Quebec newspaper association honours Nunatsiaq News

Nunatsiaq News picked up nine awards at the Quebec Community Newspaper Association’s Better Newspapers Competition held May 18 in Montreal.

Editor Jim Bell won four awards from the association, which represents 30 English-language and bilingual newspapers in Quebec.

Those awards included a nomination for the Bob Philips Award for best general editorial.

In that category, Bell received a second place award for his January 2011 editorial titled “Hiding in plain sight,” which questions how convicted child molester Father Eric Dejaeger, who is now on trial for charges of child abuse in Nunavut, avoided international arrest warrants for 16 years.

Bell also received a third place in the best local affairs editorial category, for an editorial on the 2011 murder-suicide of Iqaluit man Sylvain Degrasse, his wife and two daughters, titled “How to make tragedies preventable.”

Bell also received a second place award for Best News Story for his coverage of a late-night Iqaluit shooting called “Iqaluit man escapes death by two inches.”

He also received a third place award in the Best Business story category for his coverage of a group of Nunavut delegates visiting the Kittilä gold mine in Finland, in in a story titled “Nunavut digs into Finland for inside scoop on mining.”

Senior reporter Jane George received a third place award in the category for best Photo Essay for her feature story about Operation Nanook.

Reporter Sarah Rogers, who is now on maternity leave from the newspaper, received awards in two categories, a second prize Best Education story, “Nunavut Sivuniksavut celebrates new Ottawa home” and a third prize for Best Community Health story on the Montreal day shelter that serves urban Inuit women, called “An oasis of hope in downtown Montreal. ”

In the Arts and Entertainment category, Nunatsiaq News freelance contributor Justin Nobel placed third with his story called “Born with the gift of the golden tongue.”

Nunatsiaq News was also nominated in the category of Best Website, where it placed second.

Also at the meeting, the QCNA members elected Steve Bonspiel, the editor and publisher of the Eastern Door in Kahnawake. Bonspiel is the association’s first aboriginal president.