ONTARIO—The Manitoulin Expositor, Northern Ontario’s oldest newspaper, has again proved itself among its provincial peers by collecting four awards at the recent Ontario Community Newspapers Association’s Better Newspapers Competition. The event was held virtually again this year on a busy Friday production day so Expositor staff listened to the live feed while working to get the next week’s paper ready for editorial layout.
For an impressive two years running, The Expositor has nabbed first place for Best News Story, the most prestigious of the writing awards. Freelancer and former Expositor staffer Gina Gasongi Simon’s July 27, 2022 front page story ‘Residential school survivor family gives mixed response to papal apology’ was deemed tops in the province by Judge Jules Xavier, editor of the Shilo Stag at CFB Shilo who wrote, “A winning news story thanks to her embedment with family to find out about their thoughts on the Pope’s televised apology to residential school victims in Canada. Gina Gasongi Simon sat with her parents, residential school survivors, as they listened to the papal apology. Compelling read from this poignant story.” The Pope’s address in Canada was on a Monday and Ms. Gasongi Simon watched the presentation with her parents, wrote and filed the story to appear in that Wednesday’s edition.
The Expositor took second place in the Education Writing category for Warren Schlote’s September 28, 2022 story ‘Working with spacecraft a hope for Wiky High grad, robotics veteran, studying engineering.’
Judge Sierra D’Souza Butts of The World Spectator in Moosomin, Saskatchewan writes, “The story ties in a national historic event of the first Native American woman traveling to space and the impact it has on students in the community who are interested in the same field and happy to see Indigenous representation. Great range of sources used.” Mr. Schlote is also a former staffer who does freelance work for the paper.
Associate editor Michael Erskine received a third-place finish for his October 13, 2021 piece ‘Former editor demands vaxxes for all health workers’ in the Best COVID-19 Coverage category.
“The Manitoulin Expositor told how one woman with serious health problems was affected by the presence of unvaccinated health workers,” Judge John Arendt, editor of the Summerland Review in Summerland, BC, writes. “Over the past couple of years, a lot of discussion around COVID-19 has been on rights and freedoms. This is a refreshing change as it shows that there are some who are at risk because of the quest for these freedoms.” The subject was Diane Sims, now of Stratford, who was The Expositor’s editor 35 years ago. Ms. Sims has had multiple sclerosis for most of her life and is now mobile through her wheelchair and is a passionate advocate for the rights for disabled Ontarians.
The Expositor’s 2022 Farm Safety Week special also garnered a third-place finish in the Best Feature/Unit Pages category. “Excellent editorial, clearly intended for this use alongside large, clean and thought-out advertising,” said judge Christine van Reeuuwyk of Oak Bay News in Oak Bay, BC.
Heather Marshall’s Newish to Manitoulin column also saw an honourable mention for Best Guest/Freeland Column.
“As always, I am so incredibly proud of our team for their award-winning work,” said Expositor publisher Alicia McCutcheon. “There were an incredible number of entries in each of the categories so to be recognized for our efforts among such competition, Ontario-wide, is truly something. Congratulations to everyone, once again.”
