2024 Finalists
Arts and Entertainment
Richie Assaly, Toronto Star, for his portfolio of stories about musicians Mustafa, John Kameel Farah and Elisapie, in which he captured the artists’ musical singularity as well as their cultural significance
- Elisapie practically grew up at the post office in her tiny Nunavik village. Now, the Inuk singer’s face is on a Canada Post stamp
- Toronto failed Mustafa in his darkest hour. On the singer’s aching new album, his horizons feel endless
- Olive trees, hope and the power of music in dark times: How a renowned Palestinian-Canadian pianist rediscovered his creative spark
Charles-Éric Blais-Poulin and Jean Siag, La Presse, for their investigation of Quebec’s television production industry, highlighting the weakening of independent production in the province in favour of two major players
Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail, for her work on the Vatican’s unfulfilled promises to return cultural items that originated in Indigenous communities in Canada — and how Canada lags behind other countries when it comes to national repatriation frameworks
Joan Hollobon Award for Beat Reporting
Kate Allen, Toronto Star, for her rigorous and compelling portfolio of work on climate change
- Canada’s maple syrup reserve almost empty as sap season at risk of becoming another casualty of the winter that wasn’t
- How Galen Weston’s family foundation wants to transform the ‘future of food’ — starting with berries
- ‘Nobody cares that it’s not Chardonnay’: Hardier grapes can help Ontario winemakers fight climate change.
- The Toronto Zoo has an identity crisis — and a bold plan to solve it.
- Why are people talking about running out of maple syrup?
Susan Clairmont, Hamilton Spectator, for her exclusive reporting and authoritative analysis as a court reporter
- Paul Bernardo sheds new light on Karla Homolka’s role in crimes
- You’re about to have sex… do you need to record the consent on video?
- Before he murdered his mom, he repeatedly warned doctors and a judge he was thinking of killing his family. Why couldn’t they stop him?
- 14 years. Millions of dollars. Jail time. And still, no end in sight for this family court saga
Daniel Renaud, La Presse, for his coverage of police affairs and organized crime, done with the knowledge that one of his subjects had placed a bounty on his head
Stuart M. Robertson Award for Breaking News
The Globe and Mail, for coverage of the wildfires that devastated Jasper, as well as the economic implications for the country and who is to blame
- ‘Significant loss’ in Jasper as wildfires close in, burning buildings and forcing fire crews to retreat
- Jasper evacuees huddle in Valemount, watching in disbelief as details of wildfire’s devastation emerge
- Jasper wildfire destroys dozens of structures, overwhelms firefighters
- CN suspends service at Jasper because of raging wildfire, Trans Mountain pipeline still operating
- It’s not just a vast forest burning – Jasper is one of the most beautiful spots on the planet
The Globe and Mail, for coverage of one of the defining stories of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games: Canada’s women’s soccer team and the drone scandal
- French prosecutor says police discovered text messages between Canada Soccer analyst and team assistant coach
- Canada beats New Zealand, making its spying scandal more pointless
- Canadian Olympic Committee removes women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman amid spying scandal
- Who’s to blame for Canada’s sports scandals? You and me
- Canadian men’s team attempted drone usage during Copa America run, Canada Soccer CEO admits amid spying scandal
Soccer fans across Canada express shock and anger over drone scandal
Toronto Star, for coverage of the summer storm that flooded the city, knocked out power to thousands and left millions of dollars of damage in its wake
