DERRICK MURDOCH AWARD - 2012

Derrick Murdoch Award to Don Graves

From planning Crime Writer events at Casa Loma in earlier days, to the countless reviews of member books that Don has written for The Hamilton Spectator – Don has been instrumental in promoting crime writing in Canada.

And most outstanding: Don has been a frequent Jury member for the Arthur Ellis awards.  Without people like Don who selflessly commit their time and knowledge to selecting our short listed authors and winners, we wouldn’t have national crime writing awards in Canada.

Don has served the Crime Writing community well these past several years, and I am delighted to tell you that he is coming on the Board of Directors of Crime Writers of Canada for the coming year.

Thank you, Don!

Derrick Murdoch Award to Catherine Astolfo

It is with great personal pleasure for me tonight that I am presenting this Derrick Murdoch award to Cathy Astolfo.

Many of you know Cathy as our President from last year.  What you may not know is that Cathy guided our association through an extremely tumultuous time, when she herself was facing serious health issues.  Most people would have quit: Cathy did not.

In fact, under Cathy’s leadership, CWC grew in leaps and bounds.  Our new website was launched.  Our membership climbed to over 300.  And – this is truly outstanding – Cathy negotiated our media sponsorship arrangement with National Post.

Cathy remained on the board this year as Past President, and continued to lead the National Post initiative.  In addition to that, she has negotiated a deal for us with CARP.

We are extremely fortunate that she has agreed to stay on the board for another year, in the role of Toronto NVP.

Thank you, Cathy!