April 4, 2025
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) is pleased to share its finalists for 2024 CAJ Awards.
Recipients in each category will be announced at the awards gala on Saturday, May 31, 2025 at the Delta Hotel Downtown Calgary.
The gala is the CAJ’s signature annual event to conclude its national conference. The theme for this year’s conference is Because Facts Still Matter.
“Journalism that serves the public interest is an essential service that shines a light into the darkest corners of society,” said Brent Jolly, president of the CAJ. “In a time of chaos, disorder, and shrinking civic spaces, fact-based journalism is a critical antidote to a rising sense of cynicism. Quality journalism serves as a beacon of hope for a more fair and just world – a quality that is universally shared by this year’s finalists.”
Judges selected these finalists from a record 540 submissions. “Our team was blown away by the range and depth of the quality journalism Canadians produced this year,” said Jason Markusoff, CAJ Awards committee chair. “Many judges told me how difficult their selections were this year, given how much inspiring and stellar work was entered.”
For the first time this year, CAJ Awards will announce two winners in each category: Gold and Silver. Both will get certificates to acknowledge the outstanding journalism, while the Gold winner will also get a monetary prize.
Finalists are listed below in alphabetical order by media outlet. Links to nominated work have been provided where available.
The finalists in the WRITTEN NEWS category are:
Nicholas De Rosa, Jeff Yates
Le Canada, « cible numéro un » de fraudeurs internationaux
Radio-Canada Info
Wendy Gillis, Jennifer Pagliaro
The invisible girl
Toronto Star
The finalists in the HUGO RODRIGUES AWARD FOR COMMUNITY NEWS (formerly Community Written) category are:
The finalists in the BROADCAST OVER FIVE MINUTES category are:
Brittany Guyot, Tom Fennario
Food for profit
APTN Investigates
Mark Kelley, Timothy Sawa, Lisa Ellenwood, Loretta Hicks
Dawson Creek: We want our town back
CBC News: The Fifth Estate
Brandi Morin, Geordie Day
The Apache Stronghold standing in the way of a massive copper mine
Ricochet Media
The finalists in the BROADCAST UNDER FIVE MINUTES category are:
Rebecca Collard
The day after: Young Palestinians want “honest democracy”
CBC News
Yvette Brend, Nicholas Allan
Lytton rebuild
CBC Vancouver
Marie-Claude Paradis-Desfosses
Violence à Lac Simon : «On se fait poignarder» au primaire, confie une enfant de 11 ans
Noovo Info
Davide Gentile, Daniel Boily, Jacques Racine, Ivanoh Demers
Une plaie de lit fatale pour un tétraplégique
Radio-Canada Info
Romain Schue, Thomas Bignon
Dans les coulisses des traversées clandestines avec des passeurs indiens
Radio-Canada Info
The finalists in the COMMUNITY BROADCAST category are:
Taryn Grant
On the doorstep
CBC Atlantic Voice
Virginie Ann
Addictions Awareness Week: Crucial conversations in the Yukon
CBC Yukon
Lela Savic, Emmanuelle Moussa
Pas tout Montréal
La Converse
Alice Zanetta
Des citoyens lancent un café solidaire à Sainte-Foy
Fréquence / CKIA
James Westman, Anthony Lippa-Hardy, Anita Li
Why you’re at risk every time you cross this intersection in Scarborough
The Green Line
The finalists in the DATA JOURNALISM category are:
Valérie Ouellet, Mike Crawley, Aloysius Wong, Andreas Wesley
Canada’s international student spike was blamed on private colleges. Here’s what really happened
CBC News: Investigative Unit
Julie Ireton, Valérie Ouellet, Falice Chin
Paid to stay home
CBC Ottawa
Erin Anderssen, Chen Wang, Rachelle Younglai
Wasted space: Could Canada’s underused public land be the key to solving the housing crisis?
The Globe and Mail
Charles Mathieu, Dominique Cambron-Goulet
La carte des «trappes à tickets» : Voyez les secteurs avec le plus de contraventions
Journal de Montréal
Sylvie Fournier, Daniel Tremblay, Benoit Michaud, Jo-Ann Demers
Église catholique inc.
Radio-Canada Info
The finalists in the ONLINE MEDIA category are:
Robert Cribb, Declan Keogh, Norma Hilton, Scott Martin, Rhythm Sachdeva
Lead in drinking water
Investigative Journalism Bureau
Thomas Gerbet
Autochtones et Hydro-Québec : le grand malaise des factures impayées
Radio-Canada (web)
Chris Beaver, Katie O’Connor, Jasmine El Kurd, Pam Palmater
NDN POV
TVO Today
The finalists in the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION JOURNALISM are:
Allison Jones
Ontario hospitals, LTC homes spent nearly $1B on agency staff last year
The Canadian Press
Caroline Touzin, Ariane Lacoursière
Centres jeunesse et foyers de groupe de la DPJ : De plus en plus de mesures de contention ou d’isolement
La Presse
This award is kindly sponsored by the Ken and Debbie Rubin Public Interest Advocacy Fund.