- More than 127,000 without power in Toronto as flooding wreaks havoc
- Toronto simply ‘not designed to handle’ this much rain, city warns
- How a downpour walloped Toronto: ‘There was a storm on top of a storm’
- Did you drive through a flooded area today? Here’s how to check if your car is damaged
- Watch the rescue: Toronto Fire comes to aid of stranded motorists on the DVP
- Toronto flooding: How do I get home? Here’s what to know for your afternoon commute
- A ‘parade’ of storms: How Toronto got more than a month’s worth of rain in just over three hours
- ‘The windows started to smash’: Seniors rescued from flooded Mississauga nursing home
- Drake shares video of apparent flooding in Bridle Path mansion
- In photos: Flooding in Toronto, power outages and chaos in the GTA during Tuesday’s rain
Business
Robert Cribb, Max Binks-Collier, Masih Khalatbari, Charlie Buckley and Habiba Nosheen, Toronto Star/Investigative Journalism Bureau, for their reporting on Canada’s ‘exploitative’ clinical trial industry, where study participants say they’re incentivized to lie — even about medications’ side effects
Naimul Karim, Financial Post, for his work on Canada’s changing immigration laws and the impact it’s having on thousands of highly skilled, and sometimes desperate, foreign workers
Matthew Van Dongen, Hamilton Spectator, for his ongoing reporting on real estate investment firm Forge & Foster, and its ever-widening circle of financial woes for investors, customers and homeowners
Mary Ann Shadd Cary Award for Columns
Vincent Brousseau-Pouliot, La Presse, for columns on Quebec’s decisions to reduce the immigration threshold, spend $870 million on a new roof for Olympic Stadium, and deny a highly qualified foreign teacher the opportunity to teach
Isabelle Hachey, La Presse, for columns on a stalker who falsified claims in order to receive cheques from an organization that compensates victims of criminal acts, MAID and dementia, and lessons from Air India Flight 182
Tanya Talaga, Globe and Mail, for columns on Canada’s betrayal of residential school survivors, the need to stand against residential school denialism, and the legacy of Murray Sinclair
Claude Ryan Award for Editorial Writing
Stéphanie Grammond, La Presse, for editorials on what a second Trump presidency will mean for Canada, the Air Canada labour dispute and Quebec’s long-term plan for housing and care for its aging population
Peter McKnight, Toronto Star, for editorials about Medical Assistance in Dying, the health disparity between Inuit people and the rest of Canadians, and problems with Ontario’s approach to screening criminal charges
Richard Warnica, Toronto Star, for editorials on the strip-searching of children in Ontario’s youth detention centres, the Jasper wildfires and human responsibility in the face of climate change, and Olympic swimmer Penny Oleksiak
Explanatory Work
Zosia Bielski, The Globe and Mail, for her nuanced exploration of Canadian laws that criminalize HIV non-disclosure — and put Canada out of step with modern science and the rest of the developed world
Marco Chown Oved, Steve Russell and Lance McMillan, Toronto Star, for their behind-the-wheel look at taking an EV on a road trip and a broader exploration of how EVs are spurring the creation of new businesses
- We took a Tesla on a road trip through northern Ontario in the coldest week of the year. Could our EV handle it?
- We rented a Tesla to explore Ontario’s EV supply chain. We saw the dirty, the clean and everything in between
- Video: Watch: An electric road trip visiting Ontario’s cleantech future
Podcasts:
- Episode 1: Can EV batteries be made with Canadian minerals?
- Episode 2: The first cobalt refinery in North America is in Canada
- Episode 3: Ontario has every stage in the EV supply chain right here at home
- Episode 4: Can Ontario’s resource-extraction and industrial economy transition to the clean economy?
