Nunatsiaq News is the winner of its first National Newspaper Award for the November 2025 publication of a special section about the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement’s 50th anniversary. The annual newspaper awards were handed out Friday in Toronto. (File photo)
Nunatsiaq News wins 1st-ever National Newspaper Award
Special section on 50th anniversary of James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement looks at legacy of Canada’s first modern treaty
Nunatsiaq News has won its first National Newspaper Award for its publication of a special section about the 50th anniversary of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and its legacy in Nunavik.
The paper published JBNQA 50 – 1975-2025: Looking Back. Moving Forward in November, to mark the anniversary of the signing of what’s considered Canada’s first modern treaty.
“The section not only told the story of the JBNQA for readers who might not know it, it looked at how it shaped today’s Nunavik,” said managing editor Corey Larocque. “It was a great team effort, featuring the work of more than a dozen people.”
Twenty-seven awards recognizing the best journalism in Canada in 2025 were handed out Friday at a ceremony in Toronto.
Nunatsiaq News was recognized in the National Newspaper Award’s category, Special Topic — Journalism in a language other than French or English.
Judges commended the JBNQA section for looking at the “good and bad — of one of the most complex Indigenous land claim settlements in Canada,” in a news release issued by the newspaper awards.
The winning entry was produced by a team of 14 journalists, page designers and translators. It was published in Inuktitut and English.
The team included writers Randi Beers and Gord Howard, Jeff Pelletier, Arty Sarkisian, Cedric Gallant, Kira Wronska Dorward, Connor Muir and Elizabeth Peirce, and Apatakaa Translations. The section was designed by Krista Klassen. Taylor Roberts was responsible for advertising. And it was overseen by project manager Gina Brown, managing editor Corey Larocque and publisher Julia Roberts.
It was the third time Nunatsiaq News had been a finalist in the category.
The paper earned a nomination in the 2024 awards for its Celebrating Nunavut Quest 2024 section about the annual dogsled race.
Nunatsiaq News was also nominated for the 2023 awards for its Our Home section, a four-part series exploring whether the Northwest Territories’ Homeownership Assistance Program from the 1980s could help address Nunavut’s current housing shortage.
Since the National Newspaper Awards added the category for 2023, Nunatsiaq News and Sing Tao, a Chinese-language newspaper based in Toronto, have been the two finalists every year.
This year, Sing Tao was nominated for its coverage of the human cost of British Columbia’s overdose crisis.
Only liberal bias media get awards in Canada because that is where all the funding comes from.
A tip of the cap to Nunatsiaq and all of its writers and staff and congratulations on this recognition. Nunavummiut are fortunate to have a forum from which to inform themselves and to stay abreast of ongoings throughout Nunavut and Nunavik.
There will always be detractors. Those detractors will come from all walks of life, all political colors and social standing. It often uniquely depends on the particular article and one’s view of the subject matter being covered. I am often not in agreement with how something is reported or the lack of information and in-depth details. Everyone can find themselves feeling like this depending on where they stand on a particular subject or article. This however is not unique to Nunatsiaq and when one takes the Newspaper as a whole, it is clear it provides a strong and essential service to Nunavummiut.
Media has become a thankless job but remains essential to a free society. No one voice, written, televised or provided through social media can nor should ever be the sole source of information. This especially rings true in these current times. A brought spectrum of coverage and angles are required to help separate the real from the fake and to allow the reader to arrive at their own informed conclusions.
Keep trudging on Nunatsiaq. Keep digging and growing. Your service is appreciated.
The news was first published in then Frobisher Bay in summer of 1973 with Ed and Bill running a large printing press . The paper was not newsprint but was large format recycled white paper with one fold. The first year consisted of one sheet. The second year consisted of two sheets due to it’s popularity. Afterwards the printing was done in Ottawa and shipped weekly . Funded entirely through the well you know. Bill McKenzie housed the machinery for years in his warehouse which used to be the