CBC journalists in Quebec snag pair of awards from Canadian Association of Journalists
Catou MacKinnon wins inaugural reconciliation award, CBC Montreal team wins for excellence in labour reporting
CBC journalists in Montreal and Quebec City have won two awards for excellence in reporting from the Canadian Association of Journalists.
Quebec City reporter Catou MacKinnon has won the APTN/CAJ Reconciliation Award, created to "recognize the work of a non-Indigenous journalist whose reporting has broadened the understanding of the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples."
Her reporting over the course of several months went beyond the testimony at the Viens Commission — the Quebec public inquiry called in response to allegations that vulnerable First Nations women in Val-d'Or, Que., had been mistreated and abused by provincial police officers.
MacKinnon connected the dots between various allegations and unnamed officers to track results and find out what, if anything, happens to a police officer who breaches the police Code of Ethics.
I think this photo accurately represents this moving moment, with <a href="https://twitter.com/CatouCBC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CatouCBC</a> winning the APTN/CAJ Reconciliation Award for her incredible empathetic and delicate work. See just a fraction of it here: <a href="https://t.co/IAEHODVb8p">https://t.co/IAEHODVb8p</a> Bravo Catou, so so well-deserved and inspiring. 👏🏻 <a href="https://t.co/rGqTfqd2sE">pic.twitter.com/rGqTfqd2sE</a>
—@vestevie
Read highlights from Catou MacKinnon's continuing coverage:
- Allegations of police mistreatment of Indigenous people have gone nowhere, inquiry hears
- Montreal police failed to alert ethics commissioner about alleged misconduct involving Indigenous people
- SQ officers ignore repeated calls to remove 'solidarity' symbol from vests
- Innu woman calls for provincial police to fire officer involved in violent altercations
- Inuk woman's tell-tale botulism symptoms would have been taken seriously if she'd been white, says her widower
The shadowy world of temp agency work
A team of Montreal journalists has won the CWA Canada/CAJ Award for Excellence in Labour Reporting, honouring reporting on the social, economic and political factors that impact the labour environment in Canada.
The team, which includes Verity Stevenson, Jaela Bernstien, Jessica Rubinger, Jean-Philippe Robillard, Daniel Boily, Antoni Nerestant and Meeker Guerrier, told the story of a Haitian asylum seeker recruited into black-market work in a meat plant who suffered a serious injury in a workplace accident.
Paolo's story showed how recruiters exploited gaps in Quebec's labour laws. As a result of the CBC News team's reports, changes to the law were introduced, and several government agencies, including Quebec's workplace health and safety board, launched investigations and conducted raids on the companies involved.
Earlier this year, Paolo was finally granted compensation for his injury.
Read more on Paolo's ordeal and the repercussions:
The CAJ awards recognize the best in investigative journalism across the country.