From Lawyer, to Refugee, to Reporter: 2025 Gordon Sinclair Roving Reporter documents how Canadian Syrians are helping to rebuild their homeland
When Reham Al Azem fled Syria a decade ago, she could not have imagined she’d one day be working as a Canadian journalist documenting her homeland’s path to recovery.
Reham Al Azem is the Gordon Sinclair Foundation’s 2025 Roving Reporter. The bursary exists to keep Canadian journalists exploring the world – to go where cameras and headlines rarely reach. This year’s recipient is turning her lens toward Syrian communities rebuilding after more than a dozen years of conflict.
Al Azem is a Syrian Canadian journalist who has reported for CBC, CityNews, and OMNI News, and her work has been published in Canadian newspapers. She is a former lawyer, Syrian refugee, and survivor of the Syrian war.
Al Azem is producing a video series that examines the human stories emerging from Syrian communities navigating life after war. She will shed light on how Syrian Canadians are shaping global narratives around rebuilding and returning to Syria.
Al Azem says her project is exploring themes of recovery, identity, and transnational connections. “Since the fall of the Assad regime, parts of Syria are slowly opening to reconstruction and civil society. Syrian Canadians are returning to contribute skills acquired in Canada, from humanitarian work to governance reform.”
Al Azem is the latest in a long line of young journalists who have been awarded funding by the Gordon Sinclair Foundation to undertake reporting expeditions around the world. Previous bursary recipients have produced stories for multiple outlets, including the CBC, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and most recently, for Global News.
Al Azem holds a law degree from Damascus University and a graduate diploma in visual journalism from Concordia University in Montreal. She has expertise in journalism, law, and human rights, focusing on communities in Canada and the Middle East and North Africa region.
As Syria rebuilds after years of conflict, Al Azem is focusing on the human stories that reveal what recovery truly means. In August, she spent a few weeks travelling from her home in Edmonton to Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. She interviewed more than a dozen Syrian Canadian leaders and activists. She plans to publish her reporting in early December around the one-year anniversary of the fall of the Assad government.
“Syrian refugee resettlement in Canada is often celebrated as a success,” Al Azem says. “But less attention is paid to how many resettled Syrians are now leveraging their Canadian experiences—such as democracy-building, Indigenous reconciliation frameworks, and trauma-informed care—to help rebuild their homeland.”
Al Azem’s career embodies the spirit of resilience and inquiry that defines the Gordon Sinclair Foundation’s Roving Reporter. The bursary was created in memory of Gordon Sinclair, who made his name reporting around the world for the Toronto Star in the 1930s. The bursary was established by friends of the remarkable journalist, author, radio commentator, and television personality who was one of Canada’s most enduring celebrities until his death in 1984. Sinclair earned that celebrity during a career that included periods with the Toronto Star, CFRB radio, and as a panelist on CBC’s long-running news quiz program Front Page Challenge.
At a time when most news organizations have cut back on travel, the Gordon Sinclair Roving Reporter Bursary is meant to support a major research and reporting trip by an early-career Canadian journalist who has, within the past five years, graduated from one of Canada’s university-level journalism programs. The purpose of the $15,000 bursary is to encourage a young journalist to get off the beaten track and to spend a minimum of six weeks away on a reporting assignment.
