Finalists for 2018 Jack Webster Awards announced

VANCOUVER, Sept. 5, 2018 /CNW/ – Western Canada’s preeminent journalism awards today announced the finalists in the 12 different categories for the 2018 Jack Webster Awards.  The awards recognize excellence in journalism in B.C. and all finalists will be celebrated, and the one winner in each category will be announced at the October 29th awards dinner to be held at the Hyatt Regency, Vancouver.

Submissions were encouraged from print, radio, television and online media sources that cover news, sports, the arts, business, community issues, and more.  The finalists for the 2018 Jack Webster Awards are:

Finalists – Excellence in Feature/Enterprise Reporting – TV
Laura Lynch, Glen Kugelstadt,  CBC, for Swiss Schindler
Michele Brunoro,  CTV Vancouver, for Dead End Streets – Surrey’sHomelessness Crisis
Jill Bennett, John Hua, Catherine Urquhart, Grace Ke, Global BC News for Soliris Fight

Finalists – Excellence in Feature/Enterprise Reporting – Radio
Jeremy Allingham, CBC Radio One, for Major Misconduct: Why We Let Kids Fight On Ice
Bal Brach, Laura Palmer, Stephen Quinn, Matthew Parsons, Lee Rosevere,  CBC Radio One, for SOLD!,
Jodie Martinson, Stephen Quinn, Chris Robinson, Catherine Rolfsen, Kori Sidaway, Michelle Eliot, CBC Radio One, for Wasted Lives:  BC’s Biggest Addiction Crisis

Finalists – Excellence in Feature/Enterprise Reporting – Print/Text-Based Online
Amy Smart, Victoria Times Colonist, for B.C. fish farms:  A tangled net
Natalie Clancy, Manjula Dufresne, Jane Armstrong, cbc.ca/bc, for Port Mann
Sam Cooper, Postmedia, Vancouver Sun, for Dirty Money in BC:  Casinos, Drugs, Real Estate

Finalists – Jack Webster Award for Business, Industry and Economics
Rob Shaw, Vancouver Sun, for The economics of public auto insurance
Frances Bula,  Globe and Mail, for Have Vancouver’s policies hindered rental housing more than they helped
Trevor Jang,  BCBusiness and Discourse Media, for Breaking Tradition

Finalists – Jack Webster Award for Excellence in Legal Journalism
Eric Rankin, CBC, for Ivan Henry Lawsuit
Laura Kane, Geordon Omand,  The Canadian Press, for Jordan Decision, One Year Later
Gemma Karstens-Smith,  The Canadian Press, for Gladue Decison

Finalists – Jack Webster Award for Science, Technology and Environment
Heather Pringle,  Hakai Magazine, for In the Land of Lost Gardens
Johanna Wagstaffe, Polly Leger, Lee Rosevere, Shiral Tobin,  CBC Radio One, for 2050:  Degrees of Change
Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun/Province, for Prostate Cancer:  1 in 7

Finalists – Best Reporting Chinese Language
Annie Law,  Fairchild Television Magazine 26, for Chinese Chef Shortage
Susanna Ng, Ivy Ng, Eva Cheng, Eric Chan, Victoria Chang, Amanda Sun,  Ming Pao Daily, for Hongkongers in Canada – on the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover
Kevin Yao, Alvin Huang, Johann Chang, Travena Lee,  Fairchild Radio, for Vancouver’s apology to early Chinese immigrants

Finalists – Jack Webster Award for Community Reporting
Max Winkelman, Tara Spickerhoff, Barbara Roden, 100 Mile Free Press/Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal, for Fire Fight
Elizabeth Nolan,  Gulf Islands Driftwood, for Dying with Dignity
Keri Coles,  Oak Bay News, for 92-year old WWII veteran united with family of fallen soldier after decades-long search

Finalists – Jack Webster Award for Excellence in Digital Journalism
Justin McElroy,  cbc.ca/bc, for We’ve tracked every promise the B.C. NDP made in the last election:  Here’s where they stand
Wawmeesh Hamilton,  Discourse Media and CBC Indigenous, for Reconciliation in small Canadian towns
Ashley Wadhwani, Katya Slepian, Karly Blats, Arnold Lim, Vancouver Island Free Daily, for Me Too At Work:  Sexual assault and harassment in the B.C. workplace

