Martin Regg Cohn
Martin Regg Cohn is a political columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper. A foreign correspondent for 11 years, he ran the Star’s Middle East and Asia bureaus, reporting from more than 40 countries. He was also Foreign Editor, a world affairs columnist, and covered national politics.
Nominated five times for the National Newspaper Award, he also received an Asia Pacific Foundation fellowship to research Islam in Indonesia, and won the Amnesty International Media Award for his coverage from Sudan.
He is a Senior Fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he founded the Democracy Forum. He is also a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and has lectured for New York Times Journeys across the Middle East. A native of Montreal, he studied economics at King’s College and Dalhousie University.
Publications
Article by Martin Regg Cohn in Toronto Star, “My Mother’s Journey to Survive the Holocaust,” chronicling his mother’s survival story and its meaning for memory, identity and Canadian society. Date: November 2015
Article by Martin Regg Cohn in Toronto Star, “A Surfeit of Martyrs,” reflecting on his decade as a foreign correspondent exploring how faith, identity, and extremism intertwine across the Middle East and Asia, and warning of fundamentalism’s global reach. Date: August 13, 2006.
Article by Martin Regg Cohn in Toronto Star, “End of Travel - A Foreign Correspondent’s Farewell”. Drawing on his decade abroad as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East and Asia, Cohn critiques how globalization and commercial travel have transformed sacred and historic places- from Burma to Laos- into homogenized “theme parks,” eroding authenticity in the name of leisure. Date: April 30, 2006
Interviews
Interview with Martin Regg Cohn on Toronto Files TV, hosted by Helen Burstyn and Jim Deeks, discussing his career and political commentary work with the Toronto Star. Date: February 21, 2016.
Video-trailer by Martin Regg Cohn for the Toronto Star, “My Mother’s Journey to Survival- Trailer,” previewing his mother’s Holocaust survival story from mass executions to life under a false identity in Nazi Germany. Date: November 9, 2015.
Television interview with Martin Regg Cohn on Global TV, “Helen Edel – Holocaust Part 1 of 2,” where he discusses the Toronto Star project about Holocaust survivor Helen Edel, covering her story of endurance and survival during Nazi persecution. Date: November 15, 2015.
Video by Martin Regg Cohn on the Toronto Star YouTube channel, “Beer Store Fact or Fiction,” exploring Ontario’s beer-retail system and challenging the narrative around the The Beer Store-monopoly model. Date: February 8, 2015.