FREE EXPRESSION MATTERS
The following individuals and organizations have shown their commitment to freedom of expression by supporting PEN Canada for our 2024 fiscal year. We applaud them for championing a world in which writers are free to write, readers are free to read, and freedom of expression prevails.
Last updated June 4, 2024.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Honorary Patrons
Margaret Atwood
Gary Beelik
Louise Dennys
Sturla Gunnarsson
Elizabeth Levitt
Rick Mercer
Jim Ryce
John Ralston Saul
Bequests ($25,000+)
The Estate of Daniel Stoffman, 1945-2023
Gold Patrons ($5,000-$9,999)
Scott Connell and Anouchka Freybe
Peter Grant and Grace Westcott
Yann Martel
Philip Slayton and Cynthia Wine
Silver Patrons ($2,500–$4,999)
Linwood and Neetha Sands Barclay
Karen Ruddy
Patrons ($1,000–$2499)
Sara Angel
Scotia Bhattacharya
Randy and Anna Boyagoda
Adrienne Clarkson
Ron Deibert
Peter Donolo and Mary Cruden
George Galt
Anne Giardini
Nicholas Giardini
Anthony Jeffrey
Nina Josefowitz
Alisha Kaplan
David Kendall
Andrea Lenczner
Louise MacCallum and Michael Barnstijn
Lyndsay Green and Hank Intven
Margaret MacMillan
Ruth Mandel
JoAnn Elizabeth McCaig
Rohinton and Freny Mistry
Laurence Packer
Anna Porter
John Ralston Saul
Richard Stursberg
Jean Teillet
Simon Wallace
Lucy Waverman
The Legacy Society
James Polk and the late Ellen Seligman
Sponsors and Supporters
Platinum (25,000-$49,999)
RBC Emerging Artists Project
RBC Foundation
Gold ($15,000-$24,999)
Ontario Arts Council
Bronze ($1000-$14,999)
Balfour Bowen Family Foundation
Butterfield Family Foundation
Emerald Foundation
Margaret Atwood Extra Pocket Foundation
N.A. Taylor Foundation
Freybe Foundation
Howitt Dunbar Foundation
MacMillan Family Foundation
Michael B. Decter Foundation at Toronto Foundation
Ngan Page Fund
Penguin Random House Canada Limited
Programming Partners
Ageless International Film Festival
Another Story Bookshop
Artists at Risk
Atwater Poetry Project
Atwater Writers Exhibition
Calgary Wordfest
Canada Helps
CBC Radio Ideas
CBC Radio The Current
Centre for Free Expression
The Citizen Lab
Committee to Protect Journalists
Digital Media at the Crossroads Conference 2024
Education Institute (Shelf Control)
Eventbrite
George Brown College
Global Reporting Centre, University of British Columbia
Globe and Mail
Harbourfront Centre Theatre
HotDocs
Human Rights Watch Film Festival
Humber School for Writers
Hungry Eyes Media
ICORN International Cities of Refuge Network
IFEX
Librairie Drawn and Quarterly
Literary Umbrella of Quebec
LitFest Alberta
National Canadian Film Day
Quebec Writers’ Federation
Reel Canada
Romero House
Scotiabank Theatre
Sutherland House Press
Toronto International Festival of Authors
Toronto Metropolitan University
Toronto Public Libraries
University of British Columbia
Vancouver Institute
WEPFEST
Wordfest Calgary
Writers’ Trust of Canada
Writers’ Union of Canada
In Kind
Authors at Harbourfront Centre
Cision
Jim Ryce Design and Direction Inc.
