The Georgia Straight has won a national award from the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ).
At its annual awards presentation on May 23, the CAJ selected “The Pill Pushers” by Alex Roslin as the top magazine article of the year. It appeared last September in the Georgia Straight, a Vancouver-based alternative weekly.
Roslin’s article exposed pharmaceutical companies’ marketing tactics to persuade physicians to prescribe drugs.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Straight also recently collected four nominations in the National Magazine Awards, which will be presented in Toronto on June 5. Roslin’s “The Pill Pushers” is a finalist in the Investigative Reporting category.
The other Georgia Straight writers who’ve been nominated for National Magazine Awards are music editor Mike Usinger in the Humor category for “Simmons shares his paunchy poonmanship” about Gene Simmons; Roberta Staley in the Science, Technology & the Environment category for “Waves of Disaster” about the junk in the ocean; and Dave Watson in Service: Health & Family for “Rambling Into Eternity (Parts 1 to 5),” which was a five part series on what it was like to have terminal cancer.
In addition, the Georgia Straight has been nominated for five Western Magazine Awards, which will be presented in Vancouver on June 19.
Watson, the Georgia Straight‘s former technology columnist who died last year, is a finalist in two categories. He was nominated for the Gold Award for Best Article in B.C./Yukon for the first article in his five-part series. It was called “Rambling into eternity isn’t what I expected.” He is also a finalist in the Regular Column or Department category.
In addition, former Georgia Straight editor Charles Campbell is a finalist for a Gold award for his obituary for Watson, entitled “His rambling now over, Dave left us laughing.”
In the Public Issues category, Staley is a finalist for “Cancer in kids is being beaten, but at a price.” In the Science, Technology, and Medicine category, Daniel Wood is a finalist for “Who were B.C.’s first seafarers?”
The Georgia Straight is proud of its record in providing public-service journalism. “I congratulate Alex Roslin for his courageous work in exposing how pharmaceutical companies operate,” said editor Charlie Smith. “I’m also very pleased to see Dave Watson honored as a finalist by the National Magazine Awards Foundation and the Western Magazine Awards Foundation for writing a brutally honest series about what it’s like to die of cancer. Dave put off taking pain medication because he wanted to keep his wits about him as he chronicled what was happening. I spoke to people with cancer who were very pleased to see these articles published in the Georgia Straight.”
The Georgia Straight is an independent alternative weekly owned by the McLeod family.
For more information, contact Charlie Smith (editor): 604-730-7043
