SIXTH ANNUAL JUSTICIA AWARDS PRESENTED FOR LEGAL REPORTING

VANCOUVER, August 12, 2005 – Shannon Rupp, reporting for the Georgia Straight, and CBC News Canada Now/Newsworld are the winners of the sixth annual Justicia Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

The Justicia Awards are sponsored by the Law Commission of Canada, the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) and the Department of Justice Canada. The Awards recognize outstanding journalism that fosters public awareness and understanding of any aspect of the Canadian justice system and the roles played by institutions and participants in the legal system. The winners will be honoured at a ceremony tomorrow, August 13, at the Canadian Bar Association's annual conference in Vancouver.

Special certificates of merit were also awarded to Pier Gagné and Sylvie Fournier of Societé Radio Canada's Enjeux, Danny Braun of Societé Radio Canada 's Dimanche Magazine, Don Butler of the Ottawa Citizen, Moira Welsh of the Toronto Star and Danielle Stanton of La Gazette des Femmes.

Broadcast

CBC News Canada Now/Newsworld is the winner in the broadcast category for its program "Crime on the Street," produced by Scott Moore and Ian Hanomansing. Executive Producer was Liz Hughes. This television program was broadcast March 31, 2005, live from the cells of a federal penal institution. The Justicia Award judges said the program's success lay "not in its novelty but in the way its host, Ian Hanomansing, managed to involve prison administrators and inmates in a meaningful dialogue." The program asked experts to choose suitable sentences for a hypothetical criminal and then defend their choices. The awards panel said it was impressed by Hanomansing's knowledge of the law and "his authoritative on-camera direction of this unusual live program."

The judges also awarded certificates of merit in the broadcast category to:

• Societé Radio Canada's Enjeux for its January 2005 program "Le Sentier de la Guérison," produced by Pier Gagné and Sylvie Fournier. This moving documentary deals with alternatives to imprisonment - new and promising approaches that involve native traditions of justice and spirituality. "The participants speak for themselves, providing remarkable insight into the process," according to the judges. Gagné and Fournier won the broadcast Justicia Award last year for their report "Que justice soit faite" broadcast in November 2003.
• "Sous Condition," a radio documentary produced by Danny Braun of Montreal and broadcast on Societé Radio-Canada's Dimanche Magazine. It follows the attempts at rehabilitation by a young offender on conditional release after completion of his ten-year sentence. The jury concluded that "by presenting the hopes, the fears and difficulties from a criminal perspective, the documentary highlights strengths and weaknesses of conditional release programs. "

Print

Freelance journalist Shannon Rupp is the winner in the print category for her February,2005 feature "Duelling Rights" published in the Georgia Straight. The in-depth cover story looked at a case involving a transexual who wants to be a volunteer counsellor in a women's centre in Vancouver. The Justicia Awards jury said the series helped explain the judicial process "in a dramatic but very telling manner. The approach is professional and the writer clearly presents both sides of the case, the legal arguments and the implications of the decision one way or the other. The result is that the reader understands the challenge that the judge faces in this difficult case."

The judges also awarded certificates of merit to:

• Don Butler of the Ottawa Citizen for his September 2004 series on restorative justice "Justice for All." The awards panel found it to be "an impressive piece of journalism, well worth the read. It is a good subject, well organized and presented in a clear, concise and confident style."
• Moira Welsh of the Toronto Star for her two-part series in April 2005 "Broken Boys." The jury said the two-part series, which depicted how Canada's criminal justice system sat by for 12 years while Cory Newton sexually preyed upon young boys "should be required reading for police and social workers everywhere. It demonstrates how meticulous research, a clear sense of editorial purpose and effective writing can produce a social documentary that is engrossing, dramatic and, in this case, horrifying."
• Danielle Stanton for "La Charia au Canada: Une menace pour les musulmanes?" in the November-December 2004 La Gazette des Femmes. The panel found that although this periodical is editorially opposed to what it terms a parallel system of justice, Islamic arbitration tribunals, Stanton 's feature article in illuminates the many contradictory aspects of this issue clearly and equitably. "This timely article provides an excellent overview of the many diverse opinions about Islamic tribunals in both the Muslim and Christian communities."

Last year's winners were Dan Gardner of the Ottawa Citizen and Sylvie Fournier and Pier Gagné of Société Radio-Canada's Enjeux.

The entries were judged by Peter Desbarats, journalist, a former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Western Ontario and Maclean Hunter Chair of Communications Ethics at Ryerson University; Claude Deschenays of Montreal, legal affairs specialist and former Editor in Chief of the Journal du Barreau du Quebec; and Mayland D. McKimm, Q.C., of Victoria, B.C., a former president of the British Columbia Branch of the CBA.

The criteria for judging entries are accuracy, effectiveness in explaining legal issues to the public, informational value, insight and originality. This year's awards cover stories that were published or broadcast between May 16, 2004 and May 15, 2005.

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Ref.:
Hannah Bernstein
Canadian Bar Association
Aug. 12-15: Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, Room 20
Tel: (604) 647-7408.