Austin Grabish traded in winter boots for a surfboard.
He joined the ABC10News team as a reporter in January 2023. He moved to San Diego from Canada, where he was a staff reporter for more than six and a half years at CBC, the country’s national public broadcaster.
Austin’s stories aired on Canada’s flagship national nightly newscast: The National, CBC News Network, local CBC TV stations across the country, on national radio and online.
His dogged reporting on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights won the investigative excellence award from RTDNA Canada in 2021 and triggered the resignation of the organization’s CEO. Austin revealed the national museum forced staff to hide LGBT material and content related to women’s rights when certain school groups were present. He also exposed a string of sexual harassment complaints from female employees who alleged HR dismissed them.
In 2020, Austin was instrumental in showing how Indigenous communities were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. He reported from a remote fly-in First Nations community as the military was deployed to help fight the battle. Austin was also instrumental in covering the impact of mandatory lockdowns on businesses and the government’s failure to properly contact trace during the pandemic.
In 2019, Austin led CBC’s coverage providing around-the-clock updates from the ground in Northern Canada during the manhunt for serial teenage killers Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod. The teenagers were wanted for killing an American, an Australian citizen, and a university lecturer. The manhunt is among the largest in Canadian history and was followed by news outlets around the world.
A year prior, Austin won the national RTDNA Canada Ron Laidlaw Award for his extensive reporting on asylum seekers who lost limbs to frostbite after risking their lives to enter Canada on foot in the middle of the winter. His in-depth reporting later revealed how hundreds of other asylum seekers had risked their lives to come into the country from the United States, and documented one woman’s fatal attempt to get asylum.
Austin’s stories have been followed by international news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Before joining the CBC, Austin reported for several newspapers.
Austin is thrilled to now call America’s Finest City home and welcomes any story ideas and tips from viewers.
Austin can be reached by email at austin.grabish@10news.com
