Statement regarding the 2020 Prix du Canada

By Patrizia Albanese, Chair of the Board, and Gabriel Miller, President & CEO, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

These past few weeks have been an important wake-up call for the Federation. The reactions to the announcement of the 2020 Prix du Canada and the resignation of the Indigenous Advisory Circle that ensued revealed that we still have an enormous amount of work and learning to do as an organization.

Reconciliation takes time, commitment and hard work; we will use these opportunities to humbly learn and redouble our efforts. In order for that to happen, we need to pause, carefully consider the advice that has been provided to us by the Indigenous Advisory Circle, and start challenging fundamental assumptions and decolonizing the way we conceptualize, express and reward knowledge.

As a first step we have decided that, prior to continuing plans for next year’s prize, we will fully review the program and make all necessary changes to support reconciliation, better address anti-Black racism, and more fully imbed the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion in the Canada Prize – Prix du Canada.

We will have more information about the details of this review shortly.