Awards & Scholarships
CWA Canada / CAJ Award for Excellence in Labour Reporting
CWA Canada Associate Members Scholarships
Morton Bahr Scholarship
David S. Barr Awards
Joe Beirne Foundation Scholarships
John Belcarz | Dan Zeidler Memorial Scholarships
Heywood Broun Awards
Dalton Camp Award
CJFE Arnold Amber Award for Investigative Journalism
Canadian Hillman Prize
Paul Kidd Courage Prize
Dick Martin Scholarship Award
Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism
Union Plus Scholarship Program
CWA Canada / CAJ Award for Excellence in Labour Reporting
CWA Canada in partnership with the Canadian Association of Journalists offers the $1,000 Award for Excellence in Labour Reporting. The award recognizes excellence in Canadian journalism completed in the previous calendar year in any format on labour issues. It seeks to honour journalism that goes beyond a work-to-rule, strike, lockout or other job action and shows skill in reporting on the social, economic and political factors that impact the labour environment in Canada. Entries showing impact on policy, law or public awareness are encouraged. This award is meant to recognize great journalism on labour issues that can make a difference in the lives of Canadians.
Entrants must be CAJ members or willing to pay the non-member award fee.
Application deadline: Jan. 19, 2024
More information: CAJ website
CWA Canada Associate Members Scholarships
The CWA Canada Associate Members program has proven to be an invaluable resource and community for emerging media workers. These two annual scholarships, valued at $1,000 each, aim to provide monetary support for a select few individuals who have shown great promise in their field and who also align with the core values of CWA Canada in that they actively support the fight for workers’ rights and the right for every media worker to have union representation.
The Labour Reporting Scholarship is reserved for journalism/media post-secondary students who show great promise in the field of labour reporting. Applicants need to submit a labour story/article that represents how they align with the media union’s core values.
The General Media Scholarship is open to all post-secondary students. Submissions can take the form of an article, video, graphic design project, podcast or any other form of media.
Application deadline: April 30, 2024
More information: Fill out an application or contact Associate Membership co-ordinator Nasr Ahmed at nahmed@cwacanada.ca if you have questions.
Morton Bahr Scholarship
Created in the name of Empire State College alumnus Morton Bahr, this Distance Learning Scholarship assists union members and other workers by furthering their educational goals and enhancing educational access through distance learning. The scholarships cover tuition and other fees toward a two-year or four-year degree with an allowance for study materials and books up to US$130 per course.
Union workers, family members and/or domestic partners interested in registering for degree studies with Empire State College (part of the State University of New York) may apply. All applicants will be considered, but priority is given to CWA members.
Application deadline: May 31, annually
More information: The Bahr Scholarship web page has more information and downloads.
David S. Barr Award
Students in North America are invited to compete for the David S. Barr Award, which encourages young journalists to focus on issues of social justice. The award is named after the late Mr. Barr, who for a quarter of a century served as The Newspaper Guild’s general counsel, mentor, role model and institutional memory. The amount of the award is US$1,000 for the high school student winner and US$1,500 for the post-secondary student winner.
The awards competition is open to all high school students and to all part-time or full-time post-secondary students, including those in community colleges and in graduate programs. All entries must be of work published or broadcast that helped to right a wrong; corrected an injustice; or promoted justice and fairness. All entries must be of work published or broadcast between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of the previous calendar year.
Application deadline: Jan. 31, annually
Details and Application Form
Joe Beirne Scholarships
The CWA Joe Beirne Foundation was established in October 1974 by the Communications Workers of America Executive Board to honour the name and memory of the founding President of CWA, who served for more than 30 years. In his capacity as the first CWA President, Joe Beirne took great pride in the roles he played in the fields of education and learning and other areas of social concern.
The Joe Beirne Foundation’s Board of Directors each year approves the awarding of 16 partial college scholarships of up to US$4,000 each. The winners, to be chosen by lottery drawing, also receive second-year scholarships for the same amount, contingent upon satisfactory academic achievement.
Eligible for the scholarships are CWA|SCA Canada members and their spouses, children and grandchildren, including the dependents of retired, laid off or deceased members. Applicants must be high school graduates or high school students who will graduate during the year in which they apply. Undergraduate and graduate students returning to school may also apply.
Application deadline: April 30, annually
Further information: Visit the Member Services section of the CWA web site.
John Belcarz | Dan Zeidler Memorial Scholarships
CWA Canada created these scholarships to honour the lives and work of John Belcarz and Dan Zeidler. John, president of the Montreal Newspaper Guild, and Dan, a staff representative for the union, both believed that everything should be done to help people better themselves. There are two $1,000 awards.
The scholarships are open to current members of the union, their spouse/partner, children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
Applicants must be enrolled in, or about to enter, a full-time post-secondary program.
For more information, contact CWA Canada by email or call 613-820-9777 or 1-877-486-4292.
