The Toronto Star received 10 nominations for the 2019 Canadian Association of Journalists Awards, including two for “Undeniable,” a 16-part series that brought to light how climate change is already felt in Canadian society and affecting everything from people, infrastructure, and wildlife.

The Star was named a finalist in the open media, data journalism, human-rights reporting, labour reporting, reconciliation, and environmental and climate change categories.

“It Took a Village,” Star reporter Wendy Gillis’ series on the police investigation that caught serial killer Bruce McArthur, was nominated in the open media categories. Gillis conducted more than two dozen interviews with investigators, witnesses and community members, and scoured thousands of pages of documents to shed light on what happened in the McArthur case, a man who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Thomas Rohner was also nominated in the same category for his story on the homicide of 11-year-old Ray Okpik Jr (a.k.a. OJ), a killing that shocked Rankin Inlet’s Inuit community and stirred long-standing memories of trauma.

In the data journalism category, the Star was nominated alongside the Institute for Investigative Journalism, Global News, Le Devoir, the Regina Leader-Post, and the National Observer for “Tainted Water,” a year-long, countrywide investigation that involved more than 120 journalists. Reporters collected test results that properly measured exposure to lead in 11 cities and discovered that hundreds of thousands of Canadians were drinking water laced with high levels of lead.

Grant Lafleche, reporter at the St. Catharines Standard, also owned by the Torstar Corporation, was nominated for a community media award for a piece on former Niagara Region CAO Carmen D’Angelo and the tainted 2016 CAO hiring process that consumed regional council.

StarMetro reporter Nadine Yousif was named a finalist in the text feature category for her story on Lethbridge’s only supervised drug-consumption site, the busiest in North America.

Sarah Lawrynuik was nominated for the award in human-rights reporting for her piece on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Lawrynuik is the 2019 Gordon Sinclair “Roving Reporter” fellow, reporting on the political changes in Eastern Europe.

Star investigative reporter Brendan Kennedy was nominated for the award in labour reporting for his piece on the hidden costs of free shipping and Amazon’s workplace environment. For the story he went undercover as a delivery driver to learn more about courier jobs.

StarMetro reporters David P. Ball and Kevin Maimann, alongside Star reporter Jenna Moon, were nominated in the reconciliation category for their story on what experts had to say about former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s testimony on Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin and the Prime Minister’s Office.

Star investigative reporters Marco Chown Oved and Moira Welsh were nominated for their “Undeniable” stories on climate change. Oved’s story explored how dozens of people died from the heat during a Montreal summer, and Welsh’s piece looked into the relentless rains that flooded Toronto for one summer evening.

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