Literary Review of Canada
Honorary Members
Alaa Abd El-Fattah
Said Abdelkader
Emanuel Asrat
Temesken Ghebreyesus
Mattewos Habteab
Dawit Habtemichael
Medhanie Haile
Dawit Isaak
Yusuf Mohamed Ali
Narges Mohammadi
Seyoum Tsehaye
Fesshaye Yohannes
Members
Will Aitken
Patricia Aldana
Behrouz Aligholi Mayelzadeh
Marion Allan
George Anderson and Charlotte Gray
Jason Anderson
Ken Anderson
Anneli Andre-Barrett
George and Gail Anthony
Rick Archbold
Bert Archer
Sally Armstrong
James Arnett
Said Arvidsson Maslouhi
Ashley Audrain
Khalid Awan
Richard Bachmann
Britta Badour
Marsha Barber
Deborah Barndt
Gavin Barrett
Jim Bartley
Natasha Bartula
Alison Bate
Paul Bennett
Steven Benstead
Barbara Berson
David Bezmozgis
Andrew Binks
Gwen Bird
Peter D. Birt
Ted Bishop
Neil Bissoondath
Robin McBride
Becky Blake
Ronna Bloom
Stephanie Bolster
Michael Bookman
Marian Botsford Fraser
Jane Bow
Lynne Bowen
Marilyn Bowering
Darby Minott Bradford
Niyazi Braim
Mary J. Breen
Max Brem
Rebecca Brill-Argall
Colin Browne
William Bruneau
William Bryant
Nicolas Calvé
Gillian Campbell
Thea Caplan
Alison Carr
Marc Luc Carrier
Claudia Casper
Jennifer Chapin
Delvin Chatterson
Pamela Clark
James Clarke
Kristin Cochrane
Andrew Cohen
Valerie Connor
Margaret Cornish
Jack Costello, S.J.
Susan Coyne
Kerry Craven
Patrick Crean
Jim J. Creskey
Alan Cumyn
Marin Darmonkow
Farida Darvish
Gwen Davies
Ryan Day
Michael Decter
Teri Degler
Gezahegn M. Demissie
Suzanne DePoe
Marcello Di Cintio
Jo Ann Dionne
Bronwyn Drainie
Naomi Duguid
Catherine Dunphy
Maggie Dwyer
Kim Echlin
Nadia Elmasri
Jacqueline and Peter Elton
Marina Endicott
Christopher Faiers
Jane Fairburn
Marsha Faubert
Thelma Fayle
Leonard Findlay
Robert Finley
Andrew Guy and Christine Fischer Guy
Cynthia Flood
Judy Fong Bates
Charles Foran
Lindsay Foran
Keath Fraser
Valerie French
George Galt
Marie-Louise Gay
Masha Gessen
Paola Gomez
Katherine Govier
Ron Graham
Melvyn Green
Chris Gudgeon
Beth Haddon
Judith Hall
Nancy Hansen
Dawn Harman
Merle Harris
Elizabeth Hay
Peter Hay
Kate Heartfield
Christopher Hedges
Dorris Heffron
Chara Ho
Judy Holm
Jennifer Holness
Lynn Horton
Jennifer Hosten
Ella Hough
Louisa Howerow
Linda Huestis
Isabel Huggan
Graeme Hunter
Kevin Irie
John Irving
Mohd Zainul Islam
Frances Itani
Spencer Izen
Nancy Jamieson
Bassam Jamil
Catherine Jeffery
Maureen Jennings
Tianyang Jiang
Elizabeth Johnston
Kath Jonathan
El Jones
Elizabeth Kaplan
Michael Kedar and Eva Seidner
Janet Keeping
Richard Keith
Margo Kelly
Michael Kennedy
David Kent
Elaine Kierans
Micah Killjoy
Camie Kim
Mark Kingwell
Julie-Ann Kirkpatrick
Caroline Kirouac
Heidi Klaassen
Kathy Koch
Brenda Koller
Sheila Koop
Myrna Kostash
David Koulack
Uma Krishnaswami
Diana Alice Kuprel
Andrey Kurkov
Tanya Kyi
Andrew Lafleche
