Do you know a Canadian who has helped a foreign imperiled writer?
The Marie-Ange Garrigue Prize is an annual award which recognizes a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or Canadian organization who has recently provided significant help to a writer or journalist in danger outside Canada.
Nominees will be adjudicated by an external jury: Dan David, Hasmik Egian, and Matt Hatfield. The winning nominee will receive a $3,000 CAD cash prize.
Eligibility
Nominees may be any Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or any Canadian organization, who through personal action, direct aid, advocacy, mobilization of help, funding, or via intervention with governments or third parties provided significant help to a writer or journalist outside Canada facing threats, violence, harassment or imprisonment for reporting or commenting on issues of public interest.
How to submit a nomination
Anyone can suggest a name — or multiple names — of a person or organization that fit the award criteria. The deadline to submit is Monday June 16, 2024.
In the form below (also available here), please include a brief biography of the nominee (or a link to one online), and a description of what the nominee has done to aid the identified writer or journalist outside Canada. Nominations must include specific examples of actions that the nominee has taken on behalf of such a writer or journalist, with supporting details and links. Details of the circumstances faced by the journalist or writer and their experience of abuse for speaking out on matters of public interest must also be included.
If you have questions or are experiencing issues submitting your nomination, please contact Theresa Johnson at queries@pencanada.ca:
About the jury
Dan David
Dan David has been a journalist at CBC, TVO, and VISION-TV, published by THIS Mag, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette, Aboriginal Voices, and Windspeaker, a journalism trainer in South Africa, Indonesia and Azerbaijan. He founded APTN News.
Hasmik Egian
Hasmik Egian was the Director of the UN Security Council Affairs Division from 2016 to 2022. For over 30 years, she held senior positions in the UN system where her assignments included peacekeeping (Cambodia, Tajikistan), peacebuilding (Somalia, Syria), and humanitarian and development work (Iraq, UNICEF in Tanzania and the Middle East Region). She retired from the UN in 2022. She holds an MA in political science from Carleton University, and a BA in Russian Literature and Political Science from McGill University.
Matt Hatfield
Matt is OpenMedia’s Executive Director, Canada’s leading digital rights community that works for an open, accessible, and democratic Internet. He holds a BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia, and a Masters of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto.
History behind the Marie-Ange Garrigue Prize
The prize honours the memory of Marie-Ange Garrigue, a citizen of Canada and France, who practiced law in Canada for many years and died in France in January 2022. She had a deep commitment to independent opinion fearlessly expressed.
This is the second PEN Canada prize funded by Cynthia Wine and Philip Slayton in support of defenders of freedom of expression.
PAST WINNERS: Mariam Al Zier, Joan Leishman, and Robina Aryubwal and Journalists for Human Rights.
