20 minute read
The first annual Doris Anderson Awards
ARE D O RIS AN D ERSO N AWARD RECIPIENTS
anada’s national women’s soccer team went to the Tok yo O lympic s hungr y for a gold medal win, and served one up on a platter—ultimately defeating Sweden in a riveting 3 to 2 upset.
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“I am really proud and honoured to be part of this team and hope we made this country proud,” says midfielder Julia Grosso, who delivered the game-winning goal.
But while there’s lots to celebrate this year, the team is also using its platform to address a dark side of the sport.
In recent years, allegations of sexual abuse, misconduct and coercion have been made against women’s soccer coaches in Canada, the United St a t e s a n d b e yo n d—a l l e g a t i o n s that often went unheard or were mishandled. As a result, before agreeing to play two exhibition matches in October, the team demanded that Canada Soccer—the governing body of the spor t—commit to improving player safety, apologize to players who have experienced abuse and misconduc t , and initiate an independent investigation into a former coach , who is now facing several sexual-offence charges.
Once Canada Soccer signed off and the team hit the field for their first exhibition game in Ottawa, they held a moment of silence before the opening whistle to show solidarity for players who have been victims of abuse.
Aside from making conditions safer for the nex t generation, the team also wants to stoke enthusiasm for the sport. “The biggest thing for this team,” says Grosso, “is inspiring the younger generation, to let them know to always follow their dreams and just never give up.”
Grosso’s own ambitions were powered by the same type of inspiration. “I remember watching the national women’s team at the Olympic Games and FIFA Women’s World Cups as a kid,” says Grosso, who was once a ballgirl for a Team Canada game. “Just watching some of the players really inspired me. I hope that this gold medal, for a little girl or little boy out there, will inspire the next generation to do the same thing.” — SHARINE TAYLOR
for drawing a new generation of girls to the sport— and making it safer for them, too.
Giulia Di Giorgio
IS A D O RIS AN D ERSO N AWARD RECIPIENT
for working tirelessly to bring crucial harm reduction strategies to her community.
Giulia Di Giorgio has spent years advocating for the needs of drug users in Cape Breton, located in the eastern Nova Scotia region that has the highest rate of deaths from drug use in the province.
She started out training people on how to administer naloxone, a life- saving medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose (for more on naloxone, see page 38). After a year of that work, Di Giorgio formed the Cape Breton Association of People Empowering Drug Users, an organization that advocates for harm reduction strategies—including access to a safe supply of opiates, so that people who use them don’t have to resort to illicit street drugs.
This year, she’s back on the front lines as part of an important push to establish a much-needed overdose-prevention site in Sydney—a safe, hygienic location where people can use drugs under the supervision of staff who can quickly intervene in case of an overdose. Di Giorgio, who fought her own decade-long battle with substance addiction and currently relies on a safe supply of opiates from her doctor, knows all too well how vital these kinds of services are.
“People who are still accessing opiates on the street are paying really high prices for those drugs,” she says. “To generate the amount of money they need for their daily amount of drugs, they’re often finding themselves committing crimes of survival—petty theft and such—and they end up being criminalized because of their substance use.” Di Giorgio knows first-hand that this is a difficult situation to climb back out of, and she strongly believes that having safe access to opiates will help in more ways than one.
“Even if it’s not [preventing] an overdose, [there’s a] quality of life that it would allow people to have.” — TAYO BERO
n April 2013, Phyllis Jack Webstad shared her orange shirt story for the very first time.
Webstad, a third-generation residential school sur vivor from Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation, spoke at a media event organized by the St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School Commemoration Project in Williams Lake, B.C., and told the crowd how, at the age of six, she was excited for her first day at St. Joseph’s Mission Indian Residential School.
Webstad had chosen a bright orange shirt to wear for the occasion, which she had picked out on a shopping trip with her grandmother. But when she arrived at school, her shirt was taken from her. She never saw it again.
Those at the event recognized Webstad’s orange shirt as a symbol of the legacy of residential schools, and on September 30, 2013, the first Orange Shirt Day was held in various communities. Now, eight years later, Orange Shirt Day—a day to educate and raise awareness about Canada’s residential school system—is commemorated across the country.
