CBC expands with more local journalists in Ontario
Say hello to our new CBC reporters!
As part of CBC's local service expansion to open over twenty bureaus bringing local and regional news to more Canadians, CBC has officially opened three new permanent bureaus in Ontario – Oshawa, Sault Ste. Marie and St. Catharines.
These three bureaus reinforce CBC's ongoing commitment to local reporting on news that matters to Ontarians.
Meet our new reporters:
OSHAWA
Rochelle Raveendran joined CBC Toronto in February 2024 as an intern while finishing her Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University and has been on the digital team ever since. No stranger to covering the news in Oshawa, her first field assignment with CBC Toronto was an Oshawa court case. She is excited to get to know Oshawa better and help us expand our coverage there.
Christian D'Avino has wanted to be a journalist since high school when he volunteered for local cable television before completing his diploma at Fanshawe College in London. While he's spent most of his life in Ontario, his career started in the small northern B.C. city of Dawson Creek. He moved back to Ontario to be a reporter for CTV in Sault Ste. Marie and most recently has been working for CTV Barrie as a reporter, producer and anchor. Christian is passionate about local news and strongly believes in reporting on underserved communities.
SAULT STE. MARIE
Alex Flood has dreamed of working for the CBC ever since he was a young boy watching the evening news from his childhood home in Sault Ste. Marie. Soon after completing his diploma from the College of Sports Media in 2021, Alex began working as a television reporter and news anchor with TBT News in Thunder Bay. From there, he joined Village Media where he told hyperlocal stories for his hometown publication SooToday and later, for TorontoToday when it was launched in 2024. When he's not covering the news, you'll find Alex watching sports (Go Canucks!), playing piano, and watching Schitt's Creek for the millionth time.
ST. CATHARINES
Diona Macalinga is a bilingual video journalist who's curious to explore new places and ways of telling stories. She studied journalism at Concordia University in 2021 and complemented it with further training in data journalism from King's College in Halifax. During her studies, Diona has dabbled in investigative journalism, podcasting, and documentary filmmaking. Diona was born and raised in Montreal, where she started her journalism career there working as a VJ for CityNews, specializing in community and political stories. In 2025, she moved to St. Catharines as a multiplatform reporter for the CBC.