After stowing his reporter’s notebook in retirement in 2004, Cal Millar is revisiting his journalism career in his latest book.
Now a resident of Fort Erie, Millar chronicles his four-decade career in “My Life as a Reporter: I cried at Disney World.” His career started at Hamilton’s CKOC radio station in the 1960s before moving on to the newsrooms of publications like The Peterborough Examiner, Chatham News, Windsor Star, Toronto Telegram, Toronto Sun, and Toronto Star.
“After I wrote the book, I’m going, ‘Did I really do that?’” Millar said of all the news events he covered.
His first-person account takes readers through the behind-the-scenes reporting of many of the major stories he covered. It also includes excerpts of those stories, scans of the newspaper clippings as well as some photos.
During his time as a reporter, he primarily focused on crime and breaking news stories. This took him all over the country and, in some cases, to other countries.
Just a few of the stories he covered include the 1987 Edmonton tornado, the Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in Puerto Rico and a 1966 school bus crash near Windsor around Christmas.
An interesting aspect of revisiting the multitude of stories he wrote was how he couldn’t remember covering some of them.
Luckily, his mother kept scrapbooks with everything.
“After my mother passed away, my wife Penny continued keeping books,” he said. “I also have date books.”
He used these to guide the process of pulling this book together.
Trip down memory lane
There were a few reasons Millar decided to take this trip down memory lane. One was encouragement from his children, who listened to him talk about the stories he covered over the years.
“They’ve always said I should write a book about what I did,” he said.
Another reason was a visit to University of Guelph-Humber in early 2025 to speak to journalism and justice studies students.
That day illuminated for him the interest others have in being a reporter and how news stories came together in what he calls “the golden era of the newspaper industry.”
One student in particular approached him afterward, sharing how Millar had changed his mind about reporting. The student wrote an article about the experience for the university website.
“I thought, OK, maybe I should put some of this in a book to help other people that might be considering journalism as a career,” he said.
Mental toll
The book doesn’t only recount the news that made headlines, however. It also touches on their impact on him as a journalist covering horrific stories of things like kidnappings and deaths.
The subtitle, “I cried at Disney World,” hints at the toll carrying the weight of these stories can take.
When asked what happened, he said: “You have to read the book.”
Published this past April, “My Life as a Reporter: I cried at Disney World” is one of several books authored by Millar. His other books include specific crime cases as well as several titles about Crime Stoppers, an organization he spent 40 years volunteering with after writing about the first time it came to Ontario.
Readers can see all of Millar’s books, including this latest, on his website, calmillar.com.
By Laura Barton, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Jul 13, 2026 at 07:27
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