Steve Maher, Postmedia

Maher received two nominations. The originals:

1)      Glen McGregor has already been nominated but I think he and Steve worked as an indivisible team on the widespread Robocalls scandal relating to voter suppression during the May 2011 election campaign. Their work has been uniquely innovative as they broke and then lead the field in this most important and disturbing story. Their work may force a major reform of electioneering tactics as well as produce criminal charges. Their robocalls story reflects admirable journalism which combines modern investigative techniques with stubborn, hard-slogging digging.

I don't know if the rules permit it but I think Glen and Steve should be a joint nomination.

2)      Steve Maher & Glen McGregor have broken the story about the Elections Canada investigation into the robocalls in the 2011 election. This is an issue that is central to democracy. Their ongoing research into this is a critical national issue. 

These two journalists are the modern Canadian equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein. I'm nominating Maher because I saw on the prior screen that McGregor has already won this honour. [J-Source note: McGregor is a fellow nominee; nobody has won yet.]

As to why the work Maher & McGregor is so important to our democracy, and to Canada, read my Huffington Post blog on this. It was the #1 blog of the day, the week, the month and perhaps or 2012 — with 20,000 likes, shares and comments. You can see it at http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jim-harris/robocalls-scandal_b_1305397.html 

Other comments: It is interesting that it is the Postmedia Network that broke this story. It is a right wing set of media properties. 

Therefore Maher & McGregor likely had to be very persuasive within their media organizations to push for this to be covered — and therefore deserve more credit.

This story involves multiple ridings and multiple telemarketing firms. It involves robocalls and live operator calls. Only through diligent, ongoing journalistic effort will the truth come to light.

Links:

The first robocalls story: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/22/racknine-inc-fraudulent-election-calls-traced/

All Postmedia stories tagged robocalls: http://news.nationalpost.com/tag/robocalls/

How they got the story: http://www.hilltimes.com/news/news/2012/03/05/meet-the-reporters-who-broke-robocalls-story-one%E2%80%99s-a-source-guy-the-other-a/29812?page_requested=1

Robocalls trial wrap-up: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/18/an-assault-on-democracy-robocalls-trial-ends-with-call-for-fresh-elections-in-six-ridings

Also, Glen McGregor's nomination can be found here.