Globe and Mail Journalist Wins First John Syrnick Award


TORONTO-On Wednesday August 24, an awards ceremony to honour Globe and Mail reporter Mark MacKinnon, the first recipient of the John Syrnick Award for Journalism, took place in Toronto at the Ontario Club.
MacKinnon was chosen to receive the new award, sponsored by the Ukrainian-Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko, from a short-list of Canadian journalists who covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
According to the award selection committee, headed by Dr. Christine Turkewych, “MacKinnon’s coverage demonstrated consistent, substantive and thorough coverage of Ukraine’s history leading to the Orange Revolution, and consistently described the critical period from the second election to the final results of the third election that took place in December 2004.”
The Globe and Mail’s fo-reign editor, Ste-phen Northfield attended the ceremony and accepted the Syrnick Award on MacKinnon’s behalf.  MacKinnon was unable to be present as he was on assignment.
At the ceremony, Professor Oleh Gerus spoke about the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation and about John Syrnick, who was the editor of the oldest Ukrainian newspaper, Ukrainian Voice, from 1947-1970.
Subsequently, Professor Olga Andriewsky outlined why MacKinnon deserved the award. She pointed out that he grasped the importance of the Ukrainian elections before other Western journalists did and went the extra mile to document the stories of individuals caught up in the events during the last Ukrainian presidential elections.
The Consul General of Ukraine in Toronto Ihor Lossovskyi also spoke at the ceremony. He praised and thanked MacKinnon for his work and said that many Canadians learned about Ukraine through MacKinnon’s “very important reports about the Orange Revolution.”
Lossovskyi also noted that not one Canadian newspaper has an office in Ukraine. They are based in Russia and, as a result, some journalists see Ukraine “through the glasses of or neighbours,” and their reports are “sometimes biased and not balanced,” he said.
The award selection committee included 17 pre-eminent Canadian academics and community leaders form the Ukrainian-Canadian community, representing all regions of Canada.
The presentation package for the John Syrnick Award for Journalism included an award plaque, a set of the Ukrainian Encyclopedia and a monetary honorarium.  The Shevchenko Foundation also presented an encyclopedia set to the Globe and Mail.
MacKinnon was the Moscow bureau chief of the Globe and Mail from 2002-2005.  In that time, he covered the revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia as well as the wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq.  He is now the Globe’s Middle East correspondent, based in Jerusalem.
The Shevchenko Foundation created the John Syrnick Award for Journalism to recognize the pivotal influence of media in presenting to all Canadians information on issues important to the Ukrainian-Canadian community.  The Foundation provides grants for various community projects related to the research, study and promotion of Ukrainian history, language and culture.