- Episode 5: Canada set to have the best EV supply chain in the world
- Episode 6 and our last stop: Specialty EVs for the mining industry
Amy Dempsey Raven, Toronto Star, for explaining why rats are proliferating in Toronto and how an organized rodent mitigation strategy could limit the public health threat
- I went to rat school in New York City to see if Toronto had any hope of beating back its rodent invasion. Here’s what I learned
- Toronto is losing the war on rats. Here’s how it got so bad and what the city should be doing
- To graduate from rat school I scoured New York’s most infested alleyways and subway stations. Here’s what I found
Feature Photo
Shane Gross, Globe and Mail, for his photo of a curious beluga whale trying to get a taste of his camera in its natural habitat in Churchill, Manitoba
David Lipnowski, The Canadian Press, for his photo of people giving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the finger while posing for a selfie at the Folklorama Festival in Winnipeg
Kari Medig, Globe and Mail, for his photo of double amputee Oleksandr Budko and the Wild Bear Vets program, created to support veterans with PTSD
Norman Webster Award for International Reporting
![Globe and Mail reporter Norman Webster, left, with Mr. Chang and Mr. Wu, members of Pengchu commune, in field in Canton, China, summer 1970. Photo by Norman Webster / The Globe and Mail. Originally published Aug. 17, 1970 [Norman Webster was The Globe's China correspondent, Sept. 30, 1969 - July 8, 1971]](https://nna-ccj.ca/wp-content/uploads/elementor/thumbs/Norman-Webster-left-scaled-qieqy90atpvon4ea6s4tx2lykt6e8z8cj6gncgai8g.jpg "Norman Webster – left")
Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun/The Province, for her reporting from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Southeast Asia on the international reach of B.C.’s criminal organizations
Jean-Thomas Léveillé, La Presse, for his coverage of the environmental and social consequences of a recent oil boom in Guyana
Mark MacKinnon, The Globe and Mail, for his comprehensive, human-driven reporting on the Russian war on Ukraine
George Brown Award for Investigations
Katrina Clarke and Jeff Hamilton, Winnipeg Free Press, for their months-long investigation into the state of childcare in Manitoba and the underlying issues that put kids and families at risk
Robert Cribb, Wendy-Ann Clarke, Declan Keogh and Owen Thompson, Toronto Star/Investigative Journalism Bureau, for their reporting on a program meant to fund mental-health care for First Nations and Inuit people but is instead failing them
- Background of therapists approved for Indigenous mental health program alarms critics
- Canada’s Indigenous mental health program is meant to be a lifeline. Instead, it’s so mired in red tape it seems ‘set up to deter people from accessing’ care
- ‘Deeply troubling’: Ontario chiefs call for reforms to federal health program after Star/IJB investigation
Terry Pender, Waterloo Region Record, for exposing the role of the Mennonite Central Committee in bringing thousands of Nazi war criminals to Canada after the Second World War
E. Cora Hind Award for Local Reporting
Aaron Beswick, Halifax Chronicle Herald, for his coverage of the lawlessness in Nova Scotia’s lobster and eel fisheries, including poaching, boats and buildings being burned, and the emergence of organized crime and international smuggling operations
- ‘We are going to lose this species forever’: How federal inaction is pitting communities against each other and risking the future of the American eel
- Canada’s graduation from lax fisheries enforcer to laundromat for international poachers
- MPs flog DFO brass over alleged elver mismanagement
- Memory, money, a parasite and the future of the American eel
- No peace on the water: How DFO killed a deal to end the lobster dispute in southwest Nova Scotia
- The Mi’kmaq fishery 25 years after R. vs. Marshall
- Processor accused of profiting off illegal lobster, elver fisheries in N.S.
