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In her nearly five-decade career, journalist Christie Blatchford covered every kind of story possible.
Blatchford passed away Wednesday after battling cancer since November. She was 68.
One assignment that really stuck with Blatchford was covering the war in Afghanistan. In 2006 she was embedded with the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
Corporal Jim Sinclair from Regina Beach was in the platoon where Blatchford was embedded. He told Gormley that at first he wasn’t keen on the whole idea.
“To tell you the truth, I wasn’t happy about meeting her or having her as part of our platoon. I looked at her coming to our platoon as a liability. You know, we’re going to be getting into contact with the enemy and now we’ve got to take care of a reporter,” said Sinclair.
Sinclair said that he came to really respect Blatchford during their time together.
“I became friends with her because we did encounter contact with the enemy and she handled herself very well and she definitely didn’t hinder our operations at all.”
Master Warrant Officer (Ret.) William (Willie) McDonald also became friends with Blatchford in Afghanistan. He said he remembers at least one occasion when she got a little too close to the action.
“It was the day that Corporal Anthony Boneca was killed and Christie had kind of found herself following soldiers into battle and she didn’t really know what she was getting herself into,” said McDonald.
“In the course of that she found herself literally right at the front line, armed only of course with a pen and a piece of paper. So, I kind of grabbed a hold of her when Corporal Boneca was being brought off the battlefield and I said, ‘are you crazy? What are you doing?”‘
Both men kept in touch with Blatchford even after all three returned to Canada.
Sinclair said he will always remember when he realized why Blatchford was such a strong storyteller.
“She can definitely get information out of you and open up to you and that was something special,” said Sinclair. “Her ability to get you to open up to her and be truthful, that was the beginning of our friendship, I believe.”
