Postmedia coverage recognized with National Newspaper Award
Postmedia Network's London Free Press has won a National Newspaper Award for its breaking news coverage of an attack on an immigrant Muslim family in June 2021.
The reporting on the hit-andrun that left four dead and a child injured across three generations of a single family was recognized for its “in-depth reporting and hard-hitting commentary,” the judges said.
The award was announced Friday in a webcast recognizing the best in Canadian journalism in 2021.
Postmedia had four nominations.
John Mackie, of The Vancouver Sun/province, was nominated for a Bob Levin Award for Short Feature for a piece he wrote about the collegial relationship between political adversaries who are both quadriplegics. The award went to Marcus Gee at the Globe and Mail for a story on a handmade memorial for those who died of overdoses.
The Free Press package of stories defeated The Globe and Mail's coverage of the deadly heat wave in British Columbia and the Winnipeg
Free Press coverage of a nurse who was stabbed in a hospital.
Talat Afzaal, 74, her son, Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, and their daughter Yumnah, 15, were killed on June 6, 2021 when a truck jumped the curb and struck them. The couple's nine-year-old son, Fayez, survived serious injuries.
Gerry Nott, Postmedia's acting senior vice-president, editorial content, said he was “so proud” of the Free Press.
“The recognition of our journalists by the NNAS reinforces the level of quality reporting and expertise at all of our titles,” Nott said in a statement.
Postmedia newspapers garnered two other NNA nominations.
Sharon Kirkey, the National Post's longtime health reporter, was nominated in the beat reporting category for her coverage of COVID-19. Améli Pineda and Magdaline Boutros of the Quebec newspaper Le Devoir won the award for their work on conjugal violence in Quebec.
A team from the Saskatoon Starphoenix was nominated in the local reporting category for a series exploring the overdose crisis; the winner in that category was a trio of reporters at RMO Today, for reporting on accidental deaths of skiers and climbers in avalanches.