The Vancouver Courier captured four awards in the 2016 Canadian Community Newspaper Awards competition. Results were announced April 15.
The awards recognize the best work published across Canada in categories ranging from writing to photography to multimedia.
The Courier earned second place for Best Website, as well as second place for Best Multimedia Feature for Courier editor Michael Kissinger's story and video Humour as a weapon against the Holocaust. It focused on painter Hinda Avery's 'Rozen women' series featuring fun-loving feminist resistance fighters, which can be found here.
Long-time reporter Sandra Thomas won third place for Best Feature Series. The two-part series revealed how Downtown Eastside animals, including dogs, rats, birds, cats and rabbits, provide a lifeline of love and hope to residents. The first piece, DTES pets bring joy to their owners, can be found here, while the second piece, DTES animals connect humans with the community, can be found here. Photographer Rebecca Blissett provided the art.
Writer Lisa Smedman was awarded first place for Best Historical Story. The story, published on Dec. 24, was called In from the Cold. It revealed how Vancouver welcomed refugees fleeing a crisis in a different part of the world — Hungary, in 1956. Read it here.
