Arno Kopecky Wins Dave Greber Magazine Award

Arno Kopecky’s engrossing feature on the standoff at Fairy Creek has won the 2022 Dave Greber magazine award.

The Vancouver-based journalist, who writes about politics and the environment, reported the story “Three Days in the Theatre of Fairy Creek” in collaboration with The Tyee and Hakai Magazine last summer. He also wrote an insightful Tyee series analyzing the state of Premier John Horgan’s BC NDP earlier this year.

The Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards, which honour the late Calgary-based freelancer Dave Greber, recognize freelance magazine stories related to social justice.

Our 2022 winners! Arno Kopecky is the winner of the $2000.00 Magazine Award. Arno's winning article “Three Days in the Theatre of Old-Growth Logging and Protest” was published by @hakaimagazine along with @TheTyee Winning Article here - https://t.co/tjPl9q8069 @arno_kopecky

— Shirley Dunn (@Greber_Awards) October 19, 2022

“This was a special story to report on, not only for its broader significance, but also because the region around Fairy Creek, albeit not Fairy Creek itself, is a place I spent a lot of time exploring while I was studying creative writing at the University of Victoria,” Kopecky said.

The author of The Environmentalist’s Dilemma: Promise and Peril in an Age of Climate Crisis and The Oil Man and the Sea: Navigating the Northern Gateway described to The Tyee a “weird and borderline supernatural coincidence” he encountered while at Fairy Creek.

“One of the more striking things I saw while reporting this story was a land defender who was sitting on the edge of a pole that was cantilevered off the edge of a bridge, so that he was suspended high over a rocky waterfall in a thundering rainstorm,” he said. “Well, as I later learned, that pole happened to be the mast of the sailboat I’d explored the Great Bear Rainforest in nine years earlier during the expedition I wrote about for my second book, The Oil Man and the Sea.”

“It sounds trite, but it felt like the universe just provided for me on this one,” Kopecky said. Kopecky said he felt lucky to have Hakai editor-in-chief Jude Isabella and Tyee editor-in-chief David Beers guide and support him for this story.

“It’s not every day that you hand in a draft that’s 5,000 words over what the editors were expecting, and they just… run it,” Kopecky said. “To have the story — and more importantly, the issues it raises — recognized by the Dave Greber award jury is just the cherry on top of it all, and I don’t take any of it for granted. I’m indebted to everyone involved.”

Tyee editor-in-chief David Beers called Kopecky “a brilliant journalist and thinker.”

“We were fortunate that he took up this project with us,” Beers said. “He brought to it his usual nuance, empathy and ability to drive to the core issues. Read his books!”

Beers also said he was happy to have partnered with Hakai magazine for this story. “Their standards are very high and they broadened the audience for this fine piece.”

“It’s also a credit to the fine folks who support The Tyee and the independent media sector in this part of the world. Thanks to you a stellar B.C.-based journalist was able to collaborate with two B.C.-based digital news innovators to produce important work and share it widely.”