Jackie McKay
Jackie McKay reports on how law, policy and funding decisions shape life for Indigenous communities, with a recurring focus on education systems and the legacy of residential schools. She is a reporter with CBC Indigenous, covering stories in British Columbia through the voices of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people and their leaders. A Métis journalist, she brings years of northern reporting experience and award‑winning local coverage to national debates that touch schools, justice and community well‑being. She received a Canadian Screen Award for best local reporter in 2025.
Residential schools and Indigenous education
McKay’s recent work follows the push by Indigenous leadership to confront residential school denialism in Canadian law and public discourse.
In one prominent piece, she reports on the Assembly of First Nations’ emergency resolution calling for the criminalization of residential school denialism, framing it as a matter of accountability for harms and truth‑telling about the school system. Her education coverage extends into infrastructure, where she details AFN‑commissioned research estimating that $19 billion is needed over 20 years for on‑reserve school infrastructure to meet national standards, including capital costs and housing for teachers.
Across these stories, she links education to broader questions of federal responsibility, long‑term investment and the conditions under which students and teachers in Indigenous communities actually learn and work.
Indigenous governance, elections and party politics
McKay regularly situates Indigenous concerns inside electoral and party politics, especially in British Columbia. Her coverage of Vancouver’s municipal election examines what First Nation stakeholders expect from the next mayor and council, concentrating on commitments to support development projects and funding arrangements that directly affect their land and communities. In another piece, she reports on First Nations leaders in B.C. calling on Conservative Party officials to drop a candidate over social media posts about Indigenous issues, focusing on how political rhetoric and online behaviour shape trust with Indigenous leadership.
These stories show her attention to how decisions inside municipal and federal parties translate into real leverage - or exclusion - for First Nations at the negotiating table.
Economic and regulatory pressures on communities
McKay also covers how national and provincial economic shifts filter down to Indigenous businesses and communities. In a co‑bylined report on a looming Canada‑U.S. trade war, she looks at how First Nations businesses and communities brace for potential tariffs and market disruptions, treating international trade policy as a local risk management problem. Her work on a court petition targeting a social‑media‑branded cosmetic injector in B.C. examines allegations by the provincial college of physicians that procedures such as Botox and dermal fillers were being performed without proper licensing, highlighting regulatory systems meant to protect patients. Together, these pieces show her willingness to move between economic policy and professional regulation, while keeping the focus on how rules, enforcement and uncertainty play out for people on the ground.
Public health and long‑term northern experience
Public health is another through‑line, particularly where it intersects with systemic inequities. McKay’s coverage of the toxic drug crisis documents how First Nations people in B.C. continue to be hit harder than the general population, treating overdose deaths and addiction as outcomes of policy failure and unequal access to care rather than isolated incidents.
Her author bio notes that she spent more than five years reporting for CBC’s northern service, with much of that time in Nunavut and additional experience in Whitehorse, Thunder Bay and Yellowknife. That long northern tenure and movement across different regions of the country inform a reporting style that treats health, education and economic stories as interconnected systems affecting Indigenous communities over time.
Role within CBC Indigenous
Across her author page and recent bylines, McKay is identified as a reporter for CBC Indigenous covering B.C., with a remit that spans education, governance, health, economics and regulation as they relate to Indigenous communities. Her work often centres national institutions such as the Assembly of First Nations, provincial regulators and political parties, while grounding each story in the specific concerns of affected First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. The combination of northern reporting experience, a dedicated Indigenous beat and recognition as an award‑winning local reporter gives her coverage a consistent emphasis on structural causes and long‑term consequences rather than one‑off events.
4 more education journalists.
Abby Russchen
Abby Russchen ties education, community institutions and individual stories together, showing how policies and decisions register in people’s lives. She reports for CBC on education and community life, working across text, video and photography for different CBC platforms. Her education coverage centres student achievement, provincial and national test results, classroom technology and the forces shaping learning conditions, connecting policy language and expert analysis to observable changes in performance. She treats AI, screens and digital tools as part of the education beat, focusing on their impact on student well-being. She also reports on community institutions and local services, from bank closures and changing city status to small-business growth. Her human-interest features follow people, public memory and recognition, and her long-form background supports detailed, fact-grounded narratives across formats.
Alexa Phillips
Alexa Phillips reports on education as a financial system, tracing who pays, who benefits and who bears the risk when policy changes reshape schools and universities. She covers education policy, funding and regulation for The i Paper, with a consistent focus on money, power and their impact on students and staff. Her reporting follows fees, budgets and reform into classrooms and lecture halls, using concrete figures to show how tax changes, funding mechanisms and loan reforms translate into course cuts, job losses and access. Phillips brings wider experience on public services and regulation, including work on gambling oversight and healthcare access, so education sits in a larger accountability story. She writes straightforward, reported news pieces that combine policy detail, financial data and case studies, built from official records and regular call‑outs to readers affected by the systems she covers.
Alexandra Holyk
Alexandra Holyk is a multi-skilled journalist at CTV News who reports on education and youth issues through the daily lives of students, families, and local communities. She covers school and campus decisions, student safety, youth behaviour, and neighbourhood incidents, with a focus on how they affect the people directly involved. Her work includes stories on graduation choices, concerns about Black students in a school board, federal research funding at the University of Waterloo, and students who helped after a cyclist collision. She also covers vandalism and other local disruptions around schools and neighbourhoods. Holyk pitches, researches, shoots, writes, edits, and presents stories for broadcast and digital platforms. Her previous work includes video journalism for provincial coverage, along with reporting for campus and regional outlets and major Canadian newspapers and business media.
Annabelle Olivier
Annabelle Olivier ties system-level themes in Quebec’s school system to the immediate realities of parents and students, treating education as a lived experience rather than an abstract policy field. She is a digital journalist with CBC News, covering education and related public policy. Her work spans data breaches and digital privacy in schools, institutional conflicts and labour disputes that disrupt study plans, education on the campaign trail, and school infrastructure and land use. She reports on incidents like mass emails exposing sensitive parent data, suspended classes that leave students feeling like bargaining chips, and proposals to turn racetracks into schools. Her background in digital production at another major Canadian broadcaster shapes an online-first reporting style, grounded in specific incidents, clear descriptions, and detailed, verifiable facts drawn from documents, statements and interviews.