Ross Munro Award Call for Nominations

Ross Munro Call for Nominations

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.

Robert 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 in March of 2024 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 Ottawa Conference free of charge.

Nominations are to contain the following documentation can be sent to nominations@cdainstitute.ca ;

Nominee’s Curriculum Vitae / biographical summary

Nomination Support Letters (Optional)

Deadline: December 31, 2023

Past Recipients

Royal Canadian Logistics Service Association

Ross Munro Award Call for Nominations

History & Heritage