Awards & Prizes

Recipient
Concordia University First Book Prize, Quebec Writers’ Federation
“In a provocative, accessible, and compelling narrative, Fighting for a Hand to Hold challenges how systematic racism created the decades-long practice of separating children from their families during emergency medical evacuations, and how settler-colonialism and genocide are in the infrastructure of Canada’s healthcare system. [This] is an important book that defines and confronts racism in all its nefarious forms: colonial systems, implicit bias, hidden curricula, forced sterilizations, residential schools, epistemic racism, and exclusion. A wake-up call for governments and the medical community.”
-Jury members: Seyward Goodhand, Nilambri Ghai, Shannon Webb-Campbell (November 24, 2021)

Recipient
Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction, Quebec Writers’ Federation
“In a carefully researched exposé, Shaheen-Hussain takes readers through the Canadian healthcare system and history and pulls back the curtain on the starring role played by Canada’s medical established order in preventable epidemics, in cruel medical experiments done on children, in forced sterilizations, in genocide, and in the ongoing oppression of Indigenous peoples. The book is well-documented, well-written in easy-to-read plain language with many down-to-earth, touching testimonies and case studies. The author, an activist fighting for equal and equitable medical care for young children against the heartless government bureaucracy and the powerful Minister of Health, provides the context to explain the inequalities in Quebec’s medical system. This book ought to be mandatory reading for anyone working in health care.”
-Jury members: William Dere, Ruth DyckFehderau, John Goddard (November 24, 2021)

Recipient (Nicolas Calvé)
Cole Foundation Prize for Translation, Quebec Writers’ Federation
“The [original] book’s reach is fortuitously extended thanks to this excellent French translation,which makes its content available to Francophones in Quebec and the rest of Canada, its primary readership. It is appropriate to underline the colossal work carried out by Nicolas Calvé, that is to say, a work of almost 500 pages which is not only of capital importance, but also contributes fully to the essential reflection that has been undertaken in recent years in the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The original is an extensive text, full of details, which demands a lot from the translator; he has succeeded brilliantly on all counts.”
-Jury members: Asselin Charles, Marc Charron, and Sufia Duez (November 14, 2022)

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