Herald/Sun journalist gets NNA nomination for breaking news
Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun journalist Bryan Passifiume received a nomination Monday for a National Newspaper Award in the category of breaking news.
He was nominated for his coverage of a raging wildfire in Waterton Lakes National Park last year. The nomination was among 12 garnered by Postmedia journalists in the NNAs, which recognizes excellence in daily newspaper work in Canada.
“Our journalists continue to show they are among the very best in the country, with nominations across a broad spectrum of categories — editorial writing and cartooning, feature writing, spot news, politics, columns, photography and feature writing,” said Gerry Nott, Postmedia’s senior vice-president for content. “I’m very proud of their work and appreciate their devotion to telling stories with impact and that shape agendas.”
The Edmonton Journal received three nominations — the most of any Postmedia newspaper. Those nominations included columnist Paula Simons, who was nominated in the columns category for a series of pieces on the death in care of a young Indigenous girl named Serenity and the charges eventually laid against her guardians.
Nominated twice each were the London Free Press, National Post, Ottawa Citizen and Vancouver Sun/Province. Among those nominations were the Free Press’ Jane Sims and Morris Lamont and the National Post’s Brice Hall and Mike Faille, recognized for project of the year for their series 27 Minutes, which explored how a woman incredibly survived after a car accident that resulted in her being submerged in ice-cold water for almost half an hour.
The Post was also nominated for work by David Akin with Chris Selley that revealed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s secret vacation on the Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas, reporting that resulted in Trudeau becoming the first prime minister found to have broken the federal Conflict of Interest Act.
The National Newspaper Awards, now in their 69th year, will be handed out at a ceremony in Toronto on May 4. The awards are given to daily newspapers, news agencies and online news sites the NNA board of governors approve for entry.