Novelist, playwright, screen writer and poet, Marie-Claire Blais has dominated the Francophone literary landscape for more than 35 years. Her work has universal appeal, intermixing humour with tragedy in her own concise style that has garnered an international reputation. She is considered one of the great writers of her generation and she has given us an abundance of characters that will live eternally.
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The University of Ottawa and Carleton University both awarded UN Secretary General Kofi Annan honorary doctorates in an unprecedented joint ceremony March 9 at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Chancellor Huguette Labelle conferred the degree to Annan on behalf of the University of Ottawa.
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In 1973, then 20-year-old André Viger was involved in a traffic accident which left him a paraplegic. Within a year, driven by his strength of character and a desire to raise his self-esteem, he was on a vigorous training program. In 1979, he won his first marathon, a success that inaugurated a highly productive athletic career, during which he won top prizes in a host of national and international competitions. At the Barcelona Para-Olympic Games in 1992, at the age of 39, Viger won the gold ...
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Denise Verreault is a well-known figure in Quebec, as an entrepreneur and businesswoman, but also as a model for young entrepreneurs. She was born in Les Méchins, a village on the Gaspé Peninsula where Groupe Maritime Verreault still has its head office. After completing a degree in education, Verreault was gearing up for a career in teaching, but her life took an unexpected turn towards a totally different path. In 1989, when she was 24 years old, Verreault succeeded her father, then deceased...
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Ryoji Noyori has spent more than 40 years in selfless devotion to science, engaged in work that has yielded substantial technical advances with highly practical implications. Two years ago he shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his accomplishments. During the 1970s, Noyori's pioneering research yielded a new molecule called BINAP, whose properties opened up new possibilities in chemistry and chemical engineering, and made existing processes more efficient. This innovation was especially w...
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After Roger Blais earned a doctorate in economic geology at the University of Toronto in 1954, he went on to quickly achieve prominence in mining geology, developing a number of prospecting and exploration technologies. In the 1960s, he was a leader in the development of Earth sciences in Canada. In 1970, he became a professor in economic geology and the first director of research at Montreal's École polytechnique, where he was a pioneer in establishing productive partnerships between universi...
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Whether as teacher, researcher, member of Parliament, minister, dean or professor, Monique Bégin has shown an unmistakably clear vision as she pursued her mission of improving the condition and the lives of her fellow Canadians. As executive secretary of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, she published a report in 1970, which served as a reference for many years. In 1972, she became the first woman from Quebec elected to the House of Commons. As minister of national health ...
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One of the world's foremost penal law experts, Françoise Tulkens has brought a new awareness of the need to protect human rights. Born in Brussels in 1942, she earned a doctorate in law at an early age. Early in her career, she became a member of the bar in Brussels, was named research fellow at the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique and, subsequently, professor in the law faculty of the Université catholique de Louvain. Throughout her years of dedicated work, she earned an enviable ...
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John P. Nelligan was called to the bar in 1949 and became a founding partner in Nelligan Power in 1963. The firm, now Nelligan O'Brien Payne, has become renowned for the quality of its advocacy work. Much of Nelligan's experience is in insurance litigation and labour and employment law, where he has encountered all aspects of civil and commercial legal practice. His peers have acknowledged his accomplishments with various honours and distinctions. In 1972 he was named a Queen's counsel. Since ...
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In the early 1980s, Rod Bryden travelled extensively to make presentations for potential investors in his Ottawa-based information technology firm, SHL Systemhouse Ltd. He wound up spending less time explaining the intricacies of his business than he did explaining where Ottawa was and why anyone would run a business from there. Fifteen years later, he found himself on a similar speaking circuit to drum up interest in his most recent venture, World Heart Corporation. This time, however, Ottawa...
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