OTTAWA,
ON, June 14, 2024 /CNW/ - This evening, at a
ceremony at Rideau Hall, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary
Simon, Governor General of Canada,
recognized the exceptional journalism of this year's six Michener
Award finalists. The Michener Award for 2023 is presented jointly
to The Narwhal and The Toronto Star for their
reporting on the Ontario Greenbelt
Scandal.
"The Toronto Star and The Narwal told the story of corruption at
the heart of the Ontario Greenbelt. Their journalism accomplished
what every Michener-worthy piece of reporting sets out to do: hold
public officials to account and change our communities for the
better," said Margo Goodhand,
President of the Michener Awards Foundation. "In fact, all of
tonight's finalists are shining examples of the power of
investigative journalism at its very best. My sincere
congratulations to these newsrooms."
The Narwhal and the Toronto Star: Ontario Greenbelt
Scandal
When Ontario's auditor general
presented her report on the Ford government's Greenbelt scandal,
she cited two newsrooms for providing her with significant new and
revelatory details. Throughout 2023, the Narwhal and the Toronto
Star revealed how politically connected developers benefited from
buying devalued farmland just before Premier Doug Ford lifted Greenbelt protection of those
lands. The Narwhal and the Star seized the public's attention with
a steady drumbeat of exclusives: how well-connected developers were
invitees to the premier's daughter's wedding; ethics violations;
the unmasking of a mysterious "Mr. X" who connected developers with
government bureaucrats. The reporters persevered despite
near-constant criticism of their work by the government. Their
investigation culminated in Ford scrapping the plan to allow
development on formerly protected Greenbelt lands and cost the
government two ministers and two senior staffers. The RCMP launched
an investigation. The reporting by The Narwhal and the Star, the
auditor general has said, "greatly contributed to public awareness,
and ultimately to the provincial government reversing its
unsupportable decision to remove specific lands from the
Greenbelt."
The Michener Award was founded in 1970 by the late Roland Michener, then governor general, to
honour excellence in public service journalism. The Michener Award
submissions are judged by an expert panel of journalists who have
worked in media outlets and in academia across the country.
The following newsrooms were awarded a Michener citation of
merit:
- The Canadian Press: A 'predator' at CSIS
- CBC/Radio-Canada: The girls around Robert Miller/Le système Miller
- The Globe and Mail: Montreal
fire safety
- Montreal Gazette: Staff haunted by suicide at the Lakeshore
Hospital ER
- Radio-Canada: La face cachée
de Neptune / The dark side of Neptune
The Michener Award Foundation also recognized the 2024
Michener-Deacon (Ève Lévesque and Marie-Christine Noël) and
Michener-O'Hagan Fellowship (Jean-Hugues
Roy and Naël Shiab) , recipients, as well as
honouring two giants of political journalism, Terry Mosher and Chantal Hébert, with the
prestigious Michener-Baxter Award for exceptional service to
Canadian public service journalism.
Thank you to the 2023 Michener Award judges:
- Chief Judge Katherine Sedgwick:
former journalism professor at Loyalist College and former deputy
editor of the Montreal Gazette
- Sally Reardon: former senior
CBC-TV news producer
- Tahieròn:iohte Dan David:
journalist, media trainer and founding director of APTN News
- Mary McGuire: retired journalism
professor at Carleton University
- Guy Gendron, broadcast media
journalist and former ombudsman for CBC Radio-Canada
About the Michener Awards
The Michener Awards honour, celebrate, and promote excellence in
Canadian public service journalism. Established in 1970 by the late
Right Honourable Roland Michener, Governor General of Canada from 1967 to 1974, the Michener Awards
are Canada's premier journalism
award. The Michener Awards Foundation's voluntary Board of
Directors administers the award, in partnership with the Rideau
Hall Foundation with sponsorship from BMO, Cision, Power
Corporation of Canada, and TD.
Learn more at www.MichenerAwards.ca.
SOURCE Michener Awards Foundation