2016.05.30
CBC, APTN journalists share top labour reporting award
The country’s premier award for reporting on labour issues is being shared this year by journalists at CBC News and the Aboriginal People’s Television Network.
They were among many CWA Canada members who won Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) awards at a weekend ceremony in Edmonton.
Joint winners of the CWA Canada / CAJ Award for Labour Reporting were Melissa Ridgen of APTN Investigates for Hurting for Work and Nick Purdon and Leonardo Palleja of CBC’s The National for Up Close: Prison Guards.
CBC journalists (who are represented by the Canadian Media Guild, CWA Canada’s largest Local and the main union at the public broadcaster) also took the CAJ’s top prize for investigative journalism — the Don McGillivray Award — for the Missing & Murdered: Unsolved cases of indigenous women and girls website, which also won in the Online Media category.
The CBC team behind the website included Cate Friesen, Cecil Rosner, Connie Walker, Duncan McCue, Tiar Wilson, Kimberly Ivany, Martha Troian, Chantelle Bellrichard, Joanne Levasseur, Teghan Beaudette, Kristy Hoffman, Donna Lee, Tara Lindemann, William Wolfe-Wylie, Richard Grasley, Michael Leschart and Michael Pereira.
“It’s heartening to see that such great journalism is still being produced,” said CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon. “It bolsters our resolve to keep up our relentless campaign to preserve quality jobs and quality journalism.”
“As journalism goes, so goes democracy.”
Other finalists for the $1,000 labour reporting award were: Yutaka Dirks, Briarpatch, for What’s at stake in the fight for $15?; Krysia Collyer, Robert Cribb, Hannah James, Global 16x9 / Toronto Star, for Code White; Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press, for Badly backlogged Social Security Tribunal.
Other CWA Canada members among the winners:
Scoop award: Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press, for Omnibus budget bill rewrites history to clear RCMP of potential criminal charges.
JHR/CAJ award for human rights reporting: Dennis Ward, Murray Oliver, APTN Investigates, for A soldier scorned.
Open broadcast feature award: Karin Wells, CBC Radio’s The Sunday Edition for In the presence of a spoon.
Community broadcast award: Natalie Clancy, Paisley Woodward, CBC News Vancouver, for Real estate seminars exposed.
CAJ/Marketwired data journalism award: Diana Swain, Timothy Sawa, Lori Ward, CBC News Investigative Unit, The National, for Campus sexual assaults: The fight to get the real picture.
Daily excellence award: Margaret Evans, CBC Radio’s The World This Weekend, for “Paris Mourns”.
Winners of awards in other categories, most of which bestow $500 cash prizes, were announced in a CAJ news release.