Anita M. Lahey
Bethany Lake
Fiona Tinwei Lam
Nancy Lam
Vincent Hoa Chon Lam
Cindy Lapeña
Eric Lax
Sharlene Lazin
Jason Leaver
Alexander Leggatt
David Leggatt
Sylvia Legris
Ezra Levant
Michael Levine
Amanda Lewis
Gregory Light
Dahlia Liwsze
Damian Lopes
Gloria Lorenzen
John Lorinc
Lea Love
Ljerka Susanna Lukic
Christopher MacDonald
Wendy MacIntyre
Janet MacLean
Fareh Malik
Sara Mang
Nicole Mankinen
Diary Marif
Lorna Marsden
Émile Martel
Sandra Martin
Sid Marty
Michelle Mason
Abdulrahman Matar
Carol Matas
Bob McArthur
Richard McClelland
S.A.M. McCue
Hope McIntyre
Scott McIntyre
Neil McKinnon
Mundy McLaughlin
Stephanie McLellan
Susan McMaster
Samar Samir Mezghanni
Almeda Miller
Raffi Minas
Susan Minsos
Lawrence Mirkin
Michael Mirolla
Salah El Mohssein
Elise Moser
Ezat Mossallanejad
Cassandra Myers
Wren Mynhardt
Lotfullah Najafizada
Marie Natanson
John Neal
Peter O’Brien
Jane O’Hara
Sheila O’Reilly
Katrina Onstad
Deborah Ostrovsky
Margaret Ostrowski
Narendra Pachkhede
Frederick John Packer
Brian Panhuyzen
Jeungsoon Park
Kathleen Pattinson
Shauna Paull
Louise Penny
Susan Perly
Ezatolzaman Pezeshkzad
Francesca Piredda
Carolyn S. Poirier
Luka Poljak
Pamela Porter
Basia Puszkar
Dilan Qadir
Darlene Quaife
Monique Rabideau
Suman Rahman
Deepa Rajagopalan
Sharareh Rakhshan
Ceta Ramkhalawansingh
Philip Resnick
Pedro Restrepo
Kamel Riahi
Nino Ricci
CS Richardson
Dianne Rinehart
Diana Rivington
Siobhan Roberts
Diane Roblin
Brenda Roche
Ingrid Rose
Stuart Ross
Robert Rotenberg
Susan Ryan
Elizabeth Ryerson
Mary Rykov
Siavash Saadlou
Maria Sabaye Moghaddam
Dr. Farshid Sadatsharifi
Judie Sahadeo
AZM Sajedur Rahman
Kerri Sakamoto
Mahdi Saremifar
Candace Savage
Denise Schon
Anneliese Schultz
Shyam Selvadurai
Giorgia Severini
Peggy Shannon
Evelyn Sharpe
Sheena Shirani
Peter Showler
Haroon Siddiqui
Antanas Sileika
Merilyn Simonds
Marvin Singer
Caitlin Smith
Adam Sol
Catherine St. Denis
Hugh Stephens
Lori Sterling
Kate Story
Susan Stromberg-Stein
Rosemary Sullivan
Mark Surchin
Susan Greer and Robert Hough
George Swede
John Tackaberry
Barbara E. Tangney
Chris Tenove
Blossom Thom
Prof. Cheryl Thompson
Susan Thorne
Marian L Thorpe
Hung T. Ton
Ziya Tong
Caroline Topperman
Venus Torabi
Andrea Torrey Balsara
Laura Trachuk
Kim Trainor
Lawrence Uhlin
Rui Umezawa
Peter Unwin
Pablo Urbanyi
John Vaillant
Aritha van Herk
Mark Vessey
Eleanor Wachtel
Hazrat Wahriz
Jennifer Walcott
Bruce Walsh
David Waltner-Toews
Karen Walton
Janette Watt
Alison Wearing
Janice Weaver
Cheryl Wertman
Patricia Westerhof
Alan Whitehorn
Laurelyn Whitt
Janice Williamson
Patricia Windrim
Howard Wiseman
Carolyn Wood
Patrick Woodcock
Donna Wootton
Christine Wu
Max Wyman
Arzu Yildiz
Ahmad Yousefi
Chro Zand
Donors
Jeff Abraham
Kathleen Alboim
Annick Press Ltd.
