A look at winners of the 2024 National Newspaper Awards handed out in Montreal
Arts and Entertainment
Winner: 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 — and how Canada lags behind other countries when it comes to national repatriation frameworks.
Finalists: Richie Assaly, Toronto Star, for his portfolio of stories about musicians Mustafa, John Kameel Farah and Elisapie, in which he captured the artists' musical singularity as well as their cultural significance; Charles-Éric Blais-Poulin et Jean Siag, La Presse, for their investigation of Quebec's television production industry, highlighting the weakening of independent production in the province in favour of two major players
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Joan Hollobon Award for Beat Reporting
Winner: Susan Clairmont, Hamilton Spectator, for her exclusive reporting and authoritative analysis as a court reporter.
Finalists: Kate Allen, Toronto Star, for her rigorous and compelling portfolio of work on climate change; Daniel Renaud, La Presse, for his coverage of police affairs and organized crime, done with the knowledge that one of his subjects had placed a bounty on his head.
Stuart M. Robertson Award for Breaking News
Winner: The Globe and Mail, for coverage of one of the defining stories of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games: Canada's women's soccer team and the drone scandal.
Finalists: The Globe and Mail, for coverage of the wildfires that devastated Jasper, as well as the economic implications for the country and who is to blame; Toronto Star, for coverage of the summer storm that flooded the city, knocked out power to thousands and left millions of dollars of damage in its wake.
Business
Winners: Robert Cribb, Max Binks-Collier, Masih Khalatbari, Charlie Buckley and Habiba Nosheen, Toronto Star/Investigative Journalism Bureau, for their reporting on Canada's 'exploitative' clinical trial industry, where study participants say they're incentivized to lie — even about medications' side effects.
Finalists: Naimul Karim, Financial Post, for his work on Canada's changing immigration laws and the impact they're having on thousands of highly skilled, and sometimes desperate, foreign workers; Matthew Van Dongen, Hamilton Spectator, for his ongoing reporting on real estate investment firm Forge & Foster, and its ever-widening circle of financial woes for investors, customers and homeowners.
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Mary Ann Shadd Cary Award for Columns
Winner: 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.
Finalists: 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; 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
Winner: Michael de Adder, The Chronicle Herald/The Globe and Mail
Finalists: Patrick LaMontagne, Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun; Gabrielle Drolet, The Globe and Mail
Claude Ryan Award for Editorial Writing
Winner: 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.
Finalists: Stéphanie Grammond, La Presse, for editorials on what a second Trump presidency will mean for Canada, the Air Canada labour dispute, and Quebec's long-term plan for housing and care for its aging population; 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
Winner: Zosia Bielski, The Globe and Mail, for her nuanced exploration of Canadian laws that criminalize HIV non-disclosure — and put Canada out of step with modern science and the rest of the developed world.
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Finalists: Marco Chown Oved, Steve Russell and Lance McMillan, Toronto Star, for their behind-the-wheel look at taking an EV on a road trip and a broader exploration of how EVs are spurring the creation of new businesses; Amy Dempsey Raven, Toronto Star, for explaining why rats are proliferating in Toronto and how an organized rodent mitigation strategy could limit the public health threat.
Feature Photo
Winner: 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.
Finalists: Shane Gross, The Globe and Mail, for his photo of a curious beluga whale trying to get a taste of his camera in its natural habitat in Churchill, Manitoba; David Lipnowski, The Canadian Press, for his photo of people giving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the finger while posing for a selfie at the Folklorama Festival in Winnipeg.
Norman Webster Award for International Reporting
Winner: Mark MacKinnon, The Globe and Mail, for his comprehensive, human-driven reporting on the Russian war on Ukraine.
Finalists: 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.
George Brown Award for Investigations
Winners: 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.
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Finalists: Katrina Clarke and Jeff Hamilton, Winnipeg Free Press, for their months-long investigation into the state of child care in Manitoba and the underlying issues that put kids and families at risk; 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.
