Michelle Lang

{{short description|Canadian journalist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Michelle Lang | image= Michelle Lang.jpg | caption = | birthname = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1975|01|31|df=yes}} | birth_place = Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|12|30|1975|01|31|df=yes}} | death_place = Kandahar, Afghanistan | education = Simon Fraser University | occupation = Reporter | alias = | title = | family = | spouse = | domestic_partner = | children = | relatives = | credits = ''Calgary Herald'' | URL = }} '''Michelle Justine Lang''' (31 January 1975 – 30 December 2009) was a Canadian journalist. Lang was a ''Calgary Herald'' reporter and the first Canadian journalist to die in the war in Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/01/04/12337131-sun.html | title=Hundreds honour heroes - Four soldiers, journalist repatriated in emotional ceremony at CFB Trenton | first=Jason | last=Miller | newspaper=Toronto Sun | date=4 January 2010 | accessdate=18 July 2010}}</ref>

==Biography== Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Lang was an alumnus of Magee Secondary School and Simon Fraser University. Her first job as a reporter was at the ''Prince George Free Press.'' She later moved on to ''Moose Jaw Times Herald'' and the ''Regina Leader-Post'', then moved to Calgary to become a print journalist for the ''Calgary Herald''. She won a National Newspaper Award in 2008 for best beat reporting,<ref>{{cite web | title=List of winners since 1949 | publisher=National Newspaper Awards | url=http://www.nna-ccj.ca/wordpress_dev/wordpress/?page_id=64&lang=en | accessdate=2011-10-15 }}</ref> for her reporting on national and provincial health-care issues.<ref>{{cite web |title=NNA winner at '09 gala in Montreal dies in Afghanistan blast |publisher=National Newspaper Awards |url=http://www.nna-ccj.ca/wordpress_dev/wordpress/?p=888&lang=en |accessdate=2011-10-20}}</ref>

Lang was on a six-week assignment to Afghanistan for the ''Herald'' and ''Canwest News Service''<ref>{{cite news|url=http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091230/national/afghan_cda_reporter |title=Condolence messages pouring in for reporter killed in Afghanistan |publisher=Canadian Press |date=30 December 2009 |accessdate=2009-12-31 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100101175341/http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091230/national/afghan_cda_reporter |archivedate=1 January 2010 }}</ref> when the armoured military vehicle she was riding in struck a roadside bomb.<ref name="canakia-CBCNEWS">{{cite news | url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/5-canadians-killed-in-afghanistan-1.782043 | title=5 Canadians killed in Afghanistan | publisher=CBC News | date=30 December 2009 | accessdate=2009-12-31 }}</ref> Four Canadian soldiers were also killed in the blast.<ref name="National Post">{{cite news | url=https://nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2397416 | title=Calgary man mourns fiance lost to Taliban bomb | newspaper=National Post | date=31 December 2009 | accessdate=2010-07-18 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20100104202725/http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2397416 | archivedate=4 January 2010 }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100104202010/http://communities.canada.com/calgaryherald/blogs/afghanistandispatches/default.aspx Calgary Herald Afghanistan Dispatches] *[https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=230324871779 Facebook memorial group for Michelle Lang]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Michelle}} Category:1975 births Category:2009 deaths Category:Assassinated Canadian journalists Category:Canadian newspaper reporters and correspondents Category:Deaths by improvised explosive device in Afghanistan Category:Journalists killed while covering the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Category:Women war correspondents of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Category:Journalists from Vancouver Category:20th-century Canadian journalists Category:21st-century Canadian journalists Category:Canadian women non-fiction writers Category:20th-century Canadian women journalists Category:21st-century Canadian women journalists Category:Canadian war correspondents