The St. Albert Gazette is paying tribute to a former editor with an award now named in her honour.
The St. Albert Gazette is paying tribute to a former editor with an award now named in her honour. The Sue Gawlak Best Local Editorial award will be given out for the first time during the Better Newspapers Competition Awards of Excellence ceremony to be held on May 27.
Duff Jamison, president and CEO of GreatWest Newspapers, the parent company of the Gazette, explained that it was important to honour Gawlak in this way. He said that it also lends credibility to the award for bearing the name of someone who upheld the virtues of journalism so well.
“Sue was a completely principled journalist committed to making the Gazette an informative, factual and entertaining read each and every time it hit the streets,” he stated. “She knew that producing strong journalism would build the newspaper's credibility and good name in our community.”
“Sue had many, many qualities that impressed me from her news sense to her organizational skills but what impressed me most was her editorial writing.”
Gawlak started as the editor of the Gazette in 1992, winning several editorial awards at both the provincial and national level for her work.
“She lived by the editor's creed – comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. She wrote on national and provincial themes, but most enjoyed the local editorial. To do it well takes a solid understanding of the community. It's always first hand knowledge and it often takes more guts.”
Gawlak passed away in August 2010 after an 18-month fight with breast cancer. In writing about her passing, her successor former co-editor Bryan Alary wrote that her editorial skills were indeed excellent, but her editorials afforded her the chance to really tell things that needed telling.
“She called it as she saw it even if someone somewhere - usually a red-faced city councilor – found it temporarily unpleasant. Sometimes she'd seek a second opinion to see if she was being too harsh which happened from time to time. More often her editorials were tough, but fair. That was Sue,” he wrote.
The Gazette flourished under Gawlak's leadership, winning numerous top newspaper honours at the provincial, national and North American level.
Sue's wife and long-time partner, April Bartlett, remarked that she is pleased to hear of the award. She said that Sue stood for integrity and it's important for the award to be used as a reminder that journalists hold high values in their work.
“It's a wonderful honour for Sue and a legacy to leave something behind that she had a lot of passion for,” she said, remembering that Gawlak was diligent about paying attention to city council meetings on TV, even if they went late, just so that she had as much accurate information as possible for her work and her writing.
“It's a fabulous honour ... for all the hard work and years of service that she put into the paper,” she ended. “That was her life. It's a beautiful recognition.”
Sue's daughter, Kasia Gawlak, added that the award is very special as it offers a permanent reminder of how her mother's dedication to the community came through loud and clear through her editorials.
“It was always very apparent to us that a lot of the things she wrote about in her editorials like local politics and social issues were always very top of mind to her. It was very important to her that the voice of the community would be recognized but also it would be challenged. Her editorials were never taking the soft way. She always made sure that the hard issues were front and centre and that people were challenged by what she had to say in reading them. I think that the community was better off for that.”
She too was thrilled with the news and said that it means a lot to her and her family.
“It's wonderful! It's so touching and it means so much that everyone continues to think of her and hold her in such high regard, recognizing the contributions she made to the community and to the journalism community across the province as well.”