Patricia Balfour
Douglas Barrett
Elinor Benjamin
Graham Bentley
Jane Berges
David Bloom
Ali Boreyri
Harvey Botting
Brenda Bowlby
Michael Brooks
C.M. Harding Foundation
Jamie Cameron
Alexandra Castillo-Smith
Wesley Choy
Rita Chudnovsky
June Cockwell
Sarah Colwell
Michael Cord
Cassandra Cronenberg
Patricia Crowe
Rob DeGoeij
Maureen Donnelly
Katie Elder
Susan Ellard
Thomas and Christine Evans
Olga Feiguina
Joyce Feinberg
Elizabeth Ferguson
Flavelle Family Foundation
David Foot
Josh Freed
Lenni Frohman
Dorothy Goldspink
John Grant
Karen Hainstock
Michael Hamilton
Debra Hanna
Kathryn Hayward
Ajay Heble
Gerri Holder
Alexandra Howell, Banff Centre
Denise Jacques
Theresa Johnson
Peter Kirby
Joseph Kirman
Stella Leventoyannis Harvey
Eva Ligeti
Mateusz Sklad and Lynn Tobin-Sklad
Beatrix Matheson
August Maurenbrecher
Janice McClelland
Fiona McHugh
Patricia McKay
Ian McKercher
Norman McLeod
Michael Mehta
Alex Mesbur
George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation
Catherine Mitchell
David Murray
Vera Pantalone
Running the Goat, Books, and Broadsides
Naomi Pauls
Marian Pitters
Kiley Pole
Robin Roger
Elspeth Ross
Pierre Sarrazin
Saskatchewan Festival Of Words
Elizabeth Scott
Sheridan Scott
Eva Sharell
Suzannah Showler
Goldie and Sidney Silverman
David Simmons
Jason Skomorowski
Glenn Smith
Roman Solonysznyj
Stephanie Stavro
Evan Steingarten
Paul J Stoesser
Anne Swardbrick
Eilleen Tackaberry
Joyce Taylor
Janet Walter
Randy Witten
Dorothy Woodhouse
Wendy Wright
Marie-Anne Yang
Lori Yarrow
Board of Directors
Grace Westcott
President
Karen Walton
Vice President
Carolyn Poirier
Secretary and Treasurer
Anouchka Freybe
Chair, Events
Anna Porter
Chair, Fundraising and Membership
Peter Showler (until October 30, 2023)
Chair, Writers in Peril
Gezahegn M. Demissie
Chair, Writers in Exile
Karen Walton
Chair, Communications
Lori Sterling
Chair, Canadian and Legal Affairs
El Jones
Co-chair, Eastern Canada Outreach
Bruce Walsh
Co-chair, Eastern Canada Outreach
Marcello Di Cintio
Chair, Western Canada Outreach
Members at Large
Peter Donolo
Elaine Kierans
Kathy Koch
Scott McIntyre
Jean Teillet
Ziya Tong
Past Presidents
Richard Stursberg
Randy Boyagoda
Philip Slayton
Charlie Foran
Ellen Seligman
Nelofer Pazira
Constance Rooke
Haroon Siddiqui
Reza Baraheni
Sandra Martin
Ann Ireland
Katherine Govier
Ron Graham
Nino Ricci
Marian Botsford Fraser
Alison Gordon
Louise Dennys
John Ralston Saul
June Callwood
Graeme Gibson
Timothy Findley
Margaret Atwood
Advisory Council
Richard Stursberg
Randy Boyagoda
Neil Bissoondath
Kristin Cochrane
Valerie Connor
Douglas Coupland
David Cronenberg
Ronald Deibert
Esi Edugyan
Omar El Akkad
Charlie Foran
Kevin Hanson
Mark Kingwell
Elana Rabinovitch
Devyani Saltzmann
Philip Slayton
Tanya Talaga
Michael Wernick
Ken Whyte
Staff
Brendan de Caires
Executive Director
Theresa Johnson
Office Manager
Eilish Waller
Communications Coordinator
Volunteers
Anneli Andre-Barrett
Mira Boyagoda
Kim Echlin
Marian Botsford Fraser
Paola Gomez
Maureen Brosnahan
Önder Deligoz
Gezahegn M. Demissie
Hannah Fisher
Margo Kelly
Keith Leckie
