An update on CBC’s plans to open new world bureaus

New bureaus in China, Mexico and Berlin will soon add to CBC News's efforts to deliver international reporting by Canadians, for Canadians.

International reporting by Canadians, for Canadians, is essential amid shifting global alliances

Brodie Fenlon · CBC News

· Posted: Oct 28, 2026 10:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 18 minutes ago

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On Monday, Nov. 2, CBC/Radio-Canada will celebrate its 90th birthday. 

Founded in 1936, the Crown corporation was viewed by the Canadian government of the day as a necessary bulwark against a tsunami of U.S. culture, politics and information crossing our border via high-powered AM radio signals. (At the time, the Americans also controlled the majority of AM radio frequencies in North America, so the creation of the CBC was as much about Canadian identity as it was information sovereignty.) 

Two important developments followed within the first five years of the public broadcaster’s birth: Canada declared war on Germany in 1939 and the CBC launched its own news division in 1941, ending its reliance on Canadian Press dispatches. 

Before long, CBC journalists were sent overseas to cover the war, including the legendary correspondent Matthew Halton, whose battlefield reports are as compelling a listen today as they were when first broadcast in the early 1940s. Listen, for example, to his description of the Allied fight for Carpiquet in Normandy, in July 1944.

Halton did what the best of our international reporters do today (granted, he only had one medium to worry about). He reported facts with context and colour, he bore witness, he helped the listener understand the work behind his journalism — without making himself the centre of the story — from great distances and he brought stories to life for Canadians at home gathered around their radios. 

That is still the mission of our journalists, delivered today across broadcast, web, apps, social platforms, podcasts and streaming services. 

LISTEN | Halton reports on Carpiquet:

Archives8:11The battle for Carpiquet

It's two minutes to five in Normandy and CBC Radio's Matthew Halton is counting down the seconds to the Allied attack on Carpiquet.

International reporting by Canadians — for Canadians — is essential when shifting global alliances are redefining Canada’s place in the world order. And more than ever, global events have local consequences, as we’ve seen through a multitude of stories this past year, from the Strait of Hormuz to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs to wars in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan, to the upcoming U.S. midterm elections. 

CBC/Radio-Canada announced earlier this year plans to expand its international coverage, including opening (or reopening) permanent bureaus in Beijing, Jerusalem, Mexico City, Los Angeles and another European capital. We also intend to open a bureau in Africa in the next phase of this expansion. 

New bureaus in China, Mexico and Berlin will soon add to CBC News's efforts to deliver international reporting by Canadians, for Canadians. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images)

Currently, CBC News has bureaus in London, Mumbai, New York and Washington, D.C. Our French-language news service, Radio-Canada Info, has bureaus in Istanbul, Paris, Taipei and shares our space in Washington. We co-ordinate closely, share resources, and deploy to many more countries as news warrants. Last year news teams from CBC and Radio-Canada travelled to 65 countries. 

But there is no replacement for having journalists permanently in place in different parts of the world. Here is the latest update on CBC’s efforts to expand its international presence:

• I’m delighted to announce Lisa Xing will be our new Beijing-based correspondent covering China. Lisa has covered the Ontario Legislature, reported and hosted from Windsor and was part of CBC Toronto’s investigative team. She also covered the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. During more recent deployments to China, she produced reports on the country’s booming EV industry, the Chinese Communist Party's largest annual gathering and a trade mission by Canada’s finance minister. 

• I’m especially pleased to announce that Jorge Barrera will be our permanent correspondent in Mexico City. Jorge is a Venezuela-born journalist who previously worked with CBC's Investigative and Indigenous units. He has been in Mexico on a temporary deployment for a year now and produced some excellent journalism in that country, as well as in Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia. Among his recent work, he has documented Canadian health tourists seeking endometriosis treatment in Mexico, the kidnapping of workers from a Canadian mining firm, and a condo scam that snared an Ontario couple. 

• We are happy to announce our newest European bureau will be in Berlin and the correspondent job opening has just been posted. We chose Germany because it is a key economic and political anchor of the European Union, and Canada’s sixth-largest merchandise trading partner. The country’s ties to Canada have also been strengthened through recent agreements and promises to collaborate on critical minerals, AI, digital sovereignty, auto and battery manufacturing. 

We hope to have more announcements soon on new correspondents and producers for Jerusalem, Beijing and Los Angeles, along with a new correspondent in our existing Mumbai bureau. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, please take a look at (or listen to) some of the remarkable international journalism our teams have produced in recent months, carrying on a decades-long tradition started by Matthew Halton and his peers. I think those first CBC correspondents would be proud of this work, and proud to know their legacy continues: 

• From on the ground in India: Frustrated Gen Zs and the Cockroach Party, a hero pilot celebrated in Mumbai, and what happens when a Google data centre moves in.

• What will change for Canada if Republicans lose the U.S. midterms? (A recent hit episode from our popular new Washington bureau podcast Two Blocks from the White House.) Plus your guide to the midterms and why they matter.

• 24 hours in Kyiv: Living through Russian drone strikes.

• How France was shaken by fiery street protests and whether the protests will change anything? More of our on-the-ground reporting here on TikTok. 

• What a long-serving Republican senator from a border state told us directly about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s efforts to strengthen ties with the European Union.

• As settler violence erupted in the Occupied West Bank, CBC News was there.

• We interviewed Cornell students as they marched in protest of the university’s handling of sexual assault case. And here’s an explainer on everything we know about the “Cornell 7.”

You can get the latest international reporting on the World section of our News site: cbc.ca/news/world

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brodie Fenlon is general manager and editor in chief of CBC News.