Students, alumni, and instructors receive 17 CAJ nominations

Congratulations from Journalism at The Creative School to our alumni, instructors and students who have recently been nominated for various Canadian Association of Journalists (external link)  (CAJ) awards for their journalistic innovation and excellence.

Our students received two nominations in the National Newsmedia Council-CAJ Student Journalism Award of Excellence category.

Nalyn Tindall, a fourth-year student, was nominated for her piece in The Eyeopener, “Getting by on gig work: The hidden costs of ‘easy’ money (external link) .”

Tindall was inspired to write this story after being involved in conversations about how people make money and struggle to make ends meet. 

After meeting workers in the gig economy doing food delivery or hospitality jobs, she started to see connections between these different industries.

“Seeing this nature of work was really prolific for students because of this promise of flexibility, but there were always more deep-rooted issues surrounding the pay and the rights of workers,” she said. “I thought that it was something that should be looked into deeper.”

From We Met U When, a podcast series produced by JRN 801: Advanced Podcasting and Radio Doc. students, “S3 E5: The Call” was nominated as well.

“The Call” was produced by Chloe Kim, Leonor Dias, Alexa DiFranceso and Noel Tesfa.

Kim experienced a racial microaggression while interviewing a source for the group's original story. 

"I just couldn't believe that this was something that got caught on tape," she said. "A lot of people can talk about microaggressions, but not a lot of people are in a profession where they record them."

She was met with support and comfort after bringing up the incident to her group and assistant professor Shari Okeke.

After a long discussion, the group decided to switch their topic with only eight weeks left in the course and refocus their episode on the call.

Okeke said the fact that this happened to a student producer during production made this episode particularly challenging.

“The production team did an excellent job of supporting each other and actively practicing trauma-informed approaches, while also respecting core principles of accuracy, fairness and sound editorial judgment.”

Anthony Lippa-Hardy, a fourth-year student, Anita Li, founder and editor-in-chief of The Green Line and journalism innovator in residence, and James Westman were nominated in the Community Broadcast category for their piece, “Why you’re at risk every time you cross this intersection in Scarborough (external link) .”

Li said The Green Line (external link)  team is thrilled for their first-ever CAJ nomination.

“Our video was a group effort, and I'm super proud of not only Anthony and James, but also the rest of the team who pitched in (from social to tech) since we're very collaborative at TGL.”

Lippa-Hardy said he is grateful for the award nomination and the opportunity to highlight communities across Toronto.

“Working with The Green Line over the past year has been some of the most fulfilling work of my life,” he said. “Exploring pedestrian safety on a more personal level, and connecting with those directly affected by it, has been the most meaningful part of this experience for me.”

Wendy Gillis (‘11 MJ) and Jennifer Pagliaro’s “The invisible girl (external link) ” for the Toronto Star was nominated in the Written News category.

The finalists in the Hugo Rodrigues Award for Community News featured two alumni.

Michelle Allan (‘21 MJ) for her piece, “Families in Thunder Bay accuse landlord of illegally shutting power, threats (external link) ” in CBC Thunder Bay.

Wency Leung (‘02) for her piece, “GFL says it’s ‘Green For Life’—Its neighbours disagree (external link) ” for The Local.

For Broadcast under five minutes, Yvette Brend (‘96) and Nicholas Allan were nominated for their CBC Vancouver piece, “Lytton rebuild (external link) .”

Two alumni were nominated for their work in the Data Journalism category.

Aloysius Wong (‘23 MJ), Valérie Ouellet, Mike Crawley, Andreas Wesley and Catherine Cullen for their CBC News: Investigative Unit piece, “Canada’s international student spike was blamed on private colleges. Here’s what really happened (external link) .”

Rachelle Younglai (‘02), Erin Anderssen and Chen Wang for The Globe and Mail’s, “Wasted space: Could Canada’s underused public land be the key to solving the housing crisis? (external link) ”

In the Online Media category, former instructor Robert Cribb, Declan Keogh (‘18), Scott Martin (‘24), Norma Hilton and Rhythm Sachdeva from the Investigative Journalism Bureau were nominated for their work, “Lead in drinking water (external link) .”

Allison Jones' (‘06) work in The Canadian Press, “Ontario hospitals, LTC homes spent nearly $1B on agency staff last year (external link) ,” was nominated in the Freedom of Information Journalism category.

Emma McIntosh (‘18) was also nominated in the Freedom of Information Journalism category for her work with The Narwhal, “Containment breached (external link) .”

An instructor and alumnus’ work received nominations in the Scoop category.

Shireen Ahmed, instructor, was nominated for her CBC Sports piece, “Toronto awarded WNBA expansion team to begin play in 2026 (external link) .”

Joanna Frketich’s (‘98) piece for The Hamilton Spectator, “Investigating deaths at Ontario children’s hospital (external link) ,” was nominated.

For the Daily Excellence category, Suzanne Rent (‘02) was nominated for “Build Nova Scotia gives Atlantic Road Construction and Paving deadline after company puts barriers at trail in Dartmouth Cove (external link) ,” in The Halifax Examiner.

Tyler Harper’s (‘10) Nelson Star piece, “In every Nelson he visits, Jeff Truesdell finds the man he loved (external link) ,” was nominated for Community Written Feature.

In the JHR/CAJ Award for Human Rights Reporting category, former instructor Robert Cribb, Declan Keogh (‘18), Wendy-Ann Clarke and Owen Thompson were nominated for their work, “Mind games (external link) ,” with the Investigative Journalism Bureau and Toronto Star.

Congratulations to all the journalists recognized for their exceptional work this year! 

If you're an alum and we missed you, please let us know so we can add you to our congratulations and update our database!