About Voxair

Voxair

Overview

Voxair is the community newspaper of 17 Wing Winnipeg and Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Winnipeg in Manitoba, serving the base's military members, civilian employees, families and the wider Winnipeg military community. It describes itself as "the Winnipeg military community news source since 1952," and its own site calls it "the official Winnipeg military community news source since 1952." Its print mastheads carry the formal designation used by Canadian Forces service newspapers: Voxair is the unofficial service newspaper of 17 Wing Winnipeg, published under the authority of the Wing Commander, and the views it carries do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, the Wing Commander or the Department of National Defence.

The paper's historic format was a free biweekly tabloid, and in the 2020s it has evolved into a digital-first community publication centred on its website, 17wingvoxair.com, where stories are posted on a rolling basis in English and French. Its name combines the Latin "vox," meaning voice, with "air" from the Royal Canadian Air Force — the "Voice of the Air Force." Voxair covers the squadrons, schools, support units, sports, family services and community life of one of Canada's largest air force bases, a community the Department of National Defence has described as employing more than 2,900 personnel, about 650 of them civilians, alongside the headquarters of 1 Canadian Air Division and 2 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg. During CFB Winnipeg's centennial year in 2025, Voxair was the community's chronicler of record for a year of anniversary events.

History

Voxair's first issue was released on 30 May 1952 at RCAF Station Winnipeg. The station's own centennial history records the launch in a single line: "May 30, 1952, the first issue of the Voxair – Winnipeg's 'voice of the air' – was released." The paper's 65th anniversary retrospective, published in 2017, credits Flying Officer Callin as the publication's originator and notes that the first issue carried an editorial by Flying Officer Balan. The name was explained to readers at the outset: "VOX," the Latin word for voice, joined with "AIR" from the Royal Canadian Air Force, producing the slogan "Voice of the Air Force."

The new paper was timed to the life of the station. In its first years Voxair was published triweekly, deliberately scheduled to coincide with the graduating courses of No. 2 Air Navigation School, the NATO navigator-training school that graduated 557 navigators from allied countries between 1951 and 1958. The bison that appeared in the first 1952 edition remained a visual emblem of the paper for decades, and a plains bison — Manitoba's provincial animal — was placed at the centre of the redesigned Voxair logo unveiled in 2024.

Winnipeg's air station dated to April 1925, and Voxair carried the community through the base's successive identities: RCAF Station Winnipeg under Training Command, the 1968 unification-era amalgamation that created CFB Winnipeg from the air station and Fort Osborne Barracks, and the restoration of the 17 Wing title on 1 April 1993. By the 1980s the paper was appearing biweekly; a 1985 masthead gives its ISSN as 0300-3213 and its offices at CFB Winnipeg, and its pages from that era record Air Command headquarters life, air reserve milestones and station sports. Volume numbering ran continuously from the founding: the paper marked its 65th anniversary in 2017, reached Volume 67 in 2018 and Volume 71 in 2022. In 2025 CFB Winnipeg celebrated the centennial of the base itself, and Voxair covered the year's commemorations, from the unveiling of the centennial logo — a January 2025 Voxair story republished by the Department of National Defence — to the Freedom of the City parade and Doors Open Winnipeg.

Programming and Content

Voxair's content is the working and family life of the wing. It reports on the flying and training units that define 17 Wing: 402 "City of Winnipeg" Squadron, which trains air combat systems officers and sensor operators on the CT-142; 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron, the lodger squadron that provides tactical air-to-air refuelling and search and rescue coverage across the Trenton search and rescue region; the wing's operational support and mission support squadrons; and 17 Wing Imaging. Long-form features explain what happens inside the base's hangars — a recent Voxair feature walked readers through Hangar 16, home to 435 and 402 Squadrons and the wing's operational support organizations — and institutional explainers, such as its profile of the base medical inspection room and 23 Canadian Forces Health Services Centre Winnipeg.

