Siddiqui returns to Brandon for public event

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This article was published 18/05/2024 (532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nationally celebrated Canadian journalist and former Brandon Sun editor Haroon Siddiqui will return to Brandon to share excerpts from his new book, “My Name Is Not Harry: A Memoir,” during a free public event at the Brandon University Library next Saturday.

Siddiqui, a member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario, is the winner of several journalistic awards, including a World Press Freedom Award in 2002 and the Lifetime Achievement Award given last year by the Canadian Journalism Foundation.

“The insight and perspective that Haroon Siddiqui brings to culture, to politics — and to Canada — are second to none,” Brandon University political science professor Kelly Saunders said in a press release on Friday. “It will be a treat to engage with him as we explore the changes and challenges he’s seen during his exceptionally distinguished career.”

Saunders will join Siddiqui in a fireside chat-style conversation on Saturday as part of his public event at the university.

In a conversation with the Sun yesterday, Siddiqui said the name of his memoir came from a “very Canadian” moment — one that happened to coincide with his 10-year stint as a journalist in Brandon. The well-known Toronto Star editorial page editor emeritus and Canadian author spent the formative years of his writing career working at the Brandon Sun from 1968-78, first as a reporter and then as editor.

The memoir’s name stemmed from an incident he had with former Manitoba Progressive Conservative premier Sterling Lyon in the halls of the Manitoba legislature.

“People had a tendency in those days to anglicize names and so on, and people would once in a while call me Harry,” Siddiqui said. “And then Sterling Lyon, the famous premier, had called me Harry. And then a second time.”

Siddiqui had travelled to Winnipeg that day to cover a story, and had met Lyon in one of the legislature corridors. The premier had casually said, “Hi Harry” to the Sun reporter as he approached. But being a Muslim immigrant from India — and visibly so — that name did not sit well with him.

“I paused, and I told the premier my name is not Harry. I don’t look like Harry. I don’t want to be Harry. My name is so and so. So there’s a bit of a pause, and he walked away. And I walked away.”

Decades later, while chatting with Adrienne Clarkson, Canada’s Governor General from 1999 to 2005, Siddiqui recounted his story with premier Lyon.

“And she said, ‘That is the title of your book.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean that’s the title of my book?’ She said, ‘No no, that is the title of your book.’ And so it became the title of the book,” Siddiqui said.

“And that story itself is very Canadian, because it was instigated by the incident with a very conservative politician in Manitoba. And then the title came from a very liberal woman in Toronto.”

Siddiqui has previously told the Sun that his memoir is really a telling of Canada’s more recent history as viewed from the eyes of an immigrant, “and the world from the eyes of an immigrant and Canadian.”

Reaction to his memoir over the last several months has been good, he said, and he has held several public readings and book signings in Calgary, Toronto, Victoria, Montreal and Vancouver. He has more events planned for Toronto and Hamilton later this year.

The public event in Brandon takes place on May 25 from 3-5 p.m. at the Gathering Space of the John E. Robbins Library at Brandon University.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com

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