Lynne Lavery (left) and Fred Ryan (right) at the 2014 QCNA Awards Gala.
Pontiac Journal staff
Lynne Lavery (left) and Fred Ryan (right) at the 2014 QCNA Awards Gala.
Pontiac Journal staff
The annual Quebec community newspaper awards gala took place, June 6, at Manoir Saint-Sauveur, in Saint-Sauveur in the Laurentides. The Quebec Community Newspaper Association groups community papers from across the province; they include most of Quebec’s minority language press, including bilingual publications like the Journal du Pontiac and the Bulletin d’Aylmer, plus English-only, Jewish, Greek, German, Mohawk, Cree, Inuit, and SE Asian publications. The annual competition covers 39 awards and writers; the Pontiac Journal brought home several awards.
In the French-language categories, Carolle Bertrand was honoured for the Best Editorial/Column of the year, in Quebec, for her column “Chocolat qu’ça m’choque!.” This was Bertrand’s second first-place prize for her very popular column, “Clins d’oeil de la vie.” She’s a regular in the Bulletin d’Aylmer, and has appeared in the Journal.
Third place in this category was won by the Journal’s editor André Macron and Dominique Bomans, “Pierre Lavoie – Un modèle d’exception pour touts les générations”.
In the category of Best French-language News Story, Sylvie Filion won with her in-depth piece, “Le point de rupture chez les soldats – on l’appelle suicide.” This story appeared in the Remebrance Day issue of the Journal. Third place in this category went to a Journal du Pontiac student journalist, Pier-Luc Graveline.
In Best Environmental Story of the Year, Laurent Robillard-Cardinal bested a very full and competitive field of entries to win with his front-page story, in the October 25, West Quebec Post “Testing Reveals Disturbing Levels of E. coli in Hull’s Brewery Creek.” His work has appeared in the Bulletin, the West Quebec Post and the Pontiac Journal.
A first place also went to Fred Ryan for Best Editorial on Local Affairs, “A great Santa parade, but was it successful?,” December 4. Ryan writes the regular column in the Journal, “Dispatches from the 148.”
The Journal’s co-publisher and occasional contributor, Lily Ryan, won the silver in the Best General Topic Editorial, for her piece in the West Quebec Post, “Real Loser in Quebecor’s application to CRTC is Canadian democracy.’
The awards are not entirely for journalism. In design and layout, the editors and graphic designers at the Pontiac Journal won third places for Best Sports Pages and Best Feature Page. The Journal also won an Honourable Mention for Best website (journalpontiac.com).
Commented Journal’s publisher emeritus, Fred Ryan, “I always hope we’ll do even better, and sometimes we do, but it’s important to remember that this is a competition pitting papers across Quebec. I’m proud of our writers and graphic designers. I wish there also were awards for sales people, classifieds, delivery coordinators, even managers in the media world. They are the nuts-and-bolts people of any newspaper. Most of all, these awards point to the high quality of writing, photography and design in community media – which is one reason community newspapers are not suffering as much as the corporate media chains. Our local communities are served well. We’ll make that even better in the years to come. I hope the Pontiac is proud of these awards – they reflect our region and put our name into the spotlight. In the end, everything here is about the Pontiac.”
