Leaving London in 1954, Michael Maclear began his career in Canadian broadcasting in 1955 as a news writer at CBC–TV. In 1961, he became a foreign correspondent. While working for CBC–TV's Newsmagazine, Maclear travelled the world, bringing the first film and images of places like India, Malaysia, Borneo and Tokyo to Canada. The first program of its kind, Newsmagazine nurtured many of Canada's pre–eminent foreign correspondents. In 1971, Maclear spent three years with CTV's W5 and then launched his own weekly documentary series, Maclear which ran for four years. During his career as a foreign correspondent, Maclear travelled to more than 80 countries. After leaving CTV, Maclear became an independent writer and executive producer, resulting in such programmes as Doctors Without Borders, The Eatons: A Canadian Saga, Vietnam: The 10,000 Day War, Acts of War and Flightpath.

He has won ACTRA's Best Broadcaster Award, CFTPA's Personal Achievement Award, and three Geminis, as Chairman of Screenlife Productions and Leading Cases Productions. In 2004, he was honoured with a 13 film retrospective at the Hot Docs film festival, and its Outstanding Achievement Award.

Michael Maclear has been a strong supporter of the CBMF/FMCR. Since he was initially approached to record an oral history in 2006, he has donated a wealth of material related to his career. As a result, the Foundation has managed to amass a sizeable fonds, which includes:

• Approximately 45 digitized scripts and notes from his productions, (from W5 and CBC shows, including Assignment Maclear)
• Promotional material (such as 10,000 Day War photos and brochures)
• Portable typewriter with zippered case
• Copies of many of his documentaries, (A Town in Africa, Vietnam: The 10,000 Day War, Japan in Translation, American Caesar, Acts of War, Century of Conflict, Vietnam: Ghosts of War)
• Personal photographs from various projects, and
• A lengthy digitized oral history interview.