The
Order of Canada ( ) is an
honour for merit that is, within the
Canadian system of
honours, the highest such
order administered by the
Governor General-in-Council, on behalf of
the
Queen of Canada. Created in
1967, to coincide with the
centennial of
Canadian Confederation, the
three-tiered order was established as a fellowship that recognizes
the achievement of outstanding merit or distinguished service by
Canadians, through life-long contributions in every field of
endeavour, and who made a major difference to Canada, as well as
the efforts made by non-Canadians who have made the world better by
their actions. Membership is thus accorded to those who exemplify
the order's
Latin motto,
taken from
Hebrews 11:16,
desiderantes meliorem patriam, meaning "they desire a
better country."
The Canadian monarch, at present
Elizabeth II, is
Sovereign of the order, and the serving
Governor General, currently
Michaëlle Jean, is its
Chancellor and Principal Companion. Appointees into the order are
selected by an advisory board and formally inducted by the Governor
General; as of July 2009, 5,657 people have been appointed to the
Order of Canada, including musicians, politicians, artists,
athletes, businessmen, television and film stars, benefactors, and
others. Since 1994, substantive members are the only regular
citizens who are empowered to administer the
Canadian Oath of
Citizenship.
Creation
The process of founding the Order of Canada began in early 1966 and
came to a conclusion on 17 April 1967, when the organistation was
instituted by
Queen
Elizabeth II, on
the
advice of her then
Canadian
Prime Minister,
Lester B.
Pearson, who was assisted with the
establishment of the order by
John
Matheson. The association was then officially launched on 1
July 1967, the
100th anniversary
of the formation of
Canadian
Confederation, with Governor General
Roland Michener being the first inductee to
the order to the level of Companion and on 7 July of the same year,
90 more people were appointed, including
Vincent Massey,
Louis St. Laurent,
Hugh MacLennan,
David Bauer,
Gabrielle Roy,
Donald Creighton,
Thérèse Casgrain,
Wilder Penfield,
Arthur Lismer, and
Maurice Richard.
During a visit to
London
, United
Kingdom
, later in 1967, Michener presented the Queen with
her Sovereign's badge for the Order of Canada, and she first wore
it during a banquet in Yellowknife
in July 1970.
From the Order of Canada grew a larger
Canadian honours
system, thereby reducing the use of
British
honours (i.e. those administered by the Queen in
her British Privy
Council), the
Most
Excellent Order of the British Empire and the
Most Distinguished Order of
Saint Michael and Saint George being the main ones used for
Canadians.
Other non-British Commonwealth realms were soon inspired to
follow suit; Jamaica
being the
first in 1968, and by the 1980s, Canada's provinces began
to develop
their own distinct honours and decorations.
Grades
The
Canadian monarch, seen as the
fount of honour, is at the apex of
the Order of Canada as its Sovereign, followed by the Governor
General, who serves as the fellowship's Chancellor. Thereafter
follow three grades, which are, in order of precedence:
Companion,
Officer, and
Member, each
having accordant
post-nominal
letters that members are entitled to use; each incumbent
Governor General is also installed as the Principal Companion for
the duration of their time in the viceregal post. Promotions in
grade are possible, though this is ordinarily not done within five
years of the initial appointment, and a maximum of five honorary
appointments into either of the three grades may be made by the
Governor General each year; to date, there have been
eighteen honorary
appointments to non-Canadian citizens.
There were originally, in effect, only two ranks to the Order of
Canada: Companion and the Medal of Service. There was, however,
also a third award, the Medal of Courage, meant to recognize acts
of gallantry. This latter decoration fell in rank between the other
two levels, but was anomalous within the Order of Canada, being a
separate award of a different nature rather than a middle grade of
the order. Without ever having been awarded, the Medal of Courage
was on 1 July 1972 replaced by the autonomous
Cross of Valour, and, at the same
time, the levels of Officer and Member were introduced, with all
existing holders of the Medal of Service created as Officers.
Lester Pearson's vision of a three-tiered structure to the order
was thus fulfilled.
Companion
Companions of the Order of Canada (post-nominals:
CC, in ) have demonstrated the highest degree of merit to
Canada and humanity, on either the national or international scene.
Up to 15 Companions are appointed annually, with an imposed limit
of 165 living Companions at any given time, save for those
appointed in an honorary capacity. The constitution of the Order of
Canada also specifies that the reigning monarch, the incumbent
Governor General and his or her spouse, and former viceroys and
viceregal consorts are to be included as Companions of the order,
though these individuals also do not count towards the 165 person
maximum. As of July 2009, there were 170 living Companions,
including four honorary.
