Free Press reporters nominated for investigative series

TORONTO – Finalists for the National Newspaper Awards include four nominations for the national news agency The Canadian Press/La Presse Canadienne. Here’s look at the categories and contenders:

GEORGE BROWN AWARD FOR INVESTIGATIONS

• Katrina Clarke and Jeff Hamilton, Free Press, for their months-long investigation into the state of childcare in Manitoba and the underlying issues that put kids and families at risk
• Robert Cribb, Wendy-Ann Clarke, Declan Keogh and Owen Thompson, Toronto Star/Investigative Journalism Bureau, for their reporting on a program meant to fund mental-health care for First Nations and Inuit people but is instead failing them
• Terry Pender, Waterloo Region Record, for exposing the role of the Mennonite Central Committee in bringing thousands of Nazi war criminals to Canada after the Second World War

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

• Richie Assaly, Toronto Star, for his portfolio of stories about musicians Mustafa, John Kameel Farah and Elisapie
• Charles-Éric Blais-Poulin et Jean Siag, La Presse, for their investigation of Quebec’s television production industry
• Tavia Grant, the Globe and Mail, for her work on the Vatican’s unfulfilled promises to return cultural items that originated in Indigenous communities in Canada

JOAN HOLLOBON AWARD FOR BEAT REPORTING

• Kate Allen, Toronto Star, for her work on climate change
• Susan Clairmont, Hamilton Spectator, for court reporting
• Daniel Renaud, La Presse, for coverage of police affairs and organized crime

STUART M. ROBERTSON AWARD FOR BREAKING NEWS

• The Globe and Mail, for coverage of Canada’s women’s Olympic soccer team and the drone scandal
• The Globe and Mail, for coverage of the wildfires that devastated Jasper
• Toronto Star, for coverage of the summer storm that flooded the city

BUSINESS

• Robert Cribb, Max Binks-Collier, Masih Khalatbari and Charlie Buckley, Toronto Star/Investigative Journalism Bureau, for reporting on Canada’s clinical trial industry
• Naimul Karim, National Post, for his work on Canada’s changing immigration laws and the impact on foreign workers
• Matthew Van Dongen, Hamilton Spectator, for ongoing reporting on real estate investment firm Forge & Foster

MARY ANN SHADD CARY AWARD FOR COLUMNS

• Vincent Brousseau-Pouliot, La Presse, for columns on Quebec’s decisions to reduce the immigration threshold, spend $870 million on a new roof for Olympic Stadium, and deny a highly qualified foreign teacher the opportunity to teach
• Isabelle Hachey, La Presse, for columns on a stalker who falsified claims in order to receive cheques from an organization that compensates victims of criminal acts, MAID and dementia, and lessons from Air India Flight 182
• Tanya Talaga, the Globe and Mail, for columns on Canada’s betrayal of residential school survivors, the need to stand against residential school denialism, and the legacy of Murray Sinclair

EDITORIAL CARTOONING (PORTFOLIO)

• Michael de Adder, Halifax Chronicle Herald/the Globe and Mail
• Patrick LaMontagne, Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun
• Gabrielle Drolet, the Globe and Mail

CLAUDE RYAN AWARD FOR EDITORIAL WRITING (PORTFOLIO)

• Stéphanie Grammond, La Presse, for editorials on a second Trump presidency, the Air Canada labour dispute, and Quebec’s long-term plan for its aging population
• Peter McKnight, Toronto Star, for editorials about Medical Assistance in Dying, the health disparity between Inuit people and the rest of Canadians, and problems with Ontario’s approach to screening criminal charges
• Richard Warnica, Toronto Star, for editorials on the strip-searching of children in Ontario’s youth detention centres, the Jasper wildfires and human responsibility in the face of climate change, and Olympic swimmer Penny Oleksiak

EXPLANATORY WORK

• Zosia Bielski, the Globe and Mail, for her exploration of Canadian laws that criminalize HIV non-disclosure
• Marco Chown Oved, Steve Russell and Lance McMillan, Toronto Star, for their behind-the-wheel look at taking an EV on a road trip
• Amy Dempsey Raven, Toronto Star, for explaining why rats are proliferating in Toronto

FEATURE PHOTO

• Shane Gross, the Globe and Mail, for his photo of a curious beluga whale in Churchill, Manitoba
• David Lipnowski, The Canadian Press, for his photo of people giving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the finger in Winnipeg
• Kari Medig, the Globe and Mail, for his photo of double amputee Oleksandr Budko and the Wild Bear Vets program, created to support veterans with PTSD

NEWS PHOTO

• Sammy Kogan, the Globe and Mail, for capturing a moment of profound grief and loss
• Carlos Osorio, Reuters, for his aerial photo of the message “We Will Return” at a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Toronto
• Jim Wells, Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun, for his photo of a man working to free a deer that had fallen through the ice and into the Bow River

NORMAN WEBSTER AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL REPORTING

• Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun/The Province, for her reporting from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Southeast Asia on the international reach of B.C.’s criminal organizations
• Jean-Thomas Léveillé, La Presse, for his coverage of the environmental and social consequences of a recent oil boom in Guyana
• Mark MacKinnon, the Globe and Mail, for his reporting on the Russian war on Ukraine

