CJF Tribute

In recognition of the exceptional impact of health journalists in providing accurate and vital information amid the uncertainty of the fast-moving global COVID-19 pandemic, The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) honoured André Picard, health reporter and columnist for The Globe and Mail, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN, with the 2021 CJF Tribute for their national and international contributions. Both received the honour at the CJF Awards virtual ceremony on June 9, 2021, at 7 p.m. ET.

“The CJF is delighted this year to honour the Globe and Mail’s André Picard, Canada’s preeminent health journalist, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s world-renowned medical correspondent,” says CJF board chair, Kathy English. “In a time of so much dangerous disinformation, their trustworthy reporting, insights and advice have provided essential information that Canadians and people around the world have depended on for their health and wellbeing throughout the global pandemic disaster.”

Picard has been a staff writer with the Globe since 1987 and is the author of five bestselling books. His forthcoming book is Neglected No More: The Urgent Need to Improve the Lives of Canada’s Elders in the Wake of a Pandemic. Picard is a past winner of the Michener Award for Meritorious Public Service Journalism and the recipient of numerous honours, including being named Canada’s first “Public Health Hero” by the Canadian Public Health Association and a “Champion of Mental Health” by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health. He also received the coveted Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his dedication to improving healthcare.

In addition to his work as a multiple Emmy-award winning chief medical correspondent for CNN, Dr. Gupta is a practising neurosurgeon, plays an integral role in CNN’s reporting on health and medical news and regularly contributes to CNN.com. Meanwhile, he is an associate professor of neurosurgery at Emory University Hospital and associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, and the author of four books, including Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age, released in January.

“Our 2021 virtual gala celebrates journalists as essential champions of truth,” says CJF president Natalie Turvey. “At a time when accuracy and trust are so critical to overcoming monumental challenges throughout Canada and beyond, fact-based reporting and quality information deserve wide support and broad recognition that journalism matters.”

– View the video tribute to André Picard and his acceptance speech.
– View the video tribute to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and his acceptance speech.

Anna Maria Tremonti, the host of the CBC podcast More and best known for her exceptional CBC broadcast career covering conflict zones and current events, will receive the Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Tribute honour, which recognizes a journalist who has made an exceptional impact. Tremonti accepted the honour at the CJF Awards virtual ceremony on June 11, 2020 at 1 p.m. EDT.

“From Sarajevo to the Middle East, Anna Maria Tremonti was on the frontlines of history in the making,” says David Walmsley, chair of the CJF and editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail. “Her resilience, tenacity and empathy carried into the studio where she led The Current’s national conversation for 17 years. Focused always on the people who are the subject of her reportage, Anna Maria is credited with being one of the most memorable and brave journalists Canada has ever produced.”

As the CJF celebrates its 30th year of honouring journalistic excellence, Tremonti’s career itself is a testament to the best in Canadian journalism over the decades, shaping the way Canadians understand major events at home and abroad. This award highlights Tremonti’s exemplary journalistic work as host of the CBC Radio’s The Current, the flagship current affairs program she helped create; as a co-host of CBC Television’s investigative program the fifth estate; as a political reporter in Ottawa, and as a foreign correspondent covering war, disaster, politics and society for CBC’s The National, with postings in Berlin, London, Jerusalem and Washington, DC.

Tremonti has earned numerous awards over her decades-long career. In 2012, The Current won the prestigious CJF Excellence in Journalism Award in the large media category. She also has received two Gemini awards and a Life Achievement Award from Women in Film and Television Toronto.

– View the video tribute to Anna Maria Tremonti and her acceptance speech

“Maria Ressa is a vital voice in a world where truth is too often at risk,” says Kathy English, a CJF executive board member and public editor of the Toronto Star. “She has reported courageously on the increasingly authoritarian government of the Philippines, which has weaponized the law against her and the news company she co-founded.

“Her powerful defence of truth in the face of daunting obstacles, including threats to her life, is truly inspiring. This award recognizes Maria’s courage and conviction in holding the powerful to account and upholding the press freedom democracy depends on.”

Ressa has been targeted—jailed and then released on bail—for what many see as payback for her coverage and criticism of the Philippine government’s extrajudicial killings as part of its war on drugs and its attempts to silence the free press. She is also known for her fight against disinformation. For her work, she was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year”—among four other persecuted journalists—and has won numerous awards around the world recognizing her courage.

A journalist in Asia for more than 30 years, Ressa has served as CNN’s bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta and was CNN’s lead investigative reporter focusing on terrorism in Southeast Asia. She has written two books – Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia and From Bin Laden to Facebook. She also headed the news division of ABS-CBN, a Philippine media company.

