Margaret COLLIER

1932 - 2021

MARGARET COLLIER Margaret Collier, who devoted her life to the betterment of the lot of Canadian performers and writers, died on April 11, 2021 in Toronto. She will be remembered for her invaluable contribution to the Canadian arts scene in support of screenwriters. The Writers Guild of Canada of which she was the first Executive Director, overseeing the first WGC Top Ten Awards, the Margaret Collier Award which was named in her honour (part of the Canadian Screen Awards), and the solid foundations laid down in national agreements for screenwriters, stand as her legacy. Margaret Thomson Collier was born on December 19, 1932 in Glasgow, Scotland. She worked in a solicitor's office before emigrating in the late 1950s to Canada, where she began work at the head office of ACTRA, a national organization representing actors and writers in radio, television and film. From secretary, she rose rapidly to manage the Commercial Department, organize the ACTRA Awards and assemble the massive catalogue named Face To Face With Talent which, before the internet, was one of the few avenues available to publicize Canadian performers and writers to prospective producers. In the 1970s, as National Executive Director of the ACTRA Writers Guild (later the Writers Guild of Canada), she found the cause into which she would pour all her passion and tireless effort. Although Margaret Collier was not a writer herself, one would never dare say that she could not write. Margaret resolved situations of conflict, whether grievances between writers and producers or proposals on copyright, firmly, while maintaining the utmost grace and civility. Her notable articulateness was hard won since she suffered from a persistent lifelong stammer. Based on her experiences in amateur theatre, she once said that the one place where she never stuttered was on the stage. As her responsibilities grew, she had to give up the stage but she remained a staunch theatre patron. Margaret Collier's professional responsibilities grew with the changing complexity of the broadcast industry, especially with the introduction of modern technologies. She was a well-respected presence wherever she represented writers' interests, nationally or internationally. But her forte was collective bargaining, fighting for writers so fiercely that, on one occasion, a beleaguered negotiator on the CBC team on the other side of the table protested, only half-kiddingly: "Don't look at me in that tone of voice, Margaret!" But Margaret's greatest legacy will forever be the autonomous formation of the Writers Guild of Canada. Margaret, together with Jack Gray (former Writers Chair and 1st WGC President), her lifelong partner in all things about screenwriters negotiated and organized the ACTRA Writers Branch with the help of many writers, to create its own guild so that screenwriters could pursue their own objectives. A tiny, elegant woman who cast a huge shadow, Margaret Collier was a consummate professional who gave Canadian writers her all so that they and their work would be properly valued. Her life and her work are worthy of a standing ovation.