Duncan McCue facts for kids
Duncan McCue is a Canadian journalist who works for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He is Anishinaabe (Ojibway) and a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation in Ontario. For many years, he was a reporter for CBC Television's main news show, The National.
From 2016 to 2020, he hosted CBC Radio One's call-in show Cross Country Checkup. He was the first Indigenous person to host a major show like this at the CBC. In 2020, McCue took a break from the CBC to study journalism at Massey College. He later returned to the CBC. He hosted a podcast about the history of the Indian residential school system. He also guest-hosted The Current and hosted a new show about audio documentaries. In 2023, McCue announced he was leaving the CBC. He joined Carleton University's School of Journalism and Communication. He is now an associate professor there. He leads a special course on Indigenous journalism.
Early Life and Education
Duncan McCue is from the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation. He grew up mostly in cities in southern Ontario. When he was 11, his family moved to a remote Cree village in northern Quebec. Duncan felt out of place there. He soon returned to southern Ontario to finish high school. He attended Lakefield College boarding school.
After high school, at age 17, McCue took a year off. He went to live with a James Bay Cree family in northern Quebec. He learned to trap and fish with an elder named Robbie Matthew Sr. Living on the land for five months helped him understand his own identity. He also learned about plants, animals, and traditional Cree teaching methods. He called this "learning by doing." McCue later wrote a book about this time called The Shoe Boy.
McCue then went to university. He earned a degree in English from the University of King's College in Halifax. He first got into journalism by working on his school newspaper. After graduating, he studied law at the University of British Columbia. While in law school, he worked part-time at different TV jobs. One of these was for the CBC youth news show Road Movies. In 1998, after becoming a lawyer, McCue started his career as a TV news reporter at the CBC.
Journalism Career
From 1998 to 2016, Duncan McCue worked as a national reporter for CBC radio and television in Vancouver. He often reported for The National. During this time, McCue also taught journalism. He was an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He also taught Indigenous Canadians at First Nations University and Capilano College.
McCue has won many journalism awards. These include a Jack Webster Award for Best Feature. He also won an RTNDA Award for Best Long Feature. He received two regional RTNDA Diversity Awards for his reporting on Indigenous issues. McCue was part of the CBC Aboriginal team. They investigated missing and murdered Indigenous women. This work won the Hillman Award for Investigative Journalism. It also won the 2016 Canadian Association of Journalist's Don McGillivray Award. In 2017, he won an Indspire award for public service.
In 2010–11, he received a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University in California. This fellowship allowed McCue to create an online guide. It helps journalists report in Indigenous communities. He still manages this guide, called "Reporting in Indigenous Communities."
On August 7, 2016, McCue became the new host of Cross Country Checkup. He replaced Rex Murphy. This made McCue the first Indigenous person to host a major show at the CBC. Checkup is a national radio program where people call in to share their thoughts. It airs weekly on Sunday afternoons. The show covers many different topics. The CBC says the show has over half a million listeners. Each week, thousands of people try to call in. McCue also regularly reported on current events for The National.
In 2016, he was a visiting journalist at the Ryerson School of Journalism. He worked with teachers there. He helped develop new ways to teach students how to report on Indigenous stories and issues. In 2018, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of King's College. This was to recognize his public service.
In 2023, McCue became an associate professor at Carleton University in the School of Journalism and Communication. He is also the Director of a one-year Certificate in Reporting in Indigenous Communities. This course will welcome its first students in the fall of 2025. McCue lives in Ottawa and has two children.
