Born in Montreal, Quebec on April 21, 1942, Stewart spent much of his youth in Halifax, Nova Scotia and England.
Stewart returned to Canada in 1987 to become senior reporter with the CBC's The Journal, a post in which he wrote and hosted a series of specials on North American and world politics.
In the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1989, his report on child slavery, Sudan: Children of Darkness (with Tony Burman), won several international awards, including the UNDA prize at the Monte Carlo Television Festival.
He has worked extensively in underdeveloped countries and was the first North American reporter to focus the world's attention on the massive Ethiopian famine of 1984–85 (also with Tony Burman).
"Having Brian Stewart on a story meant no one could ever beat us," says Mark Starowicz, creator and executive producer of The Journal.
Birhan Woldu, who remains close friends of Stewart's family, went on to graduate from college with degrees in Agriculture and Nursing in Ethiopia.
The story of Stewart's discovery of her is told in the 2012 book "Feed the World: Birhan Woldu and Live Aid" by British journalist Oliver Harvey.
In 1988, Stewart received a Centre for Investigative Journalism Award in the "Television" category for his groundbreaking report on the Air India Flight 182 crash.
Nominated for numerous Geminis, he won "Best Information Segment" in 1994 for Rwanda: Autopsy of a Genocide, in which he uncovered advanced warnings of the mass murders.