Charlie Smith was born in Victoria and raised in Saanich. He has been extremely lucky to work at the Georgia Straight for a quarter century, covering politics, business, health, legal affairs, Indigenous issues, diasporas, real estate, and books, among other topics. In the past year, he's experienced great joy writing about arts and culture. For seven years, Charlie also taught investigative techniques at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (then known as Kwantlen University College) and he also worked at CBC Radio for 13 years. In addition, he's researched and reported stories on CBC TV and Global TV (then known as BCTV) newscasts, written for various publications, worked in private radio, and edited a business magazine. He's a Canadian Securities Course graduate who studied history at UVic and graduated with a broadcast journalism diploma from BCIT. He has won two Western Magazine Awards for business writing and twice been nominated for Jack Webster Foundation Awards for his business and science writing. In addition, Charlie has received an antiracism award from Spice Radio, a medal from Radical Desi for countering racist narratives in media, an award from sex workers and their allies for coverage of this issue, and a community builder award from the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society. He misses being a panelist with Frank Bucholtz on municipal election nights on Shaw TV.
