Search for ""

Arthur Michaud, tenor, teacher (born 1892 in Northampton, Massachusettes; died 25 February 1942 in Hollywood, California).

Afua (Ava Pamela) Cooper, educator, historian, performance artist, poet (born 8 November 1957 in the Whithorn district of Westmoreland, Jamaica), is considered one of the most influential and pioneering voices in the Canadian dub poetry and spoken word movement. Her poems are published in numerous regional, national and international journals and anthologies. Afua Cooper also has CDs of her performances that make her work well known to the global community. In addition to her renown as a performance artist, she is an internationally-ranked historian. She has taught Caribbean cultural studies, history, women's studies and Black studies at Ryerson and York universities, at the University of Toronto and at Dalhousie University.

George Brough, pianist, organist, harpsichordist, opera coach (born 25 February 1918 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England; died 15 September 2015 in Toronto, ON). George Brough was widely recognized as one of Canada's most skilful, reliable and versatile accompanists. Able to sight-read with tremendous proficiency, he provided secure support for hundreds of performers, from students in competitions to professional artists such as Heinz Holliger, Gervase de Peyer, Henri Temianka, Bernard Turgeon and Jon Vickers. He was an assistant conductor and accompanist with the Canadian Opera Company, an organist with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the University of Toronto.

Aziz Ahmad, novelist, short story writer, critic, translator, historian (born 11 November 1914 in Hyderabad Deccan [present-day India]; died 16 December 1978 in Toronto, ON).

Robin Poitras, CM, dancer, teacher, choreographer, administrator (born 1958 in Regina, SK). Robin Poitras is the co-founder and artistic and managing director of Regina-based New Dance Horizons. It is one of Canada’s most successful and groundbreaking contemporary dance organizations. It has played a crucial role in the development of contemporary dance in Saskatchewan since the mid-1980s. Poitras has received a YWCA Women of Distinction Award for the Arts, as well as lifetime achievement awards from the Regina Mayor’s Arts and Business Awards and the Saskatchewan Arts Board. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2021.

Ulrich “Fred” Herzog, photographer, teacher (born 21 September 1930 in Bad Friedrichshall, Germany; died 9 September 2019 in Vancouver, BC). Fred Herzog was a professional medical photographer and a photography instructor at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. He is best known for his colour photographs of Vancouver street scenes, which documented working-class neighbourhoods and the downtown before they were transformed. His use of colour film was unusual for a fine arts photographer, and his work was largely overlooked for years. His first solo show — at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2007, when he was 76 — received widespread acclaim.

Jack Lawrence Granatstein, OC, historian, professor (born 21 May 1939 in Toronto, Ontario). One of the most prolific Canadian historians of his generation, Granatstein has written widely on Canadian history and current affairs. A professor of history until his retirement in 1995, Granatstein later became director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum from 1998-2000. He has written over 60 books and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Lynne Cohen, photographer, artist, sculptor, printmaker, filmmaker, teacher (born 3 July 1944 in Racine, Wisconsin; died 12 May 2014 in Montreal, QC). Award-winning photographer Lynne Cohen was perhaps best known for winning the inaugural $50,000 Scotiabank Photography Award in 2011. She also won the Canada Council for the Arts’s Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award in 1991 and a Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts in 2005. Her work focuses on everyday interior spaces and how changes in lighting and framing alter how the viewer perceives these environments. She was also a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa from 1974 to 2005.

Audrey Bernice Farnell, soprano, teacher (born 28 July 1921 in Amherst, NS; died 11 September 1995 in Toronto, ON). Audrey Farnell enjoyed a prominent career as both a soloist and recitalist. After winning the 1945–46 Singing Stars of Tomorrow competition, she performed with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Montreal Elgar Choir, the Halifax Choral Society and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, among others. She also performed for Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip during their first Royal Tour of Canada in 1951. Farnell later taught at the Alberta College Music Centre and at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Angela Sidney (née Johns), (Stóow Ch’óonehte’ Máa), CM, Elder, storyteller, author (born 4 January 1902 near Carcross, YT; died 17 July 1991 in Whitehorse, YT). Of Tagish and Tlingit descent, Sidney was one of the last fluent speakers of the Tagish language. A storyteller, Sidney recorded and preserved the stories, traditions, languages, place names and genealogies of her people. She was the first Indigenous woman from Yukon to be appointed to the Order of Canada.

Thomas Watson Kirkconnell, university professor and administrator (born 16 May 1895 in Port Hope, ON; died 26 February 1977 in Wolfville, NS). A professor of English and Classics, Kirkconnell became one of Canada’s most prolific translators and the recipient of honours both at home and abroad. He was a founding member of the Humanities Research Council of Canada (now the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada). An early cultural pluralist, Kirkconnell promoted the tolerance and celebration of European cultures in Canada, a diversity he described using the tapestry metaphor.

Natalie Olga Kuzmich (née Belz), educator, producer, adjudicator (born 22 May 1932 in Toronto, ON; died 7 January 2023 in Toronto). B MUS music education (Toronto) 1954, MA musicology (Toronto) 1968.

Marcel Sabourin, OC, actor, writer, screenwriter, lyricist, producer, director, teacher (born 25 March 1935 in Montreal, QC). An important figure in Quebec cinema and television, Marcel Sabourin has performed in more Quebec films than any other actor. He first came to prominence as Professor Mandibule in the Radio-Canada children’s TV programs Les Croquignoles (1963–67) and La Ribouldingue (1967–71). He is perhaps best known for his role as Abel Gagné in Jean-Pierre Lefebvre’s acclaimed Abel trilogy. Sabourin received the Jutra-Hommage lifetime achievement award at the Jutra Awards (now Prix Iris) in 1999. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019.