OTTAWA, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Former Canadian Broadcasting Corp. President Pierre Juneau has died, a colleague said Tuesday. He was 89.
Juneau headed the network from 1982 to 1989. He also was the first chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
"Pierre Juneau was a passionate defender of public broadcasting and a fervent promoter of Canadian content," current CBC President Hubert Lacroix said in a statement. "He was instrumental to shaping policy that allowed Canadians to build their own industry and their own content. We still feel his influence today."
The CBC said Juneau began his career in 1949 at the National Film Board. In 1968, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed him to head the CRTC, where his guiding principle was "Canadian broadcasting should be Canadian."
Canada's music awards, the Junos, were named after him. He also was an officer of the Order of Canada.
Postmedia News reported Juneau, a native of Montreal, died Tuesday. Other details of his death were not provided.
