Ottawa – The Michener Awards Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Michener-L. Richard O’Hagan Fellowship for Journalism Education and the Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Investigative Journalism. These prestigious fellowships support Canadian journalists in pursuing projects that advance the public interest through investigative and educational journalism.
The Michener fellowship recipients will be honoured at the annual Michener Awards ceremony at Rideau Hall on Thursday, June 5, 2025, hosted by Her Excellency Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada. This event unveils the winner of the Michener Award for public service journalism in Canada. Finalists for the 2025 Michener Award will be announced next week.
Chris Arsenault and Josette Lafleur Awarded the Michener-L. Richard O’Hagan Fellowship for Journalism Education
Chris Arsenault and Josette Lafleur have been awarded the Michener-L. Richard O’Hagan Fellowship for their project “How They Did It.” This multimedia initiative will provide aspiring journalists with an insider’s view into the craft of investigative reporting in Canada. Through a series of podcasts and videos, the project will explore how leading journalists generate story ideas, source and verify information, build trust, navigate legal and ethical challenges, and produce impactful stories.
Chris Arsenault is an experienced journalist and chair of the Master of Media in Journalism and Communication program at Western University. Josette Lafleur is a multimedia journalist, newsreader, and producer with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.
Katrine Desautels Awarded the Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Investigative Journalism
Katrine Desautels has been awarded the Michener-Deacon Fellowship for her project “The Impacts of Limited Access to Running Water on Healthcare Delivery in Nunavik’s Indigenous Communities and the Consequences on Public Health.”
Desautels’ project offers a rare opportunity for in-depth reporting from Nunavik, investigating the devastating effects of limited access to running water in northern Indigenous communities. Her reporting will examine the implications for healthcare delivery, water infrastructure, and the resulting toll on physical and mental health. By traveling to the region, she will be able to speak directly with affected residents, healthcare workers, and water management personnel.
Desautels is a graduate of the Université du Québec à Montréal and a journalist with La Presse Canadienne. She specializes in covering health issues affecting vulnerable populations. La Presse Canadienne has committed to distributing her resulting series of reports to its hundreds of clients across Canada.
The Michener-Deacon Investigative Journalism fellowship, supported by TD Bank Group, allows a journalist to devote up to four months for a reporting project. Applicants are required to undertake a project that aspires to the criteria of the annual Michener Award for journalism with its emphasis on making an impact for the public good.
The Michener-L. Richard O’Hagan Fellowship for Journalism Education, supported by BMO, is dedicated to the advancement and enrichment of the education of Canadian journalists and journalism students. Winning projects are designed to expand the knowledge of newsroom products, processes and practices.
The judges for the Michener-L. Richard O’Hagan Fellowship were Geneviève Rossier, Raymond Brassard and Pierre-Paul Noreau, and for the Michener-Deacon Fellowship were Geneviève Rossier, Raymond Brassard and Vivian Smith.
About the Michener Awards Foundation
The Michener Awards honour, celebrate, and promote excellence in Canadian public service journalism. Established in 1970 by the late Right Honourable Roland Michener, Governor General of Canada from 1967 to 1974, the Michener Awards are Canada’s premier journalism award. The Michener Awards Foundation’s voluntary Board of Directors administers the award, in partnership with the Rideau Hall Foundation with sponsorship from BMO, Cision, Power Corporation of Canada, and TD. Learn more at www.MichenerAwards.ca.
For more information, visit www.michenerawards.ca
Media Contact:
Jill Clark
Manager of Communications and Media Relations, Rideau Hall Foundation
613-619-0230
[email protected]
