Former MP to Receive Writer's Award
Toronto - The Writers' Union of Canada has announced the recipient of its 2005 Freedom to Read Week Award. The award this year will be going to the former NDP Member of Parliament, for Halifax-Dartmouth, Wendy Lill.
"We believe Ms. Lill is a worthy recipient for her hard work in the House of Commons last year in trying to protect writers' interests in amendments to the Criminal Code, " said Bill Freeman, chair of the Union.
The amendments, which would have removed the defense of "artistic merit" from charges laid under the child pornography section of the Code and replaced it with the vague defense of "public good,” met with widespread opposition throughout the arts community. Much of the debate over retaining an artistic merit defense was led by Ms. Lill.
"It takes great courage for a politician to publicly adopt anything but a zero tolerance stance against charges of child pornography, but the amendments being proposed would have seriously chilled any writer or artist trying to deal with youth sexuality in a fictional or non-fictional forum," Freeman added. "Ms. Lill displayed that courage and conviction."
The proposed amendments died with last year's federal election, and a new version, Bill C-2, with an artistic defense restored, has received first reading in the Commons.
Each year during Freedom to Read Week, the Writers' Union of Canada presents the award to a Canadian who has worked to preserve freedom of expression for writers in Canada. Previous recipients of this award include Peter Carver, a writer and educator from Guelph, Ontario and Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby. Freedom to Read Week this year goes from February 20 to 26.
The Writers' Union of Canada is our country's national organization representing professional authors of books. Founded in 1973, the Union is dedicated to fostering writing in Canada, and promoting the rights, freedoms, and economic well being of all writers. For more information, please visit
http://www.writersunion.ca/.
For additional information
Deborah Windsor, Executive Director
The Writers’ Union of Canada
416. 703.8982 Ext. 221
dwindsor@writersunion.ca