This year, the significance of Orange Shirt Day was underscored by the identification of more than one thousand unmarked graves at residential schools—a revelation that led countless Canadians to wear an orange shirt, or hang one outside their houses, in honour of the children who never returned home.
This fall, a years-long effort by Webstad and others culminated in the creation of a federal holiday on September 30 honouring residential school survivors and their familie s , of f icially k nown a s t h e N at i o na l D ay fo r Tr u t h and Reconciliation.
It’s been a busy year for Webs tad, who, as ambassador and founder of the Orange Shirt Society, continues to raise awareness about the residential school system. She has written two children’s books about her experience and regularly speaks at event s. It ’s been “scar y, over whelming and exciting,” says Webstad. “I can’t find any better words than that.”
IS A D O RIS AN D ERSO N AWARD RECIPIENT
for creating a national movement that’s more resonant than ever.
SANDRA OH
IS A D O RIS A N D ERS O N AWA R D R ECI PI ENT
WHEN THE CHAIR debuted on Netflix in August, it quickly became the top-watched show in Canada and the subject of much online discussion. The series follows Ji-Yoon Kim (played by Sandra Oh), the newly minted English department chair at the fictional Pembroke University. Kim is the first woman and person of colour to lead the department, and what unfurls over the course of six episodes are the endless struggles and microaggressions a pioneer like her would face while trying to keep a sinking organization afloat. (Only being offered a leadership role when the institution is tanking? That’s called the glass cliff.) “Here is a woman, a single mom, a woman of colour, who’s now ascended to the position of chair of her department in a patriarchal, old institution,” Oh told CBC. While the show deals with the insular world of academia, it’s her distinct charm and capacity to bring nuance and relatability to her character that made The Chair a widespread success.
The Ottawa-raised actor could teach a master class on playing strong women—including the iconic Dr. Cristina Yang of Grey’s Anatomy and MI6 agent Eve Polastri of Killing Eve, whose final season will air next year—but she has said that Ji-Yoon Kim is the closest a character has ever felt to herself. (In part, that might be because the role was written with her in mind.) Oh understands how pushing inclusivity forward can be a slow process and, like Kim, she’s a pioneer in her own right: the first Asian actor to win multiple Golden Globes; the first to be nominated for an Emmy in a starring role; the most-nominated Asian actor in Emmys history, period. She’s always been intentional about including her culture in her work, revealing in an interview that she knew The Chair’s role was meant for her after a glance at the script. “It was one of the first things that just lit up something inside, actually seeing a Korean woman’s name on the page.” She also provides audiences with a similar jolt: Oh’s name in the opening credits is indication of a stunning performance ahead. — RADIYAH CHOWDHURY
MELISSA LANTSMAN
IS A D O RIS A N D ERS O N AWA R D R ECI PI ENT
IN SEP TEMBER’S federal election, 37-year-old PR exec Melissa Lantsman became the Tories’ only openly lesbian member of Parliament, and just one of two LGBTQ+ women elected to the House of Commons. Her arrival in Parliament could signal the beginning of a new kind of progressive Conservative movement—one that prioritizes the rights of queer and trans Canadians for the first time.
Try as he might to modernize the party, Erin O’Toole has spent most of his year and a half as Conservative leader rallying against the most extreme social conservatives in his caucus—62 of whom voted in June against legislation to ban the harmful and discredited practice of LGBTQ+ conversion therapy. But queer and women’s rights are top of mind for Lantsman, the daughter of Jewish immigrants who fled communist Russia. “I want people to see that there is a place in the Conservative Party no matter who you are, who you’re married to, whether you pray on Friday or Saturday or Sunday, or you don’t pray at all,” she says.
