Shilo Stag
Delayed for more than two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the award-winning Shilo Stag has garnered three national top-three premier journalism awards, according to News Media Canada.
The Canadian Community Newspaper Association (CCNA) list of award winners — entries for this competition included works published in 2020 and 2021 —was announced Nov. 18 from Toronto, Ont.
This prestigious annual awards program features 27 unique categories honouring outstanding editorial, photography, multimedia and overall excellence in community newspaper publishing.
“It’s nice to be recognized by your peers who judge your writing and photography submissions,” said Jules Xavier, who has been Stag editor since June 2012. “As a CCNA judge myself, there’s a lot of great journalism happening at community newspapers across Canada. The Stag is unique going up against community newspapers in that the 75-year-old newspaper’s coverage is focused on a training Army Base, not a town or city.”
Xavier was judged first overall in the 2021 best historical story category for circulation up to 9,999. Normally, before the Stag switched from newsprint to a website Nov. 1 after the last edition came off the Killarney presses Aug. 11, circulation was 3,000. During the pandemic it was halved.
His feature two-page historical story looked at Kendra Minary of Souris doing family research on her great-great-uncle Pte Cecil Minary, who mailed more than 100 letters home during the Great War from England and France.
She was able to access these letters, which are housed at the Wawanesa Museum, and transcribed his pencil scribbles on paper written from often muddy trenches when the Germans took a break from ground attacks to artillery barrages on CEF positions.
The Stag shared Pte Minary’s letters on page 7 or 11 after Xavier’s feature appeared in the Jan. 7, 2021 edition. The letters were a popular read among officers who received the Stag via Base mail at Garrison Edmonton and DND/CAF HQ in Ottawa.
Of note, Pte Minary trained at Camp Hughes before going overseas and completing further training in the UK. He was Killed in Action (KIA) on Aug. 28, 1918 when his Lewis Gun crews was hit by a German artillery shell on a French battlefield.
Another two-page historical story in the Stag’s Feb. 20, 2020 edition was judged second best in the same circulation class — Xavier’s article on Health Promotion manager Ginger Lamoureux’s great-grandfather during the Great War. The feature story looked at Cpl Damascus Virgil, who was part of the all-black No. 2 Construction Battalion formed up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, before going overseas to the battlefields of France. While there, Cpl Virgil and his comrades were builders, not soldiers, and did their jobs minus weapons.
“History writing is always popular among reporters/editors plus readers, especially when you see the number of military stories written by mainstream media,” observed Xavier. “I thought Ginger’s and Kendra’s stories would pique the interest of the judges, as similar stories have done for me in the past when I was judging the same category before I arrived at the Stag. Remembrance Day stories especially are good subject matter, and excellent reads when soldiers share their stories from past wars.”
Xavier’s eye for feature photography was also noticed by the judges, earning him a third-place in the best feature photo category for circulation up to 9,999.
His photograph being judged was an image of the late BComd LCol Jeff Lyttle during his CoC parade held at the Canoe River Memorial Park. During the national anthem, while LCol Lyttle and other officers were saluting, his daughter Elizabeth mimicked him with her own salute.
“This photo reminded me of John Jr. saluting his father [president] John F. Kennedy’s coffin as it was went past him and his family back in November 1963,” said Xavier. “I was just focused on the Base Commander saluting during the national anthem to start his outdoor Change of Command ceremony, when out of the corner of my left eye I saw Elizabeth stand up and saluted with her opposite hand while looking up her dad.”
The only other Base/Wing newspaper to earn a top-three finish came from an RCAF newspaper from CFB Cold Lake, Alberta. Former reporter Jeff Gaye garnered a second-place for historical writing with his 2020 feature with headline: The Last Post: Traditional Bugle Call Closed One Family’s Circle.
What Stag readers say: “Well done — congratulations on your first-, second- and third-place journalism awards,” said Stag reader Barb Danko. “I have thought the history part of the Shilo Stag to be my favourite and I enjoy the [Pte Cecil Minary] letters he mailed home during the First World War. Indeed, after reading your historical article on him, and research done by his great-great-niece Kendra Minary, it was deserving of a first-place.”
