Ross Munro Award
Call for Nominations 2024
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.
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.
Eligibility Requirements
- Candidate must be a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident.
- Candidate must be available to attend in person the Ottawa Conference on Security & Defence in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
- The nominator must provide correct contact information for their nominee in order for this person to be considered for the award.
Award Criteria
- Excellence and objectivity in coverage of national defence issues, providing insight, analysis, or examination of the context.
- Body of work that goes beyond the obvious, ordinary, and the expected. The work shows courage in its quest for truth and broadens the understanding of national defence relationships within Canada and abroad.
- Comprehensiveness and quality of information that shows both context and perspective.
- Work helps defence issues make sense to a wider audience, maximizing awareness and inspiring debate and dialogue.
- Career that exemplifies longstanding ethics and the highest journalistic or storytelling standards.
Nomination Procedure
The award will be presented during the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence, the evening of March 4th, 2025 at the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa and it is highly desirable that the recipient attend the award presentation at that time.
Nominators are asked to inform their nominees of their intent to nominate them and confirm their willingness to accept the award should they be selected. The nominator should also validate with their nominee that there would be no real or perceived conflict of interest in accepting the award.
It is the responsibility of the nominator to ensure that the file is complete and accurate to allow the Ross Munro Selection Committee to fairly evaluate the nomination. Incomplete files will not be retained.
All submissions are considered in confidence by the Selection Committee, and nominations will not be publicly disclosed, with the exception of the nominator of the laureate, who will be invited to attend the the Ottawa Conference free of charge.
Nominations are to contain the following documentation;
- Completed online Submission Form
- Nominee’s Curriculum Vitae / biographical summary
- Nomination Support Letters (Optional)
Nomination Deadline: January 31, 2025
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
If you have any questions regarding the submission of your nomination, please contact Jennifer Giguere, Director of Operations, at jennifer@cdainstitute.ca.