Lantsman is no stranger to Canadian politics: She was a long-time advisor to former prime minister Stephen Harper, and served as chief spokesperson for Ontario Premier Doug Ford during the 2018 election. But the Thornhill, Ont., MP’s first foray into public office hasn’t been without its issues. During the 2015 federal election, she sided with Conservative MPs who fought to ban niqabs and other religious face coverings at citizenship ceremonies. This year, she tweeted that her views on the matter have changed. “I think it’s okay to say that your view has evolved once you learn about an issue,” she says. “If you can’t admit that you’ve evolved, you’re not paying attention to what’s out there or who you represent.” — ERICA LENTI
IS A D O RIS AN D ERSO N AWARD RECIPIENT
ore than 58 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in Canada by October. It’s no stretch to say that thousands of the people who got those shots were helped by Sabrina Craig and the rest of the volunteers at Vaccine Hunters Canada.
“It’s amazing what can be done when people work together,” says Craig, the director of the organization, which, via its social media feeds, helped anxious Canadians find vaccination appointments and sort through eligibility requirements for the shot.
Offline, Craig is an analyst at BMO Capital Markets who, prior to joining Vaccine Hunters, had some experience in outreach campaigns but very little in public health. Many of Craig’s family members are older, and some are immunocompromised. She knew the more people got vaccinated, the faster she’d get to see the people she loved.
In early April, Craig started sending tips about vaccination appointments at various pharmacies and hospitals to Vaccine Hunters Canada, using information she gleaned online. The organization was growing rapidly—thousands of Canadians were sending in tips. Craig formally joined the team, becoming one of the volunteers who sorted through the mass of information arriving daily.
Through Twitter, Craig and her volunteer colleagues blasted out frequent vaccine clinic details and updates to nearly a quarter million followers. Soon the adulation rolled in from public health units, Canadian celebrities and even the prime minister. “It’s just about ‘let’s get through this together,’ ” said Justin Trudeau in a video meeting with the Vaccine Hunters team in May. “It’s really amazing.”
In late summer, after 80 percent of Canadians had received their first dose, Craig and the Vaccine Hunters team decided to shelve their Twitter account. But the work continues. The same team behind Vaccine Hunters has now created vaxinations.org, a site helping to further the global vaccination effort.
Now Craig gets to enjoy the fruits of her labour. “I have a lot of family,” she says. “It’s been so nice to reunite
for helping thousands of Canadians get vaccinated.
with them.” — H.G. WATSON
Dr. Nadia Chaudhri
IS A D O RIS AN D ERSO N AWARD RECIPIENT
for sharing crucial information about ovarian cancer— and giving back to her field—from a palliative care bed.
“I have a painful abscess in my cheek which I’m only just feeling better from,” begins Dr. Nadia Chaudhri’s final post on Twitter, the platform where she shared the most intimate details from the end of her life with an ever-growing following. “Spent all day a snooze and being supported by the beautiful nurses and PABS.” One week later, the 43-year-old neuroscientist died in palliative care at a Montreal hospital.
Her life was claimed by terminal metastatic ovarian cancer. Only six months elapsed between her diagnosis and death, during which Chaudhri, with grace and bravery, demystified the experience of dying. She shared photos of her husband, Moni Orife, whom she called her “Moon,” and her young son, lovingly known as her “Sun,” whom she tried to prepare for what was to come. She did not spare us the details of her suffering, her fear and her courage in the final days of her life.
Chaudhri also used her growing platform to give back to her field. In late August, she embarked on a walkathon, pledging to pace the length of her palliative care ward once a day for as long as she could in exchange for donations; she raised more than $645,000 for the Nadia Chaudhri Wingspan Award, a grant to support graduate neuroscience students from under-represented groups at Concordia University, where she taught. (Neuroscience remains a male-dominated field; Chaudhri—who ran her own lab focusing on drug and alcohol addiction—was often asked by visiting scientists whose lab she worked for.)
But perhaps her biggest contribution came in the form of a T witter thread, shared thousands of times, that contained urgent, excruciating and highly detailed information about her challenges in getting diagnosed, which she hoped would lead to fewer cases of the disease and aid in the effort of early detection. “Know your bodies,” Chaudhri concluded. “Do not dismiss your pain or malaise.”
Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos
IS A D O RIS AN D ERSO N AWARD RECIPIENT
for relentlessly sounding the alarm on Canada’s longterm care crisis.
Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos has been thinking about long-term care for nearly a decade, since she was paired, midway through her PhD in sociology at York University, with Dr. Pat Armstrong, a legendary academic who was researching staffing levels at nursing homes. But it wasn’t until she actually stepped inside an LTC home—after her grandmother moved into one—that she truly understood how radically broken the system was.
“You press that call button, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait,” she says. “There just aren’t enough people in these homes to provide care.” Her grandmother passed away before the pandemic arrived at Canadian LTC homes, but the experience sparked Stamatopoulos’ relentless advocacy.
In March 2020, she started tweeting information about COVID outbreaks in LTC, then began connecting family members who had reached out to her with journalists looking to cover their stories. Dr. V., as her fans call her, made her first media appearance in May 2020—“I’ve never had training; I’m just speaking the truth”—and has since given more than 250 scorched-earth interviews on LTC’s most burning issues. Among them: forprofit care (“a cancer on the sector,” she tells me), increasing reliance on an Uber-style gig workforce (“so dangerous”) and Ontario’s $5,000 incentive to attract new personal support workers to LTC (“throwing money down the drain because it doesn’t address the revolving door of workers leaving this sector”). These news hits are in addition to her other advocacy work, which includes presenting to Ontario’s LTC COVID-19 Commission, teaming up with Ontario MPP Lisa Gretzky to table a bill that legislates visitation access for caregivers, and researching the impact of Ontario’s LTC lockdowns on residents and caregivers. And she does it all on her own time, while working full-time as a professor of criminology and social justice at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ont. “It’s gotten to the point where some of these family members are worried that I have vicarious trauma from hearing about what they’ve been through,” she says. “And it does weigh on me.” She finds relief in the Real Housewives franchise—and in knowing that her work is making a difference. The week before we spoke, Ontario enacted a mandatory vaccine policy for LTC staff, with Minister of Long-Term Care Rod Phillips acknowledging something that Stamatopoulos had been making a lot of noise about this fall: Unvaccinated staff are a “significant cause” of fourth-wave outbreaks. “Family members and staff had been telling me this,” she says. “And I was hitting it home like it was nobody’s
business.” — MAUREEN HALUSHAK
IS A D O RIS AN D ERSO N AWARD RECIPIENT
for her outsize talent and tenacity.
oo tiny was the verdict of Quebec’s provincial tennis as s o ciati o n , wh e n it cut Leylah Annie Fernandez a few years ago from its development program. (The association also took exception to her forehand and serve.) Big mistake. The Montreal-born player, now five foot six, is still small relative to many of her opponents, but at this year’s U.S. Open, she showed just how big a game she has. En route to the final, she knocked off three of the world’s top five players as well as a former number 1, celebrating her 19th birthday in the thick of her epic run. Though she lost the final to another talented teen, Britain’s Emma Raducanu, she signalled to the tennis world that she was a force to be reckoned with, another part of the extraordinary crop of rising Canadian talents.
What is remarkable about Fernandez is her ability to figure out, of te n m i d-match , what ma ke s other players tick—and what frustrates them. It’s a skill that was encouraged by her coach father, a former pro soccer player in South America, who got her to watch all the greats play—and not just the highlight reels, but recordings of entire matches. In several of her matches at the U. S. Open, Fernandez initially looked out of her depth. Then, slowly, you could see her figuring things out.
It helped that the underdog- loving New York crowd was behind Fernandez throughout—and you could see this self-described introvert also learning how to harness its energy, to help shift a match’s momentum. Earlier this year, Fernandez told the CBC, “Every time I would watch tennis [growing up], it was so beautiful. The way you can create something out of nothing is what attracted me to it.” When she’s on court, you sense her creativity, this desire to create something out of nothing; to find, when the way forward is blocked, some new way through. — ALEC SCOTT
DR. ROBERTA TIMOTHY
IS A D O RIS A N D ERS O N AWA R D R ECI PI ENT
AS THE world locked down at the start of the pandemic, a lot of politicians dropped a lot of platitudes about how COVID-19 was “the great equalizer.” That, of course, was ludicrous: Racialized and low-income people were getting infected at rates hugely disproportionate to their populations. But Canada didn’t actually have a policy of collecting race-based data in health care—which made it exceptionally difficult to understand the pandemic’s true impact and target interventions where they were needed most.
