Senator Munson heard the Crie de Coeur from families with children on the autism spectrum early in his senatorial career and has become a vocal advocate for these youth. His leadership on this important issue led to the adoption of an Act respecting World Autism Day and the Senate Report, Pay Now or Pay Later: Autism Families in Crisis. The Report is a template to articulate the need for a National Autism Spectrum Disorder strategy which has yet to be developed. He is also an advocate for the Special Olympics which gives many children the opportunity to excel.
Growing up in the United Church manses in Campbellton, N.B. and St. Lambert, QC, Senator Munson is best known for his 39-year journalism career, mostly as a bureau chief and foreign correspondent for CTV news. Some highlights of his reporting were the FLQ Crisis, the massacre of Tiananmen Square and the brutality of the Iran-Iraq war. In 2001 he joined Prime Minister Chretien’s office as a communications advisor, later became Director of Communications where he often spoke for the Prime Minister. Senator Jim Munson was called to the Senate in late 2003 to represent Ontario.