By Don Genova

Rachel Sanders is your Story Board editor, and while she would never blow her own horn here, as her supervisor, I'm taking over this post to do a little cheerleading on her behalf.

Rachel is one of five finalists for this year's Landsberg Award, given out each year by the Canadian Journalism Foundation in association with the Canadian Women’s Foundation.

From the CJR website: "The award celebrates a journalist who is raising awareness about women’s equality issues in Canada and aims to inspire an increase in the media coverage and voice of women in Canada.

The award is named after Michele Landsberg—an award-winning Canadian journalist, author, social activist and feminist—to acknowledge the tremendous impact that she has had as an advocate and role model for all women in Canada. The award will inspire relentless and fearless journalists to consider Canadian news from a women’s equality perspective."

Rachel reached finalist status with her series “Slaves to Tips: How BC Laws Fuel Sexism on the Job” in the BC-based online newsmagazine The Tyee, exploring sexism in British Columbia’s restaurant industry.

What's not noted on the CJF's announcement of the finalists is that after reading Rachel's series in The Tyee last year, the leader of the BC Green Party introduced a private members' bill in the provincial legislature that would prevent employers from setting differing footwear requirements depending on an employee’s gender, gender expression or gender identity. Subsequent to the bill's introduction, the government changed the regulations regarding footwear under the Workers Compensation Act. Workers in all jobs across BC could then say goodbye to high heels being a requirement as part of their uniform.

I'm very proud of the work Rachel does here on Story Board, and equally proud of her for getting to finalist status with her work at The Tyee. The winner of the award will be announced on June 14th in Toronto as part of the CJF Awards gala, but as far as I'm concerned, she's already a winner.