La Presse reporter Daniel Renaud wins 2025 Press Freedom Award Français
Media law pioneer wins Career Achievement Award
OTTAWA, ON, May 1, 2025 /CNW/ - World Press Freedom Canada (WPFC) is pleased to announce that La Presse reporter Daniel Renaud is the 2025 winner of our Press Freedom Award, while longtime newspaper lawyer Bert Bruser is awarded our Career Achievement Award.
Judges considered nominations from across Canada for the annual Press Freedom Awards. Categories include a local journalism, the Career Achievement Award in honour of Spencer Moore, the Student Achievement Award and the International Editorial Cartoon Contest.
WPFC recognized Renaud for his diligent, fearless reporting on organized crime in Quebec and for demonstrating exceptional resilience in pursuing stories that serve the public interest despite obstacles to press freedom.
In 2024, Renaud spent months investigating hitman Frédérick Silva, uncovering his ties to the Montreal mafia. In retaliation, Silva ordered Renaud's murder — a plot later aborted. Despite the threat, Renaud missed only one day of work and continued to show up in court for every hearing during Silva's trial. With nearly 30 years of fearless reporting on organized crime, his work sparked vital public discourse on the value of independent journalism.
Bruser was awarded the WPFC Career Achievement Award in recognition of his decades-long, groundbreaking work as newsroom legal counsel for The Toronto Star. He is recognized as a pioneer media lawyer who helped defend courageous and often controversial journalism from lawsuits designed to intimidate and silence.
WPFC President Heather Bakken offered her congratulations to all award winners. "At this pivotal moment, we must recognize the courageous work of Canadian journalists, especially during an election year when the fight against disinformation, foreign interference and media manipulation is not just about protecting our information ecosystem — it is about safeguarding democracy. And a free press is often the last line of defence," she said. "Under this year's theme, we spotlight the challenges journalists face in the battle to preserve fact-based evidence, accountability, and public trust."
In addition to the above-mentioned winners, WPFC presented a Press Freedom, Local Journalism Award to the Waterloo Region Record.
The committee is honouring The Record for a collection of articles which pierced the veil of secrecy on secret land deals, college recruitment of foreign students and school board practices. The journalists are editor-in-chief Jim Poling, Terry Pender, Robert Williams, Luisa D'Amato and Jeff Outhit.
A Certificate of Merit award goes to The Globe and Mail's Grant Robertson and Kathryn Blaze Baum for their investigation that exposed damning revelations about the country's food safety system putting Canadians at risk; as well as to investigative reporter Patti Sonntag who uncovered abuse of Indigenous procurement policies.
The Student Achievement Award goes to Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman and Aidan Raynor of The Concordian at Montreal's Concordia University for their series on the lack of transparency at Canadian universities and a broken access to information system.
WPFC is also announcing the winners of our International Editorial Cartoon contest, which had a theme this year of "It's a Trump World" and the increasing difficulty to discern the truth. Constantin Sunnerberg, a Moscow native now living in Belgium received first prize. Greek cartoonist Dimitios Georgopalis won second, and Hicabi Demirci from Turkey won third prize.
The awards will be presented at our annual luncheon at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on May 1, in honour of the United Nations' World Press Freedom Day which takes place annually on May 3. Our keynote speaker is Kevin Newman, a veteran newscaster and co-founder of GetFact.ca, a disinformation watchdog; Catherine Clark, President, Catherine Clark Communications, will emcee.
World Press Freedom Canada is an Ottawa-based, non-profit volunteer organization whose mission is to champion press freedom in Canada and abroad. We do this by advocating for the rights of journalists and a free press to uphold democracy, celebrating the vital role of journalists in promoting transparency and accountability and identifying press freedom violations.
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