By Canadian Press

Ex-BBC reporter passionate about local news informing N.W.T. and beyond about fires

Aug 22, 2023 | 2:02 AM

A former BBC sports reporter in the Northwest Territories has become central to the world’s understanding of the wildfires threatening the territory and its capital, Yellowknife.

Ollie Williams is the editor and co-founder of Cabin Radio, a news outlet in Yellowknife that has become a cherished source of immediate local information about the fires threatening the city and forcing mass evacuations.

Williams and his small team have been filing daily, hourly and even minute-by-minute updates on what’s happening, sometimes from inside vehicles as they, too, flee the city.

He’s also been doing interviews with national and international media to explain just how these wildfires are affecting the vast, sparsely populated territory and its residents.

Cabin Radio’s ascent to international notice is similar to that of the Port-aux-Basques, N.L., paper Wreckhouse Weekly, whose photo of a house dangling over an ocean cliff during post-tropical Fiona was published across the globe.

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Patricia Elliott, a journalism professor at the First Nations University of Canada, says the examples show community news outlets should be considered critical infrastructure, like highways and phone lines — especially because more climate change-driven emergencies are expected.

“Nobody can quite duplicate what they do,” she said in an interview. “They are where people turn — to their local radio station, to their local paper — for solid information in times of crisis.”

These outlets proved especially vital in remote Indigenous communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, she added. Often, they were the only place residents could get reliable information in their language.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 22, 2023.

The Canadian Press