From the fury of hurricane Katrina to the chaos of Iraq to the pulse-pounding energy of Live Aid — John Roberts has seen it all.

The co-anchor of CNN’s American Morning and Toronto native will be lauded for his work today at Canadian Music Week. The veteran broadcaster of 34 years will be inducted into the Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame during the Canadian Music Industry Awards Gala at the Fairmont Royal York. Roberts looks back fondly on his comparatively more peaceful home and native land.

“I miss my family and Canada’s wide open spaces,” says Roberts. “I suffered a bit of culture shock when I first started working in the U.S. It gets said down here that Canadians are a kind of decaffeinated American. Things can move much faster, especially in New York where I am.”

Canadians may recognize Roberts, 52, from his earlier days as host of Canada AM from 1990 to 1992 and as a MuchMusic personality during its infancy, when he co-hosted The New Music from 1979 to 1985. 

“The bulk of my career has been in news, but because of the exposure people do remember the MuchMusic days,” he said. “We were launching something brand new that was exciting for people. No one really remembers me from radio though. I suppose it’s because that happened during the cretaceous period.”

They were not-so-humble beginnings to a career that reads like a chronicle of the past 17 years of world history. As a reporter and anchor for both CBS and CNN for that time, Roberts was embedded with U.S. Marines during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He reported on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict of 2006, the Oklahoma City, Atlanta Olympics and London bombings, the deaths of Pope John Paul II and Princess Diana and hurricane Katrina. He’s also interviewed some of the most influential world leaders of our time, including former U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. 

Though objectivity is the cardinal rule of good journalism, Roberts can’t deny that seeing humanity at its best and worst affects him personally. He points to the aftermath of Katrina as an event that shocked, saddened and inspired him.

“You’re there as an observer, but you wouldn’t be human if it didn’t affect you in some way,” he says. “Now unlike them, at the end of the story, you get on an airplane and you go back home. But you take with you a perspective of the story that you wouldn’t have unless you immersed yourself in it.”