Macdonald was born and raised in Quebec City. His father was Percy Macdonald, who served with the Canadian Army during World War II and helped liberate the Netherlands. His mother is Ferne Macdonald (née Mains). He has two brothers, one of whom was comedian/actor Norm Macdonald.[1] He is married to Joyce Napier,[2] a former parliamentary bureau chief for CTV News.[3]
Career
After graduating from Algonquin College in Ottawa, Macdonald worked first as a print journalist. He joined the CBC in 1988 and covered Canadian Parliament for approximately a decade. He then served for five years (1998–2003) as the network's chief Middle East correspondent.
Macdonald was involved in a public dispute with Canadian media mogul Leonard Asper in 2003. Asper had accused Macdonald of being "anti-Israeli" after taking exception to some of the CBC's Middle East coverage. Macdonald responded with a rebuttal in The Globe and Mail, accusing Asper of defamation and alleging editorial censorship in the Asper-owned CanWest media outlets.[4]
In November 2010, Macdonald led a CBC investigation into the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which had been mandated with solving the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The report uncovered documents suggesting the UN investigative body had strong evidence to link the Shia paramilitary group Hezbollah to the 2005 bombing that killed Hariri, and that the UN had not acted on this intelligence due to diplomatic concerns.[5] Macdonald's report also sharply criticized the performance of the Special Tribunal's head prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, who responded that he was "extremely disappointed" with the report.[6]
In 2015, Macdonald moved back to Canada after 17 years in the United States, 12 of which he spent in Washington, D.C. as the Washington bureau correspondent for The National. Macdonald produced editorial articles for the CBC's website, as well as appearing as a senior correspondent for The National before he retired in December 2019.[9]
In 2004, Macdonald received a Gemini Award for his reportage on political violence in Haiti. He was awarded a second "best reportage" Gemini in 2009 for his coverage of the U.S. 2007 economic crisis.[12]
References
^Story, Jared (September 23, 2010). "Norm Macdonald talks to Uptown". Winnipeg: Uptown. Archived from the original on September 28, 2010. U: ...your brother is on the CBC (Neil Macdonald is The National's senior Washington correspondent). Macdonald: Yeah, my brother is a news reporter. He lives in Washington now. I'm glad because he used to do war reporting.
