WFP reporter wins national award

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Veteran Winnipeg Free Press reporter Kevin Rollason won a National Newspaper Award Friday at a Toronto gala that recognized the country’s top print journalists.

Rollason’s award was in the category of explanatory work for his study of bed shortages, clogged emergency rooms and the role racism plays in Manitoba hospitals as part of his coverage of the Brian Sinclair story. That award followed one earlier in the day to Winnipeg Free Press publisher Bob Cox.

Cox received an award for his years of leadership in the newspaper industry. Cox, who serves as chairman of the Canadian Newspaper Association, was lauded for the role he plays at the community level and nationally.

The Globe and Mail, the National Post and the Edmonton Journal also won awards.

The Halifax Herald won for its editorial cartoons on the Parliament Hill shooting and the killing of Canadian soldier Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the Ottawa War Memorial.

The Moncton Times Transcript took home an award for a photograph published worldwide of Justin Bourque striding down a street with a rifle after he killed three RCMP officers and injured two others in a shooting rampage.

“These awards recognize the best of journalism in Canada,” Free Press editor Paul Samyn said.

In addition to Rollason, the 66th annual NNAs also recognized veteran Free Press reporter Nick Martin, who was nominated in the category of beat reporting for excellent coverage of education in Manitoba.

“I am extremely proud of the outstanding work Kevin did to explain what really happened to Brian Sinclair. This was a complicated story that took plenty of heavy lifting and dedication on the part of Kevin to uncover the truth,” Samyn said.

“I am also delighted that Nick’s old-school approach to covering the education beat was recognized as among the finest in the land.”

Sinclair’s death in 2008 was ultimately ruled preventable. He died after 34 hours waiting in a Winnipeg ER for treatment of a bladder condition, and his death prompted one of the most extensive inquests in the province’s history.

It was the second time Rollason has been nominated for an NNA.

He was nominated in 2005, along with Leah Janzen, for their coverage of the FedEx plane crash in Winnipeg that claimed the life of a pilot. He began with the Free Press in 1988.

“The death of Brian Sinclair was a tragedy that never should have happened. But Sinclair’s death is a story that has to be told so it never happens again,” Rollason said.

“I am so honoured that the NNA has recognized that my story of Sinclair’s death — and what was going on in the HSC’s emergency room while he was there dying — is a story that has implications far beyond Manitoba’s borders and needs to be told nationwide,” Rollason said.