Finalists announced for 2017 Michener Award for public service journalism

OTTAWA — The Michener Awards Foundation has announced Cogeco Media, CBC Edmonton, Global News, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and The Vancouver Sun as the finalists for the 2017 Michener Award for meritorious public service journalism.

Gov. Gen. Julie Payette will host the Michener Awards ceremony at Rideau Hall on June 12 where the winner of the 2017 Michener Award will be announced.

Cogeco Media is nominated for work by reporters Monic Neron and Emilie Perreault at Montreal radio station 98.5FM. They earned the trust of 10 women, who risked their careers to go on record and speak openly about alleged harassment and sexual assault suffered at the hands of Just For Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon.

CBC Edmonton’s Jennie Russell and Charles Rusnell uncovered serious irregularities involving grants to Pure North, a private health foundation of a wealthy Calgary oilman. Following CBC’s series, the government cancelled the clinic’s funding, and Health Canada and the Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta launched investigations.

A Global News team exposed serious flaws in the way Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada handled permanent residency applications for people with disabilities and medical conditions. The multi-platform investigation revealed that immigration officials used faulty and outdated academic research to determine “a cost threshold” and each year rejected as many as 450 viable applicants as medically inadmissible.

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Globe and Mail reporter Grant Robertson discovered some marijuana companies were cutting corners by using illegal toxic pesticides — and scores of consumers were becoming seriously ill. One patient’s medical marijuana, independently tested by the Globe, contained no fewer than five banned pesticides. Robertson’s investigative reporting ultimately caused Health Canada to institute new federal legislation for mandatory testing.

In a massive investigation involving more than 250 Freedom of Information requests, the Globe and Mail’s Robyn Doolittle tracked dismissed, or “unfounded,” sexual assault cases handled by Canadian police. The result was a 2017 series that showed police were dismissing one in five such complaints. The series spurred the federal government to pledge better police oversight, training and policies.

A year-long Toronto Star investigation revealed how companies are increasingly turning to temp agencies to limit their liability for workplace accidents, reduce employers’ responsibility and cut costs. Using Freedom of Information requests and undercover work in one of the continent’s largest industrial bakeries, Star reporters Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Brendan Kennedy revealed how some of the most vulnerable segments of the population were exposed to dangerous, and even fatal working conditions.

In two series, the Vancouver Sun and Globe and Mail exposed a shocking failure of Canadian security regulators and governments to protect investors. Sun reporter Gordon Hoekstra’s databases for B.C. uncovered unpaid penalties of more than a half-billion dollars over the past 10 years, and fraudsters with $31 million in assets.

Globe reporters Grant Robertson and Tom Cardoso took the investigation of white-collar crime national, analyzing almost 30 years of security offences. Data revealed that one in nine white-collar criminals are repeat offenders, evading regulators and fines by moving provinces. Both series sent shock waves through the investment community and governments.

The Michener Award, founded in 1970 by late former governor general Roland Michener, honours excellence in public service journalism.

The Canadian Press