2023 National Pictures of the Year Winners Announced

TORONTO, ON – JUNE 25 – Blaine from Totally Naked Toronto, enjoys a coffee before the parade. Thousands gathered during Pride Week for the massive Pride Parade that saw the pride community parade along Bloor Street to Yonge Street to Dundas Street West in Toronto. June 25, 2023. (Steve Russell/The Toronto Star)

Toronto’s newly elected mayor Olivia Chow steps onto the stage at The Great Hall to greet her supporters. Toronto, June 26, 2023. (Nick Lachance/Independent)

Students are silhouetted by a stage light as they carry a ceremonial cloth with the names of children who died in residential schools and were identified in the National Student Memorial Register, during Gidinawendimin – We Are All Related, an event for youth featuring Residential School Survivors, Knowledge Keepers, and Indigenous music and culture, part of Truth and Reconciliation Week, in Ottawa, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. (Justin Tang- The Canadian Press)

Kay Penner (right) cries into her sister Tallia’s shoulder May 20, 2023 at her home at Quail Ridge Apartments in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The apartment caught on fire the day before and around 200 residents were displaced. The building has been fenced off and residents have not been able to go in and collect their belongings. (Jessica Lee – Winnipeg Free Press)

Toronto Police make an arrest during a protest against the Eritrean Government outside of the Sheraton Hotel on Queen St West in Toronto, on Sunday, August 6 2023. (Arlyn McAdorey – Independent)

My grandmother Doreen, photographed in her bedroom in Toronto on October 20, 2023. As a young teenager, my grandmother was on a boat that exploded. She had to receive skin grafts, leaving her with scars all over her body. The scars have changed and faded with time, blending in with wrinkles and age spots. (Laura Proctor – Independent)

Beatrice Little Mustache (Ii naak sii pii taa kii) an Elder in the Piikani First Nation, sits in the hills overlooking her lifelong home on May 31, 2023. She wears handmade traditional regalia, which took her two years to complete. (Leah Hennel – Independent)

Poppy Puffter takes a moment before performing on stage during the Wigs and Waffles Drag Brunch in Lethbridge, Alberta on December 10, 2023. Poppy Puffter takes a moment before performing on stage during the Wigs and Waffles Drag Brunch in Lethbridge, Alberta on December 10, 2023. (Leah Hennel – Independent)

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Nestor fans his face to bake in the makeup he just applied.
Nestor Lozano Jr. is a filipino actor from Scarborough who is playing the role of “Angel Dumott Schunard” in RENT at the Strarford Festival. On May 8, 2023 the Globe and Mail spent the day with Mr. Lozano Jr. as he prepares for the day’s performance in Stratford Ontario. (Carlos Osorio – For the Globe and Mail)

Joan Connor, who has been living with dementia for over 10 years, holds her husband’s hands as she has her hair washed at a salon in Calgary, Alberta on April 22, 2023. (Leah Hennel – Independent)

TORONTO, ON- MARCH 3 – A homeless person sleeps on a grate outside the Toronto Dominion Bank on Bay Street. The City of Toronto is hit by a massive winter snowstorm fuelled by a Texas low in Toronto. March 3, 2023. (Steve Russell – The Toronto Star)

Kathrin Mentler, who lives with chronic depression and suicidality, went to Vancouver General Hospital seeking help for suicidal thoughts. She was further distressed by a clinician who unexpectedly suggested medical assistance in dying. Photographed at her Vancouver, B.C. apartment building on July 27, 2023.

Jerry Martin, a drug user advocate, opened The Drugs Store out of a trailer where he offered small quantities of drugs for purchase that had been tested for fentanyl, such as cocaine, heroin, meth and MDMA, in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, on May 3, 2023.
Martin died of a suspected fentanyl overdose in June 2023. (Jennifer Gauthier – for Thomson Reuters)

A dive to finish gold for Charles Philibert-Thiboutot and silver for Robert Heppenstall of Team Canada during the Men’s 1500m final at Estadio Nacional de Chile at the PanAm Games in Santiago, Chile on November 2, 2023. (Leah Hennel – Canadian Olympic Committee)

Vancouver Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka stops Club Leon’s Fidel Ambriz, not seen, on a penalty kick during a Leagues Cup soccer match in Vancouver, on Friday, July 21, 2023. (Darryl Dyck – The Canadian Press)

Kaori Sakamoto, of Japan, grabs one of her skates while spinning as she performs her women’s short program during the Skate Canada International figure skating competition, in Vancouver, on Friday, October 27, 2023. (Darryl Dyck – The Canadian Press)

Equipment is scattered on the ice as Quebec Remparts players celebrate after Quebec defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds during Memorial Cup final hockey action, in Kamloops, B.C., on Sunday, June 4, 2023. (Darryl Dyck – The Canadian Press)

Ecstatic after three days of intense competitive cheerleading the Coyotes Savage Pack cheer team from Montreal jubilantly celebrate their divisional win on the final day at the Canadian National Cheer Championships in Niagara Falls. Competitive cheer as a sport has exploded in Canada, with new gyms opening all over the country and kids of all ages (mostly women and girls) competing from ages 3 and some well into their 40s.
April 16, 2023 (Melissa Tait – The Globe and Mail)

Tausani Levale of the Guelph University Gryphons bleeds after breaking her nose after being hit against the Victoria University Vikes during the rugby USports Championship semi-final in Quebec City, Canada, November 3, 2023. (Mathieu Belanger – Independent)

Ostrich riding at the Writing-on-Stone Rodeo east of Milk River, Alta. on August 5, 2023. (Leah Hennel – Independent)

The Byerley family is pictured as they evacuate from Sorrento back to Celista after the Adams Lake wildfire forced them from their homes in Sorrento, British Columbia on Friday, August 18, 2023. (Ben Nelms – CBC)

The McDougall Creek wildfire burns on the mountainside above houses, in West Kelowna, B.C., on Friday, August 18, 2023. (Darryl Dyck – The Canadian Press)

Firefighters kneel with their hose as they battle a house fire. One house was destroyed and a multi-unit apartment building was heavily damaged in a morning fire in downtown St. John’s October 30, 2023. St. John’s regional fire department firefighters were originally responding to black smoke coming from around the chimney of a house. When firefighters arrived, though, there was heavy fire, and black smoke coming from the home. The firefighters quickly laid multiple attack lines to battle the blaze and also started watering down the structures on both sides of the burning home so that the fire would not spread. Unfortunately, the roof of the next-door apartment building had already started burning and firefighters had to turn their concentration to that structure. Eventually fire and black smoke was also seen coming from the roof and an aerial truck was deployed to fight the fire from above. At one point, firefighters had to be pulled out of the apartment building because of the danger of roof collapse. (Keith Gosse – The Telegram/Saltwire)

The Byerley family is pictured as they evacuate from Sorrento back to Celista after the Adams Lake wildfire forced them from their homes in Sorrento, British Columbia on Friday, August 18, 2023. (Ben Nelms – CBC)