Star wins three National Newspaper Awards
Work about Greenbelt scandal, dealing with dementia and exploitation net honours
Dogged reporting on the Greenbelt fiasco, a photo essay on a couple dealing with dementia and an investigative dive into how workers are exploited and the system that allows for it.
The Star’s journalism and the people in the newsroom who brought those stories to you took home three National Newspaper Awards Friday night at a gala in downtown Toronto.
Joint efforts by the Star and The Narwhal won the prize in the sustained news coverage category for exposing details of the Ontario government’s plans to develop the Greenbelt and connections between premier Doug Ford and developers.
It was a team win for the two publications, involving many reporters and editors, and many stories. Runners up in the sustained news category were the Vancouver Sun/The Province for reporting on the affordable housing crisis and The Globe and Mail for reporting on foreign interference in Canada.
Star reporters Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Rachel Mendleson won in the business reporting category for “Work Forced,” an investigative series that exposed how Ontario companies became tangled up in alleged worker exploitation schemes, an “industrial”labour trafficking ring, and a Mountie accused of setting up one up one of his own.
The series revealed how Canada’s existing laws allow for the exploitation to thrive, and is also nominated for a Canadian Association of Journalists award, as is the work by the Star and The Narwal on the Greenbelt.
Star photographer Steve Russell has won yet another NNA for his photography and photojournalism, this time for a photo story on a retired couple in their 80s — one with dementia and the other the caregiver — as they live out the final years of their time together.
The Globe led all news organizations by notching up seven wins, while La Presse and the Star, including its win Narwhal, tallied three. The Narwhal shared a second award with IndigiNews in the arts and entertainment category.
A highlight from the night included a team from Sing Tao — a Chinese-language publication with offices in Vancouver and Toronto — winning the 75-year-old industry awards’ first ever “Special Topic Award” for work done in a language other than English and French.
Sing Tao journalists were honoured for a four-part series called “Embracing Canada,” which examined how a second wave of Hong Kong immigrants are dealing with challenges in a new home. It also provided helpful information and a “comprehensive picture of what newcomers from Hong Kong will face in their new home,” the NNAs said in the news release.
The category was introduced last fall “as part of an ongoing commitment to make the competition more diverse and inclusive, better reflecting the range of publications and journalism across the country,” said the organization.
Other highlights included a Globe win in the project of the year category — named in honour of John Honderich, the late Toronto Star editor and publisher — for “Secret Canada,” a project looking into the country’s deeply problematic access to information laws.
The “Climate Disaster Project,” involving journalism students and instructors across Canada and steered by University of Victoria’s Sean Holman, received a “special recognition” citation for, in part, a “trauma-informed approach to journalism” and a project structure that was “a model of co-operation that can be replicated in other newsrooms as they shrink.”
The final award of the night, for “Journalist of the Year,” went to the Globe’s Doug Saunders, who also won the award for international reporting.
In all, 25 awards were handed out and 13 organizations won at least one award.