The outspoken geneticist-turned-broadcaster-turned environmentalist David Suzuki recently came in 5th in CBC's Greatest Canadian contest-the highest among living nominees. Born in Vancouver in 1936, David Suzuki grew up in Ontario after his family was interned in Slocan, B.C. during World War II. Like many Japanese Canadians whose families had some or all of their holdings confiscated or sold, David Takayoshi Suzuki was embittered and emboldened by his unfair incarceration, seemingly intent on proving his worth to society beyond any doubt.
David Suzuki studied at Amherst College and the University of Chicago, then taught at the University of Alberta. In 1963 he joined the UBC zoology department and won the award for outstanding Canadian research scientist under the age of 35 three years in a row. His educational television programs started with Suzuki on Science in 1971, leading to his long association with The Nature of Things on CBC, as of 1979.
"When I began to work in television in 1962,"; he wrote, "I never dreamed that it would ultimately occupy most of my life and make me a celebrity in Canada."; As well, Suzuki hosted Science Magazine on CBC TV and served as the first host of CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks from 1975 to 1979. With his wife Tara Cullis, he has since co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation and received countless honours including the Order of Canada in 1977 and the Order of B.C. in 1995.
In his second volume of memoirs, Suzuki recalls how he proposed to his second wife, Tara, on Hollyburn Mountain in December of 1972. They have two daughters, Severn and Sarika. Suzuki also has three children, Tamiko, Troy and Laura, from a marriage that ended in 1964. "My children have been my pride and joy,"; he writes, "but getting Tara to marry me was the greatest achievement of my life.";
Suzuki titled his first autobiography Metamorphosis: Stages in a Life (Stoddart) to echo his ground-breaking studies of mutations in fruit flies. David Suzuki: The Autobiography (Greystone $34.95) is an updated second instalment, expanding on material from Metamorphosis and covering his accomplishments after age fifty.
This breezy re-run doubles as a family photo album as Suzuki rubs shoulders with close friends Myles Richardson and artist Guujaaw of the Haida; entertainers Bruno Gerussi, John Denver, Sting, Graham Greene and Gordon Lightfoot; and he travels extensively to meet world leaders who have included Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama and the Kaiapo chief Paiakan of the Amazon rainforest.
When Paiakan and his family paid a reciprocal visit to the Suzuki home in 1989, they refused to wear any western clothes that were not new, and they required new sheets, fearing diseases. The six-week visit was fraught with misunderstandings, including the misguided notion that an airplane would be purchased for their use in Brazil.
Remarkably, Suzuki contacted Anita Roddick, creator of the Body Shop empire, and she wrote a cheque for $100,000. He then found a pilot named Al "Jet"; Johnson, a friend of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson, who checked out a used Cessna Utility 206 in Texas-then flew it to Brazil in hurricane season to ensure Suzuki kept a promise that he had never made in the first place.
Not without a sense of humour-or vanity-Suzuki includes the naked 'fig leaf' photo of himself for the "Phallacies"; show for The Nature of Things and wryly recalls his meetings with heavyweight thinkers Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader. Suzuki speaks fondly of Chomsky ("He is a superstar, and it was flattering to be acknowledged so generously";) and re-tells a curious anecdote about Nader ("Ralph is a very serious and intense person";).
When taken to a Lebanese restaurant in Vancouver, the puritanical Nader refused to acknowledge the gyrations of a belly dancer who approached his table, entreating him to stuff some bills into her bra. Nader kept talking, as if she didn't exist, until the dancer left the table, unable to engage his attention in any way.
"At the end of the meal,"; Suzuki writes, "as we got up to leave, Ralph made no mention of the belly dancer but simply said: 'That was a very nice meal. And no one over ate.'"; 1-55365-156-1

[BCBW 2006]