- Shot fired into lobster buyer’s home as southwest N.S. season opens
Tyler Olsen, Fraser Valley Current, for his in-depth look at why a B.C. community news empire went bust and what it means for local readers and the company’s own employees
- How an Ohio newspaper sank a BC publishing empire
- What creditor protection means for Black Press, its papers, and readers
- Black Press’s stalking horse: The auction that will seal the fate of hundreds of newspapers
- Objection!: Why the US government may block sale of BC newspaper chain
- Black Press set for sale after striing deals with US feds, international hackers
Julia Peterson, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, for their all-encompassing coverage of the two inquests into the James Smith Cree Nation mass killings: one for the 11 victims and one for Myles Sanderson, who died in custody four days after killing them
- Stories of horror, heartbreak and heroism at inquest into Sask. mass killings
- How paintings by a James Smith Cree Nation artist bring beauty to tragedy
- A journalist reflects on covering the 2022 Saskatchewan mass killings
- Live updates: Coroner’s inquest into James Smith Cree Nation, Weldon mass killing underway
- Five critical questions answered by the coroner’s inquest into the death of Myles Sanderson
William Southam Award for Long Feature
Brandon Harder, Regina Leader-Post, for his painstaking recreation of what happens when police go undercover, seeking to wring out a confession from a cold-case murderer
Emma McIntosh, The Narwhal, for braiding science with storytelling and vivid descriptions to bring the story of Canada’s endangered southernmost caribou herd to life
Anne-Marie Provost, La Presse, for her feature about the four-season road that connected Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk in 2017, giving Canadians access by car to the Arctic Ocean, and how communities are dealing with the influx of tourists
News Photo
Sammy Kogan, The Globe and Mail, for capturing a moment of profound grief and loss that also serves as a stark reminder of the devastating toll of gun violence
Carlos Osorio, Reuters, for his aerial photo of the message “We Will Return” spray-painted on the vacated grounds of a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Toronto
Jim Wells, Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun, for his dramatic photo of a man working to free a deer that had fallen through the ice and into the bitterly cold Bow River
John Wesley Dafoe Award for Politics
Patrice Bergeron, La Presse Canadienne, for his work on Premier François Legault’s CAQ government monetizing access to its ministers through fundraising cocktails
Katia Gagnon, La Presse, for her 5,000-word portrait of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who has breathed new life into the Parti Québécois
Rachel Mendleson and R.J. Johnston, Toronto Star, for their coverage of Pickering city council and how the alt-right movement is disrupting libraries, school boards and other local democratic institutions
- After the Freedom Convoy, she turned her focus to local politics. What followed was an alt-right siege of this Ontario city
- They watched anti-trans protesters go after a school board. Here’s how they’re helping future targets fight back
- A councillor’s ‘racist’ comments have thrown Pickering council into disarray. Now, the city wants the Ontario Human Rights Commission to step in
Presentation/Design
McKenna Hart and Tania Pereira, Toronto Star, for their portfolio of work on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, Toronto’s top influencers of 2024, and the struggles of TTC riders
Timothy Moore, The Globe and Mail, for his portfolio of work on science and sailing, breaking’s debut as an Olympic sport, and how to master skating later in life
Pascal Roux, La Presse, for his portfolio of work on a 150-year-old wreck mysteriously surfacing off the coast of Newfoundland, the 50th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons, and the conflict between Israel and Hamas
- Une épave fantôme à Terre-Neuve*
- Les héros d’Exayan*
- Un an de guerre*
*please note judged work was designed and optimized for a tablet
John Honderich Award for Project of the Year
Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun, for “Squeezed”, a months-long look at inflationary and affordability issues ranging from housing and utilities to groceries, family expenses and pets
- Calgary used to be regarded as affordable. Now, that advantage is slipping away
- A choice between buying food or paying a bill: Rising rents strain Calgary families
- ‘You just can’t afford to be a single parent anymore’: Working mom struggles to afford necessities
- ‘My bills keep growing. But my income isn’t’: Senior stretches $35-a-week grocery budget
- ‘You are surviving at the minimum’: Alberta’s gig economy struggling to support wave of newcomers
La Presse, for their extensive exploration of fatigue, its impact on our quality of life, and whether it’s possible (or even beneficial) to slow down
*please note judged work was designed and optimized for a tablet
Toronto Star, for their work on childhood sexual abuse and the complicated legacy of Canadian literary hero Alice Munro
- In the home of Alice Munro, a dark secret lurked. Now, her children want the world to know
- I loved Alice Munro more than any other artist. I’ll never read her the same way again
- How did what happened to Alice Munro’s daughter stay quiet so long? Start with our uniquely Canadian devotion to silence
- Alice Munro told me her daughter was lying about being molested by her stepdad: OPP detective
- Before Alice Munro’s husband sexually abused his stepdaughter, he targeted another 9-year-old girl.
