Sue Johanson, Canada's sex educator, dead at 93

Sue Johanson, Canada’s sex educator and trailblazing broadcaster, is dead at 93.

Johanson died peacefully surrounded by her family in Toronto last night, a family representative told CTV News Toronto.

Best known for hosting “Sunday Night Sex Show” for four decades, Johanson was a pioneer, discussing dildos and STIs on TV in the mid-1990s.

Her show, which discussed intimate topics like pleasure and consent, ran until 2005 and led to an American spinoff, “Talk Sex with Sue Johanson,” which aired in 23 other countries, including Europe and Brazil, before wrapping in 2008.

TV sexpert Sue Johanson is seen in an undated still frame on the set of her show “Talk Sex.” Johanson passing the torch to a new generation of online educators is the subject of a new documentary that traces her career and explores her legacy. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Corus Entertainment,

As a registered nurse, she opened one of Toronto's first birth control clinics in her daughter's high school in 1970, and ran it for two decades.

She then travelled to schools across the country to offer thousands of students in high schools, colleges and universities sex education

After retirement, Johanson’s influence was displayed in a documentary, “Sex with Sue,” which premiered last year, exploring her legacy of pushing forward the message that there’s nothing shameful about talking about sex.

“Listening without judgement and candid in her responses, she helps Canadians to improve their understanding of sexuality and their ability to make wise health choices,” Johanson’s Order of Canada statement reads. 

Johanson received an Order of Canada for being a “successful advocate for sex education in Canada” in 2001.