Mary Jo Leddy
Joan Leishman
Caroline Newton
Maria Sabaye
Alyssa Sammut
Amir Yazdanbod
Speakers
Margaret Atwood
Ashley Audrain
Nahlah Ayed
Gezahegn M. Demissie
Louise Dennys
Ahmet Dogan
Alexander Duarte
Bushra Elfadil
Masha Gessen
Jackleen Hanna
Jennifer Holness
Jennifer Hosten
John Irving
Andrey Kurkov
Vincent Lam
Keith Leckie
Kyo Maclear
Fareh Malik
Abdulrahman Matar
Deepa Mehta
Luis Horacio Nájera
Kiran Nazish
Carol Off
Anna Porter
Dilan Qadir
Pedro Restrepo
Kamal Riahi
Devyani Saltzman
Bilal Sarwary
John Ralston Saul
Johanna Schneller
Sanaa Seif
Dr. Cheryl Thompson
Max Wyman
In Memoriam
Norman Jewison (1926 – 2024)
Émile Martel (1941 – 2023)
Peter Showler (1944 – 2023)
Daniel Stoffman (1945 – 2023)
2023 Annual Award Winners
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, One Humanity Award
Joan Leishman, Marie-Ange Garrigue Prize
Brandi Morin, Ken Filkow Prize
Christine Wu, RBC New Voices Award
2023 Scholarships
Dilan Qadir, Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship
Special thanks
Action Potential Lab
Jess Atwood Gibson
Anneli Andre-Barrett
Siena Anstis
Gary Beelik
Benefaction
Benevity Community Impact Fund
Dmitry Beniaminov
David Bezmozgis
Jack Blum
Michael Bookman
Mira Boyagoda
Randy Boyagoda
Amber Bracken
Alex Briganti
Stanford Calimag
Jamie Cameron
Canada Helps
Canadian Online Giving Foundation
Richard Franklin Carter
CHIMP: Charitable Impact Foundation
Claudia Casper
Dieu Cay
Irwin Cotler
Jim Creskey
Twinkle Dahwan
Michael Decter
Gezahegn M. Demissie
Suzanne DePoe
Marcello Di Cintio
Peter Donolo
Kim Echlin
Omar El Akkad
Shams Erfan
Jeremy Finkelstein
Hannah Fisher
Charlie Foran
Anouchka Freybe
George Brown College
Anne Giardini
Don Gillmor
Anjula Gogia
Daniel Gorman
Katherine Govier
John Healy
Hirut Ethiopian Jazz Club
Ange Holmes
Hogg, Shain & Scheck Professional Corporation
Stella Isaac
Jennita Jadunauth
Lidiia Karpenko
Margo Kelly
Jónína Kirton
Joshua Knelman
Chelene Knight
Paul Kunoni
Diana Kuprel
Larissa Lai
Jennifer Lanthier
Sharlene Lazin
Keith Leckie
Mary Jo Leddy
Joan Leishman
Keith Lem
Literary Review of Canada
Alexander MacLeod
Diary Marif
Serina Mercier
Elise Moser
Mother Mushroom
Omar Mouallem
Grace Munene
Luis Horacio Nájera
Kiran Nazish
Pear Interactive
Charlie Pachter
PayPal Charitable Giving Fund
Tien Providence
Deepa Rajagopalan
John Ralston Saul
Danny Ramadan
Jim Ryce
Mary Rykov
Maria Sabaye
Mathew Sandford
Julian Sher
Peter Showler
Philip Slayton
Soapbox Design
Robin Stevenson
Judy Stoffman
Richard Stursberg
Jean Teillet
Chris Tenove
Toronto Foundation
Salil Tripathi
Jim Turk
Sheng Xue
And all those who have contributed their thoughts and time.
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list. If your name is misspelled or excluded, please contact Theresa Johnson at 416-703-8448 ext 2221 or through email at queries@pencanada.ca so we can correct the error.
If your name isn’t on this list, please consider joining us! PEN Canada needs stable charitable support to sustain our vital work. You can call us at 416-703-8448 ext 2221 or visit pencanada.ca/donate to donate today.