Finalists for 2026 Webster Awards Announced

Plus, tickets now on sale for the November 2nd Gala Dinner/Awards Evening Featuring Elizabeth Palmer, recently retired Senior Foreign Correspondent, CBS News

VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 14, 2026 /CNW/ -- Finalists for the 40^th annual, 2026 Webster Awards, Western Canada's preeminent journalism awards, were announced today. The awards recognize excellence in journalism in B.C. Finalists' information can be found below or see who they are and read/listen to/watch the finalists' stories here. All finalists will be celebrated, and the winner in each category will be announced during the November 2nd Webster Awards event, a live, in-person gala dinner/awards evening at the Hyatt Regency, Vancouver, no-host reception 4:30 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. with dinner and the awards beginning at 6:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased now here.

Featured guest speaker: Elizabeth Palmer

This year's event will feature, Elizabeth Palmer, who recently retired as Senior Foreign Correspondent, CBS News in April of this year. She'll share stories about her career, and the broader moment in which we exist. The evening will be hosted by Dan Burritt, Host, CBC TV Vancouver News and Jason D'Souza, Host, All Points West, CBC Radio, Victoria.

The 2026 finalists were chosen by the Webster Awards jury, all members who are independent of the Jack Webster Foundation and its board. Submissions were encouraged from B.C. journalists whose work has been published/broadcast in print, radio/podcasts, television and in online media sources that cover news, sports, the arts, business, community issues, and more.

2026 Webster Awards Finalists

Best News Reporting of the Year – Print/Digital

Presented by Kidsbooks

• Nathan VanderKlippe, Mike Hager, Andrea Woo, Justine Hunter, Jana Pruden, Tu Thanh Ha, Patrick White, Tumbler Ridge horror, The Globe and Mail
• Kim Bolan, Sobia Moman, Extortion is disrupting B.C. lives and businesses. And there's no end in sight, Vancouver Sun/Province
• Justine Hunter, David Ebner, Frances Bula, The claim against private land: the Cowichan court ruling, The Globe and Mail

Best News Reporting of the Year – TV/Video

Presented by Earnscliffe

• Regan Hasegawa, The Death of Chase De Balinhard, CTV Vancouver
• Monika Gul, Allan Chek, Rob Abel, Cal Wood, Tumbler Ridge Shooting and Aftermath, CityNews Vancouver
• Rumina Daya, Ministry Whistleblower, Global BC

Photo of the Year

Presented by Sony Canada

• Jesse Winter, Homeowner girds for wildfire evacuation, The Globe and Mail
• Paige Taylor White, 'Nature needs a rest': One of B.C.'s best-loved parks takes a vacation, The Narwhal
• Darryl Dyck, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, The Canadian Press

Commentator of the Year/City Mic Award

Presented in Memory of Linda Webster

• Soapbox Social: Mo Amir and Kyla Lee, CBC Vancouver
• Crawford Kilian, The Tyee
• Frances Bula - Land Values column, BCBusiness Magazine

Excellence in Arts and Culture Reporting

• Marsha Lederman, A Writer Erased, The Globe and Mail
• Nate Lewis, Zak Vescera, City cracked down on Vancouver venues after lobbying by bar and club groups, emails reveal, Vancity Lookout & The Investigative Journalism Foundation
• Abby Francis, Dionne Phillips, Crystal Greene, Inside a growing movement to return Indigenous belongings, IndigiNews

Excellence in Business Reporting

Endowed by Jean Cormier

• Zak Vescera, Matt Simmons, Canada's spy agency now shares intel with corporations -- thanks to a push from TC Energy, The Investigative Journalism Foundation & The Narwhal
• Erica Johnson, Ana Komnenic, Amar Parmar, Jim Williamson, WestJet Plane Swaps, CBC News
• Stefan Labbé, Series of failures at B.C. dry dock damaged Canada's most advanced submarine, Business in Vancouver

Excellence in Community Reporting

Presented by the Al Roadburg Foundation

• Amy Romer, Reclaiming child welfare jurisdiction in B.C.'s Gitanmaax Band, IndigiNews
• Tyler Olsen, Kristen Holliday, Mayor of Chaos: How Kamloops municipal politics became infamous, Castanet Kamloops & The Tyee
• Larry Pynn, Pollution prevention order targets 'unauthorized' waste dump site on Cowichan Tribes reserve, sixmountains.ca

Excellence in Environment Reporting

Presented by the Pacific Salmon Foundation

• Daniel J. Pierce, Trouble in the Headwaters: The Hidden Impacts of Clear-cut Logging in B.C., The Narwhal
• Sonal Gupta, Following hard-won sea otter recovery, First Nations call for a new hunt, Canada's National Observer
• Zoë Yunker, Inside the Fiery End of Vancouver Island's Last Coal Mine, The Tyee

