Newspaper wins national awards
Recognition for Outstanding Reporter Initiative, Best News Story
Northern News Services
Monday, June 13, 2016
EDMONTON
Nunavut News/North was the recipient of several national awards presented at the Newspapers Canada convention in Edmonton, May 28.
Judge Dale Bass of Kamloops This Week awarded the newspaper first place for Best Editorial Page in its circulation class, second place in the Best Overall category, and second place for Best Front Page.
"Love the front pages, especially the lack of ads on them. Love the photos, strong and well used. Like how you break up copy with inset photos and pulled quotes," Bass stated in the awards booklet.
Nunavut News/North reporter Michele LeTourneau won second place in the Outstanding Reporter Initiative category for newspapers with circulation up to 9,999 for a series of stories last year about the Nunavut coroner's inquest into the high rate of suicide in the territory.
"Suicide is not an easy topic to talk about and it's definitely not an easy topic to write about," stated judge Georgia Balogiannis of the Etobicoke (Ont.) Guardian.
"Reporter Michele LeTourneau, with her diligent and accurate reporting, shed light on an epidemic that is cutting the lives short of so many young people in the North. Her year-long attention to the topic of suicide in the region no doubt helped affect government change. A riveting read from start to finish."
Also in the premier awards category, a Jan. 26, 2015 news story by LeTourneau was awarded third place for Best News Story in its circulation category. "Lives destroyed by DeJaeger" covered the sentencing hearing for a former Oblate priest convicted of 32 sex crimes.
"LeTourneau was able to underscore the gravity of the subject matter through raw glimpses into proceedings inside the courtroom, without losing sight of the fact that the reader must also be told the story from which the drama emerges. Informative and well written. Dramatic without being overdone and true to the specifics of the case reported on, this unvarnished account of the effects of child sexual abuse is startlingly clear," stated judge Dan Hoddinott, a journalist and editor at Groupe Media TFO in Ottawa.
This is the second award LeTourneau has received for this story. The Ontario Community Newspapers Association awarded it first place in the Best News Story category in April.
In the Excellence in Rural Reporting category, reporter Casey Lessard won a third-place award for his full-length story titled "Two escape stalking bear," which appeared on March 23, 2015 and detailed an ordeal in Grise Fiord involved 20-year-old Ooleesee Akeeagok, who was chased by a polar bear while walking home from playing volleyball at school.
"A fascinating glimpse into life in the North," stated judge Frances Bula of the Langara College journalism program in B.C.
