Early life Christopher was born in
Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada. He began his broadcasting career in 1965, working as a sports reader for a local radio station, CKNB, while he was attending high school in Campbellton. After graduating in 1967, Christopher worked for a year and a half as a disc jockey at CKMR Radio in
Newcastle, New Brunswick. After working with CKMR, Christopher was hired to work as a DJ at CFOM Radio in
Quebec City. Christopher later commented that he was surprised to have been hired to work in Quebec, "since [his] French vocabulary at the time consisted [only] of the word 'Chevrolet'". After working in Quebec, Christopher worked as a radio and television news announcer in
Dawson Creek,
British Columbia. In 1970 Christopher moved to
South Australia, where he worked for two Australian media outlets,
Radio 5AU and
GTS Television. Christopher returned to Canada in 1972, and has since pursued news assignments in the United States,
Poland, Germany, Austria,
England, Scotland,
Wales,
Nepal, and
Nicaragua. Most of his subsequent reporting has been focused on
Western Canada. In 1991 Christopher received a national award from the
Canadian Association of Journalists for "outstanding investigative journalism", recognizing his work uncovering new details concerning a double homicide in
Saskatchewan. After leaving the CBC, Christopher taught journalism briefly at
Grant MacEwan Community College.
Work with 630 CHED From 1996 to 2008 Christopher worked as a news reporter for
CHED, an Edmonton-based talk radio station. and in the same year wrote a story for the
Pakistan News Service about how the
War in Afghanistan was perceived by the Canadian news community. He deferred his payment for the story to "a needy Pakistani journalism student". After being rejected by a number of local media companies, Christopher succeeded in having his Talisman story published by a small online magazine that specializes in publishing un- and under-reported news stories,
rabble.ca. About a week later Christopher's article on Rabble was noticed by the
Financial Times of London. After the
Financial Times ran the Tailsman story, it was noticed by other news services and was circulated globally via the
Associated Press,
Canadian Press, and
Reuters. The negative publicity caused by Christopher's article forced Talisman to suspend its operations in
Sudan within about a year, but local media never carried the article. McNair lived as a fugitive in Canada for over a year, travelling across the country before being apprehended in Christopher's hometown of Campbellton. In 2008 Christopher began a correspondence with McNair via mail. In his first letter, Christopher included a picture that he had taken of the town, taken near the place that McNair was arrested. He told McNair that he hoped the Campbellton Chamber of Commerce would write a cheque to McNair for all the publicity he had brought to the town, and wrote to McNair about the recent
World Series and
federal election. Christopher included three American dollars in order to cover the cost of paper and postage; the prison returned his money. When McNair wrote back to Christopher, it was his first response to the media. The letter revealed many personal details about McNair's most recent escape which had previously been unknown. Campbellton's local newspaper,
The Tribune, covered their continuing correspondence in detail, In subsequent letters to Christopher, McNair revealed details about his escape and travels through Canada, providing most of what the public knows about McNair's time as a fugitive. ==Articles by Christopher==