OTTAWA — Cybersecurity expert Ronald Deibert is this year’s winner of Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.
The Toronto political science professor received the $25,000 honour for “Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society,” published by House of Anansi Press.
The Writers’ Trust awarded the prize Wednesday at a virtual version of the Politics and the Pen gala.
Jurors hailed Deibert for combining “leading-edge research and gripping stories to expose the dangerous, even deadly, forces lurking online.”
Deibert is the director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, where he studies internet censorship, digital surveillance and cybersecurity issues.
The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize is awarded annually to a book of literary non-fiction that provides a fresh perspective on a relevant Canadian political issue.
The 2021 runners-up are:
— “Can You Hear Me Now? How I Found My Voice and Learned to Live with Passion and Purpose” by Celina Caesar-Chavannes, published by Random House Canada
— “The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power” by Desmond Cole, published by Doubleday Canada
— “Whipped: Party Discipline in Canada” by Alex Marland, published by UBC Press
— “The Abortion Caravan: When Women Shut Down Government in the Battle for the Right to Choose” by Karin Wells, published by Second Story Press.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2021.
The Canadian Press