Excellence in Feature Reporting – Print/Digital

• Amanda Follett-Hosgood, The Case of Bella Coola's Heart-Pounding Home-Built Highway, The Tyee
• Justine Hunter, A hike into history: The founding of Strathcona Park, The Globe and Mail
• Andrea Woo, FIFA Grass, The Globe and Mail

Excellence in Feature Reporting – Radio/Audio/Podcast

• Georgina Smyth, Joan Webber, Common Ground, CBC News
• Francis Plourde, Joan Webber, Elizabeth Hoath, Lost in Translation: Love in the Time of Referendum, CBC
• Molly Segal, Liz Hoath, A Bear Called Tex, The Current/CBC Radio

Excellence in Feature Reporting – TV/Video

• Tchadas Leo, 'The wrong history': After 110 years and a mislabelling, Tla'amin artifacts return home, CHEK News
• Rhea Santos, Carol McGrath, Kristin Johnson, CityNews Connect: Lapu-Lapu healing journey, City TV
• Jason Pires, Joan Marshall, Allan Coen, Luca Sgaetti, Lapu Lapu Day Tragedy, Global BC

Excellence in Innovative Journalism

• Sara King-Abadi, Amber Bracken, Lindsay Sample, Paloma Pacheco, Andrew Monroe, Shawn Parkinson, Sharon Riley, Inside a melting glacier, photographers race to capture what remains, The Narwhal
• Cornelia Qian, Beyond Kung Fu: The Heart Connection in Shaolin Temple of Canada, UBC Journalism
• Justine Hunter, Jeremy Agius, The Perilous Waters of Hecate Strait, The Globe and Mail

Excellence in Health Reporting

Presented by London Drugs

• Bethany Lindsay (IJF), Michelle Ghoussoub (CBC), Report says UBC researcher fabricated data, gave patients 'false hope.' The public was not alerted, The Investigative Journalism Foundation/CBC
• Penny Daflos, Toxic Drug Crisis, CTV Vancouver
• Jody Paterson, A Health Crisis in Plain Sight, The Victoria Times Colonist

Excellence in Investigative & Enterprise Journalism

Presented by the B.C. Crown Counsel Association

• Zak Vescera, Erica Giancola, Surrey Speak, The Investigative Journalism Foundation & TVO
• Dan Fumano, How B.C.'s property tax system delivers big benefits to multimillionaires, and why some say it needs to change, Vancouver Sun/Province
• Jason Proctor, Inside an extortion deportation case: The arsons, auto frauds and shootings linking crime across Canada, CBC

Excellence in Legal Journalism

Presented by the Law Society of B.C.

• Jason Proctor, Cowichan decision and 'a cloud of tension', CBC
• David Ebner, The Reality of Bail Reform, The Globe and Mail
• Fabian Dawson, Inside Project Severo, Mata Press Service

Excellence in Multilingual Journalism

• Tommy Chow, Magazine 26 - Who Heals, Who Decides? The Future of Traditional Chinese Medicine in BC, Fairchild Television (Chinese)
• Chloé Dioré de Périgny, Anaïs Elboujdaïni, Camille Vernet, Charlotte Groulx, Antonin Sturlese, Simon Gohier, Patrick Morrell, Geneviève Lasalle, Claude St-Denis, Marie Mounier, François Dubuc, Elliott Sloan, Corinne Kraschewski, Once the Smoke Clears: The Hidden Costs of the Environmental Crisis in B.C., Radio-Canada (French)
• Sarbraj Singh Kahlon, Alan Chek, Kristen Johnson, Sonia Kalra, Vancouver Builders' Extortion Fears Leads to Policy Change, OMNI Television (Punjabi)

Also at the 2026 Webster Awards event on November 2nd, the 2026 Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Tom Zytaruk, the 2026 Bill Good Award will be presented to the Negar Mojtahedi, and the 2026 Shelley Fralic Award will be presented to Anne Penman.

This year's Webster Awards are made possible by Presenting Sponsors: BCGEU, BCIT, Beedie, FortisBC, Global Container Terminals Inc., ICBC, Port of Vancouver, Resource Works, Uber, and West Coast Reduction. Supporting Sponsors: Angus Reid Group, Concord Pacific, KPU, Leap Creative, Ledcor, London Drugs, Playbook, RBC, Seaspan, Teck Resources, Unifor, and YVR. Webster Award partners are Oh Boy Productions, Glacier Media, and the Vancouver Sun and Province. Cision is the exclusive distribution partner of the Jack Webster Foundation.

The Jack Webster Foundation was established in 1986, upon the retirement of its namesake, who was Western Canada's best-known and most influential reporter, in order to foster and celebrate excellence in journalism, protect the public interest for British Columbian's, and create a community where trusted outstanding journalism thrives.

SOURCE Jack Webster Foundation

For more information, contact: Janet Mitchell, Executive Director, Jack Webster Foundation, T 604-603-4218, E [email protected] W www.jackwebster.com