Remembering his life and legacy

Corriere Canadese and Tandem founder Dan Iannuzzi passes away at the age of 70

Dan Iannuzzi, founder of Corriere Canadese and Tandem, passed away on November 20 in Rome. The news immediately reached Canada, raising great sorrow and grief for the passing of a person who had done much for this country and for our community.
Iannuzzi died of a heart attack at Rome's San Camillo Hospital where he had been brought Saturday morning.
Born in Montreal in 1934, Iannuzzi, third-generation Canadian, moved to Toronto and immediately launched in the world of media, offering to the growing Italian-Canadian community a solid reference that managed to last for over half a century, and counting.
A few months ago, in fact, Iannuzzi himself had taken part in the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the founding of Corriere Canadese.
From the moment the news of his death began to spread, our switchboard has rung incessantly: from politicians, businesspeople, but mostly common citizens who wanted to pay tribute to someone whom they felt close for over 50 years.
The first official communiqué of condolences came from the Prime Minister of Canada, Paul Martin. Martin called Iannuzzi "a giant in the field of Canadian media."
From the Italian ambassador to Canada, Marco Colombo, "we lost a protagonist who had great human qualities," while Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty remarked, "Iannuzzi left a mark of great civic stature."
Daniel Andrew Iannuzzi, third-generation Canadian of Italian heritage, was born in Montreal but spent the last 50 years in Toronto. He manifested his commitment and loyalty to the community and to Canada from a young age, when he enlisted in the Canadian Grenadier Guards at 18.
With his long background in journalism, politics, human rights and public affairs, and extensive experience in publishing and broadcasting, Dan Iannuzzi devoted his whole life and career to the media industry, with particular regard to multicultural media.
He was a founding shareholder, director and executive producer of multilingual programming for Toronto's CityTV from 1972 to 1979. In 1979, Iannuzzi founded Channel 47 CFMT-TV (today's OMNI), Canada's first regional multilingual TV station, and steered it for 10 years as President.
Dan Iannuzzi was also President of World Television Network/Le Rèseau Tèlèmonde Inc.
Up to his last days he remained President and Chairman of the board of Multimedia Nova Corporation, which publishes Corriere Canadese, the Italian-language daily founded in 1954; Tandem, English-language newsmagazine founded in 1994; Spanish-language Correo Canadiense; Portuguese-language O Correio Canadiano Nove Ilhas; nine editions of the Town Crier Community Newspapers; and Italian-language Insieme - Il Corriere del Québec. All these periodicals are published through Multicom Media Services Ltd. and printed by Multimedia Nova subsidiary NewsWeb Printing Corporation.
Dan Iannuzzi sat on numerous national committees and received many recognitions and awards, including in 1977 the Canadian Family of Man Award from the League of Human Rights (B'nai B'rith) and the Expo '86 Award for excellence and pioneerism in multicultural communications.
In 1979 he was presented with the City of Toronto Achievement Award, and in 1984 the Ontario Bicentennial Medal.
In 1987 he received the Ordine della Repubblica d'Italia (Order of the Republic of Italy) and was named Man of the Year by the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association. He reached the rank of Knight Commander of the Order of Malta.
In 1989 Iannuzzi was awarded the Order of Ontario, and in 1990 the Order of Canada.
In 1992 he was appointed to the Board of Directors of Canada 125 Corporation, a non-profit Crown Corporation created to develop initiatives for the celebrations of Canada's 125th anniversary.
In 1999 the National Congress of Italian-Canadians presented him with the Ordine al Merito for his lifelong dedication to community service.
His final project was the World Television Network/Le Réseau Telemonde Inc. TV channel, licensed to broadcast two multicultural services in Canada's official languages. He had assumed the leading role and chairmanship of this new initiative.
Dan Iannuzzi had a great influence on our lives; to us, he was an iconic figure.