Around the operational coverage sits the material of a classic base newspaper: change-of-command and honours coverage, mess and unit events, Personnel Support Programs recreation pages, Military Family Resource Centre notices, an events and announcements section, classified advertising, and extensive sports coverage, from base slo-pitch tournaments to the Canadian Armed Forces National Golf Championship, covered in August 2026. Its recurring "Your Wing, Your People" series profiles individual members and civilian staff — patrolmen, human resources administrators, technicians, mess staff — in their own words. Voxair stories are regularly republished by the Department of National Defence on Canada.ca, where photojournalist Martin Zeilig's Voxair articles and reporting by Voxair manager Bill McLeod appear under the 17 Wing Voxair byline. The paper publishes in both official languages, maintaining French versions of its site and stories for the wing's francophone members.

Audience and Reach

Voxair's audience is the CFB Winnipeg community: the Regular and Reserve members of 17 Wing and its lodger units, the headquarters staffs of 1 and 2 Canadian Air Divisions, civilian Defence Team employees, and the families who live in and around the base in Winnipeg's St. James area, together with veterans and the surrounding civilian community that does business with the base. The Department of National Defence puts the base's workforce at more than 2,900 personnel, of whom about 650 are local civilians, and the wing supports more than 100 units across a wide geographic area.

The print paper was distributed free across the base, with paper carriers recruited from the community; its 2017 anniversary edition described Voxair as a biweekly tabloid with an online presence and a loyal Facebook following. That digital audience has since become the paper's centre of gravity. Voxair told readers in 2024 that after 72 years as the voice of the CFB Winnipeg community "primarily in the form of a magazine and newspaper," the publication was evolving, with its restructured website becoming the community's go-to source. The site now carries dated community reporting through September and October 2026, including coverage of Winnipeg's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation observance on 30 September 2026 attended by Canadian Armed Forces members.

Digital Presence

Voxair's working website is 17wingvoxair.com, a bilingual site carrying its news posts, community features, events and announcements pages, recreation and family-resource sections, and an archive of past print editions in PDF form going back many years. It maintains a Facebook page at facebook.com/17wingvoxair — printed on its front pages since at least 2022 — and its site showcases the wing's Instagram feed.

A caution for readers and directory editors: the web address long printed on Voxair's mastheads, thevoxair.ca, no longer belongs to the newspaper. When checked in October 2026 that domain served an unrelated online-casino comparison site. The inventory record for this profile retains the historic address, but the paper's genuine, current home is 17wingvoxair.com, and the historic domain should not be linked as the newspaper's website when this profile is published.

Ownership and Organisation

Voxair is not a commercial newspaper. It is produced at 17 Wing Winnipeg as the wing's service newspaper, published every two weeks in its print era "under the authority of the Wing Commander," in the paper's own masthead wording, and governed by Canadian Armed Forces policy for service newspapers. Its office is part of the wing community at CFB Winnipeg, and its pages are produced by a small team combining civilian staff with wing public affairs support.

Print-era mastheads list the operation's structure: a Voxair manager — Bill McLeod, identified in Department of National Defence reporting in 2019 and 2020 as the manager of "The Voxair, 17 Wing Winnipeg's newspaper" — a managing editor (Rick Harris in recent print mastheads), photojournalist Martin Zeilig, a sales coordinator handling advertising (Maureen Walls), layout and advertising design, proofreading and accounting support, with the Wing Public Affairs Officer and the Deputy Wing Commander also named on the masthead. The paper was printed commercially by Derksen Printers of Steinbach, Manitoba. Advertising from local businesses — real estate agents, clinics, restaurants and services around the base — has historically filled its pages alongside editorial matter, and free classified ads were offered to community members. Recent website items are bylined "Corporate Services," reflecting the wing's corporate services organisation through which the paper's office now works; the site lists corporate services among its contact points.

Contact and Availability

Voxair's office is at CFB Winnipeg: The Voxair, 700 Wihuri Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3J 3Y9, with mail addressed to The Voxair, 17 Wing Winnipeg, PO Box 17000 Stn Forces, Winnipeg, MB R3J 3Y5. The paper's published telephone contact is (204) 833-2500, extension 4120 for the main office and advertising sales; its print mastheads listed submissions and reporter inquiries at extension 6976, accounting at extension 4121, office hours Monday to Friday, and a submission email at voxair@mymts.net, with a manager's email of voxairmgr@gmail.com printed in 2022 editions. These published contact details appear here as they were published by the paper.

The paper is available free to its community. Current stories, community announcements and the archive of earlier editions are published on its website, 17wingvoxair.com — not at the historic thevoxair.ca address, which is no longer the newspaper's site.