May 21, 2014
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Robyn is the bestselling author of Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story and is an investigative reporter with The Globe and Mail. She began her career at the Toronto Star, covering crime and then municipal politics.
While on the city hall beat, Robyn began investigating rumours of the mayor’s troubled personal life. In 2014, the Toronto Star was awarded the prestigious Michener Award for its investigation into Rob Ford’s substance abuse. In 2012, she became the youngest recipient of the Mary Deanne Shears Award as the Star‘s reporter of the year. A graduate of Ryerson University’s journalism program, she was named as one of 12 notable alumni at the school’s 60th anniversary. She has lived in Toronto since 2002.
She once had a strange occurrence on a trip to Russia. She was in Moscow with friends and they noticed a television crew hanging around a public monument. She says, “then we spotted an actor in Soviet garb. Then a familiar-looking blond man in a slick leather jacket. It turned out to be the Amazing Race. My friends and I sat on a park bench that afternoon and watched the teams race in.”
There might be a “failed competitive figure skating” career in her past. Any investigative journalists willing to look into that?
There might also be a love of Maury Povich lurking in her past — or present.
She originally planned to study theatre. But from an experience at her high school prom where she felt that the police unfairly profiled her First Nations boyfriend lead her to journalism.
She was so nervous before her appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that she almost threw up. Watch her appearance below.