Michener Award finalists announced for outstanding public-service journalism

May 7, 2019 | 8:45 AM

OTTAWA — The Michener Awards Foundation has named the finalists for its 2018 award to honour excellence in public-service journalism.

The nominees include work by the Waterloo Region Record; the St. Catharines Standard; the Telegraph-Journal of Saint John; CBC TV News; the Toronto Star, CBC News and Radio-Canada; and APTN and CBC North.

Gov. Gen. Julie Payette is to announce the winner at a ceremony at Rideau Hall on June 14. The Michener Award was founded in 1970 by former governor general Roland Michener.

The Waterloo Region Record is nominated for Greg Mercer’s months-long investigation of the health problems inflicted on workers by the once-important rubber industry in Kitchener, Ont.

The St. Catharines Standard earned its nomination for reporter Grant LaFleche’s year-long investigation that led to more than 50 stories on a conspiracy behind the hiring of the top bureaucrat in Ontario’s Niagara region.

The Telegraph-Journal is nominated for an 18-month investigation that exposed problems with New Brunswick’s ambulance service. The newspaper uncovered a severe shortage of paramedics that left ambulances sitting empty, which meant some people in emergency situations were transported in regular vehicles.

CBC TV News is nominated for an investigation by the program “The Fifth Estate” into longstanding claims by Transport Canada that school buses are safer without seatbelts, contrary to the department’s own conclusion that they would have prevented numerous deaths and thousands of injuries.

The Toronto Star, CBC News and Radio-Canada received a joint nod for their collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that shone a light on lax approval, regulation and oversight of the country’s medical-device industry.

APTN and CBC North earned a joint nomination after they exposed failures in the child-welfare system that led to physical abuse and neglect of Indigenous teens. The reporting led to a public apology by the Yukon government for its failure to protect the youths as well as corrective actions.

The Canadian Press