StarPhoenix reporter’s Sixties Scoop feature up for national award

Veteran StarPhoenix reporter Betty Ann Adam’s firstperson account of being seized as a toddler during Canada’s infamous Sixties Scoop — and then getting together with her siblings as a group for the first time in middle age — has been recognized by the Canadian Association of Journalists.

Adam was named a finalist for the 2017 CAJ awards in the text feature category for her piece, entitled Scooped: How I lost my mother, found my family, recovered my identity.

The National Film Board of Canada made her deeply moving story into a documentary, Birth of a Family.

“We are so proud of this important work. Betty Ann’s feature has been shared across the country and expanded the understanding of the Sixties Scoop to so many people,” said Saskatoon StarPhoenix and Regina Leader-Post editor Heather Persson.

“Betty Ann has covered so many other people’s stories in her long career as a journalist in Saskatchewan. It’s great to see her honoured for sharing her own.”

The CAJ annual awards recognize outstanding journalism in Canada published or broadcast in 2017. The CAJ awards gala and banquet is scheduled for May 5 in Toronto.

Earlier this month, Saskatoon StarPhoenix photographer Michelle Berg was nominated for the National Photographers Association of Canada (NPAC) multimedia award in the single multimedia category for 2017.

Berg was one of three finalists in the category, nominated for her work on the People Project feature about Iona Whipp.