Veteran educator new director of journalism

Page 29

Vic Cathers, a veteran journalist, publisher and educator from British Colombia, has been appointed Director of the Program in Journalism for Native People at the University of Western Ontario.

The PJNP is a project of Western's Graduate School of Journalism and is funded primarily b the Ministry of Indian and Northern affairs. It is a 12-month program leading to a diploma in journalism. From 10 to 15 Native students have been enrolled in the program annually since it started in 1980.

A graduate of York University and the University of London (U.K.), Cathers began his career in journalism as a news editor with the CBC in Toronto and as news director at CFCN in Calgary.

Until 1982, he was Publisher/Editor of Northern Times Press, a regional book and magazine publisher in British Columbia which he founded in 1975.

Cathers also has acted as an administrator and consultant for a number of organizations in western Canada including the B.C. Ministry of Human Resources, Secretary of State, and the Minister of Health in Saskatchewan. He has worked for UNESCO in Cuba, for the Organization of World Social Studies in London, England, and as a research director of the B.C. Federation of Labor.

In 1982-83, Cathers was administrator/communications consultant with the Saskatchewan native communications Corporation in Regina where he helped to launch radio and TV programming by Non-Status and Metis communications workers.

Cathers succeeds Dennis Martel, who has taken a position as Media consultant with the government at Queen's Park.