Career
Graduating in political science, he started his career as an investigative reporter. In the 1970s, while working as the Ottawa correspondent for the Vancouver Sun, he published a series of articles on misdeeds of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He quit daily journalism in 1979 and wrote a number of books, including a biography of Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney published 1991.
In 1982, Sawatsky began teaching classes in investigative journalism at various Canadian universities and has been an adjunct professor of journalism at Carleton University"s School of Journalism since 1991.
Sawatsky also works as a consultant in the practice of interviewing and has been involved in interview training for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation since 1991. He has taught interviewing techniques to television anchors, reporters and print journalists in many parts of the world, including Singapore, The United States, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
He currently teaches an interview-technique seminar for sports reporters for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. The seminar focuses on remedying the sloppy and ineffective interviewing techniques often employed by many of today"s major television and cable news interviewers. In 2004, he was hired full-time by Entertainment and Sports Programming Network as senior director of talent development.