Toronto, ON - Canada’s national award that recognizes corporations’ and individuals’ exceptional contributions in support of the issue of literacy was presented tonight to CanWest Global Communications Corp.

In accepting the ninth annual Honourable Joyce Fairbairn, P.C. Literacy Public Awareness Award, CanWest Global Communications Corp. joins the ranks of Air Canada, Baton Broadcasting System (CTV), Canadian Cable Television Association, Canadian Community Newspapers Association, Coca-Cola Ltd., Honda Canada Inc., Maclean-Hunter Publishing (now Rogers Media), Royal Bank Financial Group, and Taxi Advertising which have all shown exceptional generosity and innovation in their support of literacy programs in Canada, and of ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation.

Affectionately known in the literacy field as “the Joycee,” the award’s namesake is Senator Joyce Fairbairn, a long-standing champion of the literacy cause in Canada.

Providing a home, supporting ABC CANADA’s programs

The award recognizes CanWest’s numerous contributions to literacy. In addition to its own programs such as CanWest Raise-a-Reader™ and the CanSpell National Spelling Bee, the company has “solidly backed the initiatives of ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation,” said Alan Middleton, ABC CANADA’s Chair.

Since 2002, CanWest Global Communications Corp. has provided to ABC CANADA:

• Gift-in-kind donations of media valued at more than one million dollars;
• Cash donations totalling close to one quarter million dollars;
• Some of the proceeds from the CanWest Raise-a-Reader™ Day, September 30, 2004, and all of the proceeds from that initiative in Toronto (where CanWest Global staff and volunteers gave out copies of that day’s National Post for donations to the literacy cause) — totalling more than $110,000; and
• Office space, representing a gift-in-kind donation of more than $90,000.

CanWest Global “has quite literally provided a home for ABC CANADA [where] staff go to work everyday under the roof of the National Post offices,” said Middleton. Considering CanWest’s own literacy initiatives and all the ways it has supported ABC CANADA, the company, “as a major communications force in this country, does not take lightly the importance of literacy in our society,” he added.

“Thanks to CanWest’s ongoing support, ABC CANADA’s role as the national voice for raising public awareness about family, adult and workplace literacy has been greatly enhanced,” says Christine Featherstone, ABC CANADA President.

Sharing the award with CanWest employees, volunteers, sponsors

Cindy Dowse, Manager, Corporate Communications and Community Relations, CanWest Global Communications, accepted the award on behalf of Leonard Asper, President and CEO, and Gail Asper, President of the CanWest Global Foundation.

Addressing the award-dinner attendees, including Senator Joyce Fairbairn and ABC CANADA Board of Directors and staff, Dowse said: “The challenge to raise the necessary funding and resources for literacy programs across Canada is ongoing. It is through the enthusiastic and tenacious efforts of all the volunteers, sponsors and CanWest employees that we are able to achieve increasing success every year.”

Emphasizing the work of many, she added: “CanWest would like to share this prestigious award with all of those individuals and organizations whose contributions made it possible for Raise-a-Reader to, in turn, help others. Reading, writing and mathematics are an essential part of the foundation for ‘quality of life’ — skills that we all should have access to.”