Vancouver Sun biz writers honored

Two Vancouver Sun business reporters have been honored with National Newspaper Awards, which in Canada are the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.

Business writers David Baines and Gordon Hamilton were honored for their outstanding contributions to journalism for work published in 2005.

With three National Newspaper Awards from previous years already on the shelf, Baines added another win in the business category for his special series on the Eron Mortgage Corp. scandal, which tracked the firm’s rise and fall under the fraud’s chief architects, Frank Biller and Brian Slobogian. Investors lost an estimated $175 million in the Eron fraud.

Hamilton took home a National Newspaper Award in the beats category for his reporting on the B.C. forestry industry. His winning stories highlighted the factors behind a sudden surge in the forestry deaths, and explored the effects that changed forestry practices were having on the lives and livelihoods of workers.

“These were stories that mattered,” said Patricia Graham, editor-in-chief of The Vancouver Sun, in a story in the paper. “Both Gordon and David believed that harm was being done to innocent people, and through their hard work and commitment, they were able to do something about it. We are immensely proud of their achievement.”

Read more here.