Nunatsiaq News nominated for 15 QCNAs

Nunatsiaq News has been nominated for 15 awards from the Quebec Community Newspaper Association this year.

Beth Brown, who recently left the newspaper to join Up Here magazine as an associate editor, is up for five nominations.

Her story, with photographs, that captured Iqaluit coming together following a bowhead whale hunt is up for best feature.

Another feature, on an on-the-land education program held by Nuna School in Apex, is up for best education story.

An article on the ongoing controversies over how to best regulate Nunavut’s polar bear hunt is up for best environmental story.

Her article on Pangnirtung’s public pleas for help with youth wellness and addictions is up for best municipal story.

And Brown’s article on a role-playing computer game that’s being tailored to Inuit culture to help combat mental illness is up for best community health story.

The newspaper’s editorial writer, Jim Bell, is up for best local affairs editorial, for a piece on the federal government’s Nutrition North Canada food-subsidy program, entitled It’s about nutrition, stupid.

Bell is also up for best business story, on how the Qikiqtani Inuit Association helped Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. overturn the advice of the Nunavut Impact Review Board to allow an increase in ore production.

And Bell is up for best business feature, for a story that details Baffinland’s future expansion plans.

Courtney Edgar has been nominated for an investigative reporting award for her reporting on issues affecting Iqaluit’s homeless. That includes stories on a Nunavut family that pitched a tent at the legislature to protest hidden homelessness, a look at how the rules governing the public housing wait list remain murky to many, and the Nunavut Housing Corp.’s explanation of the hard choices it faces.

Edgar is also up for best business story, for a piece on Iqaluit’s new micro-brewery’s efforts to make its operations environmentally friendly.

Sarah Rogers has been nominated for best feature series, for stories she produced while covering hearings held in Nunavut by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. That includes stories on how sexual abuse was at the root of a Nunavut woman’s death and how the hearings led to an unprecedented disclosure of abuse, as well as a look at efforts to encourage victims to speak up.

Rogers is also up for best municipal story, on her article on how Iqaluit’s Tammaativvik boarding home stepped up security following the violent death of a patient staying at the centre.

Jane George is up for best feature, for her article on Christmas memories from across the eastern Arctic.

As well, Nunatsiaq News’ print edition has been nominated for best front page, for an edition that shows black smoke billowing from Iqaluit’s Northmart following a major fire in November.

And the newspaper’s new website, which launched in December, is also up for a prize.

The QCNA will announce this year’s winners on June 8, at a gala at the Hotel du Lac Carling in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge.