Former CRTC chair John Meisel dies at 101

Former CRTC chair John Meisel died March 30 at the age of 101, according to an obituary published by the Kingston Whig-Standard. Meisel led the commission from 1979 until 1983. Born in October 1923 in Vienna to Czech parents, his family moved across the world to escape the Holocaust. They lived in the Netherlands, Morocco, and Haiti before settling in Canada in January 1942, according to his obituary. Meisel attended Ottershaw College in the United Kingdom, Pickering College in Newmarket, Ont., and the University of Toronto. He received his Ph.D at the London School of Economics. He taught at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. for more than five decades, beginning in 1949. In 1989, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to companion in 1999. Former telecom research analyst Lawrence Surtees spoke highly of Meisel in 2002 when Charles Dalfen was named as CRTC chair. Surtees praised Dalfen for having a broad range of interests including telecom law and broadcasting standards. "One would be hard pressed to name a chairman who would have been as comfortable in all those fields as , short of John Meisel. But again they’re different players,” Surtees said at the time. “John was an amazing guy, a wonderful chair, but a political scientist, whereas Charles knows the legal nuances of the field, and that’s where the devil resides – in the details of the laws." Meisel was more recently celebrated by his fellow teachers at Queen’s. "While his wit and charm could disarm anyone he met, it was his boundless curiosity that stood out for me," said Jonathan Rose, professor and head of the department of political studies at the university in a web post remembering Meisel. "As the title of his autobiography — published when he was 90 — attests, John had A Life of Learning. His enduring curiosity, intellectual humility, and desire to make meaningful personal and scholarly connections made him a true public intellectual — long before that term was fashionable. His achievements matched the breadth of his intellectual pursuits, but all that pales to what I think is his most important legacy: the role he played as a mentor to generations of professors, public servants, journalists, and students in a language that was accessible,” Rose said. Meisel is survived by his second wife, Hanna Dodwell. A celebration of life will be held at a later date, according to his obituary. news@thewirereport.ca

Former CRTC chair John Meisel dies at 101

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By Wire Report Staff
| April 8, 2025

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Former CRTC chair John Meisel dies at 101

People | By Wire Report Staff | April 8, 2025

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