Nunatsiaq News is nominated for a National Newspaper Award for its special section on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. The section was published Nov. 11, 2025. (Graphic created by Nunatsiaq News)
Nunatsiaq News up for National Newspaper Award for JBNQA section
3rd straight year newspaper earns nomination for national prize
Nunatsiaq News has been nominated for a National Newspaper Award for its coverage of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and its impact on Nunavik.
It’s the third straight year Nunatsiaq News has been nominated for the prize.
“It was a dynamic team effort to put this section together,” said Nunatsiaq News managing editor Corey Larocque.
“We wanted to do more to mark this milestone than simply recite the history of the agreement. This special section looks at how the JBNQA shaped Nunavik today and where Nunavik might be going in the next 50 years.”
A special section published in Nunatsiaq News on Nov. 11, 2025 — exactly 50 years after the signing of the JBNQA — included close to a dozen stories in both Inuktitut and English, numerous photos, and several full-page graphics and fact boxes commemorating the event.
The project brought together the work of Nunatsiaq reporters and editors plus freelance writers and editors. It offered fresh views from Nunavimmiut who were politically active back in 1975, such as Charlie Watt, one of the signatories, as well as Harry Tulugak from Puvirnituq, the only Nunavik community that did not sign onto the JBNQA.
It also heard from current voices such as Makivvik president Pita Aatami and Nunavik artists like Maggie Napartuk and Thomassie Mangiok.
The JBNQA brought improvements to health care in Nunavik, led to the creation of the region’s own school board and the incorporation of its communities into municipalities. It also disrupted some communities, including the forced relocation of the entire community of the Cree Nation of Chisasibi.
Nunatsiaq News is nominated in the category Special Topic: Journalism in a Language other than French or English.
Also nominated is the Toronto-based Chinese-language publication Sing Tao, for its coverage of the human cost of British Columbia’s overdose crisis and gaps in its health-care system.
Nunatsiaq News was a finalist in the same category for its coverage of the 2024 Nunavut Quest, and for a special section in 2023 exploring whether the old Northwest Territories’ Homeownership Assistance Program could be part of the solution to Nunavut’s housing problem.
The National Newspaper Awards, presented each year to recognize the country’s best efforts in journalism. Ninety-nine journalists representing 27 publications have received nominations for their work in 2025.
The Globe and Mail received the most nominations with 19, followed by La Presse with 13 and the Toronto Star with eight.
Winners will be announced at a ceremony in Toronto on April 24.
This whole “nominating” process, seems somewhat like Cops investigating Cops, as it is Journalists nominating Journalists. Kind of a self-aggrandizement by an industry.
I give the process 3 out of 5 Lemon Pound Cakes on any real value to the reader.