A longtime CBC radio producer who was the victim of a random assault in Toronto’s Greektown neighborhood died last week, the public broadcaster confirms.
On Wednesday, CBC spokesperson Chuck Thompson identified former producer Michael Finlay as the victim of an assault near Danforth and Jones streets on January 24.
Thompson said Finlay died Tuesday of “medical complications” after the attack.
“Michael will be remembered as an extraordinary storyteller, documentary maker and editor,” Thompson said. He was experiencing the pinnacle of craft. ”
Police previously said the suspect was walking down Danforth Avenue around 3:35 pm on January 24 when he encountered another man, identified as Finley, and assaulted him. The victim fell to the ground and was seriously injured.
On Wednesday morning, police confirmed that the victim had died “tragically” but gave no further details.
Police have not designated the assault as a homicide at this time, and said an autopsy must be performed before such a designation can be made.
“Nobody seems to know anything except that he woke up shopping in Danforth last week mid-afternoon and someone came up behind him knocking him to the ground and then disappearing. That’s all I’ve heard,” Frank Koller, who worked with Finlay at CBC, told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday.
In a statement, the CBC said Finlay spent 31 years with public broadcasting before retiring in 2010.
According to a statement, Finlay was the “powerhouse” of the documentary “Dispatches” and also worked as an editor for “The World at Six” during his tenure at CBC.
Koller had worked with Finlay for about 20 years, but hadn’t kept in touch with him since he retired. He said that as the producer of “Sunday Morning,” Finlay could be an “absolute obsession,” but ultimately most reporters wanted to work with him because he “made journalism better.” I said I was the person I thought I was.
“When it came time for your story to be reviewed before it went on air, you wanted Michael to be the one to conduct the review process. Though hurt, you knew the story would get better consistently.
The attacks are just the latest rate of apparently random violence in Toronto in recent weeks.
On January 20, an 89-year-old woman was also shoved while walking down a sidewalk in downtown Toronto. She was later pronounced dead and her suspect charged with manslaughter.
“This is a tragedy. There are no other words to describe it. I can speak for myself when I hear these tragedies. Address these root causes when asked by the team, and better address other root cause situations.
Police have previously released surveillance images of suspects in assault investigations.
The suspect is male, approximately 6 feet tall and slim in his twenties. When he was last seen, he was wearing a red paper mask with flames on it, a black sweater, and black pants.
