Olympians, jurists among 113 new Order of Canada inductees

OTTAWA - Nathalie Lambert was just a child in a poor neighbourhood in Montreal when she walked through the doors of the skating rink across the street.

She walked in by happenstance, she said.

What followed was three Olympic medals in short-track speed skating, travelling the world for international competitions, serving as chef de mission for Canada at the Vancouver Olympics, and a lifetime in sport as a coach, official, mentor and instructor.

Soon enough, Lambert will be walking through the doors of Rideau Hall to join more than 100 other Canadians who are being invested in the Order of Canada.

"'To be quite honest, I'm perfectly happy and thrilled with what sport has brought me and this is sort of the cherry on top of the sundae,"' she said in an interview.

"'I feel extremely privileged to receive this honour. In my wildest dreams, this would not have happened, so for me this is a thrilling and humbling honour."'

Lambert is one of 113 Canadians whom Rideau Hall announced Thursday will be invested into the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest civilian honours and one that recognizes Canadians who have been high achievers in their fields, or have shown dedication or service to their community and country.

The list released on the eve of Canada Day includes writers like Jacques Godbout and Robert Sawyer; editorial cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon; Michael Budman and Don Green, founders of retailer Roots Canada Ltd.; former senator Sharon Carstairs; Isabel Bassett, former CEO of TVOntario and a former Ontario cabinet minister; Marie Wilson, a commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and Dennis O'Connor, a retired judge who headed inquiries into the Maher Arar affair and the tainted-water scandal in Walkerton, Ont.

The Order of Canada was established in 1967 and has more than 6,500 members.

Lambert said even though her name will be entered into the Order of Canada, she is only there because of those around her who pushed her to be better at her sport: her teammates, her rivals, her coaches, and her late mother.

The same is true of Cassie Campbell, who captained the women's hockey team to back-to-back Olympic gold medals.

She said she felt almost uncomfortable accepting the honour as an individual who plays in a team sport.

"'I think about all my teammates when you get an award like this because it really should go to all of them and hopefully one day they all get that recognition,"' Campbell said.

She said the recognition should go a long way to helping build women's hockey at the grassroots level in Canada, which has come a long way from when she was a child.

Campbell said she didn't grow up with a dream of playing hockey in the Olympics because at the time she didn't think it was possible.

"'You hope that the young girls hear about a female hockey player getting an honour like this and it inspires them even more."'

On the list are also a number of notable aboriginal Canadians, including artist Abraham Anghik Ruben and Graydon Nicholas, the first aboriginal to become the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick.

Nicholas grew up one of 12 children to a family on the Tobique First Nation reserve in New Brunswick. He struggled to learn English as a child, failing Grade 1 so he could have another year to work on his language skills.

"'Nothing in life has ever come free, if I can call it that way,"' he said.

"'It's been a lot of hard work. I don't necessarily consider myself intelligent. I work hard and I never give up, very determined - my mother used to say, you're stubborn.

"'Stubborn is not such a bad quality when you can bounce back from setbacks and learn from your mistakes."'

His mother, he said, was adamant her children would get an education and pushed him and his siblings to go to post-secondary school.

Nicholas did his undergraduate degree in science. A law degree followed. Then came 12 years with the Union of New Brunswick Indians. In 1991, he became the first aboriginal appointed to be a provincial judge in New Brunswick, then in 2009 the first to be lieutenant-governor.

"'I never asked to be a judge. I never asked to be a lieutenant-governor. And I certainly did not ask for this either,"' he said.

"'Someone, somewhere must have seen something and thought, 'Well, you know, let's give this person an opportunity and a chance,' and I'm grateful for that."'

Here's the list of recipients released by Rideau Hall on the eve of Canada Day.

Companions of the Order of Canada:

• Barbara Sherwood Lollar, geochemist

Officers of the Order of Canada:

• Kenneth Armson, forest management advocate
• Ellen Bialystok, language researcher
• Yvon Charest, president and CEO of Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc.
• Gregory Charles, singer and performer
• John Richard English, historian and politician
• Eduardo L. Franco, cervical cancer researcher
• Jacques Godbout, writer and filmmaker
• Serge Godin, founder of technology security firm CGI
• Robert Arthur Gordon, academic
• Philippe Gros, genetics researcher
• Piers Guy Paton Handling, CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival
• Roberta L. Jamieson, First Nations activist
• Nathalie Lambert, Olympic speed skater
• Andres Lozano, neurosurgeon
• John McCall MacBain, philanthropist and founder of the McCall MacBain Foundation
• John McGarry, academic
• Rene Theophile Nuytten, deep-sea explorer
• Dennis O'Connor, commissioner of the Walkerton and Maher Arar inquiries
• Sophie May Pierre, commissioner for the British Columbia Treaty Commission
• Thomas Quinn, business leader
• Noralou Roos, medical researcher
• Abraham Anghik Ruben, indigenous artist
• Tsun-Kong Sham, scientist
• Dorothy Shaw, women's health advocate
• Anthony von Mandl, Okanagan wine maker
• The Honourable Warren Winkler, former chief justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal
• Ronald J. Wonnacott, free trade researcher

