Life

5 Canadians who’ve won unique honours and awards

Where else will you find Conrad Black, Céline Dion and Stephen Lewis on one list?

April L. Brown/AP Photo

How the rest of the world has celebrated notable Canucks:

1. Conrad Black: Lord Black of Crossharbour was hailed by the Vatican with the title, knight commander of Order of St. Gregory the Great, for his philanthropic work on behalf of the Catholic Church.

The Maclean's Book of Lists, Volume 2

2. Céline Dion: Awarded the Légion d’honneur, France’s top honour, by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2008.

3. Mike Lazaridis: The co-founder of BlackBerry has an Emmy award (1994) and a technical Oscar (1998) for his development of a high-speed barcode reader for film.

4. Stephen Lewis: In 2007, the Canadian politician and humanitarian was awarded the Kingdom of Lesotho’s highest honour—knight commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe—by King Letsie III for his work fighting AIDS.

5. Ken Taylor: Canada’s ambassador to Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the United States’s highest civilian honour, to acknowledge his efforts in assisting six American embassy workers flee Iran. Taylor was also presented with the key to New York.


The Maclean’s Book of Lists, Vol. 2, is available at www.macleans.ca/bookoflists, in the iBookstore, and on newsstands now.

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.