- Inside The Gatehouse, the Toronto sanctuary that helped Alice Munro’s daughter confront her childhood sexual abuse
Bob Levin Award for Short Feature
Dakshana Bascaramurty, The Globe and Mail, for her story from Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, where they’ve cracked down on risk-taking tourists in search of the perfect selfie
Jordan Himelfarb, Toronto Star, for his feature on 18-year-old world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and the dawning of a new golden age in chess
Naomi Skwarna, Toronto Star, for her reflection on an all-but-forgotten quilt that spans 30 feet in Spadina Station and the labour of love that went into it
Special Topic: Journalism in a language other than French or English
Gord Howard, Shanshan Tian, Krista Klassen, Andrea Gray, Corey Larocque, Nunatsiaq News, for their coverage of the Nunavut Quest, a 370-km route from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet, which involved a group of young Inuit correspondents and culminated in a 20-page commemorative edition
Sports
Greg Mercer, Nancy Macdonald and Simon Houpt, The Globe and Mail, for their coverage of Canada Soccer in the wake of the spying scandal at the Paris Olympic Games
Paige Taylor White, IndigiNews, for her series on an East Van women’s basketball team and their experience at the 64th annual All Native Basketball Tourname
Ken Warren and Tony Caldwell, Ottawa Citizen/Ottawa Sun, for their feature on an Ottawa man who uses saws and shovels to carve out a lane in the frozen river every day for a swim in zero-degree temperatures — in a standard bathing suit
Sports Photo
Nathan Denette, Canadian Press, for his photo of Canada’s high-speed men’s pursuit team at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games
Frank Gunn, The Canadian Press, for his photo of Toronto Argonauts receiver Dejon Brissett flipping in the air after being upended by Winnipeg’s Tyrell Ford during the Grey Cup
Olivier Jean, La Presse, for capturing a spontaneous moment of joy between Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown after they won Olympic gold in the men’s 4×100-metre relay in Paris
Geoffrey Stevens Award for Sustained News Coverage
The Globe and Mail, for their year-long exploration of the root causes of housing shortages and creative ideas that could help solve the crisis
- Why you can’t afford a home, in 10 charts
- Inside the crisis facing Canada’s dysfunctional housing market
- Canada’s next housing crisis: Who is going to build millions of new homes?
- How rental-protection funds can help stem a vanishing supply of affordable units
- Ottawa is funding affordable rental projects that aren’t actually affordable
- This Toronto post office is a monument to missed opportunities for building housing on federal land
- Urban backyards are disappearing. Can we be happy without them?
- How changing an old rule about stairs could unlock a lot of new housing
Caroline Touzin, Ariane Lacoursière, Gabrielle Duchaine and Katia Gagnon, La Presse, for their investigative work on the systemic problems within Quebec’s youth protection services
- Des « tannants » en retrait dans des cellules
- « Ç’a été violent pour notre fils »
- La maison des horreurs
- De plus en plus de mesures de contention ou d’isolement
- Une jeune inuite « en voie d’assimilation très avancée »
- Faussetés et omissions à la DPJ
- Scandale sexuel au centre de réadaptation Cité-des-Prairies
- La DPJ voulait séparer des triplés pour toujours
Toronto Star, for shining an unrelenting spotlight on one of the most dramatic criminal cases in recent memory: the problematic prosecution of Umar Zameer
- ‘Truth will emerge’ over Toronto cop’s death: Lawyer says
- Footage shows the moments leading up to death of Toronto police Const. Jeffrey Northrup
- Toronto cops colluded to lie about officer’s death: Defence
- After the verdict, Umar Zameer reflects
- The inside story of the failed prosecution of Umar Zameer
- Toronto police chief walks back controversial comments on Umar Zameer verdict
- Umar Zameer’s prosecution was legally ‘ridiculous’: Lawyers
- There’s one clear lesson to learn from the Umar Zameer case