Officer
Officers of the Order of Canada (post-nominals:
OC, in ) have demonstrated an outstanding level of talent
and service to Canadians, and up to 64 may be appointed each year,
save for those inducted on an honorary basis, with no limit to how
many may be living at one time. As of July 2009, there were 1,012
living Officers, including four honorary.
Member
Members of the Order of Canada (post-nominals:
CM, in ) have made an exceptional contribution to Canada
or Canadians at a local or regional level, group, field or
activity. As many as 136 Members may be appointed annually, save
for those inducted on an honorary basis, and there is no limit on
how many Members may be living at one time. As of July 2009, there
were 2,037 living Members, including four honorary.
Insignia
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Upon admission into the Order of Canada, members are gifted various
insignia of the organization, all designed by
Bruce W. Beatty, who "broke new ground in the design
of insignia of Orders within The Queen's realms," and himself was
made a member of the order in 1990; as of 2004, Beatty has been in
attendance at every investiture ceremony since 1967. The badge
belonging to the Sovereign consists of a jewelled, 18
kt gold crown of
rubies,
emeralds, and
sapphires, from which is suspended a white,
enamelled, hexagonal
snowflake design, with six
equal leaves and diamonds between each. At the centre is a disc
bearing a
maple leaf in
pavé-laid rubies on a white enamel
background, surrounded at its edge by a red enamel ring (annulus)
bearing the motto of the order. The Chancellor wears the badge of a
Companion, though is also, upon installation as Governor General,
granted a
livery collar for wear at
Order of Canada investiture ceremonies; this is composed of an
alternating pattern of white, stylized snowflakes and the same
central disks from the Companion logo, and supports an enamel
rendition of
the shield of
the
Royal Arms of Canada, from which
the Governor General's badge is suspended.
The badges for inductees are of a similar design to the sovereign's
badge, though without precious stones, and slight differences for
each grade. For Companions, the emblem is
gilt with a red enamel maple leaf in the central
disk; for Officers, it is gilt with a gold maple leaf; and for
Members, both the badge itself and the maple leaf are silver. All
are topped by a
St. Edward's
Crown, symbolizing that the order is headed by the sovereign,
and the reverse is plain except for the word
CANADA. The
ribbon is white and bordered in red stripes, similar to the
Canadian national flag; the chest
ribbon is the same for each grade, save for a metallic maple leaf
in the centre, the colour of which matches that on the badge of the
grade that the wearer was appointed to. For civilian wear, a lapel
pin is worn on the jacket, which is designed as a miniature of the
medallion.
Wear of the insignia is according to guidelines issued by the
Chancellery of Honours, which stipulate that the badges be worn
before all those of other national orders that is, at the far right
end of an individual's medal bar or at the wearer's neck with only
the
Victoria Cross and the
Cross of Valour permitted
to be worn before the badge of the Order of Canada, as well as the
insignia of the
Order of Merit. Those
in the grades of Companion or Officer may wear their badges on a
neck ribbon, while those in the Member group display their insignia
suspended by a ribbon from a medal bar on the left chest. Protocol
originally followed the British tradition, wherein female
appointees were required to wear their Order of Canada emblem on a
ribbon bow positioned on the left breast. These regulations were
altered in 1997, and, with the exception of certain special
occasions, women may wear their insignia in either the traditional
method or in the same fashion as the men.
With the patriation in 1988 of oversight of
arms to Canada through the
Canadian Heraldic Authority, the
constitution of the Order of Canada was amended to include the
entitlement of all inductees to petition the
Chief Herald of Canada for personal
armorial bearings, should they not already possess any. Companions
may receive
supporters, and
all members may have the
escutcheon (shield) of their arms
encircled with a red
ribbon bearing the
order's motto in gold, and from which is suspended a rendition of
the holder's Order of Canada badge. As the Queen is sovereign of
the Order of Canada, she in 1987 approved the augmentation of her
royal arms for Canada with the order's ribbon.
Possession and sale
The constitution of the Order of Canada states that the insignia
remain property of
the Crown, and requires
any member of the order to return to the Chancellery their original
emblem should they be upgraded within the order to a higher rank.
Thus, while badges may be passed down as family heirlooms, they
cannot be sold by any individual other than the monarch with the
proper advice and consent of her ministers. Over the decades,
however, a number of Order of Canada insignia have been put up for
sale, the first being the Companion's badge of
Major Coldwell, who was appointed in 1967;
his badge was sold at auction in 1981, an act that received
criticism from government officials.
