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His Excellency, Ramon John Hnatyshyn, Governor General of Canada, made the presentation this evening during a ceremony at Government House, in the presence of the award's founding patron, the Right Honourable Roland Michener. The Independent was selected from among seven finalists for the award. Editor-co-owner Bob Verdun, representing the Independent, accepted the award from the Governor General.
In his address to the assembled guests at the award ceremony, His Excellency said - "what is obvious in all the prizes awarded this evening is that many communities are being well served by their media". He also commented on the current constitutional debate and the need for professional excellence by the media to not only provide complete and accurate coverage of the debate but also a sense of perspective to "help Canadians understand the headlines in the context of our history". (full text of Governor General's award night address)
Background to the Elmira Independent story:
In late 1989, the Ontario community of Elmira (population 7,500)
learned that its municipal water supply was contaminated with
dimethyl nitrosamine (DMNA), a chemical carcinogen. Traces of DMNA
were also discovered in water supplies used by Kitchener-Waterloo,
Brantford and other nearby communities.
The contamination was linked to the operations of Uniroyal Chemical
Ltd., since 1943 one of the area's largest employers. In 1989 the
Ontario Ministry of the Environment ordered the company to stop
dumping its waste water into the Elmira sewage system. The company
fought that decision with lengthy appeals and the weekly, in spite
of its limited resources, covered every inch of that battle which
concluded in December 1989. The Independent has lost advertising and readers.
The Independent, with annual revenues of about $550,000, has been
the only media organization to cover every session of the appeals
process, with some sessions lasting to 3:00 a.m. Reporter Roddy
Turpin handled the onerous job while continuing his regular duties
as Woolwich township and general assign-ments reporter. The
Independent's coverage has revealed several weaknesses in Ontario
provincial environmental law. This is only the second time in its
21-year history that the Michener Award has been won by a weekly
newspaper.
Jock Ferguson, a reporter with the Globe and Mail, was the recipient of the 1991 Michener
Fellowship. Mr. Ferguson is an investigative journalist who has also
worked in television for Global and CBC. As an investigative
reporter in the field of business crime, he has covered
environmental offences, stock market scams and price fixing
practices. He has reported extensively on municipal
affairs, documenting developer influence on mayors, reeves and
aldermen in those governments "closest to the people". He
was educated at Mount Allison University and University of Toronto
Schools and has been an instructor in journalism at Ryerson
Polytechnical Institute in Toronto for the past 11 years. He
co-founded the Centre for Investigative Journalism, the predecessor
of the Canadian Association of Journalists. Mr. Ferguson
intends to use the four-month period of paid leave to study
municipal democracy, to try to determine if it "exists in name
only." (Ferguson Fellowship report)
Each year's panel of judges takes into account the resources
available to entrants. Gail Scott, President of the
Michener Awards Foundation, said "this year's recognition of the Elmira
Independent certainly demonstrates that meritorious public service
in journalism can be attained without the benefit of a large
operating budget." The finalists for the 1990 awards competition were selected from
a total of 54 entries representing radio and television stations,
daily and weekly newspapers, and a news service.
Honorable Mention:
- Ottawa-Hull LeDroit and The
Sault Star (Sault Ste. Marie) as a joint bilingual entry for providing special
and unique coverage of their two communities following the Sault
Ste. Marie city council's decision to make English its official
language in the tense period preceding the failure of the Meech Lake
Accord. This decision, widely reported throughout Quebec and the
rest of Canada, led to joint action by publishers Gilbert Lacasse of
the French-language daily Le Droit and Paul Wilson of The Star.
Reporters were dispatched to the other newspaper's territory to
delve into perceptions, opinions and live situations. The special
sections were carried by each of the newspapers in their respective
languages.
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The weekly newspaper, Yarmouth Vanguard (Nova Scotia), for
its eight-part feature series and special supplement on child sexual
abuse in the local community. The series was conceived and prepared
by Editor Fred Hatfield and senior writer Belle Hatfield. They
gathered information on child abuse, both to test the extent of the
problem and to encourage the community of 7,500 to deal with it.
Publication of the stories generated community and provincial endorsation and action.
