Candy Palmater, Indigenous TV and radio personality, dead at 53

Canadian comedian Candy Palmater has died at age 53, her partner and manager confirmed to CBC News on Saturday.

Denise Tompkins said Palmater died peacefully at home in Toronto and a virtual public service will be organized in the near future for fans and friends.

Cause of death wasn’t immediately known. According to social media posts, she had been ill for several weeks and was recently discharged from hospital.

Palmater, a member of the Mi’kmaw Nation in New Brunswick, was known for her bold feminist humour and fronted her own radio and television shows.

She created and hosted the award-winning The Candy Show on APTN, was a regular co-host on CTV’s afternoon talk show The Social and acted in various shows, including Trailer Park Boys.

Palmater was also a frequent CBC personality, including hosting The Candy Palmater Show on CBC Radio One, narrating the CBC-TV series True North Calling and being a panellist on CBC Canada Reads in 2017.

“Candy was an incredible talent but also a truly special person,” said CBC News general manager Susan Marjetti. “It is such a loss. Another light has gone out in the world today.”

Palmater once described herself as “a gay, native, recovered-lawyer-turned-feminist-comic who was raised by bikers in the wilds of northern New Brunswick.”

She lived in Halifax for almost three decades, where she studied law, worked as a lawyer and for the Nova Scotia government.

More recently, Palmater had just finished writing an autobiography that’s set to be published in the new year.