Antonine Maillet, CP, CC, OQ, is a novelist, playwright and translator who has published more than 50 works earning her several esteemed prizes. Her character La Sagouine, established her reputation among Canadian francophones until she won the prix Goncourt in 1979 for Pélagie-la-Charrette. She then became a celebrity throughout the international francophonie. It is because of Antonine Maillet that Acadia entered, for the first time, the realm of written literature. Before her, Acadian fiction...
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Andrew Benedek is an internationally respected authority on water-related issues. After coordinating the Wastewater Research Group, Dr. Benedek founded the firm ZENON Environmental in 1980. Under his leadership the firm pioneered the use of advanced membrane technologies to solve water quality problems around the world. Dr. Andrew Benedek is the author of more than 100 scientific papers on different water and wastewater technologies, and has lectured extensively on these subjects to learned soc...
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Sally Armstrong is an award-winning author, filmmaker and human rights activist. Through her journalism, she has galvanized Canadians to bear witness to suffering and injustice. Her unapologetic advocacy and courageous unflinching accounts of the atrocities experienced by women from Bosnia to Bangladesh have mobilized readers to become involved in helping vulnerable people around the world.
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Her Excellency Vaira Vike Freiberga is the President of Latvia and Special Envoy to the Secretary General of the United Nations on UN reform. Exiled from her homeland as a child, she spent the bulk of her life in Canada, earning three degrees and pursuing a distinguished cross-disciplinary academic career. First elected President in 1999 just a year after her return, she has played a critical role in ensuring Latvia’s inclusion into NATO and the European Union. ...
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The Honourable Claudette Tardif is a Senator. Claudette Tardif has long been recognized as one of Canada’s foremost advocates and defenders of minority linguistic and cultural rights, and for her considerable contribution to both secondary and post-secondary education.  Before entering public life, Senator Tardif worked in higher education, first as a professor, then as Dean of Faculté Saint-Jean and in a number of senior positions within the University of Alberta.  Dr. Tardif is a ti...
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For nearly 10 years, the name Gérald Savoie has been associated with the battle for the survival of the Montfort Hospital. President and Chief Executive Officer since 1986, Mr. Savoie’s mission has been to transform this modest bilingual institution, created in 1953 to serve the needs of the Franco-Ontarian community, into a modern medical complex offering a host of special services — a brilliant gamble that paid off for this University of Ottawa alumnus. ...
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Michael Sabia is the President and CEO of BCE Inc. After a successful career in the federal public service, Mr. Sabia became an executive at CN, before joining BCE. Since taking over as CEO in 2002, Mr. Sabia has led BCE as it continues to expand into new fields like voice-over IP, digital television, and many others. As CEO, Michael Sabia has demonstrated a commitment to community, and has spoken often of the importance of education and skills development. ...
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Gail Regan is a highly successful business leader, with a background in academia. A co-owner of Cara Operations, one of our country’s largest and most successful restaurant and food service companies, Dr. Regan began her career as an assistant professor and lecturer at the University of Toronto, where she taught in the Faculty of Education. Over the years, Gail Regan has been actively involved in various not-for-profit-organizations, including the Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, and the En...
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Daniel Poliquin, C.M., is an accomplished translator and interpreter, and the award-winning author of such works as Temps pascal, L’homme de paille, Visions de Jude, and L’écureuil noir. As a translator, Dr. Poliquin has made such great writers as Jack Kerouac, Mordechai Richler, W.O. Mitchell and others more accessible to Francophone audiences. An ardent promoter of the interests of Franco-Ontarians and other Francophones, Daniel Poliquin is a Chevalier in the Ordre de la Pléiade, and a Member...
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Chantal Petitclerc is one of Canada’s best-known athletes and an inspiring public speaker, a Paralympian and an Olympian who has set world records and won numerous medals in a stellar career in wheelchair racing. Ms. Petitclerc made sport history at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, when she won a gold medal in the 800 metres. It was the first time that a wheelchair event was fully integrated into the program of a major international competition. ...
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