The Canadian Journalism Foundation announces Ashleigh Gaul as the Greg Clark Award winner

TORONTO, April 29, 2013 /CNW/ - The Canadian Journalism Foundation is pleased to announce Ashleigh Gaul, online editor with Up Here magazine about life in the northern territories, as the winner of the Greg Clark Award for early-career journalists.

The Greg Clark Award is unique in Canadian journalism, designed to offer working journalists a chance to gain insight and meet key decision-makers on their beats. Gaul, who has worked as a reporter for Baffinland Witness, will spend her Greg Clark experience in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, investigating the influence of mining developments on the region.

"The Nunavut Resources Corporation intrigues me because it's an Inuit-owned company that takes an active and direct interest in the business of mining," says Gaul. "I am hoping the people I meet in Cambridge Bay and within the Nunavut Resources Corporation will help me better understand the impact of Aboriginal participation on mining and the communities involved."

The jury considered submissions from across the country and were drawn to the compelling angle of Gaul's proposal.

"Without exception, each entry outlined a bold creative story idea that went beyond the ordinary," says jury chair Tom Clark, chief political correspondent for Global News. "We chose Ashleigh for many reasons, not least of which was because she proposed to peer into an area where few have gone. The future of resource development in the high North is complex, controversial and critical. With the assistance that the Greg Clark Award can provide, Ashleigh can now travel to the remotest parts of this country and find the stories that can only be found there. It's Canadian curiosity at its best."

The award was created in memory of one of Canada's greatest journalists - a war correspondent, an avid outdoorsman, a humorist, but above all, a great reporter who excelled at storytelling.

Gaul will be honoured at the 16^th Annual CJF Awards (#cjfawards), to be held this year at The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto on June 13.

The CJF would like to thank CNW Group and the Toronto Star for their generous support of this award.

About The Canadian Journalism Foundation
The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) is a not-for-profit organization that promotes excellence in journalism by celebrating outstanding journalistic achievement through an annual awards program; by operating journalism websites, J-Source.ca (English) and ProjetJ.ca (French), in cooperation with the country's leading journalism schools; by organizing events that facilitate dialogue among journalists, business people, government officials, academics and students about the role of the media in Canadian society; and by fostering opportunities for journalism education, training and research.

SOURCE: Canadian Journalism Foundation