E. CORA HIND AWARD FOR LOCAL REPORTING

• Aaron Bewsick, Halifax Chronicle Herald, for his coverage of Nova Scotia’s lobster and eel fisheries
• Tyler Olsen, Fraser Valley Current, for his look at why a B.C. community news empire went bust
• Julia Peterson, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, for coverage of two inquests into the James Smith Cree Nation mass killings

WILLIAM SOUTHAM AWARD FOR LONG FEATURE

• Brandon Harder, Regina Leader-Post, for his re-creation of what happened when police went undercover to wring out a confession from a cold-case murderer
• Emma McIntosh, The Narwhal, for the story of Canada’s endangered southernmost caribou herd
• Anne-Marie Provost, La Presse, for her feature about the four-season road that connected Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk in 2017

PHOTO STORY

• Carlos Osorio, Reuters, for his coverage of the U.S. election
• Goran Tomasevic, the Globe and Mail, for documenting the gang takeover of Haiti
• Martin Tremblay, La Presse, for his photos from Syria and the fallout from the Assad regime

JOHN WESLEY DAFOE AWARD FOR POLITICS

• Patrice Bergeron, La Presse Canadienne, for his work on Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government monetizing access to its ministers through fundraising cocktails
• Katia Gagnon, La Presse, for her 5,000-word portrait of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who has breathed new life into the Parti Québécois
• Rachel Mendleson and R.J. Johnston, Toronto Star, for their coverage of Pickering city council and how the alt-right movement is disrupting libraries, school boards and other local democratic institutions across Canada

PRESENTATION/DESIGN

• McKenna Hart and Tania Pereira, Toronto Star, for their portfolio of work on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, Toronto’s top influencers of 2024, and the struggles of TTC riders
• Timothy Moore, the Globe and Mail, for his portfolio of work on science and sailing, breaking’s debut as an Olympic sport, and how to master skating later in life
• Pascal Roux, La Presse, for his portfolio of work on a 150-year-old wreck mysteriously surfacing off the coast of Newfoundland, the 50th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons, and the conflict between Israel and Hamas

JOHN HONDERICH AWARD FOR PROJECT OF THE YEAR

• Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun, for “Squeezed”, a months-long look at inflationary and affordability issues
• La Presse, for their exploration of fatigue and its impact on our quality of life
• Toronto Star, for their work on childhood sexual abuse and the complicated legacy of Canadian literary hero Alice Munro

BOB LEVIN AWARD FOR SHORT FEATURE

• Dakshana Bascaramurty, the Globe and Mail, for her story from Peggy’s Cove, N.S., where they’ve cracked down on risk-taking tourists in search of the perfect selfie
• Jordan Himelfarb, Toronto Star, for his feature on 18-year-old world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and the dawning of a new golden age in chess
• Naomi Skwarna, Toronto Star, for her reflection on an all-but-forgotten quilt that spans 30 feet in Spadina Station and the labour of love that went into it

SPECIAL TOPIC: JOURNALISM IN A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN FRENCH OR ENGLISH

• Gord Howard, Shanshan Tian, Krista Klassen, Andrea Gray, Corey Larocque, Nunatsiaq News, for their coverage of the Nunavut Quest, a 370-km route from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet
• Yat Pui Venus Ho, Sze Lun Cissy Hsu, Tak Kit Henry Wong, Cheuk Ting Cliff Yau and Wai Keung Norman Sin, Sing Tao, for an investigation into fraudulent mooncakes sold at Asian food markets in Toronto
• Sing Tao, for coverage of Canada’s “lifeboat” program and the problems encountered by applicants and “illegal stayers” from Hong Kong

SPORTS

• Greg Mercer, Nancy Macdonald and Simon Houpt, the Globe and Mail, for coverage of Canada Soccer in the wake of the spying scandal at the Paris Olympic Games
• Paige Taylor White, IndigiNews, for her series on an East Van women’s basketball team and their experience at the 64th annual All Native Basketball Tournament in Tsimshian territories
• Ken Warren and Tony Caldwell, Ottawa Citizen/Ottawa Sun, for their feature on an Ottawa man who carves out a lane in the frozen river for a daily swim in zero-degree temperatures

SPORTS PHOTO

• Nathan Denette, The Canadian Press, for his photo of Canada’s high-speed men’s pursuit team at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Frank Gunn, The Canadian Press, for his photo of Toronto Argonauts receiver Dejon Brissett flipping in the air after being upended by Winnipeg’s Tyrell Ford during the Grey Cup
• Olivier Jean, La Presse, for capturing a spontaneous moment of joy between Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown after they won Olympic gold in the men’s 4×100-metre relay in Paris

GEOFFREY STEVENS AWARD FOR SUSTAINED NEWS COVERAGE

• The Globe and Mail, for a yearlong exploration of the root causes of housing shortages
• Caroline Touzin, Ariane Lacoursière, Gabrielle Duchaine and Katia Gagnon, La Presse, for their investigative work on the systemic problems within Quebec’s youth protection services
• Toronto Star, for coverage of the prosecution of Umar Zameer, charged in the death of a Toronto police officer

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2025.