Leah Hennel's picture of Kyra Christmas, a member of Canada's national women's water polo team, was nominated for a National Newspaper Award.Leah Hennel/The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail has received 18 nominations for this year’s National Newspaper Awards, including one recognizing the paper’s role in covering the shooting down of a passenger jet in Iran that killed 176 people, including dozens of Canadians, and another one for its coverage of the devastation inside Canada’s long-term care homes from the spread of COVID-19.
The Globe received the most nominations of any media outlet and had two in each of four categories: International (Norman Webster Award), Investigations (George Brown Award), Presentation and Sports.
Globe reporter Grant Robertson received his 15th nomination, tied for the third-most in NNA history. Globe feature writer Erin Anderssen and Europe correspondent Paul Waldie were both finalists for the sixth time.
“In a year of incredible disruption, and incredible news, it is a source of pride for all of us to receive such a large number of nominations across this wide a range of topic areas,” The Globe’s editor-in-chief David Walmsley said.
Based in Toronto, Mr. Robertson was nominated for the George Brown Award for Investigations, recognizing his effort for uncovering considerable evidence that the federal government was unprepared for COVID-19 because its Global Public Health Intelligence Network was no longer functional.
In the same category, The Globe’s crime and justice reporter and data journalist, Tom Cardoso, was recognized for his investigation that uncovered systemic bias against Indigenous, Black and female prisoners in Canada’s corrections system.
Mr. Robertson received a second 2020 nomination, in the Explanatory Work category with Kathy Tomlinson for mining public-health documents to ask a critical question in the early days of COVID-19: “How well did the Canadian government follow its own plans?”
Ms. Anderssen was a finalist in the Bob Levin Award for Short Feature category for her moving account of a long-term care worker who offered comfort to COVID-stricken residents so that they didn’t have to spend their last moments alone.
Mr. Waldie earned his nomination for the John Wesley Dafoe Award for Politics with Bill Curry, Marieke Walsh, Geoffrey York and Jaren Kerr, for an in-depth look at the public-policy questions raised by the WE Charity scandal, and at the WE organization itself.
A Globe team was also nominated in the Presentation/Design category for an immersive experience showcasing photographs that document how Canada and its allies are bracing for an unknown future wrought by climate change in the Arctic. Another Globe team in the same category brought readers close to the experience thousands of Mexican families have had searching for loved ones who disappeared since the start of Mexico’s “war on drugs” 15 years ago.
A team of Globe journalists was also nominated in the Breaking News category for coverage of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, shot down by Iran’s military, claiming the lives of 176 people, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents. The Globe’s long-term care stories were nominated in the Sustained News Coverage category.
In the International Reporting category, senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon was nominated for reporting about how Vladimir Putin has changed Russia, Eastern Europe and the entire world. Asia correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe was nominated for coverage of repression in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.
In the Sports category, Michael Doyle won a nomination for exposing sexual, psychological and physical abuse and manipulation of elite athletes by the most powerful person in Canadian track and field. The other Globe nomination in the category recognized Cathal Kelly for columns about the Brier curling championship, soccer legend Maradona and the banality of athlete interviews.
Other Globe nominees were:
In the Arts and Entertainment/Culture category, Johanna Schneller, for columns tackling the subject of gender identity and gender politics in the arts world.
In the Business category, Kathryn Blaze Baum, Tavia Grant and Carrie Tait, for shining a light on how the health and safety of some workers in Canada’s food-supply chain were compromised during the pandemic.
Health columnist André Picard in the Columns category.
Jana G. Pruden, for the William Southam Award for Long Feature, for an in-depth examination of how a case involving 13 counts of sexual assault played out in court, and what that said about how the justice system grapples with such cases.
In the Sports Photo category, Leah Hennel, for a picture of an Olympic water polo athlete training in a makeshift pool made from hay bales and tarps.
Other organizations with multiple finalists included La Presse, with nine, and The Canadian Press and Toronto Star, with eight each.
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