Jean-Francois Lépine is Québec's Representative in China. He is an award-winning journalist and former television host for the CBC’s French network, Radio-Canada. His work, especially from abroad, frequently appeared on CBC’s English networks. He is also an international analyst and most recently the president of l'Observatoire sur le Moyen-Orient et l'Afrique du Nord (OMAN) at l'Université du Québec à Montréal.

In a career which began in 1971, he was host of the radio show Présent (1975-1978), Radio-Canada’s parliamentary correspondent in Quebec City (1978-1981) and then became a foreign correspondent, reporting in both French and English from bases in Beijing (1983-1986), Paris (1986-1988) and Jerusalem (1988-1990). During his posting in the Middle East, he was shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier while covering clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians.

He returned to Canada to host Radio-Canada/TV’s newsmagazine Enjeux (1990-1992). In the fall of 1992 he became the host of the daily information program Le Point, a job he held until 1998. For the next nine years he hosted Zone Libre, then becoming journalist/host of Une Heure Sur Terre until he left Radio-Canada in 2012.

Lépine’s reporting, hosting and documentary work has brought him many honours, including Best Documentary award from the Communauté des télévision de langue français in 1986 for “La Chine, dix ans après Mao” ( Le Point); five Gemini awards between 1987 and 2003; and the Prix Judith Jasmin de journalisme in both 1989 and 2000.

He holds a BA from Laval University and an MA in Political Science from the University of Québec, Montréal. He became a Fellow of the Québec Institute of International Relations in 1974.

@JFrancoisLepine