Kinew might be in queue to host Q

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This article was published 09/01/2015 (3922 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wab Kinew knows the power of words — how far they reach and the change they can bring.

Kinew, the University of Winnipeg’s associate vice-president of indigenous affairs, has become known for his words, not just in current high-profile roles such as his academic post, and his former role as an award-winning rapper, but also as a journalist in print, TV and radio media.

Kinew, 33, formerly worked as a reporter for CBC television and during the past two years has been a correspondent for the Al-Jazeera English documentary series Fault Lines.

He is also a former Free Press columnist.

While he and the U of W are preparing to launch a new business training program for aboriginal high school students in the coming weeks, Kinew was back on the national stage last month in another high-profile position as a guest host of the show Q on CBC Radio One from Dec. 8 to 19.

“I really enjoyed it. It’s a great show, a really good group of people who create it,” Kinew told the Free Press as he watched one of his young sons playing in a hockey tournament at the MTS Iceplex.

“On a personal level, I like doing the show and I’m interested in it. We’ll see what happens. It was sort of an audition process, but I know they’re auditioning many other people over the next month or two so we’ll see what happens with it.”

Kinew is in the queue of contenders for Q — along with Piya Chattopadhyay, Brent Bambury, Tom Power and Rachel Giese — as the CBC searches for a permanent host for the popular show that recently experienced a fall from grace that has captured national attention.

Many Canadians read and watched as Jian Ghomeshi, the disgraced former host of the show, was fired last October amid a firestorm of serious charges alleging violent acts against women.

Kinew strongly criticized violence against women in his opening essay to begin his two weeks on Q.

“It (Q) is a platform. I did write that opening essay, so you can do that sometimes. At the same time, people don’t want it to be platform for me. That gets a little tiresome, so one of the other ways you can have influence is by the guest that you bring on,” said Kinew, who lived on the Onigaming Anishinaabe reserve near Kenora as a child before moving to Winnipeg where he attended Collège Béliveau before graduating from the U of W Collegiate. He has a bachelor of arts in economics from the University of Manitoba. “If you can expose people to maybe a few different artists or cultural creators, that’s good and I think we did a bit of that.”

CBC has already announced Kinew will host the radio show Canada Reads 2015: One Book to Break Barriers from March 16 to 19. The 2015 panelists and final books will be revealed on Jan. 20.

Kinew won the 2014 edition of the popular Battle of the Books radio program when he eloquently defended Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda.

‘If you can expose people to maybe a few different artists or cultural creators, that’s good and I think we did a bit of that’

— Wab Kinew

While Q is produced in Toronto, the CBC already produces some network shows in Winnipeg, such as DNTO (Definitely Not The Opera).

“What I learned about during Q is that the best interviews are face to face. You can read someone’s expression and look into their eyes. That may suggest that show needs to be produced out of Toronto,” Kinew said.

Winnipeg is his home and Kinew said he has “no plans to leave right now.”

His two young sons live in Winnipeg and his wife, Lisa Monkman, a family physician whom he married last summer, practises medicine at an inner-city clinic.

“I always joke that I go around talking about helping people and she’s the one who actually helps the people,” Kinew said.

On Oct. 25, Kinew received an honorary doctorate from Cape Breton University.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca