MONTREAL, May 28, 2022 /CNW/ - The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2021 CAJ Awards for outstanding investigative journalism.

This included presenting the McGillivray Award, recognizing the program's best investigative journalism, to APTN News' Brittany Guyot and Kathleen Martens. The team's Surviving Day Schools entry used freedom-of-information and other investigative techniques to confirm that Indian Day Schools have also seen student deaths echoing the tragedy of these fatalities that had its reckoning moment in 2021 at residential schools across Canada.

Earlier in the evening, Surviving Day Schools had been named the inaugural recipient in the Freedom of Information Journalism category. The McGillivray Award judging panel considered this entry alongside the other eight entries named winners in the CAJ Awards' eight investigative categories.

The CAJ Awards were presented by MC Noémi Mercier as part of the CAJ 2022 conference held in Montreal, with finalists unable to attend invited to participate in a video conference that was also livestreamed on the CAJ's Facebook page.

The recipients in the WRITTEN NEWS category are:

Jeff Yates, Nicholas De Rosa, Brigitte Noël, Roberto Rocha, Sophie Leclerc
Un empire montréalais de l'arnaque en ligne
Radio-Canada – Récits numériques

The recipient in the COMMUNITY WRITTEN category is:

Tori Marlan
The man who stole a hotel
Capital Daily, Victoria, B.C.

The recipients in the BROADCAST OVER FIVE MINUTES category are:

Yusuf Zine, Kevin Young, Michelle Shephard, Katie O'Connor
Unascertained
Innerspeak Media / TVO

The recipients in the BROADCAST UNDER FIVE MINUTES category are:

Nicole Williams, Michelle Allan
False Indigenous identity: an investigation into Morris Blanchard
CBC News – Ottawa

The recipient in the COMMUNITY BROADCAST category is:

Thomas Ethier
Comme si ça s'était passé ici
Médias ténois, Yellowknife

The recipients in the DATA JOURNALISM AWARD are:

Robyn Doolittle, Chen Wang, Tavia Grant
The Power Gap
The Globe and Mail

The recipients in the ONLINE MEDIA category are:

Michelle Shephard, Ashley Mak, Kim Kaschor, Sarah Melton, Danelle Cloutier, Julia Whitman, Emilie Quesnel, Ryan Thorpe, Chris Oke, Arif Noorani
White Hot Hate
CBC Podcasts / CBC The Fifth Estate

Emma McIntosh
Doug Ford donors benefit as fast-tracked developments override environmental concerns
National Observer

The recipients in the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION JOURNALISM category are:

Brittany Guyot, Kathleen Martens
Surviving Day Schools
APTN News

This award is kindly sponsored by the Ken and Debbie Rubin Public Interest Advocacy Fund.

The recipient in the PHOTOJOURNALISM category is:

Amber Bracken
Documenting the Wet'suwet'en crisis (portfolio)
Freelance / The Narwhal

The recipient in the SCOOP category is:

James Bagnall
COVID-19 testing turmoil
Ottawa Citizen

The recipients in the DAILY EXCELLENCE category are:

Patrick Maloney, Jonathan Juha, Randy Richmond, Jane Sims, Dale Carruthers, Jennifer Bieman, Norman De Bono, Heather Rivers
Targeted for Their Faith
The London Free Press

Alyshah Hasham, Wendy Gillis
'The best people in our community.' An outpouring of grief for Muslim family killed in what police say was hate-motivated attack
Toronto Star

The recipient in the WRITTEN FEATURE category is:

Nicholas Hune-Brown
The Shadowy Business of International Education
Freelance / The Walrus

The recipients in the JHR / CAJ AWARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTING are:

Marc Apollonio, Acey Rowe, Jennifer Warren, Shari Okeke, Tanara McLean
The Brightest Licence Plate in Montreal
CBC Radio – The Doc Project

The recipient of the JHR / CAJ EMERGING INDIGENOUS JOURNALIST AWARD is:

Stephanie Kwetásel'wet Wood
Portfolio entry
The Narwhal

The recipients in the CWA CANADA / CAJ AWARD FOR LABOUR REPORTING are:

Hilary Beaumont, Christopher Katsarov Luna, Denise Balkissoon, Mike De Souza, Arik Ligeti, Elaine Anselmi, Carol Linnitt
'They care about their plants and not us': for migrant farmworkers in Ontario, COVID-19 made a bad situation worse
The Narwhal

The recipient in the APTN / CAJ RECONCILIATION AWARD is:

Patrick White
Portfolio entry
The Globe and Mail

The recipient in the SCIENCE MEDIA CENTRE OF CANADA ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE CHANGE category is:

Sarah Cox
Inside the Pacheedaht Nation's stand on Fairy Creek logging blockades
The Narwhal

The recipients in the STUDENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE are:

Aleisha Langmann, Akhila Menon, Clay Nikiforuk
Inside the raid on Fairy Creek: Violence, Arrest and Media Exclusion
University of British Columbia / Ricochet

Consistent with information in the entry package instructions, judges had the discretion to name between one and five finalists in each award category. There were a total 522 entries for the 2021 awards program.

We thank the 50 experienced current and former journalists who willingly volunteered their time and efforts to review a record number of entries and name the finalists and winners in each category. This awards program doesn't function without journalists and their newsrooms stepping forward to submit their work for review and consideration, or the judges who take on the work of reviewing that work.

The CAJ congratulates all the recipients and finalists and thanks all those who submitted entries for consideration. Many judges once again noted the excellent quality and breadth of work contained within the pieces submitted into the program.

Journalists continue to produce striking, important, and meaningful work that educates, informs, exposes, uncovers, affects change, and makes our communities better places to live. The CAJ is proud to play a role in recognizing the best of this work on an annual basis.

The Canadian Association of Journalists is a professional organization with over 1200 members across Canada. The CAJ's primary roles are public-interest advocacy work and professional development for its members.

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SOURCE Canadian Association of Journalists

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