Tyee Reporters Win Three Webster Awards

The Tyee is ecstatic to share that three of our journalists have won Webster Awards — a record number for this publication. The Websters celebrate excellence in print, online, radio and television journalism in British Columbia.

Christopher Cheung won for “Left Behind in a Pandemic,” a series of five stories about Lower Mainland residents uniquely challenged by the pandemic (such as these “translator kids,” multigenerational households, Filipino frontliners) and who exactly lives in COVID-19 hotspots. Cheung won in the category of Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion Reporting.

Andrew MacLeod won for “The Corporate Push into BC’s Primary Care System,” a five-story checkup into how big business has edged into the province’s health-care system, in the category of Excellence in Business, Industry, Labour & Economics Reporting.

And Bryan Carney, our “FOI king,” won for “‘You Have Zero Privacy,’ Says an Internal RCMP Presentation. Inside the Force’s Web Spying Program,” an exclusive peek into the opaque Project Wide Awake, in the category of Excellence in Technology Reporting.

We also won the Bill Good Award, which “honours a B.C. individual or organization that makes a significant contribution to journalism in the province, or addresses a community’s needs and benefits via journalism.”

Tyee contributing editor Andrew Nikiforuk was a finalist in the category of health reporting for his coverage of the COVID variants and how to respond, stories that collectively received over a million page views. The prize went to Vancouver Sun reporter Lori Culbert.

The team attended the virtual celebration yesterday evening and plans to hold a boisterous party when it’s safe to do so.

“The Tyee’s success is owed to a great many people, from the founders in 2003, to the countless writers who’ve graced our pages, to our ongoing core stewards, to the thousands of voluntary monthly donors who support our work,” said editor Robyn Smith and publisher Jeanette Ageson in their shared acceptance remarks.

“The publication is proof that there’s another way to fund and sustain public interest journalism. Thanks and appreciation therefore goes to the many people who’ve invested their ethical commitment, passion and smarts over the years in figuring out how to grow the budget and pay the bills.”

“We at The Tyee are grateful and humbled,” added founding editor David Beers in his remarks. “I am thinking tonight of people like Barbara McLintock and Rafe Mair and Murray Dobbin, no longer with us, who invested their smarts and credibility in our early efforts.”

Congratulations to all of last night’s winners and nominees, and a hearty thank you to our colleagues at the Jack Webster Foundation for the chance to celebrate journalism in the west through the Webster Awards.

Find all of the finalists and winners here.