Pearce, Patricia

Pat Pearce (1915-1986) was born Maire Patricia Finlay in Belfast, N. Ireland. Trained as a secretary in Fleet Street, she was working in journalism in Britain at the time of the Second World War. She came to Canada in the second year of the war. She began as a book reviewer and drama critic with the Montreal Herald newspaper in 1951. She soon moved to radio and television reviews and, in 1957, joined the Montreal Star as radio and television reviewer with her own column. In 1968 the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (original title) was set up to monitor broadcasting and licensing. Pat was one of the first four full-time commissioners appointed in April 1968. The initial appointment was for four years. Pat was reappointed in April 1975 and resigned in April 1979. Pat Pearce early developed an interest in community broadcasting, especially in northern Canada, and by the aboriginal peoples. She chaired some of the earliest public hearings in the North West Territories. On her retirement Pat Pearce returned to Ireland where she died in 1986.