CJIL-DT

CJIL-DT is a Canadian English-language Christian-based television station licensed to and based in Lethbridge, Alberta. CJIL-DT uses the on-air name Miracle Channel. It was the first over-the-air religious TV station in Canada.

History

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted a broadcasting licence to Dick and Joan Dewert (also known as Dick and Joan Deweert) on April 4, 1995. It debuted on January 14, 1996 broadcasting in southern Alberta, after Canada's sixty-year ban on religious broadcasting was lifted. It expanded nationally on September 11, 2000. CJIL was the Canadian partner of the U.S. religious broadcaster Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). (The Dewerts had set up an unlicenced relay transmitter for TBN in 1986, which was shut down by the CRTC before CJIL's license was granted.) The station is available globally via satellite and on the Internet.

On May 20, 2007, Dick Dewert admitted to an extramarital affair and resigned from the station. Joan Dewert resigned as well. extra-marital relationship. Mervyn Mediwake was installed as the interim CEO. On January 1, 2010, after a series of interim leaders, the board of directors of the Miracle Channel Association hired Leon Fontaine, senior pastor of the Winnipeg-based Springs Church, as permanent CEO.