The outstanding careers of former TVA anchor Pierre Bruneau and former CTV star host Lisa LaFlamme will be celebrated at the Canadian Screen Awards next spring.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced the recipients of its 2023 Special Awards of the Year on Wednesday morning. but also to Canadian society.
Pierre Bruneau will thus be awarded a prize for his entire career. The newscaster bowed out last June after 46 years at the TVA network, where he presented nearly 40 election nights and hosted a dozen leaders’ debates. Over the years, he has also received the Artis Award for Best News Presenter 23 times. “Receiving this lifetime achievement award is a great honour. I am extremely touched and I accept it with great humility,” said Mr. Bruneau in a press release.
For her part, Lisa LaFlamme will receive the Gordon-Sinclair Prize for spoken journalism. The Academy thus honors this “journalist at the forefront of the profession for more than 30 years and who highlights the greatest issues of our time”.
Note that the dismissal of Mr.me LaFlamme by CTV last summer, two years before the end of his contract and after 35 years with the company, caused a lot of ink to flow. The news had drawn fierce criticism across Canada, raising questions of ageism and sexism. Bell Media finally replaced the chain’s big news boss, Michael Melling, last December.
In addition, Ryan Reynolds will receive the Academy’s Humanitarian Award for his “philanthropic spirit”. The actor, producer, screenwriter and entrepreneur is a generous donor to the NGO Water First, which works to improve access to drinking water in indigenous communities, and to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which supports, among other things, displaced Ukrainian families. He also founded two organizations aimed at providing greater access to the creative sector for members of underrepresented communities: Group Effort Initiative and Creative Ladder.
Other special award recipients include actress Catherine O’Hara, journalist Tracy Moore, late producer Paul Pope, and actors Simu Liu and Peter MacNeill.
All of these prizes will be awarded as part of Canada On Screen Week, to be held in April in Toronto.