The late Governor General Roland Michener presents
first ever Michener Award to Clive Baxter,
representing the Financial Post.
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History of the Michener Awards Foundation
The Michener Awards Foundation
The Michener Awards for Journalism, Canada's premier recognition of
the finest in public service journalism, emerged in the late 1960s
from the happy marriage of a Governor General's vision and the
formation of a national organization of press clubs.
The Governor General was Roland Michener. His daughter, Wendy, was a
Toronto journalist who provided him with a first-hand view of
Canadian journalism during his many years of public service. Soon
after becoming Governor General in 1967 he realized that journalism
was not included in those endeavours to which annual tribute was
paid at Government House. He decided to establish an award that
would redress that oversight and to honor the memory of the
Micheners' daughter, Wendy, a journalist who died tragically young.
At the same time, a group of press clubs from across the country was
establishing the Federation of Press Clubs of Canada. One of its
objectives was to recognize excellence in journalism. Mr. Michener
invited officers of the new federation to discuss his ideas for an
award with him.
From those discussions emerged the Michener Award for Journalism, to
be commissioned by Mr. Michener and administered by the federation.
Mr. Michener commissioned sculptor John Matthews, of Perth, Ontario,
to design the trophy that would constitute the award. He produced a
handsome bronze rectangle on a marble base with stylized type-font
letters on one side and broadcasting antenna on the other. (A
comparable award in the United States is the Pulitzer gold medal for
public service by a newspaper.)
The first award, for journalism in the calendar year 1970, was won,
fittingly, by a joint print-broadcast project. The Financial Post
had joined forces with CBC-TV to reveal serious problems in the air
charter business. Since then a rich variety of news organizations
has had their names inscribed on Michener trophies -- print, daily
and weekly newspapers, radio and television stations; French and
English, East and West.
Pioneer judges included Montreal Star editor George Ferguson,
Carleton University President A. Davidson Dunton, L'Evangeline
editor Emery LeBlance and veteran British Columbia broadcaster, Sam
Ross. As the competition evolved, the judges moved in the direction
of rewarding public service journalism which had made a difference,
which had effected change at the municipal, provincial or federal
level.
When the Federation of Press Clubs imploded in the mid-1970s, the
National Press Club of Canada stepped in and handled the
administration of the award for several years.
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Fraser MacDougall
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But the need for greater continuity was obvious to supporters and in
1982 the Roland Michener Foundation was established under federal letters
patent granted to a group of lawyers led by John P. Manley on behalf of the
interested parties. They included as Founding President Fraser
MacDougall, a Canadian Press executive and Ontario Press Council official who
had been chairman of the judges' panel and who was responsible for recruiting
the original board. In fact all three presidents who followed Mr. MacDougall
were directors he had recruited to the original board. At a subsequent
meeting on July 15, 1983 the board decided to apply for supplementary
letters patent changing the name to The Michener Awards
Foundation/La Fondation des Prix Michener which was dated Sept. 2,
1983 and formally approved by Consumer and Corporate Affairs Canada
on Sept. 6, 1983. By that time the board had met again on August 31,
1983 and elected Paul Deacon to be president of the re-named
Foundation. Mr. MacDougall was honored at Government House with the
Foundation's Citation of Honour in 1999. He died in the spring of
2000.
The first annual meeting of the board of
the re-named Foundation was held at the National Press Club in
Ottawa on November 12th, 1983.
The letters patent of the Foundation pledged that an objective would
be advancing journalism education and in 1987 the first Michener
Fellowships were awarded. Each year, one or two fellowships, each
worth $22,500, are granted to mature journalists who use their
four-month study-leaves to pursue public service journalism
projects.
Until 1997 the Foundation's operating budget was funded by donations
from several major media businesses, some of the smaller independent
newspapers and a group of interested individuals including members
of the Foundation board.
Spurred by the generosity of Paul Deacon, the Ottawa representative
of Maclean Hunter who had succeeded Mr. MacDougall as Foundation
president in 1983, the board was able to raise an investment fund
from major Canadian corporations with a commitment to strong and
free journalism. Starting in 1998, income from the fund has been
sufficient to meet the annual operating budget including the
guarantee of at least one annual fellowship. The fund is managed by
the Community Foundation of Ottawa Carleton. In recognition of Mr.
Deacon's contributions, the board in 1997 renamed the fellowship the
Michener/Deacon Fellowship.
From the inception of the Foundation until his death in 1995, C.W.E.
(Bill) MacPherson, former managing editor, editorial page editor,
and ombudsman at the Ottawa Citizen, was the executive secretary of
the organization. In fact he led the journalism group in its first
discussions with Mr. Michener and was the glue that held the awards
organization together during somewhat turbulent years of association
with the press clubs.
Gail Scott, former broadcaster and journalism professor at Ryerson
Polytechnical Institute and more recently commissioner of the
Canadian radio-television and Telecommunications Commission,
succeeded Mr. Deacon as president in 1991.
Clark Davey |
Clark Davey, the just-retired publisher of the Ottawa Citizen
and former managing editor of the The Globe and Mail,
was elected president in 1993 to be succeeded in 1998 by Norman
Webster, former editor of the Globe and Mail and Montreal Gazette.
He in turn gave way to Pierre Bergeron, publisher of Le Droit, in
2000. David Humphreys, former managing editor of the Ottawa Journal
and president of Humphreys Public Affairs Group, took over as
president in 2005.
Each year the incumbent Governor General has honoured Michener Award
and Michener/Deacon Fellowship winners at a Government House
ceremony. Roland Michener remained active in the Foundation until
his death in 1991 and each of his successors has graciously adopted
and maintained a personal interest in the Michener Awards Foundation
and its commitment to excellence in Canadian public service
journalism.
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