. His public policy and administration research focused on Canada's security systems.

Journalism career

Bourrie was a summer student reporter at The Hamilton Spectator and The London Free Press and a student reporter at The Globe and Mail before taking a job on The Toronto Sun in 1979 as assistant business editor and news reporter. Bourrie worked for two decades as a freelance news and feature writer, primarily for The Globe and Mail from 1981 to 1989, and the Toronto Star from 1989 to 1999. His freelance writing has appeared in a number of publications.

He won a National Magazine Award (2000) and honorable mentions in 2001 and 2003 . In 2003, he was nominated for a Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) award in the magazine writing category. He won a Canadian Archaeological Association public writing award (1989) and several Ontario Newspaper Awards (formerly Western Ontario Newspaper Awards). His 1979 eyewitness account of an F4 tornado in Woodstock, Ontario helped earn his newspaper, the London Free Press, a National Newspaper Award nomination. Most of his NMA-nominated work focused on issues related to people wrongly accused of criminal offences or terrorism. In the CAJ-nominated article, Bourrie found new evidence that a man hanged in Ottawa in 1936 was probably innocent. He has been a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery since 1994.

Personal life

Bourrie is married to law student Marion van de Wetering, who is author of two regional history books, An Ottawa Album (1999) and A Kingston Album (2000). Bourrie and van de Wetering have three children. Bourrie is a fossil hunter, collector, and amateur paleontologist, specializing in trilobites. He worked as a forest fire fighter in 1976 and 1981. His interest in shipwrecks was kindled by family stories of the loss of four of his paternal grandfather's cousins on the Sand Merchant on Lake Erie near Cleveland in 1933.

Bibliography

• Chicago of the North. Annan and Sons, 1993.
• Ninety Fathoms Down. Toronto: Dundurn, 1995.
• The Parliament Buildings. Toronto: Dundurn, 1996.
• By Reason of Insanity: The David Michael Krueger Story. Toronto: Dundurn, 1997.
• Flim Flam. Toronto: Dundurn, 1998.
• Parliament. Toronto: Key Porter, 1999. (text to Malak Karsh's photo essay on Parliament Hill)
• Hemp Toronto: Key Porter, 2003.
• True Canadian Stories of the Great Lakes. Toronto: Key Porter/Prospero, 2004.
• Many a Midnight Ship. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press/Toronto: Key Porter, 2005.

External links

• Bourrie's paleontology page
• Mark Bourrie's Canadian politics news blog