Journalist of the Year
Winner: Aaron Beswick, The Chronicle Herald, for his coverage of the lawlessness in Nova Scotia's lobster and eel fisheries, including poaching, boats and buildings being burned, and the emergence of organized crime and international smuggling operations.
E. Cora Hind Award for Local Reporting
Winner: Aaron Beswick, The Chronicle Herald, for his coverage of the lawlessness in Nova Scotia's lobster and eel fisheries, including poaching, boats and buildings being burned, and the emergence of organized crime and international smuggling operations.
Finalists: Tyler Olsen, Fraser Valley Current, for his in-depth look at why a B.C. community news empire went bust and what it means for local readers and the company's own employees; Julia Peterson, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, for their all-encompassing coverage of the two inquests into the James Smith Cree Nation mass killings: one for the 11 victims and one for Myles Sanderson, who died in custody four days after killing them.
William Southam Award for Long Feature
Winner: Brandon Harder, Regina Leader-Post, for his painstaking re-creation of what happened when police went undercover to wring out a confession from a cold-case murderer.
Finalists: Emma McIntosh, The Narwhal, for braiding science with storytelling and vivid descriptions to bring the story of Canada's endangered southernmost caribou herd to life; Anne-Marie Provost, La Presse, for her feature about the four-season road that connected Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk in 2017, giving Canadians access by car to the Arctic Ocean, and how communities are dealing with the influx of tourists.
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News Photo
Winner: Carlos Osorio, Reuters, for his aerial photo of the message 'We Will Return' spray-painted on the vacated grounds of a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Toronto.
Finalists: Sammy Kogan, The Globe and Mail, for capturing a moment of profound grief and loss that also serves as a stark reminder of the devastating toll of gun violence; Jim Wells, Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun, for his dramatic photo of a man working to free a deer that had fallen through the ice and into the bitterly cold Bow River
Photo Story
Winner: Carlos Osorio, Reuters, for his coverage of the U.S. election.
Finalists: 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
Winner: 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.
Finalists: Patrice Bergeron, La Presse Canadienne, for his work on Premier François Legault's CAQ 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.
Presentation/Design
Winners: 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.
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Finalists: 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; 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
Winner: Toronto Star, for their work on childhood sexual abuse and the complicated legacy of Canadian literary hero Alice Munro.
Finalists: Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun, for 'Squeezed,' a months-long look at inflationary and affordability issues ranging from housing and utilities to groceries, family expenses and pets; La Presse, for their extensive exploration of fatigue, its impact on our quality of life, and whether it's possible (or even beneficial) to slow down.
Bob Levin Award for Short Feature
Winner: 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.
Finalists: 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; 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
Winners: Venus Ho, Cissy Hsu, Henry Wong, Cliff Yau and Norman Sin, Sing Tao, for their month-long investigation into the sale of fraudulent mooncakes at Asian food markets in Toronto and the impact on Hong Kong diaspora consumers.
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Finalists: 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, which involved a group of young Inuit correspondents and culminated in a 20-page commemorative edition; Sing Tao, for their ongoing coverage of Canada's 'lifeboat' program and the problems encountered by applicants and 'illegal stayers' from Hong Kong, caught up in processing delays.
Sports
Winners: Greg Mercer, Nancy Macdonald and Simon Houpt, The Globe and Mail, for their coverage of Canada Soccer in the wake of the spying scandal at the Paris Olympic Games.
Finalists: 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 uses saws and shovels to carve out a lane in the frozen river for a daily swim in zero-degree temperatures — in a standard bathing suit.
Sports Photo
Winners: 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.
Finalists: 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.
Sustained News Coverage
Winners: The Globe and Mail, for their year-long exploration of the root causes of housing shortages and creative ideas that could help solve the crisis.
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Finalists: 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 shining an unrelenting spotlight on one of the most dramatic criminal cases in recent memory: the problematic prosecution of Umar Zameer.
Special Recognition Citation
Globe Photojournalism Summit, for bringing together 46 photojournalists from across Canada for presentations by industry experts, roundtables, a panel discussion and a celebration of attendees' work.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2025.
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