His father was Percy Macdonald, who served with the Canadian Army during World War II and helped liberate the Netherlands.
Macdonald responded with a rebuttal in The Globe and Mail, accusing Asper of defamation and alleging editorial censorship in the Asper-owned CanWest media outlets.
The report uncovered documents suggesting the UN investigative body had strong evidence to link the Shia paramilitary group Hezbollah to the 2005 bombing that killed Hariri, and that the UN had not acted on this intelligence due to diplomatic concerns.
Macdonald produced editorial articles for the CBC's website, as well as appearing as a senior correspondent for The National before he retired in December 2019.
[9] In 1988, Macdonald received a Centre for Investigative Journalism Award honorable mention for the 1987 story "CSIS: Making a cop into a spy just doesn't fly"[10] in the Ottawa Citizen.