Lubor J. Zink

Lubor Jan Zink (September 20, 1920 – November 6, 2003) was a Czech-Canadian journalist, newspaper columnist and author known for his strongly anti-communist political commentary. After opposing the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and serving with Czechoslovak forces during the Second World War, he fled the country following the Communist takeover in 1948. In Canada, he wrote for the Brandon Sun, Toronto Telegram and Toronto Sun, where his columns focused on communism, Canadian foreign policy and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Early life and wartime service

Zink was born in Klapý, Czechoslovakia. He was studying economics in Prague when German forces occupied the country in March 1939. He joined the Czech underground and was forced to flee, travelling through Hungary before reaching Britain.

Zink became a Canadian citizen in 1963. After the Telegram ceased publication in 1971, he joined the newly established Toronto Sun as one of its original columnists.

His wife described him as a formidable debater but acknowledged that his certainty in his own views could make him inflexible and sometimes his own worst enemy.

In 1999, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented him with the Gratias Agit Award for promoting the good name of the Czech Republic abroad.

He also received a special university medal in Prague in 2001 and was appointed an honorary colonel in the Czech Army. Their cremated remains are buried at North Shore Memorial Park in Auckland. She was predeceased by their son, Alec, who had died in 2008 at the age of 62.

Published works

Trudeaucracy (1972) Viva Chairman Pierre (1977) What Price Freedom? (1981)