Toronto, ON – Alex Shprintsen, a producer for CBC-TV’s The National, received the Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit at a gala awards dinner in Toronto last night. The award, founded in 1993 in honour of the late veteran broadcaster and journalist Peter Gzowski – a passionate champion for literacy – is open to all Canadian journalists working in any medium and recognizes their outstanding achievements in enhancing public understanding, support for, and awareness of, the literacy cause.

Mr. Shprintsen’s series of two documentaries, entitled Canada’s Shame, focused on the alarming fact that millions of adult Canadians are, in varying degrees, challenged with low literacy. He brought the reality of that challenge home with compelling portraits of Jacques Demers, former coach of the Montreal Canadiens, who faced literacy challenges throughout his professional career, and of Lynda Richards, a Saskatchewan learner whose literacy acquisition provided her the skills and confidence to establish a school cafeteria service – and read a book to her grandchildren.

The two parts, which aired May 23 and 24, 2006, respectively, on both CBC News: Sunday and The National, also delivered to a national audience revealing figures that compare Canada’s literacy levels with those of Sweden, a country making real gains due to a concerted investment in adult literacy.

“The nature of literacy challenges – what they look like and how they effect our citizens and our economy – is not an easy thing to convey, and Alex Shprintsen and his team did a superb job in putting a face to the issue,” says Margaret Eaton, president, ABC CANADA. “Kudos to CBC-TV for delivering a very compelling piece to a broad, national audience.” In addition to Shprintsen, the production showcased the talents of reporter Dan Bjarnason, cameraman Eric Foss and editors Loretta Hicks and Alicia Lee.

Award donations to literacy efforts In addition to presenting Shprintsen with the award, ABC CANADA is also presenting, on his behalf, $500 to the Saskatchewan Literacy Network, where he met Lynda Richards, and $500 to the Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy.

Alex Shprintsen, recipient of the 2007 Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit, with Margaret Eaton and Alan Middleton, President and Chair of ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation.

Alison Gzowski, daughter of the late broadcast veteran Peter Gzowski, presented the 2007 Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit to CBC-TV producer Alex Shprintsen.

ABOUT ALEX SHPRINTSEN

Alex Shprintsen, an 18-year print and broadcast veteran and a producer at CBC-TV’s The National, was compelled to research low literacy in Canada after learning that Jacques Demers, former coach of the Montreal Canadiens, had lived with the challenge of low literacy all his life. He discovered that few are aware of how wide-ranging low literacy is, and how devastating the consequences can be. “There’s a kind of vicious cycle,” he says. “The very people in a position to convey the problem generally have no one in their professional circle who are like that.”

The resultant series of two documentaries, entitled Canada’s Shame and which aired May 23 and 24, 2006 on both The National and CBC News: Sunday, profiled Jacques Demers, former coach of the Montreal Canadiens who faced low literacy challenges throughout his professional career, and Lynda Richards, a Saskatchewan learner whose literacy acquisition provided her the skills and confidence to establish a school cafeteria service. The programs also delivered to a national audience revealing figures that compare Canada’s literacy levels with those of Sweden, a country making real gains due to a concerted investment in adult literacy.

As a young boy in Kharkov, Ukraine (his family immigrated from the Soviet Union to Canada in 1976), Shprintsen would often be asked by his kindergarten teacher to read to his classmates. He proved to have an aptitude for languages (he is fluent in Russian, English and French) and his parents, both engineers, encouraged reading. With that background, reading was something he took for granted. And throughout his professional career – which included stints as a producer at the BBC World Service Radio, a Los Angeles Times correspondent in Kiev, and a producer at TV Ontario’s Between the Lines, and which garnered him several Canadian and International journalism awards, including a Gemini and a New York Film Festival award – Shprintsen proved time after time he was a great communicator who had no reason to know that communication would be so difficult for so many.

He now knows. “People don’t understand that there’s a problem, and that there’s a price to be paid for that,” he says. For his considerable effort to bring the issue to public attention – aided so skillfully by reporter Dan Bjarnason, cameraman Eric Foss and editors Loretta Hicks and Alicia Lee – ABC CANADA is pleased to present him with the 2007 Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit.

About the Peter Gzowski Literacy Award of Merit

Journalists may submit their own work, or nominate the work of a fellow journalist. In the case of those nominating other people’s work, the entries must be submitted with the knowledge and consent of the journalist. Others who may nominate include an employer, a colleague, industry-related association representatives, an ABC CANADA Board or Committee member, regional literacy coalitions or networks, national literacy organizations or anyone employed in, or working with, the Canadian literacy field. The award is presented on merit and is not necessarily presented every year.

Past recipients are: Mike Aiken (Kenora Daily Miner & News and the Lake of the Woods Enterprise) and Irene Davis, 2006 (freelanced piece in The Globe and Mail); Sean Fine, 2005 (The Globe and Mail); Paul-Émile Cormier, 2004 (Journal l’Étoile, New Brunswick); Alan White, 2003 (Telegraph-Journal, New Brunswick); Joel Jacobson, 2002 (Halifax Herald); Peter Calamai, 1996 (Toronto Star); and Denise Donlon,1993 (MuchMusic).