The Narwhal picks up three Webster Awards nominations

Excellence in environment reporting

B.C. biodiversity reporter Ainslie Cruickshank’s feature on invasive-but-tasty green crabs takes a look at the efforts being made by non-profits, governments and First Nations to fight the destruction the crabs have caused and prevent further spread in the province’s waters. She learned that many of the green critters rot in a landfill — even though they’re edible — which is why some of the people she interviewed wonder if we should just eat the crabs, especially when inflation is driving up the cost of groceries.

European green crabs are invading the B.C. coast. Photo: Melissa Renwick / The Narwhal

Ainslie’s piece is in the running along with a series that looks at lessons on bracing for disasters in The Tyee (reporting led by our very own Francesca Fionda!) and a Nelson Star feature on the Kokanee Glacier.

Excellence in legal journalism

Speaking of Francesca: for 14 days, The Narwhal’s mining reporter was often the only journalist present in the B.C. Supreme Court as the Gitxaała Nation and Ehattesaht First Nation brought forward a case that could change the future of mining in the province.

Her coverage in The Narwhal included four in-depth articles explaining the significance of the case and raising concerns of Indigenous leaders, the exploration industry, mining reform advocates, community groups and environmental advocates.

Francesca’s reporting is nominated along with The Tyee’s look into police violence that resulted in the death of a 27-year-old woman and The Globe and Mail’s examination of B.C.’s broken bail system.

People walking into the B.C. Supreme Court for a case that could change the future of mining

Ehattesaht First Nation and Gitxaała Nation are in the B.C. Supreme Court asking the province to stop automatically giving away mineral rights to their land. Photo: Jimmy Jeong / The Narwhal

Excellence in multimedia journalism

Breaking down the truth about pipelines crossing Wet’suwet’en territory — and charting their proposed paths — is no easy task. After many months of work (and with the help of our art director Shawn Parkinson) northwest B.C. reporter Matt Simmons explained the conflict surrounding the Coastal GasLink pipeline, visually.

With a comprehensive rundown of Wet’suwet’en governance structure, Matt’s piece challenges a talking point used by both the pipeline’s parent company, TC Energy, and the B.C. government — that all 20 First Nations are on board with the project. It also looks at how Coastal GasLink might be the first in a series of pipelines that will export fracked gas to the rest of the world, setting the stage for Wet’suwet’en territory to become an energy corridor.

Matt’s explainer is up for the award with The Tyee’s detailed overview of global disaster land grabs and The Globe and Mail’s profile of Canada’s surf prodigy.

Another year of keeping a close watch

Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.

And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.

In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”

As the year draws to a close, we’d like to thank you for paying attention. And if you’re able to donate anything at all to help us keep doing this work in 2025 — which will bring a whole lot we can’t predict — thank you so very much.

Will you help us hold the powerful accountable in the year to come by giving what you can today?

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