BPC Wins Les Fowlie Award
The Book and Periodical Council is this year’s winner of the Les Fowlie Intellectual Freedom Award. The honour is awarded by the Ontario Library Association.
The BPC won the award because of the “tireless efforts” of its Freedom of Expression Committee “in promoting intellectual freedom for all Canadians” and “organizing the annual Freedom to Read Week,” said Shelagh Paterson, Executive Director of the OLA. The award is named after Mr. Les Fowlie, the former Chief Librarian of the Toronto Public Library and a staunch defender of Canadians’ intellectual freedom. Fowlie was also a past chair of the BPC’s Freedom of Expression Committee.
The OLA will present the award during Freedom to Read Week at 8 a.m. on Friday, February 26, 2010 at the OLA’s Super Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The all Conference plenary will also feature Ezra Levant. Mr. Levant is a writer, lawyer and the former publisher of the Western Standard.
