Thursday, April 13, 2023
NOTE: 2nd Thursday of the month
Oakville Conference Centre
2515 Wyecroft Road, Oakville (QEW & Bronte Rd.)
Registration/Cash Bar 6 pm; Dinner & Speaker 7 – 9:30 pm Members $55 Non-Members $65
Hilary Brown
Broadcaster, Correspondent, and Journalism Pioneer
Author of War Tourist: Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent
Rising from local Canadian television to becoming ABC Television’s first-ever female foreign correspondent, Hilary Brown had a front row seat to history in the making in some of the most dangerous parts of the world at a time when very few women were even reporting on television. Just as Hilary’s acclaimed memoir War Tourist offers a unique look at a career spanning decades, in this event Hilary will be sharing her unmatched perspective on some of the biggest news stories of a generation. Join Hilary Brown for a remarkable look back on a groundbreaking career – and a life unlike any other in our time by a woman who lived it to the fullest – even when being shot at.
Hilary Brown is known for her extensive television work in both Canada and the United States in the 1970s and ’80s. She earned a page in the broadcasting history books as ABC’s first ever female foreign correspondent. She was then a token woman in a man’s world. From 1973, for more than 35 years, she reported from Vietnam, Iran, Pakistan, Bosnia, and other trouble-spots around the globe.
She was one of the last journalists to be lifted by helicopter from the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon in 1975, during the Communist takeover of South Vietnam. One of her most famous broadcasts took place in 1975 from the deck of the USS Hancock, where the American military was pushing helicopters into the sea to make room for Vietnamese refugees. This ABC broadcast later appeared in the motion picture ‘The Deer Hunter’ in what Brown calls her ‘fifteen seconds of fame.’ Years later she went back to Asia to visit the refugee camps of the Vietnamese Boat People and sponsored a family to immigrate to Canada.
During the 1980’s she was an Anchor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, an experience she describes as ‘death by hairspray.’ She later returned to ABC News for another 18 years to do the work she loved, foreign news report. She was once profiled on TVO’s ‘The Agenda’ as ‘Canada’s best-ever female foreign correspondent.’
Hilary’s recent book, War Tourist, is her story of heartache, concussion and clinical depression, guilt and atonement, as well as the complete, triple-distilled thrill of the job, writing ‘the first rough draft of history.’ Her memoir is a riveting, self-deprecating account of a charmed life in the age of feminism.
Different Drummer Books will have the book for sale and Hilary will be pleased to sign all purchases.
Dinner reservations are required. Payment options include:
- Visit our tickets page to purchase online
- e-transfer to pmt@canadianclubhalton.ca
Cost – Members ($55); Non-Members ($65)
Ticket sales deadline midnight Monday April 10, 2023.
Cancellation deadline Monday, April 10. Please review event policies.
Memberships (12 months rolling) $40 Single; $70 Family
