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Exploring Canada's cultural landscape
by Sharon Aschaiek, 24 Hours, 1/20/2004

Journalist digs deep in dream job

Last spring, Toronto journalist Susan Poizner came accross the story of Eliza Ann Parker, a runaway slave who in 1851, fled from the U.S. to Buxton, Ont.

Fascinated, Poizner delved deeper into the history of this woman, and this small town locate in the Chatham-Kent region of southern Ontario.

Her journey led her to Toni Parker, the 16-year-old great great grandaughter of Eliza, who shared with her the story of Eliza's freedom-fighting efforts, which helped to spark the Civil War.

Driven by her passion for cultural lore and her interest in telling the history of Canada's pioneering women, Poizner has captured Eliza's story in half-hour TV program called Mother Tongue: The Other Side of History (see details on Feb. 1 at mothertongue.ca)

"Toni is a fascinating young woman, and at 16, she tells the story beautifully," says Poizner 37. "She's passionate about her history and she wants to share it with others."

Poizner spent four days last Labour Day weekend interviewing Toni along with experts on local history, discovering Eliza's incredible story: Her harrowing escape from slavery in Maryland to Christiana Penn, her role in the Christiana Riot, wherein she and others fought off bounty hunters looking to reclaim runaway slaves, and her journey to and settlement in Buxton, which today is still home to many slave descendents.

While it was challenging for Poizner to capture the drama and the triumph of Eliza Parker's story, it was equally as challenging for her to organize the logistics of her first TV shoot.

"I knew I would be bringing along a cinematographer, a sound person and a camera assistant," she says. "I had to arrange accommodations, make sure we had enough time to film and get permission forms signed by everyone seen on screen. But the biggest challenge was figuring out how to finance it all."

Poizner put her networking and marketing skills to use to spread the word about the project, and finally managed to secure financial support from Chatham-Kent Tourism and Tourism Ontario.

She then worked with a video editor to condense the footage into a comprehensive half-hour package. She wouldn't know if she'd succeeded until making the next critical move: Taking her product to market.

Poizner would see her hard work pay off. Next month, just in time for Black History Month, her program will be played six times by three networks.

With a healthy curiosity and a wide range of interests, Poizner knew early on she wanted a future in journalism. At 18, she moved to Israel to study international relations and Russian language at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She soon began freelancing for a local newspaper, and eventually for The Jerusalem Post.

Upon graduating she moved to London, England, to complete a master's degree in contemporary Soviet studies. She also began working on what would become a long and fruitful journalism career that's included freelance work for the Guardian and The Times, and posts at BBC World Service Radio, London Radio Service and Associated Press Television News. During [...] years she lived in Russia for [...] months, and also filed [...] Austria, Turkey and Morocco.

In 2002, having enjoyed years of adventure abroad, Poizner decided it was time to explore the cultural landscape of her own homeland.

It seems that with her successful experience in Buxton, she's found what she's been looking for. Canadian Learning Television has already commissioned a 13-part Mother Tongue series, and Poizner plans to cover other Canadian cultural groups such as the Japanese, Italians, Jews, Acadians, Ukranians and more.

"I would say that I am living my dream job at this point, no question about it", she says. "I'm just going to keep going and keep challenging myself."

Photo: TV producer Susan Poizner, centre in purple, interviews the family of Eliza Ann Parker, a runaway slave who fled to Ontario in 1851. Clock-wise from left is Toni Parker, her younger sister, father, cinematographer Carolyn Wong, and Jim Groff of the Christiana Historical Society.

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This series of educational videos was made possible with funding from

Mother Tongue: A woman's history of ethnic Canada is a 13-part TV series that documents Canada's multicultural history from a female perspective. Each program tells the story of a notable woman in one of Canada's communities, including a Black fugitive slave, an Acadian mail order bride, and an Icelandic suffragette. mother, tongue, woman, history, ethnic, Canada, video, DVD, TV, tele, television, series, show, think, stock, inc., canada, ontario, british, columbia, quebec, education, school