Journalists from across the country honoured at National Newspaper Awards

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Writers, reporters and visual journalists from across the country were honoured Friday night in Edmonton at the National Newspaper Awards.

Tim Smith of the Brandon Sun took home the Feature Photo award for a stunning shot of a lone skater on the ice at Clear Lake. Smith won the same category in 2010 for his photo of children playing tag on a pyramid of straw bales under a rainbow at the Spring Valley Hutterite Colony.

While the Winnipeg Free Press didn’t take home any awards at this year’s event, it received five NNA nominations.

Melissa Martin, sports writer and columnist, was nominated for two awards in total. Martin received a nomination in the Sports category for a piece she wrote celebrating women in sport — specifically the rise of the University of Manitoba Bisons women’s volleyball team. Taking home the award in that category were Vicki Hall, John Kryk and Scott Stinson of Postmedia for a series on concussions in sport. Martin, whose column runs in Saturday’s 49.8 section, also received an NNA nod in the column category for stories on Winnipeg’s public transit system and reputation, respectively.

Free Press Reporter Randy Turner’s story on hockey and one man’s dream was nominated in the Short Feature category, but the award went to Michèle Ouimet of La Presse for a story on the end of a way of life in Newfoundland. There were two feature story awards handed out Friday. The Globe and Mail‘s Sierra Skye Gemma took the Long Feature award for a story on pornography and healthy attitudes toward sex and love.

Two former Free Press writers — Kevin Prokosh and Mary Agnes Welch — also received nominations. Prokosh retired last year after covering the local theatre community for 25 years. He was nominated in the Arts and Entertainment category for his coverage of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. The winners in that category were the Globe and Mail’s Greg McArthur, Kate Taylor and Jacquie McNish for coverage of donations to the Royal Ontario Museum. Welch received a nomination for her analysis of Manitoba’s child welfare system in the Explanatory category. That award went to the Hamilton Spectator‘s Jon Wells for a piece looking at McMaster University’s anatomy lab.

The Globe and Mail won in a leading nine categories, and Joanna Slater of the newspaper was named 2015 Journalist of the Year for coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe.

A release from the National Newspaper Awards said judges found that Slater’s reporting “allowed us to smell the fear of the dispossessed, to experience the uncertainty and heartbreak of a continent in turmoil.” They called her reporting “deeply moving and memorable.”

Other winners include Paul Journet of La Presse in the Editorial category; Jacquie McNish and Niall McGee of the Globe and Mail in Business for a piece on the online gambling industry; and a team from the Toronto Star in the Project of the Year category for a project on missing and murdered Indigenous women.

The Globe and Mail’s Adrian Morrow took the Politics award for coverage of secret Liberal payments to a teacher’s federation; the Telegraph-Journal, based in New Brunswick, took the Local Reporting category for a two-year Freedom of Information battle over daycare inspection reports by Adam Huras and now-CBC reporter Karissa Donkin; Michelle Hauser of the Kingston Whig-Standard won in the Columns category for pieces on sex education and the elderly.

In art sections, the Globe and Mail‘s Fred Lum won Sports Photo for a shot of Jose Bautista’s bat flip; Bruce MacKinnon of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald for Editorial Cartooning; Justin Tang for News Feature Photo, for his image of Justin Trudeau embracing mother Margaret Trudeau upon his federal election win.

The Goff Penny Memorial Prize for Young Journalists went to Andrea Hill (large market), reporter with the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, and Andrea Peacock (small market), reporter with the Daily Courier in Kelowna, B.C.

Category winners received cheques for $1,000 and a certificate of award. The Journalist of the Year, chosen from among NNA category winners by a panel of previous National Newspaper Award laureates, was awarded $2,500.

The National Newspaper Awards are open to daily newspapers, news agencies and online news sites approved for entry by the Board of Governors of the National Newspaper Awards. The NNA says 66 finalists were nominated in the 21 categories, selected from 1,100 entries published in 2015. It is the 67th year of the prestigious awards.

– with files from The Canadian Press