Former CTV Montreal anchor Bill Haugland received lifetime achievement award

Former CTV Montreal anchor Bill Haugland was honoured this weekend by the Quebec Federation of Professional Journalists, an association which represents roughly 1500 members of the press in Quebec. He received a lifetime achievement award, the first time such an honor is given to a non-francophone journalist in the province, during the Federation’s annual conference in Trois-Rivières.

Bill Haugland started working for CFCF-Radio in 1961, before joining its TV upstart CFCF-12 in 1964. Haugland was a star reporter, who witnessed all the major events of the 1960s in the province, from the Quiet Revolution, to the FLQ crisis, while covering other major changes in society during that period.

"We didn’t want to honour an anglophone or a francophone," says the federation’s president Eric-Pierre Champagne. "We wanted to recognize a good journalist, a very good journalist."

"Haugland had a huge career at CTV, and it was important to highlight it, and reward him for it."

Inside a packed conference hall at the Trois-Rivières conference center, the award was presented by CTV’s Stephane Giroux, himself a former president of the FPJQ from 2016 to 2019.

'A true gentleman'

"When I grew up in a francophone household, our family, like many more, would watch The Price is Right at 5 p.m., because it was relatively easy to understand. But before the era of remote controls, we simply left the TV on when Pulse News came on," Giroux told the audience. "And that’s how Pulse News managed to gather such a high number of Francophone viewers."

Former reporter Bob Benedetti recalls that in the early 1980s, before the anglophone exodus to Ontario, Haugland was already a household name.

"He had ratings at 6 p.m. exceeding 500,000 viewers for Pulse News. Five hundred thousand, that was more than all TV networks at the time, including the French networks,” recalls the veteran reporter who is now retired.

"He was a true gentleman," Benedetti adds. "His image came across the TV lens and landed in your living room. And what you saw was what you got. He was the real deal."

A sentiment echoed by others who worked with him.

"When I was a little girl, Bill Haugland was the anchor everyone was watching," recalls CTV anchor Caroline Van Vlaardingen. "He was also the coolest anchor of his generation," pointing to his legendary interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their Bed-In peace protest at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in 1969.

Influence over next generation of reporters

Maya Johnson, who now hosts CTV Montreal’s 5 p.m. newscast, says he was like a family member for his viewers.

"My parents started watching him when they moved to Montreal from Jamaica in the 1960s, and then it was my turn, from the 1980s on," says Johnson. "Several generations, no matter what age, loved Bill Haugland."

Philip Authier, a veteran journalist for the Montreal Gazette, says that as a young journalist Haugland was like a role model. "He was an influence for me, and I recently spoke to two much younger journalists who said exactly the same thing, that when they were young, they watched Bill Haugland and it motivated them to become journalists."

Van Vlaardingen says Haugland was also very helpful when young staff members joined.

"I asked him for advice when I started anchoring, and he said, 'just be yourself.' That’s what I’ve tried to do ever since. And I think many of us owe him a lot for showing that you can still be number one by being kind."

A lifetime of quality journalism

Haugland couldn’t attend the ceremony in person, but in a pre-taped acceptance speech, he recalled his early days in the newsroom, earning a princely salary of $35 a week. He also recalled his great collaboration and collegiality with the Francophone press over the years.

Haugland also closely covered the FLQ crisis, following police who were tracking the kidnappers of British diplomat James Richard Cross, and Liberal cabinet member Pierre Laporte, who was killed during his detention. Back in these days, police allowed reporters to get much closer to the action.

"James Richard Cross was freed by his captors in exchange for a safe passage to Cuba, he says. I was fifty meters away from the helicopter that took them to the airport," says Haugland.

He also recalls the years when Quebec militants calling themselves the FLQ (Front de Libération du Québec) were detonating bombs in the streets of Montreal.

"I would follow the bomb squad. If they found an unexploded device, they’d send two guys with armored costumes and heavy face masks, to pick up the device and put it in a special truck," Haugland recalls.

"Then the whole press corp would follow the bomb squad to an empty parking lot behind city hall, and boum, they would detonate it."

Haugland says he always adhered to strict ethical guidelines, never allowing his opinion to get in the way of facts.

He recalls his original news director, Burt Cannings, who once refused to air a story he did on American draft dodgers living in Montreal during the Vietnam war, because his own feelings about the war transpired in the story.

"Believe me I never forgot that lesson," he says.

In his speech, Haugland also referred to the tragic death of his son Hugh Haugland. He was a CTV National cameraman, who had climbed in a helicopter to film footage of a small tornado that caused damages in the Laurentians. The helicopter had mechanical problems, and crash landed, killing the younger Haugland instantly.

"Thankfully he didn’t suffer," Haugland says. "But by then I figured life was too short for any of us to be angry at each other, or to be hateful over politics."

Bill Haugland is now 82 years old, and still lives peacefully with his wife at his family estate in Vermont. He’s also an accomplished author who released three novels after he retired from journalism.