Frédérick Lavoie of La Presse Honoured for Ukrainian Coverage

By Vasyl Pawlowsky

MONTREAL – Over one-hundred invited leaders of the Ukrainian Canadian community and guests gathered at the McGill University Faculty Club on March 21, 2011 to honour Frdrick Lavoie, investigative journalist of La Presse of Montreal, the fourth recipient of the John Syrnick Journalism Award, sponsored by the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko. The chairperson of the National Selection Committee was Dr. Christine Turkewych. Lavoie achieved this honour for his comprehensive coverage of the political situation in Ukraine from September 2009 to September 2010, which is of importance and relevance to Ukrainian Canadians. The Award, comprised of a plaque, a thousand dollars and two copies of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, one for the journalist and one for his employer, was presented by Andrew Hladyshevsky QC, President of the Shevchenko Foundation.

“The Syrnick Award for Journalism was launched in February of 2005 by the board. It acknowledges the useful, and if you will, the inspirational efforts of Canadian journalists who produce insightful and substantive reporting on topics of interest to the Ukrainian Canadian community,” stated Hladyshevsky in his opening remarks and went on further to explain a little about the Award’s relevance to John Syrnick after whom it is named. Noting that the newspaper Ukrainskiy Holos - Ukrainian Voice, for which Syrnick was editor from 1947-70, is over a one hundred years old and how it had been banned as a publication by the federal government from 1914 through 1920.  “The issue of journalists and the issue of journalists bringing forward the truth and the truth always ringing out is the reason why we have named this award for John Syrnick,” added Hladyshevsky.

Lavoie, a native of Chicoutimi, Quebec, is a freelance journalist who has been based in Moscow since 2008. He studied Russian in Moscow in 2004-2005 and received a master’s degree in International Journalism at the University Laval in 2007. He writes primarily for the French-language Montreal newspaper La Presse, but also does work for Radio Canada, Radio Suisse Romande, La Croix, Le Soir, La Tribune de Genève, Le Figaro and other European media.

After receiving his award, Lavoie opened his short and poignant acceptance speech in Ukrainian, with the clear admixture of a Russian accent, and then continued in English, remarking that his Ukrainian was not very good, and continued to explain how he came to understand Ukrainian. “I was arrested and jailed in Belarus, covering events in that country. It was there that I learnt a lot of Ukrainian because I happened to be put in a cell with two Ukrainian “revolutionaries”. They worked with the Orange Revolution and came to Belarus to help their cause for democratic change. Even though they knew Russian, the two would only speak Ukrainian to me as a matter of principle. So that is how I learnt to understand Ukrainian more”, said Lavoie, reminiscing about that period.

Lavoie said he was touched that the selection committee recognized his human approach in writing articles and the fact that he often tries to tell personal stories in his writing. He continues to relate to two such experiences he had on a train trip from Kyiv to Donetsk in March of 2006 when he was reporting on Ukraine’s parliamentary elections which illustrated the human aspect of his approach.

Lavoie concluded with, “I don’t know if I can dedicate this prize, but I would do it for all my Ukrainian colleagues who are covering Ukraine now because I think it is way more difficult for them to cover Ukraine currently than it was for me [in] coming [to Ukraine] and working for La Presse, a free newspaper in the free world. Of course, Ukraine is now on a difficult path... they are still trying to find a way to democracy, so let’s hope that they will find it and [until] then let’s support these journalists.”

“Such national awards and events are particularly important to our community in order for us to continue to develop and cultivate a closer relationship with the mainstream media and their journalists, both here in Quebec and throughout Canada,” said McGill University student and former SUSK President Artem Luhovy.

The 2011 John Syrnick Journalism Award National Selection Committee was chaired by Dr. Christine Turkewych, Director of Literary Arts, Shevchenko Foundation, and included the following members:

British Columbia

Paulette “Pawlina” Demchuk MacQuarrie, Producer/Host, Nash Holos Ukrainian Roots Radio;

Alberta

Jars Balan, Administrative Coordinator, Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta;

Saskatchewan

Prof. Bohdan Kordan, St. Michael’s College, University of Saskatchewan,

Boris Kishchuk, Chair, Canada-Ukraine Centre Inc.;

Manitoba

Prof. Roman Yereniuk, Acting Director, Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies, University of Manitoba;

Ontario

Roman Senkus, Director, CIUS Press Publications, Managing Editor, Encyclopedia of Ukraine, and Editor, Journal of Ukrainian Studies, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Toronto,

Chrystyna Isajiw, Ukrainian Canadian Research & Documentation Centre, Toronto,

Prof. Dominique Arel, Chair, Ukrainian Studies, University of Ottawa,

Irena Bell, Producer and Host, Ukrainian Hour, CHIN Radio, Ottawa;

Quebec

Zorianna Hrycenko-Luhovy, President, Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Montreal Branch & Quebec Provincial Council;

Shevchenko Foundation.

Prof. Oleh Gerus, Department of History, University of Manitoba, and Board of Directors, Shevchenko Foundation

Previous recipients of the Award are: Mark MacKinnon, The Globe and Mail in 2005; Victor Malarek, CTV’s W5 in 2007; and The Winnipeg Free Press in 2009.

PHOTO

Front Row (L to R): Irena Bell; Andrew Hladyshevsky; Frédérick Lavoie, Syrnick Award recipient; Eric Trottier, Editor-In-Chief of La Presse; Dr. Christine Turkewych. Second Row (L to R): Zorianna Hrycenko-Luhovy; Lesia Szwaluk, Executive Director of Shevchenko Foundation