Nunatsiaq News earns 22 award nominations

The newest reporter at Nunatsiaq News as well as the paper’s very first editor are among the finalists for this year’s Quebec Community Newspaper Association awards.

Dominique Gené, who joined the team last July, is nominated in the annual awards’ category for investigative reporting for a series of articles she wrote about scrutiny Nunavik’s new police chief faced over racist comments he made more than 20 years earlier.

Ann Hanson, who founded the Inukshuk newsletter in 1973 — and which became Nunatsiaq News three years later — is nominated for Best Feature Series for a three-part series, “‘Will you marry me?’ was not the question,” about the Inuit tradition of arranged marriages.

They are among the paper’s 22 nominations announced last week for awards that recognize work from 2025.

A special section commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement is in the running for the Best Special Section category.

“I’m tremendously proud of our team’s achievements,” said managing editor Corey Larocque.

“They reflect the breadth of great work in all aspects of a newspaper — reporting, photography, features, writing, layout and advertising. The website category is especially rewarding because everyone plays a role in it and it’s increasingly how our readers follow the news.”

Ten staff members or contributors are finalists, including some in multiple categories.

Arty Sarkisian, an Iqaluit-based reporter, is a finalist in four categories — Best Arts & Entertainment Story about the repatriation of sealskin boots to Kugluktuk; Best Business Column or Feature for a piece about progress on Qikiqtarjuaq’s deepsea port; Best Education Story for an article about Sanikiluaq students learning about wind turbines; and Best News Photo for a standalone picture of reporters snapping pictures of then-premier P.J. Akeeagok and Gary Anandasangaree, who was then the federal minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, en route to visit the proposed site of a hydroelectric dam near Iqaluit.

Reporter Nehaa Bimal is also a finalist in the Best Education Story category for an article about Ottawa students learning Inuktitut.

She has two other nominations in the categories for Best Agricultural Story about a greenhouse in Gjoa Haven, and Best Environmental Story for a piece about solar power in Gjoa Haven.

Senior production artist Krista Klassen earned two nominations for advertising design.

Managing editor Corey Larocque is a finalist for editorial writing, in both the local and general categories for editorials that urged the Government of Nunavut to declare suicide to be a crisis, and the troubling overuse in Canadian media of reporting based on unnamed sources.

Reporter Jeff Pelletier is up for an award for Best News Photo of RCMP members paying tribute to their retiring commanding officer in December.

In the Best Column Writing category, Nunatsiaq News is represented by Kenn Harper, the longtime writer of the Taissumani column, as well as by former senator Dennis Patterson, who began writing the Arctic Matters column in 2025 after his retirement from Parliament’s upper house.

Former reporter Cedric Gallant’s work about Nunavik youths who took part in a treaty negotiating simulation was recognized in the Best Feature Page category.

RCMP officers raise their hats during a ceremony in honour of Andrew Blackadar, who retired as Nunavut’s commanding officer in 2025. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)

Nunatsiaq News is also a finalist in the Best Front Page for a coverage of a day of protests in Nunavik against police violence, as well concerns about the affordability of food about a year after the federal government launched a review of the Nutrition North subsidy program.

It’s also a finalist in the Best Editorial Page category for the July 25 page featuring an editorial about how a third fatal shooting by police underlines the need for change in Nunavik, and a letter to the editor by Gwen Healey Akearok, who since then became an MLA, about the connection between Arctic security and health in communities.

Winners of the Quebec Community Newspaper Association awards will be announced June 12 at a ceremony in Gatineau, Que.