2016 Michener Award

The 2016 Michener Award was presented to the London Free Press for the story Indiscernible.

"Like so much in our world today, trust is being buffeted by the winds of change: technological, demographic, environmental, economic, cultural. Canada is not immune," said the Governor General. "That makes your dedication to public service journalism all the more essential. It anchors and orients us in changing times. It reminds us of our values, of what really matters. It restores trust. And most importantly, your work makes a difference in the lives of everyday people, who must always be at the centre of all we do."

Their Excellencies the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, and Mrs. Sharon Johnston hosted the presentation ceremony of the Michener Award for outstanding public service in journalism, and the Michener-Deacon Fellowships. The event took place at Rideau Hall on June 14, 2017.

Mr. Russell Mills, President of the Michener Awards Foundation, presented the 2016 Michener finalists and the recipients of the 2017 Michener-Deacon Fellowships.

Valérie Borde is the recipient of the 2017 Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Investigative Journalism. This award was created to encourage excellence in investigative print, broadcast and online journalism. The winning fellow is expected to undertake a project that aspires to the criteria of the Michener Award, with emphasis on identifiable benefits for the public good, improvements in public policy, ethical standards, corporate governance or the lives of Canadians.

Matthew Pearson is the 2017 recipient of the Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Journalism Education. Dedicated to the advancement of the education of Canadian journalists, the fellowship supports a mature journalist-in-residence at a recognized Canadian school of journalism for one semester. The purpose of the fellowship is to enhance the education of both the applicant and the students enrolled in the journalism program.

In an era of shrinking newsrooms, the London Free Press made an extraordinary commitment to a story. A news release stating an unnamed man had died in London’s Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre just before Christmas 2014 started the Free Press on a two-year investigation into the life and death—naked on a cell floor in solitary confinement—of Jamie High, a 40-year-old father, athlete and successful real estate agent in St. Thomas, Ontario. The Free Press produced an eloquent, gripping and tragic 26 000-word series that left readers asking, How could this happen to anyone? It exposed serious shortfalls that produced changes in policing, bail, community mental health care, hospital mental health care, the relationships between hospitals and police, the role of courts and the treatment of inmates. Their work exemplifies the critical value of local media relentlessly pursuing stories and seeking accountability to counter what too many others choose to overlook and let slide as simply “indiscernible.”