Sheila North takes over hosting duties of CBC Manitoba's late night newscast

A familiar face is taking over the host chair of CBC Winnipeg News Late Night .

Veteran journalist Sheila North begins her new role Tuesday night,bringing viewers everything they need to know about the day's events each weeknight on CBC Television.

A member of Bunibonibee Cree Nation (also known as Oxford House), North worked as a journalist for CBC and CTV for over 10 years.

She left CTV to serve as the Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) in September 2015, a role she held until 2018.

She rejoined CBC in 2021 as a reporter.

North said she believes representation matters and hopes to bring an Indigenous perspective to the role.

"I think that the media has a huge role in society, and if the media is not reflecting, for example, Indigenous people, then we're invisible. And I don't want that," she said.

"I think if I have the abilityto show an Indigenous face and share Indigenous perspectives, I should be."

Though her career has taken her different directions throughout her life, North says journalism was her first love and something she wanted to come back to.

"Journalism has always been my ultimate dream and goal in life since I could remember," she said.

"There were a few other things that I wanted to try in life, but journalism was something that I've always wanted to do."

A dream realized

Growing up in the '70s and '80s, North says CBC was one of the only TV channels her family had, which had a great influence on her.

"The only programs we were allowed to watch were Walt Disney, either football and hockey, and the news. And that was it. There was nothing else for us that we were allowed to watch," she told Information Radio host Marcy Markusa.

"So the people in the news became my role models and largely because my dad was a news junkie, and so he would watch it all the time."

One day, her mom encouraged her to write a letter to one of her favourite anchors. North saidshe can't remember if she actually wrote that letter, but nonetheless, something clicked for her that day.

"I think in the end, I didn't write the letter, but I did have that switch on in my brain that I'm able to reach out, and I think that I could do what she's doing," she said.

"And so from that time on, I secretly had a dream of being a host someday. And even though my life took turns and ups and downs and valleys I've always wanted to be a host in some way, CBC's specifically. So here we are."

North is a mother of two, a kookom of one, and a daughter of residential school survivor/thriver and former chief.

You can find out more about her life and experiences in her new memoir, My Privilege, My Responsibility, which comes out later this year.