Roughly 300 guests joined World Press Freedom Canada at our annual awards luncheon on May 1 to celebrate journalists’ role in protecting Canadian democracy.

The theme of the 2025 luncheon was Disinformation & Democracy: Standing on Guard. Catherine Clark, a communication consultant and co-founder of The Honest Talk, hosted the luncheon and veteran newscaster Kevin Newman provided the keynote address.  (More on his speech below.)

The lunch this year attracted a large crowd from Ottawa’s diplomatic community, including Swedish Ambassador Signe Burgstaller who hosted a reception at her home on the evening before the lunch. Among the ambassadors present at the lunch was Estonia’s Marcus Rava, whose government is current co-chair of the Media Freedom Coalition, an international group comprising 51 countries. 

Coming just days after the 2025 federal election, the focus on disinformation served as an opportune reminder of the increasing worry Canadians have about false narratives. There are deliberate attacks from state actors as well as social media distortions which together are affecting our politics.

Robust and independent journalism is essential in building defences against the poisoning of our media ecosystem. WPFC’s major sponsors reiterated that message to the packed crowd in the National Arts Centre’s Canada Room.

“In this age of disinformation and misinformation, trusted journalism plays a vital role in keeping the public informed, holding power to account and strengthening democracy,” said Anthony Ostler, chief executive officer of the Canadian Bankers Association which is a sustaining sponsor.

The threat to democracy is in fact a global one, said Yves-Gérard Méhou-Loko, secretary general of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, which is a WPFC patron. The annual luncheon marks UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day, which was declared by the United Nations General Assembly.

“Journalists today face increasing challenges, whether it’s the spread of false narratives online; declining trust in media; growing threats to their safety, or financial pressures that undermine the sustainability of quality reporting,” he said. “Around the world, and here in Canada, press freedom cannot be taken for granted.”

A key ingredient in overcoming those challenges is the production and celebration of public-interest journalism that is fact based, rigorous and authoritative. Each year, WPFC pays tribute to journalists whose reporting overcame secrecy, legal pressures, political intimidation or harassment and threats of violence.

Our 2025 press freedom award winner is Daniel Renaud, a La Presse veteran who covers organized crime in Montreal despite threats to his personal safety. We awarded a certificate of merit to Grant Robertson and Kathryn Blaze Baum of The Globe and Mail for their work on a listeria scandal in the food industry, and to Patti Sonntag, who overcame determined secrecy and legal threats in uncovering abuses in the federal government’s Indigenous procurement policy. We presented a local journalism award to a team from the Waterloo Region Record, for a series of investigative articles. The student achievement award was presented to Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman and Aidan Raynor from Concordia University for their work on the abysmal record of Canadian universities in dealing with freedom of information requests. Our career achievement award went to Bert Bruser, a long-time newsroom lawyer for The Toronto Star who defended the right to publish both at the paper and through Canadian courts and established key precedents that codified our freedom of the press.

As WPFC President Heather Bakken reminded the audience: media freedom is guaranteed in this country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

Our free and independent press – while not perfect – is essential to the functioning of Canadian democracy.