April 29, 2010

Gyulai secures Michener Award nomination for Gazette

City Hall reporter Linda Gyulai has been nominated for the coveted Michener Award for her investigative series on Montreal's water-meter project.

Gyulai, a member of the Montreal Newspaper Guild (MNG), determined that major elements of the $355.8-million project were altered against the city's interest days before the largest contract in its history was closed. After the auditor general confirmed The Gazette’s findings, the contract was killed and two top city officials were fired.

Five other members of CWA Canada (MNG's parent union) are in the running to claim the country's most prestigious award for meritorious public service journalism.

The Victoria Times Colonist and The Gazette are two of the six news media finalists for the 2009 Michener Award, the winner of which will be announced May 27 in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa hosted by Governor General Michaëlle Jean.

Julie Ireton, who has already been declared the winner of the Michener-Deacon Fellowship, is the business and technology reporter in the CBC Parliamentary Bureau and a member of CWA Canada's largest Local, the Canadian Media Guild. The fellowship will enable Ireton to pursue an investigation entitled, The Federal Public Service: Middle-men, Double-Dipping and Cronyism.

In Victoria, a February 2009 series of stories and photos depicting the deplorable condition of aboriginal housing on Vancouver Island revealed overcrowding, shoddy construction and threats to health on reserves. Following the publication of the articles, the federal government pledged $50 million for native housing. B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell also announced that the province would take action to connect reserves with off-reserve water and sewage systems.

A team of newsroom staff, including reporters Judith Lavoie and Lindsay Kines, and photographers Debra Brash, Adrian Lam and Bruce Stotesbury, who are members of the Victoria-Vancouver Island Newspaper Guild, worked on the week-long series which examined how government policies, poor construction and a lack of oversight have contributed to the sorry state of reserve housing.

The late Roland Michener founded the awards in 1970, when he was governor general.