Gazette cartoonist Aislin wins prestigious journalism award (2024)

Longtime Gazette cartoonist Terry Mosher, also known as Aislin, has won the Michener-Baxter Award, a prestigious prize that honours exceptional contributions to the cause of public-interest journalism in Canada.

In an announcement released Tuesday, the board of directors of the Michener Awards Foundation explains that Mosher is being recognized “for his commitment to informing Canadians and lifting their spirits through humour that is cutting, but never cruel. He is also being recognized for his leadership in reminding Canadians and many around the world of the importance of freedom of speech, through his encouragement of cartoonists in countries where freedom of expression is suppressed, and his generous philanthropy.”

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Also being honoured with the Michener-Baxter Award is freelance political columnist Chantal Hébert. The announcement cites Hébert for her exceptional talent at explaining “English and French Canada to one and other — and to themselves.” Because of her work in radio, television and print in both French and English over the past several decades, Hébert is “widely considered to be among the country’s best analysts of politics in terms of federal-provincial relations and national unity,” the news release says. “To this, because of her knowledge, expertise and judgment, she brings an unparalleled voice coupled with a unique blend of moral authority and political realism.”

Mosher and Hébert are only the 12th and 13th recipients of the Michener-Baxter Award since its inception in 1983. It is not awarded annually, but rather presented at the discretion of the board of directors of the Michener Awards Foundation. It was named for Clive Baxter of the Financial Post, who received the first Michener Award in 1971 from then-Governor General Roland Michener.

Previous recipients of the Michener-Baxter include Norman Webster and John Honderich (both posthumously in 2022), Journalists for Human Rights (2022), John Fraser (2020), David Humphreys (2016), Alain Guilbert and Tim Kotcheff (2014), Bryan Cantley (2013), Michelle Lang (posthumously in 2010), Clark Davey (2009) and Clark Todd (posthumously in 1984).

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Mosher said he was particularly honoured to receive the award given how few people have won it and that he has worked for three of the recipients: former Toronto Star publisher Honderich, former Gazette editor-in-chief Webster and former Gazette publisher Davey.

“So it’s nice to be in that company, and the bonus is (to be recognized with) Chantal Hébert. … What a joy. I’ve been reading her since the ’80s, since she got started,” he said.

Mosher has received a long list of awards and honours, including two National Newspaper Awards, the Order of Canada and membership in the Canadian News Hall of Fame, but he said he is “particularly chuffed” about this one because recipients are chosen by well-respected journalists, who are “tipping their hats toward satire.”

“Satire is an important part of any progressive, thoughtful democracy,” Mosher said in an interview. “Go around the world and you’ll find cartoonists in Scandinavia, most parts of Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico … in societies that are not afraid to poke fun and criticize themselves. Most people in the business understand it is a very important part of democracy. A society that can laugh at itself, like individuals, is a healthy society.”

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Mosher was born in Ottawa in 1942. He graduated from Montreal’s École des Beaux-Arts in 1967 and began his political cartooning career at the Montreal Star in 1969. He moved to The Gazette in 1972.

Early on in his career, the art director of Saturday Night magazine called Mosher and asked him to produce a political cartoon of then-French president Charles de Gaulle. “I said, ‘But I don’t know anything about politics,’ and the art director said to me, ‘Don’t worry about it, just make them look silly.’ And that’s what I began doing: making people look silly. And suddenly they’re calling me brilliant and Time magazine is calling me for covers within two years of me starting.”

Mosher said he was lucky enough to start his career in the late ’60s, a key time in Quebec history. “So it was a great and exciting time and I established myself very quickly, particularly here in Montreal with so many exciting things going on: the Expos, the Olympics and exciting politically, too, with the election of the PQ.”

He is and always has been a freelancer, who is paid per cartoon. His agreement with The Gazette, he said, has always been that he will be paid for every cartoon he produces, although the editor can choose not to publish them. Throughout the years, he said, some of his work has been spiked, but most editors have published even his most controversial cartoons.

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Mosher has produced 55 books over his career, and often donates some of the proceeds to charity.

In 1975 he wrote a book about Canadian cartooning called The Hecklers, which was turned into an NFB film.

“I’m sort of the unofficial historian of Canadian cartooning, but I also got to know all the cartoonists in the process and became a bit of a defender of cartooning.”

In 2021, he produced a collection of COVID cartoons from around the world to raise money for two local hospitals, Lachine and St. Mary’s. He describes his latest book, Aislin’s Montreal Expos: A Cartoonist’s Love Affair, as a memoir and a history of Montreal. Some of the proceeds of that book will go to the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Mosher was also on the board of directors of the Old Brewery Mission for 10 years.

Mosher and Hébert will receive their awards at a ceremony at Rideau Hall on June 14, hosted by Governor General Mary Simon.

mlalonde@postmedia.com

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