New head of CBC North wants more Indigenous staff, to promote languages

CBC North has a new top boss.

This week CBC's general manager Susan Marjetti announced the CBC has hired an Indigenous senior managing director — a first for the North.

Mervin Brass, who is Anishinaabe and Cree from the Key First Nation in Saskatchewan, has been the managing editor for CBC North for the last four years. His predecessor Janice Stein recently retired.

Now, in his new capacity starting Oct. 19, he's been tasked with creating a new vision for CBC North. 

He said his dream since starting work for the organization was that Indigenous people would be represented at all levels. From entry level jobs to reporters and maybe someday, president.

"I've been receiving so many ... congratulations in the last couple of days. It's just so overwhelming to get all that kind of support, that acknowledgement and encouragement from so many people," Brass told Loren McGinnis, host of CBC N.W.T.'s The Trailbreaker.

I'm not shy. I'm outspoken.- Mervin Brass, senior managing director

In his new role, Brass will continue to be based in Yellowknife, while overseeing all local programming for stations in Yukon, N.W.T. and Nunavut.

Brass has past experience that ranges from developing and running the Treaty 4 News in Saskatoon, to working as a senior reporter and host in private radio, and working as a reporter for CBC in Regina.

Brass is the son of two residential school survivors — his father went to an Anglican school and his mother went to a Catholic school, he said.

"Both came out of there scarred and hurt and suffered. Both fluent speakers in their language and yet their children lost the language," Brass said.

"My parents really valued education and they really instilled that value in me."

He said they encouraged him to go to university and to believe in himself.

"They always supported me, even… with what little money they did have ... I do a lot of this, you know, because of that," he said.

Plans to make team more Indigenous

Brass said the loss of his parents' language has hurt him in life, and he wants to prioritize the growth of Indigenous languages through CBC content and programming, with the help of young Indigenous people.

"We have a tremendous team of talented Indigenous broadcasters and we need to start thinking about the future and start looking at ways to … be ready, because some of them are at the tail end of their long, amazing career," Brass said.

He said that will mean continuing the work CBC North has already been doing — having a presence and relationship with local communities, having Indigenous reporters go out with English broadcasters and setting up a weekly pop-up bureau.

Brass says creating an environment of opportunity is something he's worked on since arriving at the CBC, though it's still a challenge to bring in young northern Indigenous people to the newsroom.

"It's going to take, you know, people to come in and stick around and be encouraged to stick around. One of the challenges in the North — and for that matter right across the country — is when Indigenous people get the training and the development and the skills, they're highly recruited," Brass explained.

"There's firms that headhunt them and, you know, want them to come and work for them. So it's really competitive."

He says there were two attempts from different companies to recruit him during the past three and a half years, which he declined.

Direct voice from the North

Previously, the North was lumped into a CBC "super-region" with Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In this new role, Brass will report directly to the heads of CBC. That means that CBC North, in a way, has gained a notch in terms of its independence and influence within the organization.

"This move to create a senior managing director position for the North speaks directly to CBC's collective commitment to the region and its diverse and unique perspectives, languages and culture," said Marjetti in a statement.

"Our goal is to ensure that CBC shares even more of the stories and perspectives of the North with the rest of Canada and the world."

As for the task ahead in terms of representing CBC North throughout the organization, he said it's not new.

"I'm not shy. I'm outspoken. I speak my mind at those board meetings, I'm respected," Brass said.

"I'll make the case because, you know, I'm the representative of the North and I have the North's best interests in mind when I'm at those tables."