50 Years of Corriere Canadese
The last editorial written by Dan Iannuzzi in celebration of the newspaper's anniversary

by Dan Iannuzzi*

Last June, in celebration of the first 50 years of Corriere C.anadese, Dan Iannuzzi wrote this article. We reprint it as our President's final message to our readers.
The first issue of Corriere Canadese was printed on June 1, 1954, at 441 King Street West.
That was a great satisfaction for me: with editor-in-chief Arturo Scotti we had managed to create a newspaper for the Italian community.
Toronto had 30,000 Italians out of a population of 670,000. That community needed a lead to integration in Canada, while keeping alive its links with Italy.
I won't recapitulate all the battles we fought together: they are part of our life. Together, our readers and our newspaper, we made history, and will continue to work together towards new goals.
Our newspaper, day after day, recorded heroic acts and humble realities, victories and a few defeats; everything made us mature and improve.
These first 50 years are an incentive for us to project into the third millennium; the technological evolution of our newspaper marched in step with the growth of our Italian-Canadian society, perfectly integrated in the Canadian mosaic, and now stronger than ever at every level.
The intent of our newspaper hasn't changed, its "soul" hasn't changed. As I wrote in my first editorial, 50 years ago, Corriere Canadese still has the purpose of upholding the Italian character of all Italian-Canadians, to preserve the magnificent gifts of civility and culture that make all Italians exemplary citizens all over the world.
The only thing that has changed at Corriere Canadese is our address: from King Street to www.corriere.com


Hundreds of Condolences
VIPs share grief with loyal readers and admirers

by Francesco Riondino

Entering the offices of Corriere Canadese, this week, was far from usual. Among colleagues, few words and sad smiles were exchanged; little could be said. Every one of us had his or her own personal relationship with "the President", and everyone will miss him in a different way.
The same personal relationship was reflected by the dozens and dozens of readers who have sent faxes and emails, called in or dropped by. Under the name of readers, for once, we put together famous VIPs and common folk, the regular people who first supported Corriere Canadese as well as Dan Iannuzzi's other ideas.
Among the first visitors, there was Vaughan Mayor Michael Di Biase, who brought the condolences of his city, where so many Italians live.
Dan Iannuzzi's funeral will be held on Saturday, November 27, at 10am, at the Holy Angels Church (61 Jutland Road - Etobicoke). Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to The Hospital for Sick Children or to The Children's Wish Foundation, because Dan always loved children.
Iannuzzi liked to be a public character and have his opinion listened to, but quite often he preferred to keep his actions in favour of the community very private.
He was often referred to as a media industry figure; now we find out that he was also a sports figure; however, we should always remember that, with friends, rivals, colleagues and competitors, he was among those who created the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Toronto, the Canadian Italian Benevolent Corporation (today's Villa Charities) and so on, always on the front lines.
Dan Iannuzzi was remembered by both the Federal Parliament and Queen's Park, with speeches by several ministers and Government and Opposition MPs, proof of the esteem he had deserved from everybody.


Goodbye, Mr. President
Corriere sports editor bids farewell to loyal employer

by Nicola Sparano

In public I addressed him as "Mr. Iannuzzi", in private I called him "boss". He replied by calling me, who knows why, "doctor". I met him in 1968, when we both had a lot less years, and a lot less weight. He wore his hair short and his sideburns long, in accordance with the fashion of the time. He liked to wear a black-and-white chequered jacket and highly-polished, long-pointed shoes. I was a young man, good for nothing much; he was in the middle of his life, and already a reference for a fast growing community; he would eventually give it a TV station and an important, respected place within the fabric of Canadian society.
Television was his dream, but his life was Corriere Canadese.
Mister Iannuzzi, my boss, died near the end of the year that marked the newspaper's 50th anniversary. It's a poignant, incredibly sad coincidence.
The journalists of Corriere Canadese and all the staff and management of all the companies Dan Iannuzzi created, now grouped under Multimedia Nova Corporation - Ciao Radio Corriere 530am, Correo Canadiense, Town Crier, Tandem, Insieme, NewsWeb, and Nove Ilhas - offer their condolences to the Iannuzzi family.
Good bye Mister Iannuzzi. Farewell, boss. We'll miss you.


A pioneer also in the field of sports
Remembering the first live closed-circuit TV broadcast of match

by Nicola Sparano

When he was upset, he whistled. When he started to sing, it was time to grab the helmet and hope the storm would soon be over. Dan Iannuzzi was rarely upset; it only happened when someone said he "understood", and then proceeded to demonstrate how he hadn't understood at all. Everybody says that my boss was a man of vision, who grasped many things way before most of other people; that he understood today where the world would be going tomorrow. I fully concur, having at least two anecdotes that show the farsightedness and intuition of this man, a pillar of the community who really lived being Fiercely Canadian.
When he hired me full-time in 1986, the sports section of what was then a biweekly only covered local events, especially soccer that was in his moment of greatest splendour, with teams such as Italia, Roma, Toronto City, Montreal Concordia, Croatia, and so on. As far as Italian soccer was concerned, Corriere Canadese relied on a Monday insert that came on Tuesdays from Rome's Il Tempo. For a series of reasons, the flight was never on time to make the printing deadline. Quite often, Corriere Canadese's Wednesday edition did not print a single line about Serie A. I told him that something had to be done about this. He looked at me with the kind of gaze he had when he was dealing with a problem. Pretty soon, he came out with a solution: a short-wave radio, enabling us to listen to RAI's famous broadcast, Tutto il calcio minuto per minuto. However, this system was also imperfect, as atmospheric disturbances could drown the commentary. The second - and final - solution also came from him.
My boss struck a deal with Il Tempo, and a journalist relayed over the phone the games of the Series A, B and C. That took at least an hour and a half. An intercontinental phone call, at the time, cost more or less as much as a home mortgage. I was afraid that the cost might be excessive, and said so. "Go ahead," said an unperturbed Mr. Iannuzzi. "That is money well spent. Soccer will be the main asset of our sports section."
In addition to soccer, he understood the importance of live, closed-circuit TV broadcasts. On March 4, 1968, Nino Benvenuti boxed against Emil Griffith for the World Championship - Middleweight. The match was in New York. Nino Benvenuti was the current embodiment of a winning Italy. Dan Iannuzzi organized the live broadcast of that match, the first for Toronto. Nobody else had had the idea of bringing in, via closed-circuit TV, broadcasts of events that did not raise the interest of local stations but were highly interesting for many new Canadians.
That match was a qualified success, and laid the foundations for a string of other profitable matches that a Jewish impresario brought at Maple Leaf Gardens in the following years. The Gardens, thanks to Iannuzzi's intuition, became in the '70s the house of boxing and soccer. In 1978 the World Cup of Argentina was broadcast there. The success was so huge that four years later we were able to follow the World Cup of Spain in our living rooms, broadcast by CBC, the "normal" station.
So, in my boss's ideal showcase of awards, there must be a small corner for his intuition of closed-circuit TV and short-wave radio.


* originally published on June 6, 2004


Understanding Before Everyone Else

by Angelo Persichilli

He was an entrepreneur, a politician, and an idealist. Talking about Dan Iannuzzi is not easy, as he tried and reconciled these three - apparently irreconcilable - characteristics.
He was a businessman who managed to keep alive for over 50 years an activity that is difficult to run even for those who can rely on political and economic sponsors. At the same time, through Corriere Canadese, he promoted other activities and companies, giving his contribution to the economic growth of this country and of our community.
He was a politician: when one runs a newspaper, politics becomes an integral part of one's activity. However, he never committed himself to a party line. He had contacts with the Tories, but was close to the Liberals. Ministers from the Trudeau, Turner and Chrétien cabinets felt at home at Corriere. He was not far from the NDP, either. Corriere Canadese, usually rigorously neutral during electoral campaigns, took an official stance just once: during the Provincial campaign of 1987, when it officially supported Bob Rae's NDP.
Dan Iannuzzi's positions weren't based on ideology, however, but on culture.
When world and national politics were split along right-and-left positions, socialism vs. capitalism, Dan Iannuzzi understood, before most other people, that the discussion needed to focus on cultural differences instead. Not ideologies, but religious and cultural differences would divide the world. "We must," said Iannuzzi in the '70s, "co-exist with people having different traditions, different religions from us. Not only this is right, we have no choice."
He understood that religious-cultural fanaticism was far more dangerous than ideological-political fanaticism. Just listening to the news or reading a newspaper today is enough evidence of how right he was.
So, this was Dan Iannuzzi the idealist.
Another idealist, Pierre Trudeau, believed in Iannuzzi's idea of "broadcasting" multiculturalism by creating a TV station, CFMT (now OMNI), which was to become the symbol of multicultural Canada of future years.
Always attentive to novelties, Dan followed the rapid development of new technologies and their impact on publishing and broadcasting. With the Internet, he was even able to beat Corriere della Sera to the punch, registering the www.corriere.com domain name.
Lately, acutely aware of even newer technological and cultural changes, he was working on another kind of broadcasting, proposing a new Canadian TV station that, unlike the first, would be not only multilingual but truly multicultural. He's gone, but his idea remains.
Iannuzzi's policy was based on a simple principle: putting ideas, people and cultures together, not by assimilation but by integration. The motto of Corriere Canadese - "Fiercely Canadian, Proudly Italian", summarizes his cultural and political philosophy and his worldview better than any speech.
A third-generation Canadian, he had kept the culture of his ancestors to a remarkable degree. He considered himself a French Canadian because he was born in Montreal, and an English Canadian because he lived in Toronto. However, since Dan Iannuzzi did not like to leave any business unfinished, we suspect that he chose to die in Rome as a way to restate his Italian character, something he felt deeply.
So, his last trip was a one-way Alitalia flight to Toronto... like one of the many immigrants he had fought for, giving the best of himself. Thanks, Dan.


