The Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig, incumbent of St. Stephen in-the-Fields, Toronto won this year’s Toronto Book Award for Encampment, a nonfiction work about the encampment of unhoused people that existed outside the church from 2022-2024 and the efforts of Canon Helwig and the ministry team to defend and minster to it. Established by Toronto City Council in 1974, the Toronto Book Awards honour books that are inspired by the city. This year prize was $20,000. In her acceptance speech, Canon Helwig said that Encampment reflects her lifelong activism and a sense of urgency in responding to a rise of unhoused people in the Kensington Market neighbourhood, where the church is located. Less than 24 hours after Canon Helwig accepted the award, another encampment outside the church was torn down by city workers, citing it as a fire harzard.
