Veteran journalist Ewart Walters fondly remembered by Jamaicans in Canada

Ewart Livingstone Walters, a veteran journalist, editor, author, former diplomat and public servant, was laid to rest in Ottawa on Friday but the memories of him, and his work, will long remain with those who knew him.

Walters, 83, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica on May 26, 1940 to the late Aston and Dorcas (nee Black) Walters, died peacefully in Ottawa on July 27.

A funeral service was held at the Fourth Avenue Baptist Church where Walters was a long-time member. He was buried at Capital Funeral Home & Cemetery.

The founder and editor of The Spectrum, Ottawa’s black community newspaper that existed for almost 30 years, is survived by his wife of 58 years, Merle (nee Campbell); his children Laurence (Sue), Martin (Smokey) and Nnamdi; grandchildren Devin, Michael, Patience and Rose; and his sister Dorrett (Tony Falloon). He was predeceased by his brother Dwight and sister Audrey.

Several of his Jamaican Canadian colleagues in the Greater Toronto Area remember him with fondness.

Retired journalist Keeble McFarlane said, on his first visit to Canada in 1967 to cover the illness – and eventual death – of the newly elected prime minister of Jamaica, Donald Sangster, he landed in Montreal one night after Good Friday and was met at the hotel by Claude Robinson, now a professor at UWI, and Walters. Both had driven from Ottawa to Montreal on that wintry night, and their presence made him feel somewhat at home.

“I had known Ewart for some time before that – I had started as a cub reporter at The Gleaner, and he had a similar position at the weekly Public Opinion. Over the years, we met up from time to time as we made our separate ways in the world of public affairs. I migrated to Canada while they made their way back to Jamaica.”

FOUNDING EDITOR

Walters was the founding editor of the now-defunct Jamaica Daily News and found his way back to North America as a public servant of the Jamaican government’s information services.

McFarlane said: “It was back to Ottawa, finally, where he and his family stayed for the rest of his life. That’s where he made a very important contribution, founding and running for 29 years a weekly paper serving that city’s black community. Ewart would often be quoted on local media outlets about events of the day. A cricket enthusiast, he also figured prominently in arranging and taking part in matches among expatriate communities across southern Ontario. He also took a keen interest in developments in the homeland, as well as in its history and how that applies to today’s events.”

McFarlane said he attended Walters’ book launches and has a couple of autographed copies of his latest works. “It was my pleasure and honour to have known this fine gentleman with whom I shared a love of the craft of journalism and an interest in the events that unfold in the world around us.”

Meanwhile, Philip Mascoll, another retired journalist, said Walters was truly a scholar and a gentleman. He met him in Jamaica in the early 1970s when Walters was editor of the Jamaica Daily News and Mascoll was at the Agency for Public Information, a rebirth of the Jamaica Information Service(JIS) which later became JIS again.

“We had mutual friends and mutual political interests and I developed a friendship with and admiration for Ewart ‘Fats’ Walters. He was a calm man in times that were not at all calm. Fats was also one of us ‘big men’ who did not allow size to curtail our activities. He was an extraordinarily good cricketer and table tennis player,” he said.

RESPECT

Mascoll said an indication of the respect in which Walters was held in journalism came to him when Walters was suggested as a possible editor for a thesis he was writing at Carleton University in Ottawa about the Jamaican diaspora in Canada.

“The thesis, which contained historical references on Jamaica and passages in Patois, was beyond my tutors on the course and it was one of them who suggested Ewart. That tutor was not a Jamaican, but lauded Ewart’s sterling reputation as a journalist and authority on Jamaica, the Jamaican diaspora generally, and the Canadian-Jamaican limb in particular. Ewart will be missed by myself and all at large in our community. He was a treasure that is now gone, but through his writings, not lost to us. Walk good, Fats,” he said.

Philanthropist Kamala-Jean Gopie said Walters was a person of integrity who gave his all to whatever he did, be it in his professional or personal life.

“He brought a sense of joy to his volunteering, be it cricket, community activity and/or producing a newspaper, The Spectrum, for the Caribbean community. His sharp mind, wit and broad base of knowledge made discussing politics, whether about Jamaica or Canada, quite a learning experience for the listener. He will be missed as a friend, honest sounding board and actively involved community person,” she said.

Walters is featured in the book, Jamaicans in Canada: When Ackee Meets Codfish, which chronicles some of his journey as an editor, publisher, prize-winning journalist, diplomat, and author.

Before migrating to Canada in 1964, he worked in senior positions in journalism with The Gleaner and the Jamaica Daily News, and was a regular member of the panel on the JBC’s public affairs show, Firing Line. At Carleton University in Ottawa in the 1960s, he became the first black editor of the university’s weekly student newspaper, The Carleton.

Walters served 22 years in the federal public service of Canada, six years in the Jamaican diplomatic service, four years in the Jamaican civil service, and 11 years in the private sector. As a federal public servant, he served for several years as senior advisor to the president of Canadian International Development Agency and retired as a senior analyst in private policy with Health Canada.