PEN Canada envisions a world where
writers are free to write,
readers are free to read,
and freedom of expression prevails
News editor, reporter and poet Nedim Türfent is serving an eight-year-and-nine-month prison sentence on trumped-up terrorism charges following an unfair trial, during which 19 witnesses said they had been tortured into testifying against him. Arrested in May 2016 after covering military clashes in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast of Turkey, Nedim Türfent spent almost two years […]
Ugandan academic, writer and activist Dr. Stella Nyanzi is currently serving an 18-month sentence for ‘cyber harassment’, in relation to a poem she wrote on Facebook in September 2018 criticising Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni (and his mother). Dr. Nyanzi has served almost 11 months of her sentence. Dr. Nyanzi has lodged an appeal against her […]
Award-winning writer and poet, Shakthika Sathkumara, faces legal proceedings that could see him sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, should the Attorney General decide to press charges. On 1 April 2019, Sathkumara was detained pending a police investigation into allegations that his short story ‘Ardha’ (‘Half’) incited religious hatred. Sathkumara spent over 120 […]
On October 16, 2019, PEN International President Emeritus John Ralston Saul received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from King’s College London. Saul spoke on behalf of all honorary graduates at the ceremony at King’s on October 16th. The other honorary graduates included Prince Zeid Raad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from […]
by Amy Mallia, Daphne’s niece I was at school the day my aunt, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was assassinated. In class I was asked what I’d like to be in the future. I remember saying without hesitation that I’d like to be a journalist like my aunt, only to go home a few hours later and find […]
Office Manager at PEN Canada Reporting to the executive director, the office manager is responsible for the smooth running of the PEN Canada office including administration, basic bookkeeping, IT & database management, and other duties as they arise. The right person will be able to handle a wide range of administrative and executive support tasks, […]
As a writers’ organization that supports freedom of expression in all its forms, PEN Canada considers the Toronto Public Library an important ally. Its rental policy recognizes the necessity of barring the use of Library premises from “any individual or group … for a purpose that is likely to promote, or would have the effect […]
PEN International strongly condemns attacks against journalists and the ongoing media crackdown following Turkey’s offensive in Northern Syria, and calls on all parties to protect journalists from harm and to uphold the rights to freedom of expression and opinion. On October 9, 2019, the Turkish armed forces started bombing parts of Northern Syria, controlled by Kurdish-led […]
PEN Canada celebrates Margaret Atwood’s second Booker Prize for “The Testaments” the long-awaited sequel to her 1985 dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Atwood shared the award with Bernardine Evaristo, author of “Girl, Woman, Other,” and the first black woman to win the Booker.
Adding its voice to statements from PEN America and PEN International, PEN Canada today called the Swedish Academy’s choice to award Peter Handke a Nobel prize for literature “baffling and deeply regrettable.”
Finding the Words: Writers on Inspiration, Desire, War, Celebrity, Exile, and Breaking the Rules