Your Excellencies, honoured guests , Michener finalists , Mesdames et Messieurs.
It's a great pleasure to once more chair this presentation ceremony. I ran into unexpected detours on the way to Rideau Hall the past couple of years.
First I want to express our thanks to Her Excellency for hosting this important event. II nous fait très grand plaisir et fait honneur de même a la profession entière. Merci beaucoup, madame.
The stars of today's show are the finalists of the Michener Awards and I don't want to keep them waiting longer than necessary before finding out who has won. But the Michener awards Foundation, in its efforts to encourage meritorious and disinterested public service in journalism, has for the past two years awarded four-month study-leave fellowships to mature journalists. The fellowships are worth $20,000 each.
We have two fellowship winners with us today. Would Jim Romahn of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record please stand. Jim has been using his fellowship money to study at the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo.
George Tombs, a freelance writer who was backed by the Quebec Journalists' Federation and who submitted his proposal in both official languages, is also with us. His project is one that certainly interests us all. It has involved a study of the ethical standards of the press in Canada, United States, Britain and France. Would Mr. Tombs please stand.
Now I would like to call on a very special person, in whose name the awards were established in 1970, and who has continued to lend his active support, the Founding Patron, the Right Honourable Roland Michener. Thank you, Mr. Michener.
May I call now on Fraser MacDougall, chairman of the board of judges for the Michener Award, and Pierre Lemieux, one of Fraser's colleagues on the panel, to report on the judges' findings. Mr. MacDougall and Mr. Lemieux.
Paul Deacon
President
Michener Awards Foundation
Rideau Hall, Ottawa
December 8, 1988.