Members of the Order of Canada:

• Joseph Georges Arsenault, researcher and promoter of Prince Edward Island's Acadian history
• Salah John Bachir, entrepreneur
• Isabel Bassett, former Ontario cabinet minister
• Gerald Batist, cancer researcher
• Geoffrey Battersby, physician, politician and community leader
• Francoise Baylis, medical ethicist and health care advocate
• Gregory S. Belton, philanthropist
• Johanne Berry, businesswoman and mentor
• Timothy Borlase, author and arts program specialist
• Richard Fredrick Bradshaw, philanthropist
• Peter Bregg, photojournalist
• Donald C. Brinton, broadcaster and retired executive with Canwest Global Communications
• Michael Budman and Don Green, founders of retailer Roots Canada Ltd.
• Cassie Campbell, Olympic hockey player and broadcaster
• Mariette Carrier-Fraser, language rights advocate
• The Honourable Sharon Carstairs, retired senator
• Neena L. Chappell, caregiving and dementia researcher
• Zita Cobb, social entrepreneur
• Mary Cornish, pay equity advocate
• L. Mark Cullen, horticulture educator and environmentalist
• Madeleine Delaney-Leblanc, women's rights activist
• Patricia Demers, academic
• Serge Denoncourt, actor
• Charlotte Diamond, children's entertainer
• Rupert James Duchesne, customer loyalty management innovator
• Michael Eskin, canola oil researcher
• Carole Anne Estabrooks, health care researcher
• Yvon Ethier, musician
• Gerald Richard Fagan, conductor and educator.
• Linda Marie Fedigan, primate researcher
• Marie Esther Fortier, hospital administrator and researcher
• Stephen Gaetz, homelessness researcher
• Ned Goodman, philanthropist
• Paul John Perry Guloien, jazz saxophonist
• Barbara Hannigan, opera singer
• Gregory Hanson, business leader
• Susan Johnson, psychologist and therapist
• Diane Juster, musician
• Eli Kassner, co-founder of the Guitar Society of Toronto.
• Elaine Keillor, Canadian music historian
• Hassan Khosrowshahi, business magnate and philanthropist
• Michael Charles Klein, family and maternity care physician
• Laurier Lacroix, Quebec arts historian
• Mark Levine, oncologist and researcher
• Shar Levine, science educator
• Sidney B. Linden, former chief judge of the Ontario Court of Justice
• Gail Dexter Lord, museum planner and manager
• Steve Lurie, mental health care advocate
• Bruce MacKinnon, editorial cartoonists.
• Harriet MacMillan, psychiatrist and pediatrician
• Joe and Stephanie Mancini, homeless advocates
• Roger L. Martin, business educator and academic
• Don McKellar, actor, writer and director.
• Linda E. McKnight, publisher
• Emily Molnar, ballet dancer and choreographer
• Terrence Montague, cardiovascular disease researcher
• Richard Ian Guy Morrison, Arctic shorebirds conservationist
• The Honourable Graydon Nicholas, former lieutenant governor of New Brunswick
• Niels Ole Nielsen, veterinarian and academic
• Shane O'Dea, educator and orator
• Robert Pace, Atlantic Canada business leader
• Eric L. Peterson, philanthropist and indigenous health care advocate
• Michel Picher, labour arbitrator
• Deborah Poff, academic administrator
• Andrew M. Pringle, investor and chairman of the Toronto Police Services Board
• Daniel Reiss, environmentalist and chairman of Polar Bears International
• Howard Warren Rundle, former president of Fanshawe College
• Robert J. Sawyer, science fiction writer
• Kathryn Shields, women's basketball player and coach
• Ilkay Silk, actor, director and playwright
• Jean Swanson, anti-poverty activist in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
• Kathleen Patricia Taylor, former president and CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
• Richard Tremblay, founder and director of the Canadian Organ Donors Association
• Louis Vachon, president of the National Bank of Canada
• Geraldine Van Bibber, former commissioner of Yukon
• David Vaver, intellectual property law as a scholar
• James W. St. G. Walker, historian
• Michael A. Walker, founder of the Fraser Institute
• Howard Wetston, judge, former chairman of the Ontario Energy Board and the Ontario Securities Commission
• Catharine Whiteside, medical researcher
• Marie Wilson, commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• James G. Wright, pediatric orthopedist
• Glenda Yeates, former deputy minister of Health Canada