What does it mean to speak truth to power when power has never been more hostile to the truth?

That question sits at the heart of this year’s World Press Freedom Canada Awards luncheon, and it is precisely the question that has defined the career of our keynote speaker, David Frum.

A Canadian-American staff writer at The Atlantic, bestselling author, and former White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Frum has had a front-row seat to one of the most dramatic transformations in modern political history: the remaking of the American Republican Party into a populist, nationalist, “America First” movement dominated by Donald Trump.

Frum will deliver his remarks at our annual press freedom awards luncheon at the National Arts Centre’s Canada Room in Ottawa on April 29th.

There is no one better positioned to speak to this moment — and to the theme that defines it.

Speaking out against Trump comes at a cost. It takes courage.

During Trump’s first term, Frum did something few inside the political establishment were willing to do. He watched carefully, documented relentlessly, and told the truth plainly.

In his book Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic, he warned that the administration was quietly and steadily eroding the tenets of American democracy by enriching the people in power, enabling the presidency to fall into the hands of financiers, and undermining institutions in ways even the most critical media had failed to fully grasp.

In Trumpocalypse, he turned his attention to a more unsettling question: what happens when a third of the electorate refuses to abandon Trump, no matter what?

These were not comfortable arguments to make. They were acts of conviction.

Frum has consistently sounded the alarm on the erosion of press freedom and judicial independence, on an electorate that retains the right to vote but may no longer hold the right to have that vote counted fairly. He has outlined how America could slide toward illiberalism. Many of his observations and warnings were prescient.

The evidence is impossible to ignore. U.S. media — widely consumed by Canadians — has been strong-armed by an administration that has branded journalists enemies of the people. 

Select reporters have been barred from the White House and the Pentagon. The Federal Communications Commission has opened investigations into major broadcasters. Government funding for public media has been slashed. SLAPP suits have been filed against the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Journalists covering protests have been arrested and deported. The home of a Washington Post reporter was raided by the FBI. The list goes on.

Meanwhile, the sitting U.S. President bypasses much of accredited media and conducts policy through a social media platform he primarily owns — the parent company of which recently reported a USD $712 million loss. The oversight and accountability that was once the domain of the fourth estate is being dominated and controlled by a global network of political allies.

Press freedom and democracy are in a state of crisis.

Courage of conviction has never mattered more. Press Freedom needs it now more than ever.