The Globe and Mail wins three Jack Webster Foundation awards

The Globe and Mail has won three Jack Webster Awards celebrating the best in B.C. journalism, for work spanning phony paintings and endangered species to sunken treasure.
Marsha Lederman took home the prize for Arts and Culture Reporting with “The VAG Comes Clean,” about the Vancouver Art Gallery’s years-long effort to determine the authenticity of 10 oil sketches purportedly by Group of Seven co-founder J.E.H. MacDonald. The paintings turned out to be fake.
Justine Hunter was recognized for Excellence in Environment Reporting, an award presented by the Pacific Salmon Foundation, for “Trapped in Ice: A Glacial Reveal.” The three-part series follows B.C. scientists in their search for the history of climate change in the province’s glaciers.
Ms. Hunter was also nominated for a first-person feature about searching for some of Canada’s most endangered species.
Globe reporter Nancy Macdonald won for Excellence in Feature Reporting, Print/Digital, for “Gold Diggers in a Cold Sea,” about the search for the wreck of the S.S. Pacific, which cost hundreds of lives and dragged millions in gold to the bottom of the ocean when it sank in 1875.
In all, The Globe was nominated for seven awards. The winners were announced at an event in Vancouver on Monday.
“British Columbia coverage is a priority for us,” Globe editor-in-chief David Walmsley said. “These wins and the wider staff nominations showcase that commitment.”
Global BC also won three awards, while the Vancouver Sun/Province secured two. IndigiNews, the Fraser Valley Current, CHEK News, CTV News Vancouver, CBC Vancouver, The Narwhal and CKYE 93.1 & 89.1 RED FM each won one award.
The Globe’s other nominations included Andrea Woo in the health category for an investigation into allegations that dozens of pharmacies in the Vancouver region and on Vancouver Island were offering kickbacks, including for vulnerable patients receiving treatment for addiction; Susan Krashinsky Robertson, Ming Wong and freelance photographer Alana Paterson in the innovative journalism category for a visual feature about the people who line up at Canadian retailer Aritzia’s popular warehouse sale; and Jeffrey Jones and Chen Wang, along with The Narwhal’s Francesca Fionda and Lindsay Sample, for a jointly reported story that looks at the growing costs of cleaning up mine pollution in B.C.
The Jack Webster Foundation was created in 1986 after the retirement of its namesake. Mr. Webster was a well-known, influential reporter in Western Canada, and the organization says the awards are meant to create a community where B.C. journalism thrives.