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2009 Michener-Deacon Fellowship recipient -
Ed Struzik
Michener-Deacon Fellowship recipient to address what he believes
will be one of the greatest public policy issues of our time -
Arctic sovereignty.
Ed Struzik, a senior writer at The Edmonton Journal, is the
recipient of the 2009 Michener-Deacon Fellowship. The Fellowship was
presented during the 2008 Michener Award ceremony held at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on June
10, 2009.
His proposal for a project on Arctic sovereignty was a strong first
pick for a majority of judges. They felt that, though the topic is
much discussed and reported, Struzik's credentials show that he is
capable of providing new perspectives of national public interest.
They believed his stories could make a difference in how Canadians
understand the issue of Arctic sovereignty.
In his application, Struzik pointed out that, for a century, the
Government of Canada has responded to periodic challenges to
sovereignty in the Arctic by temporarily increasing the Canadian
presence there. But the rules governing the Arctic are changing.
Eight countries have legitimate claims to Arctic areas. Ice is
melting at a rate that will allow shipping from the North Atlantic
to the Pacific. The rising price of oil has made Arctic stores of
the resource a much sought-after commodity while new technologies
are making Arctic oil more accessible. What is required now, Struzik
says, is a national strategy and an international treaty to govern
shipping and oil exploration. He plans to join an expedition of
geologists who are building a case for Canada to claim an area the
size of the three Prairie provinces. They are also mapping the ocean
floor to prepare for safe shipping.
(Ed Struzik acceptance speech)
He has explored and written
extensively on Arctic issues for the past 25 years. A skilled
photographer and canoeist, he has been writing about environmental
issues for the past 28 years and has lived and worked in the Yukon
and Northwest Territories and visited every community in the
Canadian North.
He recently spent the better part of a year in the Arctic
investigating the impact that climate change is having on wildlife,
the environment, aboriginal cultures, the economy as well as the
threats it poses to security and sovereignty in northern Canada and
the United States. During nine separate journeys, he travelled
several thousand miles on foot, ski and snowmobile and on
icebreakers, helicopters, bush planes and small boats to find out
how Inuit hunters, scientists, oil men, miners and politicians view
the future in a polar world that is warming fast.
His articles and photographs have appeared in dozens of magazines
and newspapers, including Canadian Geographic, Equinox,
International Wildlife (U.S.), Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and his
own newspaper, the Edmonton Journal.
Over the years, Mr. Struzik has received many awards and honours for
his work including the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, the
Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT at Cambridge, Ma., the
Southern Fellowship at the University of Toronto and the Sir
Sandford Fleming Medal, which goes to one Canadian each year who has
made an outstanding contribution to the understanding of science in
Canada. He is the author of two books - Northwest Passage and
Ten Rivers Run Through It.
Judges for the 2008 Michener-Deacon Fellowship:
Lindsay Crysler (chair), former managing editor of The Gazette, Montreal; former
director journalism department, Concordia University, Montreal; Clinton Archibald,
professor of public ethics, St. Paul University, Ottawa; Lynne Van Luven,
associate professor of journalism & creative non-fiction, University of Victoria; Erin
Steuter, chair of the sociology department, Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB;
Professor Marc Raboy, Beaverbrook Chair in Ethics, Media and Communications, McGill University.
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.
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