Jeff Semple

Host & Senior Correspondent

Jeff Semple is an award-winning journalist and the host of The West Block, Canada’s #1 political and current affairs program, which airs Sunday mornings on Global. He is also a senior correspondent with Global National based in Ottawa.

Jeff is one of Canada’s most accomplished international correspondents. Over the past two decades, Jeff has reported from more than 40 countries across five continents, including numerous war zones and humanitarian disasters.

In 2025, Jeff received the Canadian Screen Award for Best National Reporter from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television for his coverage of the October 7 attack in Israel and the war in Gaza. Jeff was previously nominated twice for the same award, in 2021 and 2023, for his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, respectively.

Jeff’s groundbreaking reporting from inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2002 received the Best National Enterprise Journalism Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Jeff’s reports have also been recognised by the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Online Publishing Awards, and the Michener Awards. His stories have appeared internationally on the BBC, CNN, Sky News, and NPR.

Prior to moving to Ottawa in 2026, Jeff was based in Toronto and spent six years in London, England, as the Europe Bureau Chief for Global News. He previously worked as a correspondent for CBC News in London, Toronto, and Ottawa.

Jeff regularly anchors Global National, Canada’s #1 national newscast. He also hosted the podcast series Russia Rising and China Rising. China Rising was the #1 podcast in Canada on iTunes in 2019 and was named one of Apple’s Top Podcasts of the Year.

Jeff is the author of the upcoming book Fake News, published by the University of Toronto Press, which charts the rise of disinformation and the threat it poses to Canadian democracy.

Jeff has also forged a reputation as one of Canada’s top multimedia video journalists, shooting and editing his own reports. Jeff is an avid drummer and is constantly resisting the urge to tap and drum on just about everything.