Brian Fraser, 26, on Feb. 25 after a two-year battle with leukemia. Originally from Brockville, ON, Fraser joined Ottawa’s 580 CFRA as a technical producer in 2015, while still a student in the Algonquin College Radio Broadcasting program. He worked behind-the-scenes on various talk shows and was one of the voices heard on The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll. Following his diagnosis in May 2019, Fraser frequently documented his cancer journey on Twitter, including advocating for blood cancer awareness and blood donation. In addition to his time with CFRA, he served as a play-by-play and colour commentator for the CJHL Nepean Raiders on Algonquin College campus station, CKDJ-FM, from 2013-16. Read more here.
Jeff Ansell, 65, on Feb. 23, of cancer. Ansell got his feet wet in broadcasting at age 17 at ethnic radio station, CFMB-AM Montreal. He moved on to CKGM and CFCF, before relocating to Toronto and CFTR. After two years there, he moved over to CHUM Radio where he anchored in addition to working on the “In Toronto” program. It was at CHUM that Ansell became interested in investigative journalism. In 1980, he and fellow CHUM reporter Tim Laing went undercover, posing as drug addicts to expose doctors illicitly prescribing narcotics. The resulting radio documentary “Pillars of Parkdale” won an RTNDA Award. Ansell went on to conduct an investigation that exposed two Nazi war criminals living in Canada. He later joined Citytv Toronto where his documentary, Nursing Homes: The Promise of Age, led to legislative amendments to the Ontario Nursing Homes Act. He left the station in 1987 to found media training and video production company, Public Eye Network, which produced shows for CHCH-TV and TVO. Ansell joined Hill+Knowlton as Senior Vice-President in 1989, providing media training to CEOs at Pepsi and Procter & Gamble, among other companies. He left in 1995 to start Jeff Ansell & Associates, providing strategic communications counsel and serving as an instructor in the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program. In 2010, he and Jeffrey Leeson co-authored “When the Headline is YOU: An Insider’s Guide to Handling the Media.”
Glen “Moose” Scott, 75, on Feb. 19. A builder in the Prince George sport community, Scott was sports director at CJCI-AM Prince George for eight years in the 1970s, before going on to work with Pitney Bowes, Investors Group and P.G. This Week. He also served as a city councillor from 2002-05 and again from 2005-08. As a volunteer, Scott was the founder of the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association and served as its commissioner for 24 years, in addition to serving on the executive of the B.C. Lacrosse Association for eight years. He was inducted into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 and received a Sport BC Community Sport Hero Award in 2011. He retired in 2013 due to health concerns.
Wes Saunders, 92, on Feb. 17. The longtime radio and television news anchor was known as “the voice of Lloydminster” as one of the fixtures on CKSA-TV for more than three decades. Prior to joining CKSA-TV in the 1960s, Saunders spent nearly a decade in Edmonton radio, first at CFRN from 1955-58 and later CHED. Newcap renamed its Lloydminster newsroom after Saunders in 2013 to mark his 37-year contribution to radio and television in the community.