Dreaming Life, Facing Death
Friend and confessor Father Benito Framarin details spiritual and intellectual conscience

by Father Benito Framarin

In May 1970, when I shook his hand for the first time and introduced myself ("Father Benito Framarin"), he must have been 36. "I'm Dan lannuzzi," came his lively reply. I gave a good look to his slim physique.
His was a story of immigration from Italy that had begun with his parents in Quebec, years before World War II. At the time, his story was a 16-page triweekly, a lot of determination to get things done, and just as much entrepreneurial risk.
Dan lannuzzi was nicknamed "dark and handsome" for his reserved character, his introversion, his dry expressions, and his apparent haughtiness that was just a front for his sensitivity.
Certainly, the Almighty knew him well: his empathy, his choleric temper, his intuitions coupled with his silent, cold stare that tried and silenced the many questions and recurring risks of life. Dan Iannuzzi was this: those intense eyes, those questioning silences, that constant tackling of risks. That's how Dan Iannuzzi loved life; that's how he adored his breathing, loving and at the same time challenging every day of life, striving to do something that could make existence worthwhile.
At the time (late '70s, early '80s) Canada was a receptacle of immigrants from all over the world, the Liberal kingdom of Pierre Trudeau, and a huge construction site. Canada was saying goodbye from the status of Dominion. In those frantic years, Dan Iannuzzi tried political life and risked opening a TV station... I think that those were his limits. He never had the spirit of the haranguer; a megaphone did not become him. Moreover, he hadn't realized that a TV station required a background of many experts and much larger financial power. Rather than his intuitions, what failed was his small-time entourage and his lack of powerful sponsors.
Dan lannuzzi had few friends; he entertained very few people at home. I don't know whether my priesthood was the reason for this, maybe what did the trick were the weeks spent in Rome together attending meetings on emigration and the press, but eventually our acquaintance turned into friendship. He told me about his women, about the endless adjustments with people who lived and worked with him, about refusal of any other human being and compassion for them all. He used to suggest that, if God is love, that love must include a lot of compassion. I remember going to the movies with him once, in Rome. The film itself was rather risqué, but our subsequent commentary turned into a prolonged conversation on the unstable balance of human beings, on the fragility of each of us, torn - as we are - between reason and feelings. I recall that night quite well; we discussed possible valid criteria of honesty and balance, taken as we are among taxes, power, banks; beginning with what one feels inside, what our parents taught us, which ends up becoming our natural worldview.
After returning to Italy, in the mid-80s, I never lost sight of Dan Iannuzzi. His wife Elena had her hairstylist on the same street where my religious community had its convent, and lannuzzi's son Michael attended the faculty of Architecture in Piazza Borghese, less than 300 metres from the same convent. Our encounters were happy reunions, dinners where dishes and memories succeeded one another, reminiscing on Toronto, the journalists at Corriere Canadese, the new challenges Dan took up with weeklies in several languages.
Dan Iannuzzi seemed to have a constant concern, those nights: he always began with the health of the Pope, he remembered Cardinal Ambrozic, talked about the years when he was publishing the religious weekly Il Samaritano, and then delved on why God got interested in man, in sin as an ambush against God ("there are no venial sins," he used to say; "there are only our limits, which we'd rather not have"); he repeatedly told me his thoughts about people's professions as prayers. It was at Rome's San Giacomo hospital, two weeks before leaving us, that Dan revealed his boyish conscience and his grown-up stature. He wasn't afraid of death, and understood he was facing the Great Beyond. He said he had attended to all his earthly matters, although of course a few strands were left. He took his time with me to say a prayer, and to tell me smiling that, to God, death is just an opening title in the newspaper of eternal life.

Publication Date: 2004-11-28
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4670