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Unifor members at the Toronto Star and the Winnipeg Free Press won a prestigious award recently for their work looking into the Jian Ghomeshi, sexual assault on campuses and the treatment of indigenous peoples.
"The Toronto Star's reporting on the Jian Ghomeshi scandal and sexual assault on college campuses has sparked a social dialogue that will change Canadian society forever,” said Unifor Economist Jim Stanford, one of the judges for the 2015 Canadian Hillman Prize.
Toronto Star investigative editor Kevin Donovan worked with freelancer Jesse Brown to uncover sexual harassment allegations against Ghomeshi, then a prominent CBC Radio host, while Star journalists Jayme Poisson, Emily Mathieu and Randy Risling followed up with an investigation into sexual assaults on Canadian campuses.
“The series struck a chord, unleashing a long-overdue recognition throughout society of the terrible reality of sexual assault. This investigative journalism exemplifies what the Hillman Prize stands for," Stanford said.
Kevin Rollason of the Winnipeg Free Press was runner up for his “While He Waited" series about the senseless death of Brian Sinclair, a disabled, indigenous man who died from a treatable infection after being ignored for 34 hours in a Winnipeg hospital emergency waiting room.
The winners of the award, to be handed out March 12 will share $3,000 and travel to New York City for the U.S. Hillman Prize ceremony on May 5. Rollason will receive $1,000.
