
Her Excellency Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada, presents the 2002 Michener Award for Meritorious Public Service in Journalism to Jim Rankin, representing The Toronto Star.
Photo by MCpl Joanne Stoeckl, courtesy, Office of the Secretary to the Governor General.
The Star won the award for ‘Investigation into Race and Crime‘, a series of reports that showed the Toronto police department treated blacks differently than whites in the world’s most ethnically diverse city.
The Michener Award for meritorious public journalism, sponsored by the Michener Awards Foundation, was launched in 1970 under the auspices of the late Roland Michener, then governor general. The award is for outstanding and disinterested public service in journalism. It is presented annually to a news organization – newspapers, broadcasting stations and networks, news agencies and periodicals are eligible – rather than an individual.