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CBC Montreal, Quebec take home 4 national RTDNA journalism awards

CBC teams in Montreal and Quebec City took home four national journalism awards for their work in 2016 from RTDNA Canada, the Association of Electronic Journalists.

The RTDNA awards recognize journalistic excellence across radio, television and digital platforms.

The national awards come after journalists at CBC Montreal and Quebec took home 10 RTDNA regional awards for Ontario and Quebec last month.

Highlighting diversity

CBC Montreal's web team won the Adrienne Clarkson Diversity award for its contribution to the month-long stationwide project Real Talk on Race.

Real Talk on Race was a multiplatform project produced by Nantali Indongo with research from Melissa Fundira that covered a range of important issues facing Montrealers, from Colourism and discrimination within racialized communities to race-related bullying in Quebec schools.

Over four weeks, the series explored experiences around race in myriad ways, from point-of-view commentary and public outreach to in-depth reporting and data journalism.

Research journalist Anna Sosnowski uncovered new data about dismal minority hiring at police forces across the province, as reported in an interactive feature by Sarah Leavitt.

Ainslie MacLellan's report Life outside of blackness explored how skin colour is experienced differently from grandmother to mother to daughter in the Eyob family. They are of Ethiopian-Jewish origin.

We took a closer look at the Sixties Scoop and the incredible toll it took on Montrealers such as Nakuset, who described being picked out of catalogue of First Nations children by her adoptive parents.

Honoured for analysis writing

Reporter Jonathan Montpetit received the Sam Ross award for editorial or commentary for thoughtful and provocative writing on these key political, social and sports events in 2016:

Best radio long feature

In honour of Remembrance Day, CBC Montreal's Daybreak asked 31-year-old Afghanistan veteran Sgt. Yves Leduc Butterworth to interview 95-year-old Second World War veteran Okill Stuart and discuss their experiences.

They served 60 years apart, but it turns out, they have much in common — including having committed to memory an ode to the Grenadier Guards.

The resulting radio feature — Two veterans, decades apart — won the Dave Rogers long feature award. It is must-listen audio.

Keeping Quebec up to date

When six Quebecers were killed in a terrorist attack while on a humanitarian mission in Burkina Faso in January 2016, Quebec City's morning show, Quebec AM, devoted much of its coverage to what happened.

For its coverage, the team was given the Peter Gzowski award for best information program.

CBC's news coverage, compelling interviews by Rachelle Solomon and by show host Susan Campbell, as well as Marika Wheeler's report on a vigil in Lac-Beauport, where Gladys Chamberland, Yves Carrier and their children had lived, all made for riveting radio.

You can find the RTDNA award-winning coverage from 2015, here.