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.[1]
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,[2] for her reporting on national and provincial health-care issues.[3]
Lang was on a six-week assignment to Afghanistan for the Herald and Canwest News Service[4] when the armoured military vehicle she was riding in struck a roadside bomb.[5] She died of her wounds; four Canadian soldiers were killed in the blast.[6]