Longtime Métis radio host, country singer, gets ready to retire
CBC
A longtime radio host whose voice has connected Métis citizens across Manitoba is getting set to retire from the airwaves.
"I've made so many good friends," said Ray St. Germain, co-host of Native Communications Inc.'s (NCI) popular call-in show Métis Hour x2.
St. Germain, 82, is Métis from St. Vital, Man., and has been hosting the call-in show from Winnipeg for the last 23 years.
The two-hour show, which starts on Saturdays at 11 a.m., features a diverse selection of Métis music, curated by St. Germain, a live update with Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand, and phone calls from Métis citizens who tune into the show.
"It gives them a chance to say hi to everybody because it's broadcast all over… [including] the Internet," said St. Germain.
"So, you know, they call up and say hi to their relatives in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto."
St. Germain is a well-respected country music singer and songwriter who has performed alongside the likes of Johnny Cash and Kenny Rogers and was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010.
His radio career started in 1957 and the station manager at NCI, Dave McLeod, said he is a trailblazer for people in Manitoba's music industry.
"Ray St. Germain is an original. A true original. Irreplaceable," said McLeod, who is Anishinaabe from Pine Creek First Nation.
"He's made unique bonds and unique friendships with a lot of people in the Manitoba music industry and I think his career shows what is possible, because he made a decision to stay in Manitoba."
Juno-nominated country music singer Desiree Dorion first met St. Germain when they performed together at the 2002 North American Indigenous Games in Winnipeg.
"Every time I'm around him or every time I listen to him on the radio, you just feel like he's letting you into his living room," said Dorion.
"Ray's retirement really does allow him to see the impact that he's had on on the Indigenous music community and that we have an opportunity just to tell him how much he's loved and and revered in the community."
In the meantime, NCI will look for someone to fill the hosting chair, and St. Germain will soon have enough time to travel and visit his children and grandchildren.
This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
Lac La Ronge Indian Band's Woodland Wellness Centre has received funding to start a mobile addictions outreach program to address the opioid and mental health crisis.
Adriana Avelina Ruíz Márquez uses fake eyelash glue to attach a tiny transmitter to the thorax, just behind the head, of the monarch butterfly.
After several delays to the mission that will take four astronauts around the moon, NASA held a press conference today announcing that Artemis II is on track to launch as early as April 1.
Snuneymuxw First Nation is calling for a temporary closure and environmental investigation of a hazardous waste services company following a January oil spill on Duke Point near Nanaimo, B.C.
In February, five people were killed in separate avalanches across B.C. and Alberta. That same month, more than a dozen people were killed in California and Utah, including a particularly deadly avalanche that claimed the lives of nine. In Europe, from Andorra to Slovakia, the season has recorded 125 deaths from avalanches so far.
Getting a proper vehicle to transport people for urgent medical care is an ongoing challenge in fly-in First Nations in northwestern Ontario.
A new supergroup of musicians from Six Nations of the Grand River and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation have collaborated on a Robbie Robertson-inspired song they will perform at the Junos Honouring Ceremony later this month in Hamilton.
People as young as 45 should be invited to provincial and territorial programs to screen for colorectal cancer, the Canadian Cancer Society urged on Wednesday.
The Métis Nation-Saskatchewan (MN-S) has opened an office and retail space in Ottawa to create a stronger presence in the capital since removing itself from the Métis National Council in 2024.
Toronto resident Winhan Wong's lung cancer journey began in 2016, with a nagging cough that just wouldn't go away.
Last month, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak pointed out on social media that history was made this year because there are a record 164 female chiefs serving across the country.
Most of humanity has a great propensity to think in the short-term, but generally, long-term considerations — air pollution, deforestation and emissions, for example — just aren't our thing.