Journalist.
Born at Winnipeg on 5 January 1959 to Beatrice Charette (1938-1966) and Anthony Fehr (1932-2004), she was the second-eldest of six sisters of Mennonite and Metis heritage. At age seven, upon the death of her mother, she took on the role of caring for the younger children, supported by her aunt, Bertha Janzen. As an adult, she worked at a variety of jobs, then returned to school to study journalism.
Her upbringing was reflected in her radio documentaries, which were infused with her sensitivity to the vulnerable, disdain for corruption, and suspicion of ideology. She joined CBC Radio in Manitoba in 1993 and led a distinguished career as a journalist, covering both local and provincial politics. She was especially acknowledged for her perceptive and sensitive contributions relating to Indigenous issues. Not long before her death, she presented an investigative series on Indigenous-run casinos. She also followed First Nation members who had to leave their communities in the wake of heavy spring flooding, focusing on the fact that many of the evacuated children were not going to school.
Her work was honoured with numerous awards over the years, including a human rights journalism award in 2000 for “No Safe Haven,” a series that aired in 1999 about the lack of housing for the mentally ill. The series also won an award from the Canadian Mental Health Association. In 2003, she was awarded a Gold Medal from the New York Festivals for Original Citizens for her series about Winnipeg's growing Indigenous population.
Her co-workers valued her for her ethics in journalism, the educational approach she took to stories, her compassion, and at the same time, her objectivity. Meanwhile, she remained a strong support for her younger sisters, their children and grandchildren, hosting family meals and passing on her philosophy of personal independence and her love of nature and the arts.
Having battled leukemia for seven years, she died at Winnipeg on 18 July 2012. The Louise Charette Memorial Award was created in her honour, available annually to a Creative Communications student at Red River College Polytech. She also left a substantial monetary legacy to the Mondetta Charity Foundation, a large part of which funded a new extension to a primary school in Kampala, Uganda. The new wing opened in 2016 and was named in her honour.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 10 August 2012.
“CBC Manitoba reporter Louise Charette dies,” CBC News, 19 July 2012.
“Louise Charette,” Recksiedler Family Tree, Ancestry.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 31 January 2026
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