Grecco series earns LaFleche national news award
St. Catharines Standard reporter Grant LaFleche has won a National Newspaper Award, a top honour in the Canadian journalism industry.
LaFleche won the local reporting category for his series A Wolf in Priest’s Clothing on the impact of child abuse by Roman Catholic priest Donald Grecco.
Judges said LaFleche’s submission “captured the essence of the terrible tale recounting it with both impact and compassion.”
The NNAs were awarded at a ceremony at the Design Exchange in Toronto Friday night.
“It’s a bit cliche to say, but winning an NNA is a career highlight for any Canadian journalist, and it is humbling to be counted alongside the journalists who truly produced amazing and important work,” LaFleche said. “As I said that night, the work honoured at the NNAs is so good, I felt a bit like a kazoo player being asked to jam with the Beatles.
“The Wolf in Priest’s Clothing wasn’t an easy story to write, nor easy for many people to read. But we had to report it as it really was. Grecco’s crimes are heinous and dehumanizing. The people of Niagara needed to know what was happening to vulnerable children in our community and the farreaching, and ongoing impacts of those crimes.”
It was the first national win and third nomination for LaFleche.
He was previously nominated in the local reporting category for his series on the men who died building the Welland Canal, which ultimately led to the construction of the Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial in St. Catharines. He was also nominated in sports for a series about boxing.
LaFleche won an Ontario Newspaper Award for Wolf in Priest’s Clothing last month at a ceremony in Hamilton, where he was also an ONA finalist for journalist of the year.
Standard editor-in-chief Angus Scott said LaFleche’s Natinational award is a signal honour for him and The St. Catharines Standard.
He said while Standard reporters have in the past garnered NNA nominations, LaFleche is believed to be only the third to actually win an NNA since they were inaugurated in the 1940s.
“Those nominees were also talented and deserving of the
recognition they received. But the level of excellence at the NNAs makes it very difficult to make it to the podium which makes Grant’s achievement all the more remarkable, particularly in this era of shrinking newsrooms where the awards tend to be dominated by the major dailies across the country,” Scott said.
“And he’s greatly deserving of it. He’s meticulous in his research, gifted in his writing, thorough in his fact-checking and has that rare ability to let his subjects speak their own stories.”
Scott said LaFleche’s awardwinning series about sexual abuse by the clergy displayed all those qualities and shed light on the impacts of an issue that has negatively impacted many lives in Niagara and around the world.
“The Standard is made better by Grant’s work and the people of Niagara are well served by his devotion and skill.”
The NNAs recognized 63 finalists in 21 categories, selected from 881 entries for work published in 2017. The competition is open to daily newspapers, news agencies and online news sites.
The Globe and Mail won six of the 21 categories, from among its 18 nominations in 13 categories. The Toronto Star won four, among 12 nominations in eight categories. La Presse also won four, among eight nominations in eight categories.
Other awards were won by the Hamilton Spectator, Edmonton Journal, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, National Post, Ottawa Citizen and Vancouver Sun.
Robyn Doolittle of the Globe and Mail was named 2017 journalist of the year for Unfounded, which revealed how frequently police forces across the country concluded that sexual assault allegations, even in cases with seemingly strong evidence, did not warrant the laying of charges, or even further investigation. The series, which involved 20 months of painstaking investigation and interviewing by Doolittle, led police forces across the country to re-examine thousands of case files, and reopen hundreds.
The Standard and Spectator are owned by Metroland Media Group (Torstar Corp.).
“It’s a reflection of the commitment and hard work these reporters and the entire newsrooms do each day,” Paul Berton, The Spectator’s editor-in-chief, said of the awards.