Connie Walker (journalist)

For other uses, see Connie Walker.
Connie Walker
Born 1979 (age 36–37)
Okanese First Nation
Education Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, University of Regina
Occupation journalist

Connie Walker is a Canadian journalist.[1][2][3][4][5] Walker grew up in the Okanese First Nation, in Saskatchewan. Walker describes growing up in a remarkably large and close family.[6]

Walker says her first act of journalism was an article she wrote for her high school newspaper, about the shocking brutal murder of a young First Nations woman, and the institutional racism in the investigation and reporting of that murder.[6][7]

Walker was awarded a Joan Donaldson Newsworld Scholarship while studying at Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, which provided her with an opportunity to work as an intern for CBC Newsworld. She graduated in journalism from the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, and subsequently graduated from the University of Regina.

Walker was employed for the 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons as a host for Street Cents, a youth oriented consumer and media awareness show, while she was still a journalism student in Saskatchewan.[5] SAGE, described Walker as "...one of the highest profile First Nations journalists on national television."

Following her graduation Walker took a permanent position with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.[2] She served as host of Living Saskatchewan, and served as a reporter and producer for CBC News: Sunday and flagship news show, The National. In the fall of 2009 Walker became a correspondent for Connect with Mark Kelley.

In 2009, Okanese, a personal documentary Walker produced, about the community in which she grew up, earned an honourable mention at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival.[2]

In 2013 Walker helped produce the acclaimed 8th Fire documentary on contemporary issues for First Nations people.[8]

In December 2013 Walker was appointed lead reporter for the CBC Aboriginal reporting.[6][9]

On February 6, 2015, The Eyeopener, the student newspaper at Ryerson University, quoted comments Walker made during a panel on Indigenous Representation in Canada's media.[10]

“Often news focuses on the really depressing stories... We want to provide a better context to some of these stories and increase the amount of indigenous voices that make it on mainstream media and hopefully provide a better understanding of the aboriginal communities.”[10]

The Eyeopener also described how Walker told her audience about her disappointment over the disparity in coverage she noticed of two young girls who disappeared at roughly the same time.[10] The disappearance of a young blond girl from Toronto received nationwide coverage, while the disappearance of a young girl, from a First Nations community, near where Walker grew up, received much more modest coverage.

In December 2015 CBC Radio broadcast a 14-minute program entitled "Connie Walker and the firsthand legacy of residential schools", where she described the horror of residential schools through her family's experience, and how reporting on the Truth and reconciliation commission.[11] The last residential school to remain in operation was near Walker's home, the Okanese First Nation. Walker described learning how her mother and grandparents were survivors of the residential school system.

On May 29, 2016, Walker and colleagues at the CBC's Aboriginal news unit, won the Canadian Association of Journalists' Don McGillivray investigative award and its Online Media award, for the stories on its "Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls" website.[12]

On October 25, 2016, the CBC News published Walker's 8-part investigative podcast focussed around missing and murdered aboriginal women, that started with looking at the murder of Alberta Williams.[7][13][14] Both Chatelaine magazine and Flare magazine interviewed Walker, the week the podcast went online.

On November 17, 2016 Ryerson University's School of Journalism invited Walker, Karyn Pugliese, Tanya Talaga to a panel on covering aboriginal issues.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Street Cents: The Guide". CBC News. 2003. Archived from the original on 2009-12-02.
  2. 1 2 3 "Meet Connie Walker". CBC News. 2009-10-26. Archived from the original on 2009-12-02.
  3. ↑ "Five questions for Connie Walker". CBC News. 2009-11-19. Archived from the original on 2009-12-02.
  4. ↑ "Living Saskatchewan with Connie Walker". CBC News. 2008-09-18. Archived from the original on 2009-12-02.
  5. 1 2 Stephen LaRose (2000-09-18). "SIFC student lands CBC-TV job in Halifax". SAGE (Saskatchewan). Archived from the original on 2009-12-02.
  6. 1 2 3 Duncan McCue (2013-12-04). "Meet our team: Connie Walker". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2013-12-10. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  7. 1 2 Rachel Giese (2016-10-25). "A new true crime podcast explores the death of one of Canada's MMIW". Chatelaine magazine. Retrieved 2016-10-29. The very first story I wrote was for my high school newspaper. It was about the murder of Pamela George [an Indigenous woman who was beaten to death by two white men in Regina in 1995]. I don’t remember seeing or hearing any indigenous voices in the media covering the case at the time. I decided I would write about, that I could be that voice. That’s why I went into journalism.
  8. ↑ Connie Walker (2013-12-10). "Meet our team: Merelda Fiddler". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2013-12-10. Retrieved 2013-12-10. Connie Walker has been a host, producer and reporter at CBC since 2001. Most recently, she was a producer on the "8th Fire" documentary series.
  9. ↑ Connie Walker (2013-12-09). "Is it a good time to be 'Indian?'". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  10. 1 2 3 Karoun Chahinian (2015-02-07). "Indigenous Representation in the Media Panel". The Eyeopener. Retrieved 2015-02-08. There’s an injustice in terms of the amount and kind of coverage indigenous people are experiencing, said CBC journalist Connie Walker during a Ryerson Journalism Research Centre panel discussion on Feb. 4. The discussion focused on the lack of proper media coverage of indigenous citizens in Canada.
  11. ↑ "Connie Walker and the firsthand legacy of residential schools". CBC Radio. 2015-12-10. Retrieved 2016-07-30. Connie has reported extensively on Canada's residential schools, but she's also seen the effects firsthand on her own family.
  12. ↑ "CBC's missing and murdered Indigenous women website wins top Canadian Association of Journalists award". CBC News. 2016-05-29. Retrieved 2016-07-30. CBC News has won the top prize for investigative journalism awarded by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) for its "Missing & Murdered: Unsolved cases of Indigenous women and girls" website.
  13. ↑ Maureen Halushak (2016-10-20). "Meet the Reporter Behind a New, Must-Listen Canadian Crime Podcast". Flare magazine. Retrieved 2016-10-29. Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams? is a new CBC crime podcast that delves into the life and death of one of Canada’s MMIW. We talked to CBC reporter Connie Walker about who Alberta was, her family’s lingering heartbreak and what Walker hopes the podcast will achieve—above and beyond telling Alberta’s story
  14. ↑ Mădălina Ciobanu (2016-10-27). "Why CBC News produced its first investigative podcast". Journalism.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-29. Podcasts allow reporters to take listeners with them as the story unfolds, instead of just 'focusing on the end result', explained Connie Walker, investigative reporter for CBC News.
  15. ↑ Jasmine Bala (2016-11-17). "Indigenous stories are mainstream stories, say panellists". Ryerson University School of Journalism. Retrieved 2016-11-17. Connie Walker, an investigative reporter for CBC National News who has reported extensively on Indigenous issues, said newsroom attitudes are changing and it’s getting easier to sell editors on Indigenous-related news stories.
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