Supplied
A history of China’s political interference in Canada, Beverley McLachlin’s memoir and an analysis of the Colten Boushie murder trial are among the five books shortlisted for the 20th annual Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.
The winner of the $25,000 award, administered by the Writers’ Trust of Canada, is given to a work of topical literary non-fiction that is both revelatory and influential on Canadian political life. Founded in 2000 in honour of the Windsor, Ont., member of Parliament who died in 1998, the prize previously has gone to Rachel Giese, Tanya Talaga and John Ibbitson.
This year’s five nominees are Canada on the United Nations Security Council: A Small Power on a Large Stage (UBC Press) by Adam Chapnick, a professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada; Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada (McClelland & Stewart), by Harold R. Johnson, a former crown prosecutor and finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award; Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada (Cormorant Books) by veteran correspondent and former Globe and Mail reporter Jonathan Manthorpe; Truth Be Told: My Journey Through Life and the Law (Simon & Schuster Canada) by former Supreme Court Chief Justice and novelist Beverley McLachlin; Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie Case (McGill-Queen’s University Press) by Kent Roach, who is Prichard-Wilson Chair of Law and Public Policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
This year’s prize jury consisted of the late Greg Donaghy, a federal government historian and 2015 prize finalist; Althia Raj, HuffPost Canada’s Ottawa bureau chief, and Senator Paula Simons.
The winner will be announced on Sept. 23, 2020, during a digital edition of the annual Politics and the Pen gala.
Expand your mind and build your reading list with the Books newsletter. Sign up today.