A project to create a first-of-its-kind national database on the number of people killed by police is one of three CBC Manitoba pieces receiving awards from Canada's association of broadcast and digital journalists.

The database and report, titled "Deadly Force: Fatal encounters with police 2000-2017," was the result of six months of work by reporters Jacques Marcoux and Katie Nicholson, with help from a team of more than 20 writers, researchers, designers, producers and editors.

The project was honoured in the "Data Storytelling" category in the annual Radio, Television, and Digital News Association of Canada awards.

"RTDNA Canada Awards honour the best journalists, programs, stations and newsgathering organizations in radio, television and digital," the association says on its website. "There is only one way to become a National award finalist and that is to win a Regional award. That makes them the best of the best."

In the absence of a national accounting of fatal encounters with police, the CBC Manitoba team combed through records from across Canada to assemble the first country-wide database of every person who died or was killed during a police intervention.

They counted 461 fatal police encounters between 2000 and 2017 and analysis showed that number is steadily increasing. In addition to compiling and analyzing the data on a national scale, the project gave detailed accounts on each of the deaths.

Innovation and opinion awards

CBC Manitoba also won awards for opinion and commentary writing, as well as an award for excellence in innovation for a joint project on the 94 calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

CBC producer Donna Carreiro will receive the Sam Ross Award for opinion and commentary for her work on a piece by Bruce Benson, a father of three, who wrote a first-person account of how, at the age of 16, he caused a car accident that resulted in the death of his friend.

The piece, titled "Remember Arthur," is written as a letter to his children as they are learning to drive.

"Driving comes with a great responsibility, one that some teenagers do not take seriously," Benson writes in the piece. "I know, because I was one of those who did not give it a second thought until it was too late."

A team of more than two dozen reporters, editors, designers, producers and photographers from CBC Manitoba, CBC Saskatchewan, CBC North, and CBC Indigenous created the project "Beyond 94: Truth and Reconciliation in Canada."

It tracks the progress Canada has made on implementing the 94 calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which documented accounts of abuse suffered by Indigenous survivors of attended residential schools.

It included personal stories from residential school survivors, feature articles and commentaries on the web, and radio and television stories examining the calls to action. A series of public forums was also held in Regina, Winnipeg and Yellowknife.

There is a free teacher's guide to Beyond 94 to help educators talk to their students about residential schools. The project continues as a living resource, as the report card is updated and content added.

Manitoba-based CBC national reporter Karen Pauls will also receive an award for her work with the CBC Saskatchewan team covering the Humboldt hockey team bus crash.