Friends, an announcement: I will be donating the entirety of my $5,000 @taylorprize winnings to Extinction Rebellion Canada. The fact is, RBC is the fifth largest financier of fossil fuels globally & has received an ‘F’ for its fossil fuel phase out since the Paris Agreement. /1 pic.twitter.com/s7v0zAk4VG

— 𝕣𝕙𝕪𝕞𝕖𝕤 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕡𝕒𝕡𝕒𝕪𝕒 (@ziyatong) March 3, 2020

As a finalist for this year’s RBC Taylor Prize, Toronto science broadcaster Ziya Tong received $5,000 for The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World (Allen Lane).

Hours after the March 2 awards luncheon – during which Tong was presented with a vegan-leather-bound copy of her shortlisted book – she announced on Twitter that she is donating her winnings to the activist group Extinction Rebellion Canada. Tong’s Twitter thread called attention to RBC, the Taylor Prize’s main sponsor: “We will not see change until the financial institutions that fund this climate chaos begin to change. So I’ll be gifting my prize to XR Canada in support of actions and tactics that push banks like RBC toward divestment & funding projects that lead to rapid decarbonization.”

This is the 20th and final year for the literary non-fiction prize. Ottawa historian and author Mark Bourrie won for his book Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, published by Biblioasis.