In 2007, it was revealed that one of the first ever issued insignia
of the Order of Canada, a Medal of Service awarded originally to
Quebec historian
Gustave Lanctot,
was put up for sale via
email.
Originally, the
auctioneer, who had purchased the decoration for $45 at an estate
sale in Montreal
, and who
remained anonymous, attempted to sell the insignia on eBay; however, after the bidding reached $15,000, eBay
removed the item, citing its policy against the sale of government
property, including "any die, seal or stamp provided by, belonging
to, or used by a government department, diplomatic or military
authority appointed by or acting under the authority of Her
Majesty." Rideau Hall stated that selling medals was "highly
discouraged," however the owner continued efforts to sell the
insignia via the internet. The following year, in June, the badges
of a Member (numbered 625) and an Officer (numbered 709) sold at
auction in Germany, the former fetching approximately $2,500, while
the latter sold for $3,500, and in September, a Member's insignia
(numbered 725) was listed on eBay; after 6 days of bidding, the
price had risen to $2,000 and the auction was ended by eBay.
Eligibility and appointment
Any of the three levels of the Order of Canada are open to all
living Canadian citizens, except all federal and provincial
politicians and judges while they hold office. Each of the six to
eight hundred nominations submitted each year, by any person or
organization, is received by the order's Advisory Council, which,
along with the Governor General, makes the final choice of new
inductees, typically by consensus rather than a vote; a process
that, when conceived, was the first of its kind in the world.
Appointees are then accepted into the organization at an
investiture ceremony typically conducted by the Governor General at
Rideau Hall, though other officials may perform the task and the
ceremony may take place in other locations. Since the 1991
investiture of
Ted Rogers, Order of
Canada installment ceremonies have been broadcast on various
television channels and the Internet; recipients are given a
complimentary copy of their investiture ceremony from
Rogers Cable.
Advisory Council
The task of the Advisory Council is to evaluate the nominations of
potential inductees, decide if the candidates are worthy enough to
be accepted into the order, and make recommendations to the
Governor General, who appoints the new members. The council is
chaired by the
Chief Justice of
Canada, and includes the
Clerk of the Queen's Privy
Council, the Deputy Minister of
Canadian Heritage, the
chairperson of the
Canada
Council for the Arts, the president of the
Royal Society of Canada, the
chairperson of the
Association
of Universities and Colleges of Canada, and five members of the
order who sit on the council for a three year period. If a
nomination involves a non-Canadian citizen, the Deputy Minister of
Foreign
Affairs is invited by the Advisory Council to offer evaluation.
Decisions of the council and/or new appointments to and/or
dismissals from the Order of Canada are announced to the
Canada Gazette and general
public by the Advisory Council's Secretary General.
The current members of the Advisory Council are:
Refusal
While few have declined entry into the Order of Canada, it is not
unheard of: as of 1997, 1.5% of offered appointments to the order
have been refused. The identities of those individuals who have
declined induction since the 1970s are kept confidential, so the
full list is not publicly known. Some, however, have spoken
publicly about their decisions, including
Robert Weaver, who stated that he was
critical of the "three-tier" nature of the order;
Claude Ryan and
Morley Callaghan, who both declined the
honour in 1967;
Mordecai Richler,
who twice declined; and
Marcel
Dubé,
Roger Lemelin, and
Glenn Gould, who all declined in 1970. However,
all the above individuals, save for Gould and Weaver, later did
accept appointment into the order. Others have rejected appointment
on the basis of being supporters of the
Quebec sovereignty movement such
as
Luc-André Godbout,
Rina Lasnier, and
Genevieve Bujold while
Alice Parizeau, another supporter of Quebec
sovereignty, was criticized for accepting entry into the order, in
spite of her beliefs.
Others decline out of modesty, such as
Victoria Cross recipient
Cecil Meritt, who cited the fact that he
already held Canada's highest decoration as a reason not to be
admitted to the Order of Canada.
Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh, was in 1982 offered appointment to the order as an
honorary Companion; however, he refused on the grounds that, as the
consort
of the Queen, he was a Canadian and thus entitled to a substantive
appointment. In 1993, the Advisory Council proposed an amendment to
the constitution of the Order of Canada, making the sovereign's
spouse automatically a Companion; but Prince Philip again refused,
stating that if he was to be appointed, it should be on his merits.
