Toronto Star wins two National Newspaper Awards

Torstar journalists took home two National Newspaper Awards Friday, earning recognition in the country’s most prestigious journalism competition.

The Star’s Rachel Mendleson shared the John Honderich Award for Project of the Year with fellow Torstar journalist Steve Buist, of the Hamilton Spectator, for Unchartered, their national investigation into Charter of Rights violations by police. The award is named in honour of longtime Star publisher and chairman John Honderich, who died in 2022.

Earlier this week, Unchartered was also among 10 nominations the Star received at the Digital Publishing Awards.

Star photographer Steve Russell, who was nominated in two NNA categories, won the Breaking News Photo category with his compelling shot of a confrontation between police and so-called “freedom convoy” protesters on Parliament Hill.

Russell, who has now won a career total of four NNAs, said this award is deeply meaningful.

“This shows that photojournalism still has value. Especially in an era where AI images are being generated, knowing that newspapers are willing to send photojournalists to these news events is important,” said Russell, who added that he captured his winning image after several days of watching the unfolding chaos in the nation’s capital.

“I wanted to get an image that showed all aspects of this. The protesters, the police, Parliament. There were a few spots off to the side where I was able to get that perspective from,” said Russell.

Russell was also nominated in the Feature Photo category, for his intriguing, shadowy photo of a child leaping while his father laments a lack of daycare benefits.

The Star received a total of seven NNA nominations, and three additional nominations it shared with journalists from other publications.

“The 2022 National Newspaper Awards honoured extraordinary, vital journalism in a year rich in riveting, consequential stories,” said Star Editor Anne Marie Owens. “We are deeply proud of Steve Russell, and of all of our nominees, for producing journalism of the highest calibre, which held power to account, reflected our world and changed it for the better.”

In addition to the Project of the Year and two photo nominations, the Star also received the following nods:

Business Reporting: Marco Chown Oved was nominated for his story “Supermarkets are hiking prices faster than necessary — and profiting from inflation, Star investigation suggests,” which exposed the hidden cost of food inflation at supermarkets and shone a light on corporate greed.

Claude Ryan Award for Editorial Writing: Peter McKnight was nominated for his editorials on immigration and detention, the harms of linking mental health and violence and the 40th anniversary of the Charter of Rights.

Norman Webster Award for International Reporting: Allan Woods was nominated for his coverage of Russia in the lead-up to the war in Ukraine and the Russian reaction to the invasion.

John Wesley Dafoe Award for Politics: Justin Ling was nominated for his feature on the making of the “Freedom Convoy” protest and organizers’ links to conspiracy theories and anti-government ideologies.

Bob Levin Award for Short Feature: Maria Iqbal was nominated for her story on the surprising food item which became less expensive in Canada last year: the potato.

Editorial Cartooning/Caricature: Michael de Adder was nominated for his work with the Toronto Star and the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.

George Brown Award for Investigations: Noor Javed, Brendan Kennedy and Jesse McLean from the Toronto Star, and Emma McIntosh from The Narwhal, were nominated for their investigation of Ontario’s decision to remove parcels of land from the Greenbelt, why the parcels were selected and who had the most to gain from the decision.

The Globe and Mail won nine of the 23 available NNAs. The award for Journalist of the Year went to Isabelle Hachey, of La Presse, who also won in the International Reporting category.

The NNAs honour the best journalists and their work in Canada’s daily and community newspapers. Digital organizations that publish at least five days a week are also recognized.

Judges this year considered a total of 923 entries, all published in 2022, from 76 news organizations.

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