“I loved my classes. I loved the challenges. I thought, this is where I’m supposed to be,” says Ioanna Roumeliotis. | Photo: CBC
Ioanna Roumeliotis, BA 91, credits her experience working as a waitress for many years at her father’s restaurant with giving her an edge over fellow students in Concordia’s Department of Journalism in the late 1980s.
“I didn’t have the same qualms that some had about talking to strangers, because people can be very testy when it comes to their food,” she says.
That ease with people — and her Concordia education — helped propel Roumeliotis into a 35-year career in journalism. Her latest assignment: host of The Fifth Estate, the CBC News flagship investigative journalism program now celebrating its 50th year. She will join co-hosts Steven D’Souza and fellow Concordia alumnus Mark Kelley, BA 85.
Roumeliotis’s first episode as host airs at the end of February.
The Montreal native originally studied political science at McGill University. “Yet I discovered that my biggest strength was writing and interviewing. So, when I went to Concordia, I felt, ‘I’m home,’” she recalls.
Roumeliotis still appreciates the rigour and standards that were set by her journalism professors, led by department co-founders Lindsay Crysler and Enn Raudsepp.
“I loved my classes. I loved the challenges. I thought, ‘This is where I’m supposed to be.’ In the early days, one of the professors said that most of us weren’t going to be there the next year. And I remember thinking at the time, ‘I’m not leaving. This is it.’”
After graduating in 1991, Roumeliotis worked as a print journalist for several local newspapers for the next few years before landing as reporter in CBC Montreal’s newsroom in 1995. Five years later, she moved west to Toronto to become a reporter for the network, filing for multiple news programs as well as The National, CBC News’ flagship program, where she eventually became one of its most valued team members.
“I worked pretty much filing news every day until I ended up at The National, then doing short documentaries before finally joining The Fifth Estate,” she says.
‘Our job is to listen’
Throughout her career, Roumeliotis has covered a wide range of important news stories, such as the 9/11 attacks. In 2020, she won a Canadian Screen Award for her story following up on the survivors of the Toronto van attack in 2018, when a 25-year-old man intentionally drove into a crowd on a Toronto sidewalk, killing 10 people and injuring 16.
“We talked to victims of the Toronto van attack, the so-called ‘lucky ones’ who had survived but had been injured. It was a really profound look at this struggle that they were going through,” she says. “When something terrible happens, everybody rushes in, and then everybody moves on. We wanted to delve into the people who are left still living.”
Roumeliotis says she’s looking forward to continuing that kind of in-depth investigative journalism at The Fifth Estate. For instance, she did a piece as guest host on the show in February 2024, looking at online cults targeting teens and the effect on their families. During her reporting, she says the RCMP wasn’t being forthcoming — but she persisted. “I just kept calling the RCMP. And eventually, they gave us a statement,” she says.
Roumeliotis will be revisiting that story for The Fifth Estate in March. “We went back to the RCMP and finally they relented and did an interview. We asked the questions for the family that needed to be asked,” she says. “At the end of the day, people want to feel heard. I think our job is to listen and then try to connect the dots in those stories.”
She recognizes the challenges facing traditional media today. “I think part of the bigger framing for any story around CBC these days is trying to figure out our place. So much has changed. Audiences are so fragmented. But there’s a real need for context and to understand all the moving parts, between disinformation, misinformation and the multiple platforms that are out there,” she says.
“And I think people have a real hunger to try to find somebody to help them understand where those pieces actually fit.”
Nonetheless, Roumeliotis remains elated about her new gig. “I am still pinching myself,” she says. “I get so fired up by stories and the opportunity to tell them. My heart is in storytelling.”
The Fifth Estate airs Fridays at 9 p.m. (9:30 p.m. NT) on CBC and CBC Gem and streams at 1 p.m. ET on YouTube.