Dr. Roberta Timothy, an assistant professor at University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, knows how important this data is. She’s been calling for it throughout her 30year career. “I thought, okay, I am in a position where I just need to do this work for our community,” says Timothy, who holds a PhD in adult education, community development and women and gender studies. “We need to collect our own data, and we need to create interventions that can support our community and get Black health and wellness to be a permanent consideration in the Canadian health system.”
She launched Black Health Matters—first nationally, in December 2020, then globally, in March of this year—with surveys to determine the impact of COVID-19 on Black communities as well as to identify systemic barriers to effective and dignified care. “When you go to a health practitioner and you’re treated in a way where you don’t feel human—who’s going to go back?” asks Timothy. “So this project is a larger project in many ways, talking about anti-Black racism in health care and how we can challenge and change outcomes for Black folks.”
Another way to confront racism in health care is to overhaul the curriculum itself. In July, Timothy became Dalla Lana’s inaugural Black Health Lead and immediately set about strengthening mentorship opportunities for Black students and creating a master of public health in Black health—the first of its kind in North America. The quick turnaround is by design. “This is the window we have right now, where people are talking about anti-Black racism in health,” she says. “So I am hoping to get all this done so it can be a catalyst for further change.” — DANIELLE GROEN
As you plan your gatherings for the festime season, set the stage for an occasion you can enjoy just as much as the guests by choosing delicious yet simple appetizer recipes that can be prepared just before guests arrime. Elemate the experience by pairing your party fare with Josh Cellars wines that enhance each recipe’s signature flamours.
Josh Cellars was founded in 2005 by Joseph Carr as a tribute to his late father, who went by the nickname Josh. Raised by hardworking, modest parents, Carr has instilled his father’s malues of hard work, gratitude and family in his company. Josh Cellars’s award-winning wines make the perfect addition to your holiday gatherings.
Try these palate-pleasing wine-and-appetizer pairings this holiday season. Find the full recipes online at chatelaine.com/joshcellars.
Josh Cellars Chardonnay and Chili-Coconut Shrimp Josh Chardonnay is fruit-forward and rich, balancing out the weight and earthiness of this dish. The tropical and citrus notes complement the mild spice and delicate shrimp flamour. Josh Chardonnay is grown in soil composed of molcanic ash, old seabed, sand and rimer-run gramel, making seafood a natural choice as a pairing. Josh Cellars Prosecco Rosé and Cranberry-Almond Baked Brie
Made from glera and pinot noir grapes, Josh Prosecco DOC Rosé has wild berry and blackberry aromas and refreshing acidity on the finish. The acidity of the Prosecco Rosé cuts through the creamy brie in this warm and exciting pairing. This appetizer is easy to prep beforehand and is best sermed warm just out of the omen. The crisp Prosecco Rosé is a great choice for welcoming guests and setting a celebratory mood.
*Limited time offering holiday 2021 only, may not be available in all provinces. Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and Beef and Blue Cheese Brochettes
A tantalizing, party-starting appetizer, these sirloin skewers with blue cheese and balsamic are simple to prepare the night before. Recently awarded a 91-point rating and named Editor’s Choice from Wine Enthusiast Magazine, Josh Cellars’s full-bodied cabernet saumignon bursts with aromas of intense dark fruits like black cherries and blackberries. With notes of manilla and spice, it finishes with subtle oak and soft tannins on the palate. The unique flamour combination of the beef, blue cheese and the tannins of the wine will impress your guests; make sure you prepare enough so you don’t run out. Josh Cellars Prosecco and Caramelized-Onion Tart with Asparagus The decadent and refreshing qualities of this match will surprise and delight your palate. Nothing says celebration quite like a bottle of prosecco; the texture of the caramelized onion and the earthiness of the asparagus contrast nicely with the fresh acidity and effermescent bubbles of this sparkling wine.
*Limited time offering holiday 2021 only, may not be available in all provinces.