Foundation Information

As Western Canada's best-known and most influential reporter, Jack Webster left his mark on the BC journalism scene with his hard-hitting reporting style. In his more than 40 years of print, radio and television journalism, Jack Webster was synonymous with insightful, accurate and unabashed reporting.

Founded in 1986, The Jack Webster Foundation carries on Jack's legacy by promoting and recognizing the achievements of BC based reporters with the Jack Webster Awards.

Trustees of The Jack Webster Foundation

Since its inception, the Foundation has sought and achieved broad support from the media and community at large. It has done so through the volunteer efforts of individuals drawn from a cross-section of the community who work to uphold the independence and integrity of the Foundation and its activities.

Debora Sweeney, Co-Chair	Neil Soper, Co-Chair	Scott Macrae, Vice-Chair
Cam Avery	Don Babick	Michael Bernard
Bruce Charlish	Steve Crombie	Jon Festinger
George Garrett	Sarah Goodman	David Hoff
George Madden	Gayle Stewart	Chris Weafer
Jack Webster

The Board of Trustees comprises a group of community-minded individuals with backgrounds in business, law, finance, the media, community service and others. The Jury panel is composed of journalists and lay members. The adjudication process is completely independent of the Trustees.

A History of The Jack Webster Foundation

In 1986, a group of community-minded citizens organized a salute to Jack Webster on the occasion of his retirement from active journalism in British Columbia. Over 1,000 guests enjoyed the gala dinner filled with humorous stories, touching remembrances and, most of all, Jack's Scottish brogue and insight into life around him.

From the proceeds of this successful dinner, the Jack Webster Foundation was established 13 years ago as a permanent tribute to Jack. The mandate of the Foundation is to promote and honour excellence in journalism in British Columbia. For the past 13 years, the Foundation has recognized journalists for outstanding work at its annual Webster Awards Dinner where a unique glass statue, known as a 'Webster', is presented along with a cash prize. 'Websters' are considered the measure of journalistic excellence in British Columbia.

The Foundation presented annually one award: Best Reporting of the Year. In 1990, the Jack Webster Award of Distinction was introduced to honour journalists working with limited resources. Also, the Lando family of Vancouver, established the Science Award in honour of their son and brother, Barry, who is a producer with CBS' 60 Minutes and who has a strong interest in the reporting of science based stories.

The Best Reporting of the Year award was divided into 3 awards, one each for print, radio and TV.

In 1991, the Webster Foundation established its Lifetime achievement award. The first recipient and namesake of the award was Bruce Hutchison, a legend in Canadian journalism.

Hutchison's writing career stretched from 1918 at the Victoria Times Colonist to 1992 at the Vancouver Sun. In between, he worked for the Province, Winnipeg Free Press, Financial Post and Maclean's. He wrote more than a dozen books. Received three national newspaper awards, 4 honourary university degrees and three governor general awards. His published opinions helped shape Canadian public policy for several generations and his writing about the land and its people have had a major influence on the way we think about who we are and what we might become.

His last article, filed on time as usual and not in need of any editing, ran in The Sun the month before his death at age 91.

"If our children ask, some years hence, what happened and why we didn't see it happening before our eyes, the answer is that humans never do, and maybe are happier, more durable, for the mercy of their ignorance. In the beginning, the wise man never asks the end."

The list of winners of this most prestigious award is a veritable who's who of journalism in a number of fields.

Cartoonists Len Norris and Roy Peterson, news director Warren Barker, columnists Jim Hume and Denny Boyd, reporter's-reporter (or newspaper reporter) Moira Farrow, radio newsman George Garrett, newspaper founder Dan McLeod, newspaper veteran Patrick Nagle and television producers Cameron Bell and Keith Bradbury are past Hutchison winners. Although Moira Farrow and Len Norris are no longer with us, like Jack their work lives on.

To the Foundation's six awards, the Trustees added Photojournalism which in 1995 became Best Visual Image Award. This award was phased out in 1996.

In 1996, three new awards were added. Best Reporting in the Chinese Language was introduced to recognize the growing and significant Chinese Language media in British Columbia. Jean Cormier, the first Chair of the Jack Webster Foundation, sponsored the Business Industry and Economics Award and a new award category for feature writing was created, which was divided into three awards in 1998, one each for print, radio and television.

The Jack Webster Award for Excellence in Legal Journalism was created in 2000 and sponsored by the Law Society of British Columbia who had up until 1999 administered its own media awards.

The Jack Webster Award for Community Reporting replaced the Jack Webster Award for Distinction in 2001. The new name better reflects the small market purpose of this award.

In 2001, a new category was added - The Jack Webster Award for Commentary. This award recognizes the importance of commentary as it defines and grapples with significant issues in our community.

In 2003, the Commentatary award was renamed the Commentator of the Year award and presented in honour of Linda Webster, Jack's daughter who passed away in 2002. The sub-title 'City Mike Award' was added to reflect Jack's cutting edge commentary on CJOR's City Mike show in the 1950's.

Jack Webster, CM 1918-1999

Jack spent a total of 68 years in the news business, forty of them in Canada in and 27 of those on open-line radio and television broadcasts.

The son of a Clydeside ironturner, he is a Canadian media giant who pioneered talk radio and television. Hundreds of thousands of listeners and viewers tuned in eagerly to hear his abrasive Scots baritone champion the cause of the little guy.

Jack was born in Glasgow in 1918, and, as he never tired of telling, held down junior reporter jobs with two and three newspapers at a time, honing both his craft and his brogue in Glasgow and on Fleet Street. When the War broke out Jack joined the British Army and rose to the rank of major, with most of his six years' service in the Middle East. Emigrating to Canada after the Second World War, he covered the labor beat for the Vancouver Sun. In 1953, he brought his hard-hitting reporting style to commercial radio, making his mark broadcasting shorthand transcripts of testimony during a sensational probe into corruption on Vancouver's police force. In 1963, Webster himself was the news when he acted as a mediator between hostage-holding prisoners and the authorities during an aborted escape attempt at the BC Penitentiary. At the age of 60, Jack moved his radio show to television where his familiar expression '9 am precisely' became the moniker for his highly rated Webster show. For eight years until his retirement in 1987, the gruff Scot could be seen and heard on BCTV sparring with his guests.

His late friend, columnist Marjorie Nichols wrote that Jack Webster was "a permanent fixture on the provincial stage, the information impresario to an entire generation of British Columbians that has been suckled on the daily diet of news that has been piped through the Webster pen and microphone". He won most of the major Canadian radio and television awards. He was a 'reporter's reporter'. In 1987, he was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame and was later appointed a member of the Order of Canada. His friend, Bill Good said at his wake: 'He made ordinary people feel important, and he could make people who felt important seem ordinary. And that was a gift." We believe it will always be said of Jack Webster, proud son of British Columbia, that his voice made a difference.