The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
CBC Television has brought on board a videojournalist dedicated exclusively to digging up news throughout Northern Manitoba. Mychaylo Prystupa is based in Thompson but will spend much of his time on the road covering the vast expanse north of the 53rd parallel. "There's a lot of really exciting stories about the North that I'd like to do," said the graduate of Ryerson University in Toronto. "Hydro development, mining, forestry, aboriginal issues ? these are all things that really excite me as a journalist." Prystupa's stories will air periodically, usually about twice a week, on the Manitoba half of CBC's Canada Now supper hour news program. CBC Newsworld may also air some of his work. The reporter has already filed some northern pieces for CBC, including a three-part series on Manitoba Hydro's impact on aboriginal communities. Though a newcomer to the North, the Winnipeg native has already come to see the region as a neighbourly place. "I had been living in Toronto for seven years, so the people here are very different in general," he said. "People band together. People need each other, and so they're friendlier. Everyone I've met has been really friendly." See 'Beautiful' P.# Con't from P.# Prystupa described the region "as more beautiful than I expected" but conceded that the temperatures are chillier than he had anticipated. "I thought having grown up in Winnipeg that I'd be familiar with the cold and all, but I was surprised when I came up here that I had to scrape the inside of my windshield," he said with a laugh. No matter what piece he is airing, Prystupa wants to make sure that the story ? not the reporter ? is the star. "I was warned before I left Toronto that people might think of me as a local celebrity," he said. "I'm nobody special; I'm just a guy who does TV news. But I think people hold journalists in esteem. One of the good things of being a journalist is that you get to meet all the important people in town, so it's a neat experience. You're talking to decision-makers every day." Like many in his profession, the journalist sees Northern Manitoba as a stepping stone to a larger news market. "I hope to become a foreign correspondent some day, so this is a good training ground because I have to operate in remote locations and dig up stories," he said. Northern Manitoba had been without a full-time CBC TV reporter for at least a year after to the departure of Bonnie Allen to Kelowna, B.C. Anyone with ideas for northern stories for Prystupa can phone his tip line at (204) 677-1685.
