Michel Venne accepts the 1997 Michener-Deacon Fellowship from Governor General Roméo LeBlanc. Mr. Venne is the Quebec parliamentary correspondent for the French-language daily, Le Devoir, in Montreal. He was chosen ahead of eight other candidates. The four-month study-leave fellowship will allow Mr. Venne to explore the topic “Privacy, Ethics and Democracy” and the implications for health care presented by today’s deluge of electronic and other information technologies. He will work with faculty members at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and the University of Montreal.
The fellowship was presented during a ceremony held at Government House, Ottawa, May 1, 1997.
The fellowship of the Michener Awards Foundation, introduced in 1987, is known today as the Michener-Deacon Fellowship (named after the late Roland Michener and the late Paul Deacon, a senior media executive and Michener Awards Foundation president). The fellowship is to encourage excellence in investigative print and broadcast journalism that serves the public interest through values that benefit the community. Mature journalists are invited to submit written outlines for studies over four months that will strengthen their competence.