Each Lieutenant Governor develops unique projects and initiatives that highlight their interests and backgrounds. Often provincial in scope, they bring awareness to issues affecting British Columbians.
The Lieutenant Governor’s BC Journalism Fellowship
In the spirit of supporting a healthy democracy with a thriving journalistic community, a Journalism Fellowship was created.
The 2024 Lieutenant Governor’s BC Journalism Fellow is Michele Brunoro, an award-winning senior reporter and anchor for CTV News Vancouver with 30 years of journalism experience.
Ms. Brunoro has been awarded funding to produce online stories, in addition to a TV broadcast piece, focusing on human trafficking in British Columbia. She is committed to investigating and sharing these important stories to raise public awareness and give a voice to victims, inform the public and help prevent further exploitation.
Brunoro’s project, expected to be completed in early 2025, includes exploring victim backgrounds, the effectiveness of laws in BC, preventive efforts, and the work of British Columbians to help victims in other parts of the world. She hopes to speak with both Canadian and foreign victims and provide a BC perspective on sex tourism.
The 2023 recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Journalism Fellowship is Kim Bolan, an experienced and award-winning journalist who has covered gangs in British Columbia for the past 25 years. Bolan has been awarded funds to produce a series of articles on the increasing international tentacles of BC gangs and organized crime groups. Bolan’s five-part series was published in the Vancouver Sun, beginning January 22, 2024 and can be read here: Lethal Exports: B.C. gangsters at the centre of a global drug trade (part 1).
In 2022, the inaugural fellow Francesca Fionda, an investigative and data journalist, was awarded $25,00 to explore the gaps in supports for evacuees of disasters in British Columbia through long-form reporting. Click to read Francesca’s series “Bracing for Disaster” in The Tyee.
British Columbia Reconciliation Award
To recognize individuals, groups and organizations who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, integrity, respect and commitment to furthering reconciliation or inspired others to continue reconciliation efforts, the Lieutenant Governor, in partnership with the BC Achievement Foundation, has launched the British Columbia Reconciliation Award. Her Honour is grateful for the leadership of the Honourable Steven Point, former Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, who is the founder of this award.
The Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Maritime Achievement
A collaboration between the Government House Foundation and the Maritime Museum of BC, this award replaces the annual SS Beaver Awards for Maritime Excellence. This new award will recognize and acknowledge individuals and organizations along BC’s coast and inland waterways who have made noteworthy contributions to BC’s maritime interests. The expanded scope of the award will also recognize Indigenous and traditional practices, environmental stewardship, and ensure diversity in nominees, recipients, and award administration.
A unique award medallion featuring the artwork Nusi Ian Reid, a member of the Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella, will be awarded to each recipient. To read about the 2023 recipients, please visit The Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Maritime Achievement.
Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Inclusion, Democracy and Reconciliation:
In 2019, in partnership with the BC Ministry of Advanced Education, eligibility for the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal was expanded to recognize post-secondary students with outstanding contributions in support of inclusion, democracy or reconciliation, on or off campus, and now includes students in diploma and degree programs.