As TSN’s Pierre McGuire received his Gemini on Monday night as best TV sports analyst, he recalled first learning of his nomination on Aug. 26.

After being told of the honor, McGuire at once rang his father, a woodsman in Mount Tremblant, QC, to say he’d contend for a Gemini for his call of the world junior gold medal game between Canada and Sweden.

McGuire had done the same in 2004 when he received his first nomination for best sports analyst, but in August, McGuire only got his father’s answering machine and, as fate would have it, no return phone call.

‘He died in the woods that day,’ McGuire, checking his voice, told his industry colleagues as he recalled the logging accident in the woods of northern Quebec that Regis ‘Rex’ McGuire so loved and that tragically claimed his life.

Then, McGuire added: ‘Dad, thanks so much.’

During a night when Canadian TV honored its own, other Gemini winners gathered at the Liberty Grand in Toronto showed equal emotion.

Vancouver-based producer David Paperny earned his Gemini for best biographical documentary for Confessions of an Innocent Man. Accepting his trophy, Paperny thanked CTV and the National Film Board for backing a documentary about William Sampson, a Canadian man wrongly jailed in Saudi Arabia, that took so long to make.

‘This is one of the hardest and most challenging films I’ve ever made,’ he said. What Paperny didn’t mention was that his Gemini came after 14 earlier nominations.

As in past years, the big winner Monday night was the CBC, which saw a slew of its news, sports and documentary shows pick up hardware.

The National, the public broadcaster’s flagship newscast, grabbed Geminis for best newscast and best reportage. The fifth estate and Hockey Night in Canada each grabbed three trophies. The late CBC sportscaster Don Wittman earned a Gemini for best play-by-play work for his NHL broadcasts, while the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television gave veteran CBC Newsworld newsman Don Newman the Gordon Sinclair Award for his contribution to Canadian broadcast journalism.

The CBC dominance of news categories came in part as CTV News continues to bypass the Geminis.

TVOntario shared in the riches, as Maya Gallus earned a Gemini for best director of a documentary program for her work on Girl Inside, while Derreck Roemer and Neil Graham shared top honor for best directors of a documentary series for The View From Here — Last Call at the Gladstone Hotel.

The Ontario public broadcaster also picked up the best documentary series prize for Diamond Road.

Global Television saw Barbara Shearer pick up a Gemini for best writing in an information program or series for Pretty Dangerous: Elena Kiejliches.

Elsewhere, the Donald Brittain Award for best social/political documentary went to Peter Raymont’s A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman.

The Geminis will continue for two more nights at the Liberty Grand. Trophies for lifestyle, kids and teen programming will be handed out Tuesday and prizes for drama, variety and comedy follow on Wednesday.

Canada’s TV awards then shift on Nov. 28 to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for a televised awards gala on E! and Showcase.