Welcome to the community, Louis!

Hi, my name is Louis Bergeron, and I am the new local journalism initiative (LJI) reporter at the Fort Frances Times. My job is to become an integral part of the news team.

I’m very excited to join the team and I look forward to meeting the entire community. I hope to become a pillar in the community and promote everyone’s story as it happens.

I drove a rusty old square body pickup truck through the mountains to get here and I was suddenly left with a failing transmission between Banff and Calgary. I spent $2000 on a deposit to get my truck fixed but the wrong part was sent to the mechanic, and I had to declare the truck dead and done. I flew out of Calgary on a Delta flight to Falls International, and I am lucky to be in Fort Frances despite losing thousands of dollars in the process.

I moved to 1st street in Fort Frances, and I was very lucky to find a place and a roommate to share the rent with. I’m looking forward to buying a used car to go out on adventures with and learn about everyone in the Rainy River District.

I am a Langara College graduate from Vancouver, and I’ve been in school for six years. I have recently completed a certificate in journalism, and I have an associate degree in psychology. I spent the last two years learning the basics of news reporting and I have much to talk and write about as I begin my new career at the Times.

I chose to work in a small community because the stories are closely linked to the people living in small communities. Residents of small towns tend to be closer to each other than people who live in the city. As your news reporter, I’m here to talk to everyone and report on the daily struggles that you are going through no matter how large or trivial it may seem. I want people’s voices to be heard when something isn’t right with the community. Chances are that if it bothered you, it bothers other people too.

I hope to build a series of connections with everyone I meet, and I look forward to listening, experience, and share everyone’s stories with the district and other publications throughout Canada.

You can reach me at the Times or on my cellphone if you have something you want me to know about. I am an unbiased individual who hasn’t had any dealings with your community yet. I strive to take everyone’s side in telling what needs to be told so that things change when they need to.

I spent the last two decades in Vancouver where I struggled to find my place in the world. I was trained in Quebec as a chemical process operator in refineries, I was out of luck when I arrived on the west coast because I found out that my diploma wasn’t recognized by the oil industry in B.C.

I trained for 18 months at a college in Montreal and when I moved out to B.C. I wasn’t welcomed in the trades community with the diploma I had worked hard for. I am much happier today working as a reporter for the Times and I never thought I would find a place where I fit in so well from the start.

As a psychology student, I tried to complete a bachelor’s degree, but I found that the fine details of third year courses were too much for me to handle. I chose journalism out of a passion for Stanley Kubrick’s movie Full Metal Jacket, and I hope to live up to the Legend of Joker, the main character in the film who portrays as combat correspondent for the Stars n’ Stripes military newspaper during the Vietnam war.

I love to go out into the world without any knowledge of where I’m going and learn from the grass roots of different communities and cultures. There are so many stories to tell and so little time to find them all in the span of a lifetime.

I am trained in every aspect of journalism from recording and transcribing interviews to writing articles designed to catch the readers eye and promote interest for the articles they are reading.

Louis Bergeron, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Fort Frances Times