Finalists – Best Breaking News –  TV
Sarah MacDonald, David Molko, Maria Weisgarber, St. John Alexander, Michele Brunoro, Allison Hurst, Breanna Karstens-Smith, CTV Vancouver, for BC Underwater – The Worst Flooding in a Century
Geoff Hastings, Aaron McArthur, Darryl Patton, Stephen Lyon, Keith Whitter, Monty Burt, Karl Avefjall, Simon Boniface, Luca Sgaetti, , Global BC News, for Cst. Davidson Shot
Chris Gailus, Sophie Lui, Sonia Deol, Paul Johnson, Ted Chernecki, Paul Haysom, Lauren Pullen, Nadia Stewart, Clayton Little, Cody Chaban, Luca Sgaetti,  Global BC News, for BC Wildfires

Finalists – Best Breaking News –  Radio
Stephen Quinn, Lee Rosevere, Drew Kerekes, Jake Costello, Bridgitte Watson, Yvette Brend, Claudia Goodine, Michelle Eliot, Theresa Duvall, Judy Alduous, Heather Moriarty, Dave Waddell, Chris Robinson, Rob Zimmerman, Rafferty Baker, Megan Thomas, CBC Radio One, for The morning Canada bought a pipeline
Jon McComb, Pippa Reed, Niki Reitmayer, Greg Schott, John O’Dowd,  980 CKNW, for The Kinder Morgan Decision
Simi Sara, Claire Allen, Amilia Bhamji, 980 CKNW, for Christy Clark Reigns

Finalists – Best Breaking News –  Print/Text-Based Online
Bethany Lindsay, Justin McElroy, Angela Sterritt, Brady Strachan, Lien Yeung, Maryse Zeidler, Anita Bathe, Tara Carman, Tina Lovgreen, Tamara Baluja, Pete Scobie,  cbc.ca/bc,  for B.C. Wildfires – State of Emergency
Scott Brown, Cheryl Chan, Lori Culbert, Nick Eagland, Gordon Hoekstra, Stephanie Ip, Patrick Johnston, Rich Lam, Glenda Luymes, Harrison Mooney, Jason Payne, Jennifer Saltman, Vancouver Sun/Province, for BC Wildfires 2017
Wendy Stueck, Mike Hagar, Rafal Gerszak, Ben Nelms, The Globe and Mail, for Hotel Misery

Also at the awards dinner the 2018 Commentator of the Year  will be announced, as will the  2018 Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2018 Bill Good Award.  Keith Morrison, an award-winning correspondent for Dateline NBC who joined the program in 1995 after a prominent career at both NBC and in Canadian television. will be the event’s guest speaker.

Tickets are available to attend the 2018 Webster Awards.  They are $195each or $1,950 for a table for 10.  More information about tickets is available at www.jackwebster.com/dinnertickets where they can also be purchased by credit card, online.

This year’s Jack Webster Awards are made possible by Air Canada, BCGEU, Coast Capital Savings, FortisBC, Global Container Terminals Inc., Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, Lyft, The Pattison Group, Port of Vancouver, UDI, and Vancity.  Hyphen is the video sponsor and Rocky Mountain Railtours is the door prize sponsor.

The Jack Webster Foundation was founded in 1986 and named after the man who was Western Canada’s best-known and most influential reporter.  He left his mark on the B.C. journalism scene with his hard-hitting reporting style. In his more than 40 years of print, radio and television journalism, Jack Webster was synonymous with insightful, accurate and unabashed reporting.  Today the Jack Webster Foundation carries on Jack’s legacy by promoting and recognizing the achievements of B.C.- based reporters by:  holding the annual Jack Webster Awards for excellence in journalism in BC, awarding annual Student Awards to senior journalism students, awarding Professional Development Fellowships to working journalists, and providing educational seminars for the media.