Winners and runners-up for 2009 NNAs

The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star combined to win 13 of the 22 categories at the 61st National Newspaper Awards ceremony held in Toronto on May 14.

The Globe took seven top honours and the Star was right behind with six.

Next was the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal in Saint John and the Ottawa Citizen with two each.
Single NNA certificates were awarded to La Presse in Montreal, Guelph Mercury, London Free Press, Reuters, and The Province in Vancouver.

Winners received cheques for $1,000 and a certificate of award. Runners-up received citations of merit. There were 1,301 entries in this year’s competition for works that appeared in the year 2009.
This is the 21st year for the NNAs under a Board of Governors which includes editors, publishers and the public from across Canada as well as representatives from the Toronto Press Club. Previous to 1989, the NNAs had been sponsored by the Toronto Press Club. The awards are administered from the National Newspaper Awards office in Toronto.

The National Newspaper Awards were founded by The Toronto Press Club in 1949.

Highlights:

• Bruno Schlumberger of the Ottawa Citizen took two NNAs in Feature Photo and News Feature Photo.
• Brian Gable of The Globe and Mail has won his fifth award for Editorial Cartooning.
• Michèle Ouimet of La Presse in Montreal has won her second NNA.
• Stephanie Nolen of The Globe and Mail won her fourth NNA.
• Marty Klinkenberg of the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal has won his second NNA
•  Steve Russell of the Toronto Star won his second NNA

The nominees:

• Multimedia Feature:
  Winner: Toronto Star for report of the Toronto school board’s long-term support programs for expelled students;
  Runners-up: The Canadian Press on the impact of nanotechnology on humans; The Globe and Mail for a study of the lives of women in Afghanistan.
• News Feature Photography:
  Winner: Bruno Schlumberger of the Ottawa Citizen for a photo of an 85-year-old war veteran in the late afternoon light at a war memorial ceremony;
  Runners-up: Pawel Dwulit of the Toronto Star for a photo of a child wiping tears from a father’s eyes after his son was killed outside a convenience store; Darryl Dyck of The Canadian Press for a shot of grounded helicopter pilots watching as a B.C. forest fire rages in the distance.
• Beat Reporting:
  Winner: Michelle Shephard, Toronto Star, for her national security beat;
  Runners-up: Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton Journal, for health reporting; Rob Tripp, Kingston Whig-Standard, for crime-justice coverage.
•  Explanatory Work:
  Winner: Stephanie Nolen, The Globe and Mail, for a story of why children in India are dying of malnutrition despite that nation’s economic prosperity;
  Runners-up: Catherine Porter, Toronto Star, for the story of a case of strawberries from California to their destinations in the Toronto area; Paul Waldie and Grant Robertson of The Globe and Mail for a story on the history of flu vaccine and how it has become an economic powerhouse.
•  Politics:
  Winner: James Travers of the Toronto Star for articles on the undermining of Parliament and other democratic institutions;
  Runners-up: Stephen Maher of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald for stories that got former Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt in trouble; Paula Simons of the Edmonton Journal for columns about the Alberta government’s anti-gay amendments to the Human Rights Act.
• Short Features:
  Winner: Jennifer Wells, Toronto Star, for a story on impresario Garth Drabinsky’s conviction for fraud;
  Runners-up: Agnès Gruda of La Presse in Montreal for a piece on an Congolese immigrant woman separated from her children for a long stretch because of bureaucratic delays; Tom Blackwell of the National Post for a story on the information gleaned from autopsies on slain Canadian soldiers and how that information can protect those still fighting the Afghan war.
•  Local Reporting:
  Winner: Scott Tracey, Rob O’Flanagan and Nicole O’Reilly of the Guelph Mercury for an investigation of the local gravel industry;
  Runners-up: Rob Tripp and Paul Schliesmann of the Kingston Whig-Standard for stories of the mysterious death of four Montreal women in an alleged honour killing; Elliot Ferguson and Bruce Urquhart of the Woodstock Sentinel-Review for the coverage of the abduction and murder of schoolgirl Tori Stafford.
•  Presentation:
  Winner: Jason Chiu and David Pratt, The Globe and Mail;
  Runners-up: Geneviève Biloski, National Post; David Woodside, The Globe and Mail.
• Special Project:
  Winner: Vancouver Province for Operation Phoenix, a community project in search of solutions and hope for the notorious Downtown Eastside;
  Runners-up: The Hamilton Spectator for a project on “The Way We Spend” which spoke directly to the needs of readers in a frightening economy; Windsor Star for “Fallen Angels”, a series that linked a Windsor charity in Haiti to the worldwide phenomenon of sex tourism.
• Sports Photography:
  Winner: Mike Cassese of Reuters for a photo of a ballplayer fouling the ball off his cheek;
  Runners-up: Ed Kaiser, Edmonton Journal, for photo of a racecar driver preparing to flee his car that caught fire in the pit lane; Chris Schwarz, Edmonton Journal, for a football action shot of a defender illegally pulling the helmet off the ballcarrier.
• Business:
  Winner: Jacquie McNish, Greg Keenan, and Janet McFarland of The Globe and Mail for stories on Nortel’s continuing saga and the impact on pensioners;
  Runners-up: Shawn McCarthy and Nathan VanderKlippe, The Globe and Mail for reporting on the quest for a clean oil industry; Jennifer Wells, Toronto Star, for a story on Canada’s booming asbestos market.
• Columns:
  Winner: André Picard, The Globe and Mail;
  Runners-up: Patrick Lagacé, La Presse, Montreal; Graham Thomson, Edmonton Journal
• Investigations:
  Winner: David Bruser, Toronto Star, for an investigation into the disturbing plight of Canadian soldiers returning from service in Afghanistan;
  Runners-up: Steve Buist, The Hamilton Spectator, for a story about people whose lives were ruined by government-sanctioned gambling; Ariane Lacoursière of La Presse in Montreal went underground to reveal sub-standard conditions and lack of staff training in privately-owned seniors’ residences.
• Arts and Entertainment:
  Winner: Kate Wallace, New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal, for a profile of Saint John revered artist Fred Ross;
  Runners-up: Susan Clairmont, The Hamilton Spectator, for columns about a debate over a urinal, a play based on a crime, and a photo exhibit of sex workers; Nick Patch, The Canadian Press, for columns on MuchMusic’s anniversary, Randy Bachman’s response to the death of Les Paul and musician Rob Mailhouse’s trials with famous actors.
• Sports:
  Winner: Marty Klinkenberg of the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal for an article on the championship comeback of the Bathurst high school basketball team after a van crash had killed most of the team’s members a year earlier;
  Runners-up: Steve Buist of The Hamilton Spectator for story on former NHL goalie Dave Dryden’s charity work in the Third World; Isabelle Hachey of La Presse in Montreal for a story on a midget hockey team from a remote village in northern Quebec.
• Feature Photography:
  Winner: Bruno Schlumberger, Ottawa Citizen, for a photo of a homeless man hunkering down as snow piles up around him;
  Runners-up: Rachele Labrecque, The Sault Ste. Marie Star, for a photo of a tiny six-year-old child with primordial dwarfism and her mother; Carlos Osorio, Toronto Star, for a picture of a parade of carved and lit pumpkins at a community event;
• International Reporting:
  Winner: Geoffrey York, The Globe and Mail, on the abduction and ransoming of two Canadian diplomats;
  Runners-up: Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star for stories on Yemen as a terrorist breeding ground; Graeme Smith of The Globe and Mail for stories of drug- and arms-fuelled corruption in the Afghan government.
• Editorials:
  Winner: Adam Radwanski, The Globe and Mail;
  Runners-up: Sean Fine, The Globe and Mail; Lawrie McFarlane, Victoria Times Colonist;
• Editorial Cartooning:
  Winner: Brian Gable, The Globe and Mail;
  Runners-up : Malcolm Mayes, Edmonton Journal; Terry Mosher (Aislin), The Gazette, Montreal.
• Long Features:
  Winner: Michèle Ouimet, La Presse, Montréal, for a disturbing examination of a monstrous crime;
  Runners-up: Carolyn Abraham, The Globe and Mail, Toronto, for a compelling report on geroscience, prolonging the human lifespan; Team Entry, La Presse, Montréal, for an evocative look at the global food crisis.
• News Photography:
  Winner: Steve Russell, Toronto Star, for a photo of a nighttime brawl outside a Toronto nightclub;
  Runners-up: Carlos Osorio, Toronto Star, for a photo of loved ones mourning the body of one of three Polish men who drowned in the Lake Muskoka region; Louie Palu, ZUMA Press/Toronto Star, for a shot of a Canadian medic gently closing the eyes of a young Afghan man who died in a gunfight.
• Breaking News:
  Winner: a team from the London Free Press for a series of stories about the abduction and killing of eight-year-old Tori Stafford of Woodstock;
  Runners-up: Dawn Walton, Les Perreaux and Josh Wingrove, The Globe and Mail, for their coverage of a couple’s romantic ski trip that turned into tragedy in the B.C. interior; Kenyon Wallace of the Toronto Star for his reporting of a crash of a helicopter off the coast of Newfoundland and the loss of 17 lives.