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Wendy H. Wong was named the winner of the $60,000 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy on Nov. 26 for her book We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age.Supplied
Wendy H. Wong has won the $60,000 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy for her book We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age. The award, funded by the Balsillie Family Foundation as part of a commitment to supporting Canadian literature through the Writers’ Trust of Canada, was announced at a private dinner in Toronto on Tuesday.
Wong is a professor of political science and principal’s research chair at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. We, the Data is published by MIT Press. The three-member jury praised the book as an “eye-opening, gripping look at the ways in which humanity is being codified, monitored and tracked at alarming speed and intensity – in largely unaccountable ways.”
The jury consisted of Samantha Nutt, Canadian physician, philanthropist and founder and president of War Child Canada; Taki Sarantakis, president of the Canada School of Public Service; and Scott Young, director of strategic initiatives and director of geotechnology with the geopolitical risk advisory firm, Eurasia Group. They selected the shortlist and winner from 58 titles submitted by 36 publishers.
The three-member jury called We, the Data an ‘eye-opening, gripping look at the ways in which humanity is being codified, monitored and tracked at alarming speed and intensity – in largely unaccountable ways.’Supplied
Apparently, choosing the winner from the four finalists wasn’t an easy deliberation. “As a jury, we view this shortlist as a collective,” the jury said in a statement. “Each of these books, and the authors that stand behind them, have strengths that deserve celebration.”
The three finalists, who each received $5,000, were Victoria’s Gregor Craigie, for Our Crumbling Foundation: How We Solve Canada’s Housing Crisis, published by Random House Canada; Vancouver’s Christopher Pollon, for Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places, published by Greystone Books; and Toronto’s two-time Giller Prize winner M.G. Vassanji, for Nowhere, Exactly: On Identity and Belonging, published by Doubleday Canada.
Created in 2021, the Balsillie Prize recognizes researched nonfiction books that further policy discussions on social, political, economic, and cultural topics deemed of great importance to Canadians. Previous winning authors include Dan Breznitz, John Lorinc and David R. Samson.
Wong’s We, the Data was a finalist for the international Lionel Gelber Prize, awarded by University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. The $50,000 prize was awarded earlier this year to Timothy Garton Ash, for Homelands: A Personal History of Europe.
