Judi McLeod

Judi Ann T. McLeod (born 1944) is a Canadian journalist who operates the conservative Canadian website, Canada Free Press (CFP), which publishes news stories, features, and editorials. The main page of the website uses the title "Canada Free Press ...Because without America there is no Free World" and features a "Countdown until Obama leaves Office" (capitalization in the original).

Early life and career

McLeod was born in Prince Edward Island and raised in St. Joseph's Orphanage in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her first article was published in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald when she was 18.

Early career controversy

McLeod worked as a city-hall reporter in the Greater Toronto Area for the Brampton Times in 1981, where her husband was the managing editor.

When she was removed from her beat in 1983, she alleged that conservatives she had accused of meddling in local politics, had put pressure on the newspaper. When her husband reinstated her to the position, the newspaper fired them both. The Globe and Mail reported that Canada's multiculturalism minister, Liberal MP James Fleming, was investigating McLeod's removal. Fleming believed the reassignment amounted to intimidation of a reporter doing her job. The Ontario Federation of Labour, protested on McLeod's behalf against what they called political intervention. Days after being fired, McLeod won the Edward J. Hayes Memorial Ontario award for beat-reporting. Broadcast journalist and panelist Peter Desbarats called her coverage the best of any in 22 Ontario dailies. The McLeods subsequently filed a lawsuit against The Brampton Times for wrongful dismissal, but later withdrew it. Judi McLeod also claimed to have filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission against the Brampton Times.