Barbara Frum

Barbara Frum OC (September 8, 1937 – March 26, 1992) was an American-born Canadian radio and television journalist and broadcaster, best known for hosting CBC Radio's current affairs program As It Happens from 1971 to 1981 and serving as the founding co-host of CBC Television's nightly newsmagazine The Journal from 1982 until her death from leukemia. Frum's career, which began with freelance writing and contributions to publications like Saturday Night magazine, elevated her to national prominence through her incisive, unflinching interviewing style that elicited candid responses from politicians, experts, and ordinary citizens alike, earning her widespread respect for journalistic rigor amid the public broadcaster's mandate. Diagnosed with chronic leukemia in 1974, she continued working productively for nearly two decades, concealing the severity of her illness until shortly before her passing at age 54, after which she was posthumously honored with memorials including a Toronto library branch and atrium named in her memory.

Barbara Frum was born Barbara Rosberg on September 8, 1937, in Niagara Falls, New York. She was the eldest of three children in a Jewish family headed by her parents, Harold Rosberg and Florence Hirschowitz Rosberg.