The Jack Webster Foundation has awarded former snəw̓eyəɬ leləm̓ Langara College journalism instructor Frances Bula as the 2023 Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. The Hutchison award recognizes the careers of senior reporters and editors who have received distinction in their communities for work of long-lasting significance, clarity, fairness and innovation, and will be presented at the November 14th Webster Awards gala dinner and evening.
Bula previously served as an instructor and department chair. She currently acts as a coach to the Jeani Read-Michael Mercer Fellowship and has helped place students at media outlets including Vancouver Sun, The Tyee, the Toronto Star, and Castanet in Kelowna. Langara has an outstanding track record of faculty and alumni winning the award, including Kim Bolan (2017), Shelley Fralic (2016), and Gary Mason (2015).
Over her 35+ year career, Bula has made significant contributions to the field of journalism in B.C. and has inspired excellence in others through her work as a journalist, commentator, journalism instructor, and professor. Her extensive experience reporting on urban issues and city politics, as well as her willingness to share her knowledge and expertise, has helped to raise the bar for journalism in British Columbia. As a teacher and professor at Kwantlen, Langara and UBC, Bula has inspired excellence in her students by encouraging them to think critically and creatively about the craft of journalism. She is known for her dedication to her students' success in the fast-changing and challenging field of journalism.
Bula's dedication to excellence in journalism has also been demonstrated through her own work as a journalist. Her writing has been widely recognized starting with community newspapers in 1983, with the Vancouver Sun for 21 years, as a contributor to the Globe and Mail for almost 20 years, covering City Hall for 29 years plus work with Vancouver Magazine and BCBusiness Magazine where she currently has a column. She's received many regional and national awards, and from the publications listed it demonstrates how she has been sought out by many for her expertise on urban issues and city politics. Bula's contributions to the profession have had a lasting impact on journalism in B.C., and on the people and communities she serves through her reporting. The outstanding career of Bruce Hutchison is a primary guide in reviewing potential candidates. Recipients of the award are chosen, after careful consideration by the Jack Webster Foundation Board of Directors.
About the Bruce Hutchison Award
The Jack Webster Foundation's Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award honours an exemplary BC journalism career. In 1991, the Jack Webster Foundation established a lifetime achievement award and presented it to Canadian journalism legend and the award's namesake, Bruce Hutchison. Hutchison's writing career stretched from 1950 at the Victoria Times Colonist, but even earlier than that as a high-school student, 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, four 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.