Poster: https://cwacanada.files.wordpress.com/2024/01/2024_belcarz_zeidler_poste.0.pdf
Application deadline: March 5, 2024
Application form: https://cwacanada.files.wordpress.com/2024/01/belcarz-zeidler-application-2024-english.pdf
Heywood Broun Awards
Heywood Broun was a pioneering and crusading columnist for The Tribune and The World in New York from 1912 until his death in 1939. He founded the American Newspaper Guild in 1933 and served as its first president. Broun is best remembered for his reporting on social issues and his passionate championing of the underdog and the disadvantaged.
This annual competition is intended to encourage and recognize individual journalistic achievement by members of the working media, particularly if it helps right a wrong or correct an injustice. There is a main award of US$5,000, plus two awards of US$1,000 for entries of substantial distinction. One of the awards of substantial distinction will be for a broadcast (television or radio) entry.
Journalists working on behalf of newspapers, news services, web sites, magazines and radio and TV stations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico are eligible, whether Guild members or not.
Entries deadline: last Friday in January, annually
Details and more information: The NewsGuild website
Dalton Camp Award
The Dalton Camp Award is a $10,000 prize for the best essay on the link between media and democracy, presented annually by FRIENDS (formerly FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting). FRIENDS launched the award in 2002 to honour the memory of Dalton Camp, a distinguished commentator on Canadian public affairs.
Any Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada, regardless of age, student or professional status may enter for the $10,000 prize.
Students enrolled in a recognized post-secondary institution are also eligible for the $2,500 Student Prize.
Submission deadline: Jan. 8, 2024
Details and more information: friends.ca website
CJFE Arnold Amber Award for Investigative Journalism
This award is named in honour of former CWA Canada Director Arnold Amber, a long-time CBC executive producer, labour leader, and press freedom advocate.
The award — a framed plaque and cash prize of $2,000 — recognizes a Canadian journalist who has advanced public interest reporting in Canada.
For further information or to submit a nomination, contact CJFE:
Tel: 416-923-1771
Website: cjfe.org
Canadian Hillman Prize
The Canadian Hillman Prize honours excellence in investigative journalism in service of the common good. Recipients exemplify reportorial excellence, resourcefulness, courage, storytelling skill, and social justice impact.
The $5,000 prize will be given to a reported story or series published or broadcast in the previous calendar year. There is no fee to enter and no limit to the number of entries one publication or outlet may enter. Eligible entries include reporting in newspapers, magazines and online, as well as television, radio and podcasts, tablets and multimedia. Entries must have been published in Canada and been widely accessible to a Canadian audience. Self-published work is not eligible.
Entry deadline: Jan. 15, annually
For further information or to submit an entry:
HillmanFoundation.org
Paul Kidd Courage Prize
PEN Canada’s Paul Kidd Courage Prize is open to Canadian journalists and journalists working for Canadian media outlets who have made a contribution to journalism (print or broadcast), who have risked their careers in pursuit of a story and who take an independent viewpoint.
The award honours exceptional courage in the quest for freedom of expression.
Paul Kidd died in 2002, after a career as one of Canada’s first globetrotting foreign correspondents. He filed reports to Southam News Service from more than 70 countries, braving street violence, gunfire, terrorism, arrest at bayonet point and open threats from political regimes infuriated by his insistence on getting and reporting the truth.
More Information: Call 416-703-8448, ext. 24. Visit PEN Canada’s website.
Dick Martin Scholarship Award
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety offers this $1,000 national award to students enrolled in an occupational health and safety course or program leading to an OHS certificate, diploma or degree at an accredited college or university in Canada. Three $1,000 scholarships are available. The award is named for Dick Martin, a former secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress who is credited with creating the national Day of Mourning to commemorate workers who lost their lives on the job. The Day of Mourning is now observed internationally.
Application deadline: Jan. 31, annually
More information about Dick Martin is available on the CCOHS website, as is a list of previous winners and their essays.
Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism
The Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism recognize independent and professional reporting that sheds new light on controversial issues. Underwritten by the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund and Reuters, and administered by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), the prizes were created to honor the American freelance journalist who was killed in a military ambush while on assignment for Reuters on May 24, 2000, in Sierra Leone.
Established in 2001, two US$5,000 prizes are awarded each year, one to a local reporter in a developing country or nation in transition, and the other to a freelance journalist covering international news. The stories can focus on conflict, human-rights concerns, cross-border issues, or any other issue of controversy in a particular country or region.
Application deadline: May 31, annually
Details and Entry Forms: Available on the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund website.
Union Plus Scholarship Program
The Union Plus Scholarship offers US$150,000 in scholarships annually to members, their spouses and dependents who are beginning or continuing their post-secondary education. Awards range from US$500 to $4,000.
The scholarship program is open to students attending or planning to attend a college or university, a community college, or a technical college or trade school. Applicants for scholarships are evaluated according to academic ability, social awareness, financial need and appreciation of labour. Members of participating AFL-CIO union members from Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and U.S. citizens are eligible. Members do not have to purchase any Union Plus program product or participate in any Union Plus programs to apply for the scholarships and scholarship awards are not based upon participation in a Union Plus program.
Application deadline: Jan. 31, annually
Further information and application forms: Visit the Union Plus website.
CWA Canada • The Media Union 