Every year -- in partnership with the eminent Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, and Olivia Chow -- the Broadbent Institute has the honour of awarding the Jack Layton and Charles Taylor Prizes.
After a public call for nominations, and the evaluation of dozens of deserving potential recipients, I am very pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Layton and Taylor Prizes.
The Layton Prize
The Jack Layton Progress Prize is awarded annually to a Canadian individual or organization who has run a particularly noteworthy political or issue campaign reflecting the ideals exemplified by Layton, including justice, sustainability and democracy.
The winner of this year’s Layton Prize is Hoodstock.
About Hoodstock
For the past 15 years Hoodstock has done considerable on the ground organizing in Montréal-Nord with their yearly event (also called Hoodstock), but they really upped their game this year during the pandemic. Their community was one of the hardest hit in Quebec by COVID – residents are low-income, largely racialized, live in multi-generation homes, and many are health care and essential workers.
When the local borough mayor didn't act to protect the population, Hoodstock stepped up. They organized a hugely successful fundraising and distribution drive to get masks and gloves to as many residents as possible. They also opened a legal clinic that operates in multiple languages to offer legal advice, particularly on questions of immigration, refugee status and racial profiling.
The Taylor Prize
The Charles Taylor Prize for Excellence In Policy Research is awarded annually to a researcher whose work has made an important contribution to policy debates relevant to building a more socially-just Canada. The winner of this year’s Taylor Prize is Martha Friendly.
About Martha Friendly
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Martha Friendly is the founder and executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit. As a policy researcher, Martha is an active participant in the cross-Canada child care movement that has been advocating for a universal public system of high-quality child care since the 1970s. Martha has authored many popular, academic and policy documents on early learning and child care including two books, book chapters, journal articles, reports and opinion pieces. Besides working for almost 50 years on research and analysis on child care, Martha has been an appreciative and involved user of child care. |
Her formative first child care experience was as a parent at the York University Co-operative Day Care Centre in the early 1970s. Both of her children, and then her grandchildren, had the benefit of quality public and nonprofit child care from their infant rooms through school-age.
Congratulations to this year’s winners!
