The Yukon News garnered six first-place wins at this year’s Canadian Community Newspaper Awards - more than any other publication.
Roxanne Stasyszyn’s piece about the tragic death of five-year-old Jaedyn Amann, who was killed by a falling soccer net in Watson Lake last summer, won the award for best news story of the year.
Stasyszyn also took the third place in the best feature category for her story about residential school survivor Malcolm Dawson and his struggle to gain compensation for years of childhood physical or sexual abuse he suffered.
Vivian Belik also took home a third place award in the feature series category for her exploration of Yukoners living with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
The first-place award for outstanding reporter initiative went to John Thompson for a number of articles he did about the government’s history of inaction on carbon monoxide regulations.
The third-place prize for best editorial cartoon went to Wyatt Tremblay
Mike Thomas’s photo of a fox won first place for best feature photo, and Ian Stewart won the top prize for his photo essay on the raising of the healing totem poll.
Thomas also won first place in the multimedia feature category for his video piece, No Holding Back, about Darryl Tait, a Yukon snowcross racer who has revived his career after a snowmobile accident in 2009 left him confined to a wheelchair.
The George Cadogan Memorial Outstanding Columnist Award went to the News’ own Al Pope.
The paper also took home second place in the all-around best newspaper category, a third-place award for best sports coverage and a blue ribbon award in its circulation category.