Conversely, he in 1988 accepted without issue a substantive
induction as a Companion of the
Order
of Australia. Former
Premier
of Newfoundland Joey Smallwood
declined appointment as a Companion because he felt that, as a
Father
of Confederation, he deserved a knighthood. Smallwood was never
knighted and later accepted induction as a Companion.
Resignation and removal
Resignations from the order can take place only through the
prescribed channels, which include the member submitting to the
Secretary General of the Order of Canada a letter notifying the
chancellery of his or her desire to quit their membership, and only
with the Governor General's approval can the resignation take
effect. On 1 June 2009, the Governor General accepted the
resignations of
René Racine,
Jacqueline Richard, and Cardinal
Jean-Claude Turcotte; no reason
was given.
It was reported that other constituents of
the Order of Canada had, in reaction to Henry Morgentaler's
induction into their ranks, indicated that they would return or had
returned their emblems in protest, including organizations such as
the Missionary
Oblates of Mary Immaculate and Madonna House
Apostolate
doing so on behalf of deceased former
members.
Members may be removed from the order if the Advisory Council feels
their actions have brought the society into disrepute. In order for
this to be done, the council must agree to take action and then
send a letter to the person both telling of the group's decision
and requesting a response.
Anyone removed from the order is required to
return their insignia; while there are no formal rules dictating
that the medallion and other paraphernalia must be returned,
Christopher McCreery has stated
in his book The Order of Canada: Its Origins, History and
Development that since the Crown owns the insignia and
scrolls, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
can be sent to retrieve the items by force.
As of 2009, three people have been removed from the Order of
Canada:
Alan Eagleson, who was
dismissed after being jailed for fraud in 1998;
David Ahenakew, who faced calls for his
removal due to
anti-Semitic comments he
made in 2002; and T. Sher Singh, after the
Law Society of Upper Canada
found him guilty of professional misconduct and revoked his licence
to practise law.
Controversial appointments
The advisory board attempts to remain apolitical and pragmatic in
its approach to selecting new members of the Order of Canada,
generally operating without input from
ministers of the Crown; political
interference has occurred only once, when in 1978
Paul Desmarais's investiture was delayed for
six months by then Prime Minister
Pierre
Trudeau. However, some of the committee's selections have
caused controversy. For instance, the admission in 2001 of sex
educator
Sue Johanson, host of the
long-running
Sunday Night Sex
Show, as a Member of the order stirred controversy amongst
Canada's Christian organizations, as Johanson had taught teenagers
the tactics of
safe sex alongside
abstinence. Similarly, the acceptance of
birth control advocate
Elizabeth Bagshaw and
gay rights campaigner
Brent Hawkes also incited debate.
Abortion activist
Henry Morgentaler's appointment to the
order on 1 July 2008 not only marked the first time the Advisory
Council had not been unanimous on its decision, but also proved to
be one of the most controversial appointments in the order's
history, drawing both praise from abortion rights groups and the
ire of
Conservative
Members of Parliament, anti-abortion groups, and religious leaders.
The latter
organized protests outside of Rideau Hall on 9 July, while
compatriots did the same in front of Government House
in St. John's, Newfoundland and
Labrador
, the official residence of that province's
Lieutenant Governor. One former police detective, Frank
Chauvin, along with a Catholic anti-abortion activist, filed suit
against the Order of Canada Advisory Council, demanding that the
minutes of the meeting relating to Morgentaler be made public. The
appointment of Morgentaler prompted former
Liberal Member of Parliament Clifford Lincoln to write that the workings
of the Advisory Council were "mysterious", citing what he theorised
to be inbuilt partiality and
conflict of interest as reason why
Margaret Somerville, whom
Lincoln had twice nominated to the Advisory Council, was turned
down for appointment, yet Morgentaler was accepted. Journalist
Henry Aubin in the
Montreal
Gazette opined that the council's rejection of Somerville,
her personal opposition to
same-sex
marriage, and the acceptance of Brent Hawkes,
Jane Vance Rule, and
Jean Chrétien, all regarded as supporting
same-sex unions, as well as the appointment of a controversial
figure such as Morgentaler, was all sign that the Advisory Council
operated with partisan bias. Aubin also pointed to the presence on
the council of members of the
Royal Society of Canada, an
organization into which Somerville was received.
Additional decorations
At certain periods, holders of the order were presented with other
decorations, usually commemorative medals. Thus far, four
commemorative medals have been given automatically to every living
member of the Order of Canada: the
Canadian Centennial Medal (1967),
the
Queen
Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (1977), the
125th
Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal (1992), and
the
Queen
Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002).
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
- See also: Orders,
decorations, and medals of Canada > Further
reading
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