Jock Ferguson accepts the 1991 Michener-Deacon Fellowship from Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn. As an investigative reporter in the field of business crime, he has covered environmental offences, stock market scams and price fixing practices. He co-founded the Centre for Investigative Journalism, the predecessor of the Canadian Association of Journalists.
He has reported extensively on municipal affairs, documenting developer influence on mayors, reeves and aldermen in those governments "closest to the people". Mr. Ferguson intends to use the four-month period of paid leave to study municipal democracy, to try to determine if it "exists in name only."
He was educated at Mount Allison University and University of Toronto Schools and has been an instructor in journalism at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto for the past 11 years.
The fellowship was presented during a ceremony held at Government House, Ottawa, April 25, 1991.
The fellowship of the Michener Awards Foundation, introduced in 1987, is known today as the Michener-Deacon Fellowship (named after the late Roland Michener and the late Paul Deacon, a senior media executive and Michener Awards Foundation president). The fellowship is to encourage excellence in investigative print and broadcast journalism that serves the public interest through values that benefit the community. Mature journalists are invited to submit written outlines for studies over four months that will strengthen their competence.