The Globe and Mail and IndigiNews win CJF Jackman Awards for Excellence in Journalism
TORONTO, June 7, 2022 – The Globe and Mail is this year’s winner of the CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism in the large-media category, announced tonight at the annual Canadian Journalism Foundation Awards.
The CJF honoured the Globe for “Escape from Afghanistan,” a story documenting journalist Mark MacKinnon’s courageous work on the efforts to evacuate Afghan nationals following the fall of Afghanistan. It is the Globe‘s sixth win in the award’s 26-year history.
Through this prestigious award, the CJF has since 1996 recognized news organizations that embrace ideals of journalistic excellence – originality, courage, independence, accuracy, social responsibility, accountability and diversity.
One juror described The Globe and Mail’s winning stories as, “gripping tales that transport the audience to the chaos and desperation experienced by those trying to escape a humanitarian disaster, and the frustrations, failures and limits of those who tried to help them…”
In the small-media category, IndigiNews, a free, online Indigenous-led news platform, won for its revelatory reporting on the B.C. government’s controversial practice of birth alerts that were declared “illegal and unconstitutional” by lawyers months before the government stopped the program.
On their work, the jury remarked: “this year’s honouree is an organization that boasts a courageous roster of storytellers dedicated to covering the news in a way that allows for your stories to be heard, understood and respected. They are journalists who tell the stories of their British Columbia communities in a manner that is nothing short of brave.”
All five finalists in the large media category (more than 50 full-time employees) and the stories and/or series shortlisted for the award were:
“Clean Water, Broken Promises” Consortium, for “Clean Water, Broken Promises,” a collaborative investigation into water issues in First Nations involving 75 student journalists and more than 125 students, instructors, journalists, editors and producers.
Series overview:
Global News, for its investigation into widespread sexual misconduct and abuse of power in the most senior ranks of the Canadian military, resulting in what experts have since called a “crisis” of sexual misconduct.
Stories submitted:
- “Former top soldier Gen. Jonathan Vance facing allegations of inappropriate behaviour with female subordinates: sources,” Global News, February 2, 2021.
- “IN HER WORDS: One of the women behind Vance allegations tells her story,” Global News, February 21, 2021.
- “Military must transfer sexual misconduct cases to civilians: Anand,” Global News, November 4, 2021.
Le Devoir, for its investigative series into the deaths of citizens during police interventions over a 20-year period in Quebec.
Stories submitted:
- “81 Québécois tués par des policiers dans les 20 dernières années,” Le Devoir, November 22, 2021.
- “Décédés sous les balles des policies,” Le Devoir, November 22, 2021.
- “Comment des policiers en arrivent-ils à tirer sur des personnes en crise?” Le Devoir, November 23, 2021.
Winner: The Globe and Mail, for “Escape from Afghanistan,” a story documenting journalist Mark MacKinnon’s courageous work on the efforts to evacuate Afghan nationals following the fall of Afghanistan.
Stories submitted:
- “Escape from Afghanistan,” The Globe and Mail, September 10, 2021.
- “Afghans who worked for Canadian military still waiting for rescue from Kabul safe house,” The Globe and Mail, October 5, 2021.
- “Inside Taliban-held Afghanistan: ‘There is no food, no help, nothing here,’” The Globe and Mail, October 8, 2021.
Winnipeg Free Press, for “Life and Death Behind Bars,” an eight-part investigative series into prison conditions at the Stony Mountain Institution, Manitoba’s only federal penitentiary.
Stories submitted:
- “Serving deadly time,” Winnipeg Free Press, April 23, 2021.
- “Hard time in hell,” Winnipeg Free Press, May 14, 2021.
- “Diagnosis: incarcerated,” Winnipeg Free Press, December 17, 2021.
All five finalists in the small media category (fewer than 50 full-time employees) and the stories and/or series shortlisted for the award were:
Winner: IndigiNews, for exposing that government lawyers had told the B.C. government that the controversial practice of birth alerts was “illegal and unconstitutional” months before it stopped the program.
Stories submitted:
- “EXCLUSIVE: B.C. ministry warned birth alerts ‘illegal and unconstitutional’ months before banning them,” Indiginews, January 12, 2021.
- “Several Canadian provinces still issue birth alerts, deemed ‘unconstitutional and illegal’ in B.C.,” Indiginews, January 15, 2021.
- “Breaking: New class action alleges birth alerts are ‘a product of the state’s colonialist and paternalistic attitude’,” Indiginews, September 1, 2021.
Rocky Mountain Outlook, for “Buried in the Aftermath,” a four-part series on how the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides handles avalanche fatalities on guided trips in the Canadian Rockies.
Stories submitted:
- “Buried in the Aftermath: Death of Canmore’s Doug Churchill after 2016 avalanche leads to survivors forming Backcountry Safe initiative,” Rocky Mountain Outlook, April 29, 2021.
- “Buried in the Aftermath: Mountain guides affected by post-traumatic stress after critical incidents in the backcountry,” Rocky Mountain Outlook, May 6, 2021.
- “Buried in the Aftermath: ‘Low probability, high consequence events are every climber’s nightmare’,” Rocky Mountain Outlook, May 21, 2021.
Saskatoon StarPhoenix, for “Trapped,” a seven-part series that reveals how government systems are woefully unprepared to help people struggling with substance use.
Stories submitted:
- “Trapped: How Sask.’s housing gap fuels a cycle of addiction,” Saskatoon StarPhoenix, December 17, 2021.
- “Trapped: Drugs drive Sask.’s HIV emergency,” Saskatoon StarPhoenix, December 17, 2021.
- “Trapped: Generational trauma in shadow of Sask. substance use,” Saskatoon StarPhoenix, December 17, 2021.
The Narwhal, for Amber Bracken’s first-person photo essay that connected her arrest while covering an Indigenous anti-pipeline protest with broader police violations of journalists’ rights.
Stories submitted:
- “In photos: inside the Gidimt’en eviction of Coastal GasLink,” The Narwhal, November 17, 2021.
- “In photos: a view of RCMP arrests of media, Indigenous land defenders on Wet’suwet’en territory,” The Narwhal, November 25, 2021.
- “‘I felt kidnapped’: a journalist’s view of being arrested by the RCMP,” The Narwhal, December 16, 2021.
The Tyee, for its investigation into the Alberta government’s covert efforts to undo decades-old regulations to open up the Rockies’ sensitive eastern slopes to open-pit coal mining.
Stories submitted:
- “Loads of Coal Disinformation from the Kenney Government,” The Tyee, January 25, 2021.
- “Months Before Albertans Were Told, Australian Miners Knew Plans to Axe Coal Policy,” The Tyee, January 29, 2021.
- “Critics Skeptical as Alberta Reverses Course on Open-pit Coal Mines,” The Tyee, February 8, 2021.
The CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism honours a Canadian organization that embodies exemplary journalism with a resulting impact on the community it serves.
