Retired CBC journalist dies after random assault

A prominent retired broadcast journalist has died after a Toronto assault that marks the latest random fatal attack in Canada’s largest city.

Michael Finlay, 73, died of his injuries one week after he was assaulted while out walking on Danforth Avenue in Toronto’s east end. His former colleagues at the CBC say he was pushed from behind while grocery shopping on the afternoon of Jan. 24.

Police have released images of an unidentified man who was captured on a surveillance camera while he was leaving the scene.

“The suspect encountered another man on Danforth Avenue and assaulted him. The man fell to the ground and sustained serious injuries,” reads the initial police statement released on Saturday.

“We are aware the victim has since tragically passed away,” Constable Caroline de Kloet, a police spokeswoman, said on Wednesday. Police are renewing their calls for the public to help identity the suspect who is still at large.

Mr. Finlay retired from CBC in 2010 after 31 years at the national broadcaster. He worked for radio shows such as Dispatches, The World at Six and Sunday Morning.

“Michael will be remembered as an exceptional storyteller, documentarymaker and editor,” reads a statement e-mailed to The

Globe and Mail by CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson.

Reporters recall Mr. Finlay as being the quintessential tough-but-fair editor.

“I quite literally think of him every time I write a script,” senior business reporter Peter Armstrong said in an interview. “He knew everything. He knew the story you were working on way better than you can possibly know it.”

Mr. Armstrong said this editing process was often terrifying for reporters, but Mr. Finlay “respected the work so much he would inevitably make you sound smarter than you actually were.”

Last week, the Toronto Police Service announced that it would be stepping up patrols in and around the city’s downtown transit hubs after a series of random attacks that turned deadly.

On Dec. 9, Vanessa Kurpiewska, 31, was killed at High Park Station in a stabbing attack where a second woman was injured. A 52-year-old man has been charged with first degree murder and attempted murder.

On Jan. 20, an 89-year-old woman was killed around noon while walking near the subway station at King and Yonge streets. Police say she was pushed to the ground by a 37-year-old man with no fixed address who is now facing manslaughter charges.

There have also been a series of non-fatal assaults over the past month, including that of a 23-year-old foreign student who was stabbed multiple times aboard the Spadina streetcar by an assailant she did not know.

A 43-year-old woman has been charged with attempted murder in the Jan. 24 attack.

In a statement last week, Toronto Mayor John Tory called for a national summit on mental health issues.

“When the federal and provincial governments don’t fully and adequately fund mental health care, the responsibility is off-loaded to ill-equipped municipalities across Canada,” he said.

“It is off-loaded to our shelters, to our police services, to our transit systems, and to hospital emergency departments.”

Michael Finlay retired from CBC in 2010 after 31 years at the national broadcaster.