Live Coverage
14th Annual Canadian Journalism Foundation Annual Awards Gala
Prominent journalists, media executives, business and public sector leaders come together to celebrate excellence in journalism
- Hi everybody! We're live at the 14th Annual Canadian Journalism Foundation Awards Gala. It's a packed house.
- Delighted to attend tonight's Canadian Journalism Foundation Awards Gala. @jsource @cjffjc liveblogging #cjfgala scrbliv.meby AvrilBenoit via twitter 6/7/2011 10:56:01 PM
- Me too, shld be fun. RT @avrilbenoit: Delighted to attend Canadian Journalism Foundation Awards Gala. #cjfgala scrbliv.meby chambart via twitter 6/7/2011 10:56:06 PM
- Heading to the Canadian Journalism Foundation Awards Gala. Looking forward to this evening. #cjfgalaby Lakshine via twitter 6/7/2011 10:56:11 PM
- Host Dawna Friesen takes the stage: "tonight is a reminder that excellent journalism and dedicated journalists are alive and well in this country and we need to nurture them."
- Friesen: To those of use have been around a while ... it can all be a little bit daunting. I know that makes me sound like an old fart but so be it.
- Friesen: Through all of this change one constant remains, and that is the stories
- Friesen:
Stories are still what bind us, what inform us, and what entertain us ... we can't lose sight of the stories - John Macfarlane up first: I'm very proud of foundation's accomplishments ...
He adds that cutbacks in newsrooms across the country are making it harder to provide excellent work like the kind the CJF is honouring tonight - Bob Lewis is the first award presenter (and new CJF chair): Excellence in journalism award in small or local media category
But first we have an honourable mention, for an organization that continues to work independently and with flair online and beyond ... I refer to the Tyee, please join me in saluting David Beers - Winner: CBC Manitoba, Cecil Rosner is on the podium to accept award
- Rosner: Greetings from the city with the new, and yet unnamed, NHL franchise
Rosner says that it's really humbling to be in this room and that he counts himself lucky to be able to come to work everyday.
His newsroom is all about finding the real story behind press release. He adds that he is fortunate to work in network that understands local and regional reporting is the cornerpost for a successful national broadcast - Next presenter is Tom Clark, presenter of Greg Clark award:
Tom says he suspects few remember who Greg was. So here are a few things about him: Greg was born into a family of journalists, his father was the EIC of the Toronto Star, he was a soldier, he won the Military Cross at Vimy, he wrote his stories from the eyes of the soldier, he was also very prolific, he figured at one point he wrote 11 million words - Clark: The competition for this award, was, as always, extremely furious. Winner came very close to winning last year, CJF suggested come back with stronger application this year. "And," says Clark, "she did."
- Winner Marion Warnica, but no speech.

This is interesting. At the #cjfgala and the host is someone I've only met on TV. :-) instagr.am
by KevinNewmanCTV via twitter 6/7/2011 11:22:55 PM- #cjfgala now... Looks like the best in news is in town !by pujster via twitter 6/7/2011 11:23:12 PM
- Congrats to @TheTyee for honourable mention at the #cjfgala!!! Glad to be here.by Taleeb via twitter 6/7/2011 11:23:16 PM

At the Cdn Journalism Gala (pre-@spacing) - kinda starstruck by Canada #cjfgala yfrog.com
by shawnmicallef via twitter 6/7/2011 11:24:07 PM- Catherine Hanson to present Tom Hanson photojournalism award: "Tom had a unique ability to capture whatever he was photographing," she says. "When he left us suddenly in 2009," she adds, family friends wanted to find "a special way to honour his memory and spirit."
- Winner is Aaron Vincent Elkaim, another finalist from last year
- 2011 winners of Canadian Journalism Fellowships. Next year will be 50th year of fellowships.
Winners: Elizabeth Bowie, Robert Cribb, Shawn Micallef, Luis Horacio Najera, Lee Pitts, Ato Dadzie - Peter Mansbridge to present Lifetime Achievement Award to Patrick Brown: Lists previous award winners "That is quite a list"
- To video of Patrick Brown
- Patrick makes a speech: [re: video] God, I'd like to meet that guy some day. I saw some people laughing at my hair and beard. Those were the days
- He continues:
It's a great honour and I was very surprised when I was phoned to be told about it ... I told the person who called that it was a bit early for, what is called in French, a career crowing award because I don't feel I'm finished yet - Brown also says that "TV is a team sport ... if there is an achievement there it is not a one person game." He says dozens of people must be recognized
- When it comes to foreign reporting, he adds, "we are supported by an army" including local, one the ground "fixers"
He adds: "Management and editors back here in Toronto are very concerned to look after us, as employees and known faces, but these people are important too and we need to remember when things happen not to forget them." - And now we break for dinner. We'll be back around 8:30
- Patrick Brown accepts Lifetime Achievement Award at #CJFgala, w/ tribute to fixers, translators, drivers helping correspondents worldwideby AvrilBenoit via twitter 6/7/2011 11:58:58 PM
- And we're back!
- Lloyd Robertson to present honorary tribute to Robert MacNeil
- MacNeil says he kept his Canadian sensibility throughout his broadcasting career
- MacNeil:
"I dislike the blare ... I dislike being shouted at by reporters even when they may be standing in a quiet newsroom." - He adds: I recognize in myself a natural skeptism, an aversion to being snubbed, a suspicion when the crowd is all going one way, maybe I should go in the other
- MacNeil: I share the same Canadian resistance to facile hero making
- He adds that his Canadian-ness "has kept me something of an outsider" when it comes to issues like the justification of the Iraq war, and also the belief in the value of public broadcasting
- MacNeil:
"I thank the Canadian spirit that shaped me when I was young ... today when looking for my country, I find it in myself." He adds: I thank the Canadian Journalism Foundation for making me think about these things. - Standing ovation for Robert MacNeil at the #cjfgala. What a memorable life!by sarah_kiriliuk via twitter 6/8/2011 1:04:10 AM
- David Skok takes home Martin Wise Goodman Nieman Fellowship. He's going to Harvard! #cjfgalaby nmtho via twitter 6/8/2011 1:04:18 AM
- Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy (worth up to $100,000) goes to Neil Sandell who will study the issue of youth unemployment
- We take a moment now for the in memoriam video, journalists who have died in the past year
- Excellence Award large or national category honorable mention goes to the Winnipeg Free Press
- And the winner is: the Toronto Star
- Michael Cooke: good journalism starts with good reporters. The truth is there's not a lot in between. Good reporters are everything
- He adds: it's the reporters who are at the sharp end of the stick. It's the journalists, he says, who go out there and fight the war and "the bloggers come out there to pick the pockets of the dead. It's the reporters that do the real journalism."
- Cooke: "And the 25-year-olds are as good as the 55-year-olds."
- And that closes tonight's ceremony! Thanks for joining us.





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