> View the video tribute
> View the presentation and acceptance speech

Jake Tapper, chief Washington correspondent and daily anchor of The Lead with Jake Tapper, was presented with the 2017 CJF Tribute at the annual CJF Awards.
> View the introduction to Jake Tapper by Peter Mansbridge at the CJF Awards
> View the video tribute
> View Jake Tapper’s acceptance speech
> View Jake Tapper’s speech on CPAC

CJF Tribute recipients Tina Brown and Harold Evans accepted the honour at the CJF Awards on June 16. (CJF Photo: John Packman/CNW)
Watch the tribute video to Tina Brown and her acceptance speech.
Watch the tribute video to Harold Evans and his acceptance speech.
“Never think something small or uncompromising can not become big, as big as the dreams and the energy and the rigour you’re prepared to pour into it.”- Tina Brown”We’re all part of this universal connection of values. We all know what we’re trying to do with journalism: speak up for the powerless, comfort the afflicted and do something to leave the world a better place than we found it.”- Sir Harold Evans
Tina Brown, the former New Yorker and Vanity Fair editor, and Harold Evans, the former editor of The Sunday Times, are the 2016 honourees for the CJF Tribute, which recognizes media luminaries who have made an impact on the international stage. The Canadian Journalism Foundation presented the honour at its annual CJF Awards on June 16 at The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.
“The journalistic stratosphere was jolted when Harry met Tina,” says David Walmsley, a CJF board member and editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail. “Together, they are among the industry’s most accomplished—always taking risks, being brave. This gala event will be a night to celebrate two journalistic warriors.”

An award-winning journalist, editor and author, Brown also served as editor-in-chief of Tatler at age 25. In 2008, she launched and edited the digital news site The Daily Beast, which merged with Newsweek two years later. Brown also is the author of the best-selling biography of the Princess of Wales, The Diana Chronicles. In recognition of her service to journalism, she was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000. She is currently CEO of Tina Brown Live Media, a company dedicated to summits, flash forums and debates. The company emerged from her annual Women in the World Summit, a three-day event that convened inspirational activists and political change-makers from around the world to share stories and offer solutions to build a better life for women and girls.
An author of several books, including the widely acclaimed The American Century, Evans is now editor-at-large for Reuters and a contributing editor of U.S. News & World Report. As a long-time newspaper editor (Northern Echo and The Sunday Times), his journalism helped end capital punishment in Britain and ensured Thalidomide victims received a just settlement and an apology. In New York, as the president and publisher of Random House Trade Group, he was behind such iconic books as Primary Colours by Anonymous (Joe Klein) and the political campaign sensation What it Takes by the late Richard Ben Cramer. Evans was knighted in 2004 for services to journalism.

The 2015 CJF Tribute honoured Malcolm Gladwell, staff writer for The New Yorker, for his pioneering work as journalist and author. He was recognized at the CJF Awards on June 3, 2015. View the video tribute and acceptance speech.

Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and now, his latest, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants. He has been named one of the 100 most influential people by TIME magazine and one of the Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers. He has explored how ideas spread in the Tipping Point, decision making in Blink, and the roots of success in Outliers. With his latest book, David and Goliath, he examines our understanding of the advantages of disadvantages, arguing that we have underestimated the value of adversity and over-estimated the value of privilege. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has won a national magazine award and been honored by the American Psychological Society and the American Sociological Society. He was previously a reporter for The Washington Post.

CJF Tribute honourees at the 17th Annual CJF Awards included Kevin Donovan of the Toronto Star, Karen Kleiss of the Edmonton Journal, Grant Robertson of The Globe and Mail, Adrienne Arseneault of CBC News: The National, Anne Panasuk and Luc Tremblay of Radio-Canada’s Enquête, and Robert Fife of CTV News. Missing from the photo are Robyn Doolittle for her work at the Toronto Star, Darcy Henton of the Calgary Herald, and Jacquie McNish of The Globe and Mail.

In recognition of the exceptional enterprise reporting taking place across the country, The Canadian Journalism Foundation dedicated its annual CJF Tribute to investigative journalism.

In the past, the CJF Tribute has recognized media luminaries or organizations for their impact on the international stage. This year, in celebration of the remarkable journalism taking place across the country by reporters, editors and producers, the Tribute is recognizing journalism that has made a difference in Canada.”Despite all the doom and gloom about the media business, it has been a truly remarkable season for investigative and enterprise journalism—stories that exposed corruption and malfeasance, stories that ‘afflicted the comfortable and comforted the afflicted’ in the grand tradition of journalism,’ says Robert Lewis, chair of the CJF.CJF Tribute recipients:

“Fatal Care”
In this joint investigation, the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald revealed 145 children died in provincial care over 14 years, triple the amount reported to the public.
Darcy Henton, Calgary Herald and Karen Kleiss, Edmonton Journal
“SNC-Lavalin: Service secret“
Anne Panasuk and Luc TremblayEnquête, Radio-Canada
“Mike Duffy Made Secret Deal with Harper’s Chief Of Staff During Audit“ and “Wright Worked with Two Conservative Senators to Reach Duffy Deal, Emails Show“
Robert FifeCTV News“Canadians in Algerian Gas Plant Attack Identified“
Adrienne ArsenaultThe National, CBC News
“Lac-Mégantic: An Investigation into the Disaster and its Causes“
Jacquie McNish and Grant RobertsonThe Globe and Mail
“Rob Ford in ‘crack cocaine’ video scandal“
Kevin Donovan and Robyn DoolittleToronto Star
The CJF Tribute recipients will be honoured at the 17th Annual CJF Awards on June 4 at The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.