- BCTV, for its coverage of the Greater Vancouver
Regional District's first region-wide recycling plan and a proposed $28 million contract with a Chicago-based firm of
less-than-spotless reputation. The station and senior reporter
Harvey Oberfeld, spent more than three
weeks scrutinizing the plan, and checking legal and environmental
authorities at the provincial, federal and state levels. A reporting
team visited San Francisco, Los Angeles and other areas, probing the
Chicago firm's record that showed convictions and fines for
anti-trust, environmental and corruption infractions. After the
3-part series aired, a number of local municipalities announced
decisions to withdraw from the recycling project and the plan was
rejected.
Citations of merit were awarded to:
- Radio Station CKNW, Vancouver, for a public affairs
program series hosted by Rafe Mair which shed critical light on
inequities in child care rules and regulations and the negative
impact of provincial social service practices on families.
Provisions designed to protect children in some cases seemed to be
damaging families with hasty or ill-conceived foster home placements
with no recourse to the alternative of family counselling. A few
weeks into the broadcasts, the Social Services Minister announced a
provincial investigation into five
specific cases and preparation of a report on accountability in general.
(CKNW was also a finalist in the 1989
Michener Award competition),
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The Edmonton Journal, for "Wood
Buffalo: A Park in Peril", a graphic recitation of the conflict
between commerce and environment in the world's second largest
national park. Lead reporter Ed Struzik and other Journal reporters
detailed the threat to the park from clear-cut logging, a British
Columbia hydro dam, Alberta pulp mill pollution and disease in the
world's biggest free-roaming bison herd. The herd was ear-marked for
slaughter by Agriculture Canada. These threats to the park were
covered in in 47 stories by the newspaper and the Journal's impact
was broad. The federal government subsequently had second thoughts
about killing its diseased buffalo herd, logging operations are
being curbed and talks are proceeding to halt further damage by B.C.
Hydro to the
Peace-Athabaska rivers delta. (The Edmonton Journal is a past winner
of the 1980 Michener Award)
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The Winnipeg Free Press, for "Secrecy on Trial", a series of
stories by Free Press medical writer Alexandra Paul, on the power and secrecy of professional licensing bodies
governing the activities of doctors, dentists and lawyers. The two
month investigation involved dealing with arbitrary claims of
confidentiality, lengthy searches of court records, scrutiny of
existing legislation, and a study of conditions elsewhere. Public
accountability in the exercise of the policing authority of
professionals was found to be badly lacking. Publication of the
series prompted changes by medical, dental and legal
associations and influenced
Manitoba political positions on the question of
officially-sanctioned privilege. The series was supervised by
assistant managing editor John Sullivan.
Update:
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| The Right Honourable Roland Michener and Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn April, 1991 Michener Award night. |
"All of Canada mourns the loss of Roland Michener, who gave so much to our country and its citizens. Included in these many contributions was the creation, in 1969, of the Michener Awards for meritorious public service journalism.
Beginning with the presentation of the first award in 1970, Mr. Michener attended each year's ceremonies and always spoke a few words to indicate his on-going recognition of the valuable contribution Canadian journalists can make to the betterment of the community as a whole. We will miss his presence in the years to come, but journalists and members of the public at large will continue to profit from the high standards he established for us to follow."
Judges for the 1990 Michener Award:
Arch MacKenzie, Chair of the judging panel; former Ottawa bureau chief of the Canadian Press and the Toronto Star; Guy Rondeau, former bureau chief, La Presse Canadienne, Montreal; Carolyn Creery, former Canadian Press parliamentary reporter; Emmanuelle Gattuso, Vice-president Canadian Association of Broadcasters; Robert Phillips, former publisher, Western Producer; Harold Shea, Nova Scotia Press Council.
Judges for the 1991 Fellowship:
Senator Richard Doyle; Cameron Bell, former BCTV Vancouver News executive and communications consultant; Mimi Fullerton, President of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council; Claudette Tougas, La Presse editorial writer; and Guy Rondeau, former Montreal bureau chief, La Presse Canadienne.
The Michener Award for meritorious and disinterested public service in journalism is the only Canadian journalism award bearing the name of a governor general and it differs from most such awards in that it goes to the organization, not to individuals.