Joe Citizen is the nom de plume of Joe Matyas, a retired journalist who spent more than 40 years in the daily newspaper business in Ontario. As a working journalist, Joe wrote and edited thousands of news stories, feature articles, columns and commentaries on a wide range of beats and topics, mostly for The London Free Press. He started his newspaper career at the defunct Toronto Telegram after graduating from the Ryerson School of Journalism, now known as the Toronto Metropolitan University journalism faculty.
Joe was an executive officer of Canada’s largest media union local, CEP Local 87-M, also known as the Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild (S.O.N.G.), for nearly two decades, including terms served as president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. He still counts union colleagues as some of the finest, most socially aware and progressive people he’s known.
Joe happily downed his pen and keyboard after retiring from daily journalism. He studied web design at Fanshawe College in London and went online as a writer, editor, photographer, videographer and website designer for churches, community organizations and friends. It has been more avocation than vocation, more rewarding for instrinsic satisfaction than pecuniary benefits.
Joe’s retirement peace has been challenged constantly by news of human struggles everywhere, expressed as political strife, economic injustice and environmental disasters, not to mention loony leaders in high places. His ire has given rise to a Canadian liberal socialist persona, Joe Citizen.
Joe Matyas is drawn to community involvement and participation in music as a chorister, jam musician and occasional performer. He’s the board chair of Rhythm & Pitch Children’s Music, a church community outreach program that provides low-cost music lessons to elementary school children in Barrie. He’s a father of three. As a retiree, he sometimes quips that he works for his wife, Rev. Dr. Susan Eagle, a United Church minister and social justice advocate.