DEMONTIS: Award-winning journalist Sandy Naiman was a powerful voice in the community

The former Toronto Sun columnist, who became a treasured mental health advocate, passed away at 77 on Wednesday

Published Apr 16, 2026  •  3 minute read

Former Toronto Sun columnist Sandy Naiman who passed away at 77 on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Photo by Handout /Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel

Sandy Naiman recently passed away, and for many longtime readers of the Toronto Sun, her name brings back a flood of memories from a time when print ruled and newspaper personalities were part of popular media culture.

Article content

Sandy Naiman certainly was.

Article content

Article content

The award-winning journalist and professor, who passed away Wednesday at 77 surrounded by loved ones, worked at the paper for three decades, starting in the entertainment section in the late 1970s before moving to the Lifestyle department where she specialized in women’s issues and lifestyle-related stories.

Sandy never shied away from writing about her own physical and mental health struggles, even heading up a popular blog named Coming Out Crazy.

Became a treasured mental health advocate

Sandy made no bones about the fact her challenges with mental health dominated her life, but she became a treasured advocate, using her own struggles to help others, and she wrote about them with a thought-provoking brush, not looking for sympathy, but empathy and understanding that an illness does not define the person, or their character.

I worked with Sandy in the paper’s famous (infamous?) Lifestyle section, where every day was a collaborative effort between the various writers and editors. For me personally, word of her passing brought on a rush – an avalanche, really – of so many memories. Of a woman who brimmed with optimism yet could be challenging. Who spoke her own mind.

Article content

Article content

A woman who did not hold back if she had an opinion of the world, or of you, for that matter.

Of someone who survived issues that would have fallen a lesser being but was made more powerful by her very resilience.

File photo from 2007 of former Toronto Sun columnist Sandy Naiman who passed away at 77 on Wednesday, April 15, 2026.

Lifestyle was certainly not the news section, we tended to dance to our own particular tunes, covering everything from food to fashion to love. But the section took daily news stories and broadened them to another level. Famous politicians cheating on their wives? We dealt deeper into the machinations of why powerful men in particular needed the thrill of the hunt, speaking with experts and fleshing out the subject matter.

We headed up the Women on the Move series, in which we celebrated women in the community those achievements served as role models enjoyed to this day, and Sandy wrote hundreds of interviews about some of the most profound women in our community, at a time when no one was really covering such a beat.

Tenacious, spunky, and did not hold back

Sandy spearheaded many columns that delved into subjects that were perceived as sensitive, timely and on occasion, a tad too close to home. She was tenacious, spunky, and did not hold back – you always knew she was in the office by her booming voice and when you looked towards the source, you’d see an impeccably dressed woman with perfectly coifed hair, elegant manicure and a brilliant smile.

Article content

She could be annoying and demanding, but she tempered this with a sweet gentleness and a genuine curiosity about what made the world click. She would say things that made you laugh out loud, yet gave you pause to think.

Sandy leaves behind a colourful legacy of a woman who took life by the, ahem, credentials and never looked back. She was a trailblazer who helped open many doors for those who could not find their own voices, and finding her own on the way.

Sandy was one of a kind and her writings truly made a difference, and the world is a poorer place for having lost such a powerful voice in the community.

Funeral details have been entrusted to Benjamin’s Park Memorial Chapel.

Article content