Mark MacKinnon
2025 Ross Munro Laureate
Mark MacKinnon has been
covering international affairs and Canada’s role in the world since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the subsequent war in Afghanistan, where he arrived just before the first deployment of Canadian troops to Kandahar.
One of Canada’s most decorated foreign correspondents, Mark has won the National Newspaper Award eight times, most recently in 2024 for his ongoing coverage of the war in Ukraine. He was also named Canada’s print journalist of the year in 2016.
Mark is now based in London, where he leads The Globe and Mail’s foreign coverage as the paper’s Senior International Correspondent. He was previously posted to Moscow, Jerusalem and Beijing.
In addition to Afghanistan and Ukraine, Mark has reported on wars in Chechnya, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.
He is the only two-time winner of the Story of the Year prize awarded by the London-based Foreign Press Association, winning in for his 2016 story The Graffiti Kids – which traced the origins of the Syrian conflict – and again in 2024 for his story The Fearless, which followed a Ukrainian special-forces team as they defended their country against the Russian invasion.
Mark is the author of The New Cold War, which was published in 2007 by Random House, and The China Diaries, a 2013 e-book of his train travels through the Middle Kingdom.
His forthcoming book on the war for Ukraine will be published next year by Penguin Random House.
“I am meeting people through his reporting that are memorable and unforgettable. And I am feeling the exhaustion of the Ukrainian people through his characters. I am feeling their fury at us and anger.[… He] is this generation's current Ross Monroe. You know, he's the guy that picks up and goes and, and smells and sees and has the fear and meets the hopeless. And I'm just incredibly grateful for his work and I think we should be. “
About the Ross Munro Award
The Ross Munro Award recognizes Canadians whose outstanding service to their craft is a testament to the power of national defence and security storytelling in journalism, videography, photojournalism, or authorship.
Award recipients demonstrate professional excellence and objectivity in coverage of national defence and security issues, providing insight, analysis, or examination of the context.
Areas of focus include the Canadian Armed Forces, departmental and national security agencies and must contribute to a wider public awareness and national discussion. Works of distinction demonstrate the importance of sharing stories that impact all Canadians and strengthen and preserve democratic values.
Past Recipients
2002: Stephen Thorne, Legion Magazine | 2003: Garth Pritchard, documentary filmmaker, director, and cinematographer | 2004: Sharon Hobson, Jane’s Defence Weekly | 2005: Bruce Campion-Smith, Toronto Star | 2006: Christie Blatchford, Globe and Mail | 2007: Matthew Fisher, National Post | 2008: Alec Castonguay, Radio Canada | 2009: Brian Stewart, CBC | 2010: Murray Brewster, CBC | 2011: Rosie DiMano, Toronto Star | 2012: Adam Day, Legion Magazine | 2013: (Hiatus) | 2014: Louie Palu, National Geographic | 2015: Chris MacLean, FrontLine Defence | 2016: Richard Madan, CTV News | 2021: Mercedes Stephenson, Ottawa Bureau Chief/Host, Global News | 2022: Sharon Adams, Writer, Legion Magazine | 2023: Steven Chase Senior, Parliamentary Reporter, The Globe and Mail and Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief, The Globe and Mail | 2024 Kevin Newman, Former Network Anchor/Journalist for ABC/CBC/CTV News & Global National
Robert Ross Munro, OBE, OC (September 6, 1913 – June 21, 1990)
Ross Munro was the Canadian Press’s lead war correspondent in Europe in World War II. He covered a Canadian raid in Spitsbergen, the 1942 raid on Dieppe, the Allied landings in Sicily, the Italian campaign, D-Day and the campaign in Northwestern Europe. His memoirs of the campaigns, published as From Gauntlet to Overlord, won the Governor General’s Award for English-language non-fiction in 1945. He later covered the Korean War, and after retiring as a war correspondent became publisher of the Vancouver Daily Province, the Winnipeg Tribune, and the Edmonton Journal. Munro was appointed OBE in 1946 and OC in 1975.
