VANCOUVER: Western Canada’s journalism foundation has announced that Shushma Datt is the 2021 Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and the online publication The Tyee is the 2021 Bill Good Award recipient.
The awards will be presented on November 3rd at Online Webster Awards event.
Over the last four decades, Shushma Datt has blazed a trail that reads like a film script. Her career of “many firsts” began at the Times of India, followed by a stint at the BBC.
After moving to Vancouver in the early 1970s and being rejected for work with mainstream media because of her Indian accent, she started her own radio station.
Rim Jhim, produced round-the-clock content for the South Asian audience and was the first in the world outside India to do so. It took 20 years of perseverance, but finally, in 2005, Shushma became the first Canadian woman to obtain a CRTC licence for RJ1200 – now known as Spice Radio.
Shushma also branched out into TV, producing nine specialty programs for Shaw and OMNI TV.
As a hard-hitting reporter, Shushma endured threats on her life and to her business following her reporting on the Air India bombing. She is the recipient of the Order of BC, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, and the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award.
Find out more about Shushma and hear her on, November 3rd, 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time and free to watch at www.ohboy.ca/websterawards2021,