The annual event established by the QCGN is meant to honour individuals who have made an impact on Quebec’s English-speaking community. Clifford Lincoln, James Carter, Sid Stevens and Earl De La Perralle, were each winners of the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Community Service Award, while Claudia Di Iorio won the Young Quebecers Leading the Way Award.
“Claudia Di Iorio, an advocate for road safety, won the Young Quebecer Leading the Way Award in 2017. She is only 23, but Montrealer Claudia Di Iorio has known more pain than many.”
After her near-fatal collision, Claudia Di Iorio marshalled remarkable strength and resilience and now serves as a spokesperson for Cool Taxi while sitting as a member of the SAAQ board.
Di Iorio is one of five Quebecers being honoured with awards from the Quebec Community Groups Network. She will receive the Young Quebecers Leading the Way Award. Another QCGN award, the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Community Service Award, will go to four people
Sid and Earl are now in their 70s and grew up around Montreal’s Clark Street, where Sun Youth Organization works tirelessly to support the neighbourhood. It all started in 1954 when the two friends found a space to rent and started their own newspaper.
It has gone from a small little newspaper into a large conglomerate organization with a $7-million budget, 1500 volunteers and helping thousands of people throughout the year, states Sid Stevens.
Clifford Lincoln will receive one of the QCGN’s Goldbloom Award on October 26 for his contributions to Quebec’s English-speaking community. Clifford marked the provincial politics after being elected in the wake of the 1980 referendum when he resigned from Bourassa cabinet in 1989 over the premier’s decision to use the notwithstanding clause on a Supreme Court ruling favouring bilingual signs.
He moved on to federal politics, representing Lac-Saint-Louis riding from 1993 to his 2004 retirement. While Clifford Lincoln still calls Quebec home, he hopes to see reversed the trend of seeing children departing their province for a better future.
“Politics is the art of the possible, but for people of principle it can also become the art of the impossible.”
In December 1988, Clifford Lincoln resigned from Bourassa cabinet which had decided to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override the Supreme Court judgement favouring bilingual signage.
He is praised for being a “bridge-builder and consensus maker”, and will be awarded the QCGN’s Goldbloom Award.
“Life in the crowded Plateau Mont-Royal in the post-war years was a time of modest beginnings and big dreams, including those of a young Sidney Stavitsky, aka Sid Stevens, and his friend Earl De La Perralle.”
Sid & Earl’s Sun Youth first started with a local newspaper called the Clark Street Sun, and evolved to become the city’s first food bank in its headquarters in the former Baron Byng High School on St. Urbain. In tribute to their work, Sid and Earl are among the recipients of this year’s Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Community Service Award, to be handed out by the Quebec Community Groups Network October 26.
“Carter has devoted the last thirty years to championing the rights of English-speaking Quebecers to receive care in English”
CTV’s Caroline Van Vlaardingen interviews James Carter, winner of the 2017 Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Community Service Award. Carter has been a tireless and effective advocate for improved access to health and social services in English in Quebec. Carter will receive his award at the QCGN’s Community Awards evening which takes place on October 26 at the St. James Club.
“Gretta Chambers, the first female chancellor of McGill University and a prominent Montreal journalist for several decades, has died at the age of 90. She passed away Saturday morning at St. Mary’s Hospital in Montreal after undergoing treatment for a heart condition. “
Daughter of a French-speaking mother and an English-speaking father, she saw her role as a builder of bridges between Quebec’s divided communities. For this role, in 2012, she received a Goldbloom Award for distinguished community service.
Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director general of the QCGN, incensed Chambers’ accomplishments and said she embodied what was needed in Quebec to bridge both linguistic communities.
“Gretta Chambers, a prominent journalist and the first female chancellor of McGill University, passed away Saturday morning at the age of 90 at St. Mary’s hospital in Montreal. “
Born in 1927, and a graduate from McGill in policial science, she married former MP Egan Chambers who died in 1994. She was one of the first English-speaking journalist to write extensively about French-speaking Quebec before becoming the first female chancellor of McGill University.
Sylvia Martin-Laforge, DG of the QCGN, which awarded Chambers with a Goldbloom Award in 2012, said that Gretta was a pioneer and role model for women, and for the English-speaking community.
The QCGN is funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage.
