Governor General announces appointments to Order of Canada

Her Excellency, the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, announced 85 new appointments to the Order of Canada on Friday, June 30.

Four of those individuals are from the Ottawa area and are as follows:

• Charles William Gordon, C.M, the longtime Ottawa Citizen columnist was honoured “for his exceptional body of work as a distinguished journalist and author who has educated, enlightened and entertained Canadians for decades.”
• Peter Showler, a lawyer, is the director of the Refugee Forum at the University of Ottawa and is the former chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board was appointed to the Order of Canada “for his leadership in immigration and refugee law, and for his mentorship of the next generation of refugee lawyers.”
• Norman Kiyomitsu Takeuchi, an Ottawa artist, has been honoured for “his enduring commitment to honouring, preserving and sharing the history and heritage of Japanese Canadians.”
• Richard Jean L’Abbé, an Ottawa entrepreneur, received recognition for “his contributions to the field of explosive ordnance disposal through his company Med-Eng, and for his support of engineering students.”

The Order of Canada is one of our country’s highest honours and recognizes people across all sectors of society who have made extraordinary and sustained contributions.