Broadcaster Dick Irvin among latest honoured by Order of Canada

Dick Irvin Jr. was recently given the ACTRA Award of Excellence (Sept. 13, 2011)

MONTREAL - Legendary sports broadcaster James Dickinson Irvin – better known as Dick Irvin - who broadcast Canadiens’ games on TV and radio for decades and penned several books about the sport, was among the 90 honoured in the latest round of Order of Canada appointments.

Other Quebecers honoured this year were: singer Louise Forestier, Eastern Townships-based author Louise Penny and lawyer and former Alliance Quebec president Michael Goldbloom.

Lucia Kowaluk, a longtime Plateau-area activist who has fought for many social causes was honoured, as was Gilles Brassard, a pioneer in quantum physics.

Entrepreneur Louis Audet, composer Walter Boudreau, linguist Marie-Éva de Villers, Beauce-based entrepreneur Marc Dutil, poet Madeleine Gagnon, Sutton-based HIV/AIDS combatant Catherine Anita Hankins, Inuit youth coordinator Morley Hanson, sociologist Danielle Juteau, archeologist Francine Lelièvre, dance pioneer Constant V. Pathy, Quebec City entrepreneur Jacques Tanguay, lawyer Michel Robert and sports journalism pioneer Marie-José Turcotte rounded out the list.

The better-known recipients from outside of Quebec include author Douglas Coupland, actor Colm Feore and TV host Steve Paikin. Historian Michael Bliss, who wrote the groundbreaking story of a smallpox outbreak in Montreal, called "Plague," was also among the non-Quebec residents honoured.