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Chris Benjamin and Paul Webster win 2013 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards

The Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards honour the long-time, Calgary-based freelance writer and are unique in two ways: they support working Canadian freelancers when they most need it in their work cycle and give special regard to those working in the area of social justice. Halifax writer Chris Benjamin and Toronto writer Paul Webster won…

The Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards honour the long-time, Calgary-based freelance writer and are unique in two ways: they support working Canadian freelancers when they most need it in their work cycle and give special regard to those working in the area of social justice.

Halifax writer Chris Benjamin and Toronto writer Paul Webster won the 2013 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards, as announced on Oct. 20.

Benjamin won the $5,000 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Book Award. The winning chapter, titled “Creation Story,” is from his forthcoming book The Shubenacadie Indian Residential School.

The Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, scheduled for publication by Nimbus Publishing in 2014, is the story of how the only residential school in Atlantic Canada came to be. Despite testimony from the churches and state for the Truth & Reconciliation Commission regarding previous efforts to eradicate indigenous culture via the residential school system, the institutional histories of individual
schools tend to remain shadowed.


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Webster won the $2,000 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Magazine Award for his article “Adverse Reactions,” published in Vancouver Magazine in April 2013.

This is an investigative feature probing pharmaceutical industry pressure on the government of British Columbia. Adverse Reactions raises the question of whether the BC Liberals succumbed to industry pressure to curb the research program.

The Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards were established to honour Dave Greber of Calgary, a long-time freelance writer, and they are unique in two ways: they provide support to working Canadian freelance writers when they most need it in their work cycle and they give special regard to those working in the area of social justice. Excellence of writing, research and storytelling are a benchmark of the awards.