Bourrie earned a BA in history at the University of Waterloo in 1990. He holds a diploma in public policy and administration from the University of Guelph, a master's degree in journalism from Carleton University, a doctorate in Canadian media history from the University of Ottawa, and a law degree in from the University of Ottawa He's a member of the Ontario bar. Bourrie's PhD thesis was on Canada's World War IIpress censorship system and was published by Douglas & McIntyre as "The Fog of War".
Career
He worked for two decades as a freelance journalist and feature writer, primarily for The Globe and Mail from 1981 to 1989 and the Toronto Star from 1989 to 1999 and sporadically since then, and also a blogger. He was Parliamentary correspondent for the Law Times from 1994 until 2006. He also wrote for the InterPress Service, the United Nations-sponsored news and feature service. By the late 1990s, he had branched out from newspaper freelance work to book and magazine writing. He has won several journalism awards including a 1999 National Magazine Award gold award for his Ottawa City Magazine article, "The System That Killed Santa" and the Ontario Community Newspaper Association's award for 2007 Columnist of the Year for his work in the Ottawa City Journal. From 2007 to 2009, he was a lecturer at Concordia University's journalism school. He later became a contract lecturer in Carleton University's history department and the University of Ottawa's Canadian studies department. He is also a member of Canada's Parliamentary Press Gallery and an expert and author on propaganda and censorship. In 2012, Bourrie stated that the Chinese government-owned Xinhua News Agency asked him to collect information on the Dalai Lama by exploiting his journalistic access to the Parliament of Canada. Bourrie stated that he was asked to write for Xinhua in 2009 and sought advice from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, but was ignored. Bourrie stated that the request for information about the Dalai Lama caused him to refuse to continue to write articles for Xinhua. He wrote an article exposing the Chinese agency's actions. In April 2015, during the fraud trial of Senator Mike Duffy, Bourrie testified that he received an unsolicited cheque for $500 from Duffy, after spending an estimated 80–100 hours combating internet trolls who had posted material about Duffy, including editing Duffy's Wikipedia entry. Bourrie testified that he did not recall asking for payment, and his research services would usually run $100 per hour. Christopher Waddell, a journalism professor and former Parliament Hill correspondent, said it was "inappropriate" for Bourrie, as a journalist, to accept paid work from Duffy.
Personal life
Bourrie is originally from the North Simcoe area of Ontario. He is married to Marion Van de Wetering, a federal government lawyer.
Books
Bourrie is a bestselling author and has written several non-fiction books. The Globe and Mail described Bushrunner: The Adventures of Pierre Radisson, his biography of French fur trader and adventurer Pierre Radisson, as "a significant contribution to the history of 17th-century North America". In 2020, the book won the RBC Taylor Prize.
