The co-chairs of the Travers Fellowship Steering Committee, Carleton University's Susan Harada of the School of Journalism and Communication and Ben Travers, announced on March 20 that Dylan Robertson, an international affairs reporter with the Ottawa bureau of The Canadian Press, has been awarded this year's $25,000 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship. The fellowship is administered by Carleton and annually supports a significant foreign reporting project by Canadian journalists or journalism students.
Robertson's multi-platform project will examine a number of Commonwealth countries in Africa whose human rights are supported by Canada, but whose laws and regulations around 2SLGBTQI+ rights are rapidly shifting. The series would show Canadians what impact they have on some of the most vulnerable 2SLGBTQI+ people, and how our government and grassroots actors can safely advance support.
"The project Robertson has planned will come at a key moment for 2SLGBTQI+ rights around the world," Harada said. According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, 2023 was a particularly bleak and unpredictable year for LGBT and gender-diverse people. Travers added, "Robertson's project is a vital investigation that promises to bring global stories together into a picture of the progress - and troubling headwinds - for 2SLGBTQI+ rights."
"I'll be visiting Ghana, Cameroon and Kenya to look at what 2SLGBTQI+ people in each country are going through, and what they want from Canada," Robertson said. "In each country, there are trends that threaten the safety of gender and sexual minorities, but there are also stories of people winning their rights and asserting identities that existed before colonization.
"I'll be hearing from people on the frontlines of these debates, including politicians who support laws that Canada opposes. I'll look at what effect our aid dollars are having, and how diaspora groups in Canada are supporting people back home."
Robertson's Fellowship project will be published by The Canadian Press in both English and French via hundreds of newspapers, broadcasters and magazines, and will also be housed permanently on CP's website.
The Fellowship was established in 2011 in honour of Jim Travers, a former editor, political columnist, and foreign correspondent who deeply believed in the value of international journalism. As the latest recipient of the award, Roberton spoke of "the immense privilege" in being selected to further Travers' legacy. He said he looks forward to deepening his abilities as a journalist focussing on Canada's place in the world.
About Robertson
Before joining CP to report on international affairs in 2022, Robertson was Ottawa bureau chief for the Winnipeg Free Press for five years. His experience includes on-the-ground reporting of protests in Ukraine, unrest in Russia and elections in France. As the 2016 Arthur F. Burns fellow, he spent three months in Germany reporting on refugee integration and the Canada-EU trade deal. He was also the 2015 Michelle Lang fellow for the Calgary Herald.
About Jim Travers
Travers worked as the Southam News correspondent in Africa and the Middle East during the 1980s covering major stories - from apartheid in South Africa and the Ethiopian famine to the conflict in Lebanon and the Iran-Iraq war. Returning to Canada, he continued an influential career as general manager of Southam News, editor of the Ottawa Citizen, executive managing editor of the Toronto Star and finally as an award-winning national affairs columnist known for his compassion and playful wit.
He believed Canadians deserve first-hand, in-depth coverage of important stories outside our borders. He argued passionately that it is crucial for Canadian reporters to "bear witness" - because in our interconnected world, foreign news is local news.
