Frum's father, who was born in Kielce, Poland, immigrated to Canada as a child with his parents in 1913, and was the proprietor of Rosberg's Department Store in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Attending Stamford Collegiate high school, where she was a classmate of Bob McAdorey, Barbara served on the student council.

[1] After her graduation, Frum undertook volunteer work in the community and began writing for the Toronto Star as a freelancer, specializing in social-issues stories.

[1] In 1971, she joined CBC Radio as one of the first hosts of As It Happens, a newsmagazine program which used the telephone to conduct live interviews with newsmakers and other witnesses to news events, as well as quirky human-interest stories.

[5] In 1981, CBC Television created The Journal, a newsmagazine series which would follow The National each night at 10:22 p.m., and Frum and Mary Lou Finlay were hired as the show's hosts.

On January 11, 1982, The Journal debuted as a showcase for features which delved more deeply into the day's news than the traditional newscast format of The National.

Frum interviewed many notable people, including British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher[7] and Nelson Mandela.

[8] She angered many when, on December 7, 1989, on The Journal,[9] she refused to acknowledge that the École Polytechnique massacre, by a killer who proclaimed as he shot and stabbed women, "I hate feminists!"

of the Canadian animated series The Raccoons, Frum herself portrayed a reporter called "Barbara LaFrum", who interviewed Cyril Sneer after his pigs told her of his unsavoury business practices.

Several other editorial cartoons simply depicted The Journal's set with an empty anchor chair, or Frum likened to a CBC symbol.