TORONTO — CBC/Radio-Canada announced yesterday veteran CBC journalist and longtime radio host Carol Off (above) will be stepping down from hosting the CBC Radio One program As It Happens (AIH) to focus on developing new original projects for CBC.
Off has hosted the national current affairs show since 2006. Her last day as host will be Friday, Feb. 25.
“It’s been a wild and wonderful ride but it’s time for someone else to take AIH for a spin. After a decade and a half and — I estimate — 25,000 interviews, I want to do something else,” Off said in a CBC press release.
“I have had so many great conversations on AIH. Some were difficult: Holding a politician’s feet to the fire; speaking with the woman who held Nathan Cirillo’s hand while he died; finding a doctor who is dodging bullets in Syria; talking with a man who spent years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Others were sweet and simple: a Scottish shepherd who found her lost lamb; a man who dug up a WW1 shell near his garden; a family that decided to return a million dollar lottery ticket; and even a woman who knits sweaters for her chickens.”
Leading up to Off’s final show as host, As It Happens will be broadcasting highlights from her career.
“The As It Happens team will share some of Off’s best moments from the archive — the prize-winning journalism, the tough exchanges, and the laughs — along with tributes from her colleagues,” reads CBC’s press release.
“Carol is one of the very best interviewers in the country. Full stop. Her journalism and journalistic excellence has received so many awards and honours that it would be impossible to list them all,” said Susan Marjetti, general manager of CBC News, current affairs and local, in the release.
“Of course, As It Happens will continue and Carol will still be telling stories this summer in a new series. So we will continue to enjoy her smart insights, never ending curiosity, probing questions and dry, droll wit for a little longer thankfully. She is an incredible person and a top talent,” Marjetti said.
Details about Off’s new summer series will be announced later this year, the release says.
While CBC Radio conducts a search for a new host for As It Happens, a number of guest hosts will fill in, alongside co-host Chris Howden.
Before becoming host of As It Happens, Off was an international correspondent for CBC TV covering the Middle East, the Balkans, Afghanistan, the United States, and the former Soviet Union among other places. She also covered Canadian military missions around the world, including combat operations in Kandahar after 9/11.
Prior to that, she was a news and politics reporter based in Ottawa and Montreal. She began her career covering the arts beat for CBC in the 1980s.
Among her many honours, Off has won a Gemini award, two gold medals from the New York Festival of Television, a Gabriel award, ACTRA’s John Drainie Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Broadcasting, and most recently a Silver medal for Best Radio Personality in 2021 from the New York Festivals Radio Awards.
She is the author of four books, including The Lion, The Fox, and the Eagle: A Story of Generals and Justice in Yugoslavia and Rwanda and All We Leave Behind: A Reporter’s Journey into the Lives of Others, which was the 2018 winner of the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.
Off is the chair of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression’s gala fundraiser and she has volunteered with Journalists for Human Rights to help Afghan journalists escape from the Taliban.
As It Happens broadcasts weekdays at 6:30 p.m. (7 NT) on CBC Radio One and CBC Listen.
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Photo borrowed from CBC’s website.