The finalists in the PHOTOJOURNALISM category are:
Gavin John
Portfolio
The Globe and Mail, The Narwhal
The finalists in the SCOOP category are:
Anaïs Elboujdaïni
Le Canada demande à des travailleurs de la santé de Gaza s’ils ont soigné des membres du Hamas
La Converse
Bethany Lindsay
One third of B.C.’s ‘publicly funded substance-use treatment beds’ don’t provide any treatment
Investigative Journalism Foundation
The finalists in the DAILY EXCELLENCE category are:
Margaret Evans, Stephanie Jenzer, David Iacolucci
At Saydnaya prison, Syrians are looking for answers
CBC News: The National
Suzanne Rent
Build Nova Scotia gives Atlantic Road Construction and Paving deadline after company puts barriers at trail in Dartmouth Cove
The Halifax Examiner
Sebastian Bron, Fallon Hewitt
Former Hamilton Catholic teacher killed in random attack; police charge alleged serial killer
The Hamilton Spectator
The finalists in the WRITTEN FEATURE category are:
The finalists in the COMMUNITY WRITTEN FEATURE category are:
Liny Lamberink
Regrowth
CBC North
Loubna Chlaikhy, Melissa Haouari
Quand les armes à feu sont mises entre les mains d’adolescents
La Converse
Jeff Outhit
Everything was a lie
Waterloo Region Record
The finalists in the JHR / CAJ AWARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTING are:
Robert Cribb, Declan Keogh, Wendy-Ann Clarke, Owen Thompson
Mind games
Investigative Journalism Bureau, Toronto Star, TVO
The finalists in the CWA CANADA / CAJ AWARD FOR LABOUR REPORTING are:
David Wiwchar
Vietnamese migrant workers rescued
93.3 The PEAK CJAV-FM (Port Alberni)
Anusha Siddiqui
Exploited in the workplace: The ‘Canadian dream’ turns into a nightmare for international students
Investigative Journalism Foundation
The finalists in the JHR / CAJ EMERGING INDIGENOUS JOURNALIST AWARD are:
Odette Auger
Portfolio
APTN News, Windspeaker
Tchadas Leo
Portfolio
CHEK News
Jérôme Gill-Couture
Portfolio
Radio-Canada Info
Crystal Greene
Portfolio
Ricochet Media, IndigiNews, Pivot Media
Joy SpearChief-Morris
Portfolio
Toronto Star
The finalists in the ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE CHANGE AWARD category are:
Danielle Paradis, Mark Blackburn, Jesse Andrushko
The place that thaws
APTN News
Jenn Thornhill Verma, Johnny C.Y. Lam, Murat Yükselir, Melissa Tait, Clare Vander Meersch
Labrador Inuit are taking the fight against climate change into their own hands
The Globe and Mail
The finalists in the NATIONAL NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL-CAJ STUDENT JOURNALISM AWARD OF EXCELLENCE are:
Andrew Neary
R.A. Sennett: From public school to global headquarters, 170 years of learning
The Chronicle – Durham College
Asbah Ahmad, Sophia Coppolino, Aimée Look
The hazing incident that erased a prestigious Queen’s Commerce club
The Queen’s Journal – Queen’s University
Chloe Kim, Leonor Dias, Alexa Difrancesco, Noel Tesfa
The Call (S3E5) – We Met U When
Toronto Metropolitan University School of Journalism
Nalyn Tindall
Getting by on gig work: The hidden costs of ‘easy’ money
The Eyeopener – Toronto Metropolitan University
Om Shanbhag
The driving dilemma: How nursing students struggle to access placements
The Western Gazette – Western University
This award is kindly sponsored by the Fraser MacDougall Journalism Prize Fund.
This year’s awards finalists qualify for special discounted rates for the conference and awards gala. All finalists will be contacted with how to obtain these discounts.
Tickets for this year’s gala are currently available for purchase and seating is limited.
The CAJ thanks all those who submitted their work for consideration and congratulate the finalists listed above. We look forward to further recognizing and celebrating your work.
For further information:
Brent Jolly, CAJ president – brent@caj.ca
Jason Markusoff, Awards committee chair – jason@caj.ca