The Globe and Mail has won four Jack Webster Awards for work on topics that include the toxic opioid crisis, the national soccer team, a deadly festival attack in British Columbia and U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to Canada.
The awards, which recognize excellence across journalism in B.C., were announced at a ceremony in Vancouver on Monday evening. Globe journalists had been nominated in four categories, and won in each of them, making the publication the most decorated news outlet at the event.
Nancy Macdonald took home the prize for Best News Reporting of the Year for her in-depth feature about Pandora Avenue in Victoria. Her coverage illustrated the stark transformation of a leafy downtown boulevard in the provincial capital into a street marred by desperation because of the effects of fentanyl.
Ms. Macdonald also shared another win as part of a team with Globe journalists Greg Mercer and Simon Houpt in the investigative and enterprise reporting category for their probe into the culture problem within the Canadian women’s soccer team. Their investigation found that the celebrated team faced internal allegations of being a toxic workplace before it was rocked by a drone-spying scandal at last year’s Paris Olympics.
“Each winner blended doggedness with sensitivity to bring these stories home. We are delighted to see brave, independent work rewarded,” said Globe and Mail editor-in-chief David Walmsley. “In a time of continued technological disruption, there is no replacing the humans who care.”
Globe columnists Marsha Lederman and Gary Mason were both finalists for Commentator of the Year. At the ceremony, Ms. Lederman was awarded the top prize for her work, which included criticism of the White House and condemnation of divisive rhetoric from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Ms. Lederman, who spent years as The Globe’s Western arts reporter before moving full-time into column writing, was also recognized for penning a personal essay on Auschwitz and an emotional piece about the aftermath of the Lapu-Lapu festival attack in Vancouver, which killed 11 people and injured dozens of others this past spring.
In the health reporting category, Mike Hager and Kathryn Blaze Baum won the award for their examination of B.C.’s system for detaining and releasing people with severe mental illnesses.
Their story analyzed how some patients are released on “extended leave,” which the reporters showed was the reason Kai-Ji Adam Lo – the suspect in the Lapu-Lapu attack – was free at the time of the festival killings, despite signs that his schizophrenia was deteriorating.
The Webster ceremony, hosted by Keri Adams of CTV Vancouver and Karen So from OMNI Television, presented the 2025 Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award to Keith Baldrey of Global News B.C.
Sean Holman, a professor of environmental and climate journalism at the University of Victoria, was honoured with the Bill Good Award for his contribution to the community, while Laura Palmer, host and producer of podcast Island Crime, received the Shelley Fralic Award, which honours a B.C. journalist who identifies as a woman and exemplifies community-based excellence.
Now in their 39th year, the awards are handed out by the Jack Webster Foundation, named after the late reporter from Western Canada. The organization says its ceremony is meant to celebrate the protection of the public interest and create a community where outstanding B.C. journalism thrives.