General News Feature

 

Winner: Sebastian Bron, Hamilton Spectator

In a very stacked category with numerous great entries, Sebastian Bron’s story about the death of Marilyn Mitton stood out. Bron skilfully used court records, testimony and exhibits, along with stark crime scene details and interviews with Mitton’s son to weave a gripping and heartbreaking narrative. Bron’s use of Mitton’s letters, including the detailed description of the box that held them, brought the victim’s voice from beyond the grave to deliver a searing indictment of a system that turned deaf ears to her persistent pleas. The story delivered several gut-punches throughout its telling that linger long after the final sentence.

Runner-up: Joanna Frketich, Hamilton Spectator

Joanna Frketich pulls back the curtain on the often closed world of cardiac surgeons and the gap between what the public is told and what really happens in the health system through exclusive coverage of a human rights case involving the first woman to head a cardiac surgery department in Canada. Frketich revealed the true impact of major upheaval convulsing Hamilton’s cardiac surgery department after it lost its partnership with Thunder Bay while also exposing the “boy’s club” culture inside the department through the tribunal ruling, delivering a double-whammy through detailed and contextualized reporting.

Runner-up: Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star

Trevor Wilhelm delivered a fascinating tale of a half-century-old mystery, putting a name and a life to the John Doe. The details Wilhelm gathered through Jim Wilson’s family about a man who had been missing for 51 years, along with the minutia for the airplane’s disappearance and the twist near the end on how police failed to identify Wilson years earlier, really drove the narrative all the way to the end.

 

Return to full list of winners.