"Joe Crookston is an American folk singer from Randolph, Ohio. As of February 2023, he has released four albums and one EP (Chapter) on the Milagrito Records label: 2004's "Fall Down as the Rain", 2008's "Able Baker Charlie & Dog", 2011's "Darkling & the BlueBird Jubilee", 2014's "Georgia I'm Here", and 2023's "NINE BECOMES ONE chapter 9 [start brave]" (February 19, 2023)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Crookston
Adam Crossley, a full time singer songwriter since 2005, has written for TV and film, in addition to full-length albums. His music has been featured "on several Canadian shows as well as more popular productions such as (Law and Order Criminal Intent, Dancing with the Stars, Oprah, and The Simpsons). [His] song 'Beautiful World' reached the top five AC Billboard Charts in both Canada and The States." http://ontariocontact.ca/showcase-artists/adam-crossley
Amelia Curran is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer from St. John's, Newfoundland. She composes and produces indie, alternative country, and folk music. Curran has been the recipient of many awards, including a Juno award in 2010 for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Solo and a Canadian Folk Music Award for Artist of the Year. "She has co-founded "It's Mental", a grassroots community organization that focuses on the funding and sharing of knowledge on mental health realities and first aid mental health training to help safeguard communities, families, and friends." As well, she has produced and directed a CBC documentary on suicide and art within her community, called "Gone". http://www.ameliacurran.com/band
“MJ Dandeneau is a French Anishinaabe / Métis kwe born in Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg, MB). Her tours and studio work have literally taken her all over the globe and nationally recognized with recording awards such as Canadian JUNO, WCMA-Award & CFM-Award.” https://www.manitobamusic.com/mjdandeneau
“Steve Briggs, is considered a staple in the Canadian music scene. He is a busy band leader and freelance guitarist, performing, arranging and recording with a wealth of artists including Sylvia Tyson, Russell deCarle, Murray McLauchlan, Quartette, the Brothers Cosmoline and Carroll Baker among others. His popular western swing orchestra the Bebop Cowboys has released three albums, garnering many glowing reviews and accolades across the country. Steve is also the director of Kitchen Music Studios, a music instruction studio in the Riverdale area of Toronto, and named “Best Guitar Instructor” in Toronto Life magazine.” https://www.discogs.com/artist/1528407-Steve-Briggs
“Jon Brooks is a Canadian musician and singer-songwriter best known as a solo performer but more recently as leader of Jon Brooks & The Outskirts of Approval.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Brooks
"Barbara Josephine Bulat (born April 13, 1984), known as Basia Bulat is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter. She is known for performing with an autoharp." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basia_Bulat
Band member of the East Pointers. “Their music draws on their own ancestry and that of Prince Edward Island on Canada’s east coast. Six generations of music-making Chaissons preceded them, and their shows are a compelling blend of Scottish, Irish, French and Celtic fiddle tunes infused with Acadian flavours and contemporary folk-pop, played with brilliance and verve. The trio take their name from a small island community called East Point, where Koady worked as a lobster fisherman for 11 years.” https://www.songlines.co.uk/news/obituary-koady-chaisson-1984-2022
“A magician who puts on a show and wanders around with fantastic and amazing surprises.” https://mariposafolk.com/tag/the-amazing-frank-clarkson/
Michael Jerome Browne is an American-born Canadian singer-songwriter of American Roots music. Browne plays the banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and harmonica. He makes jazz, blues, country,and folk.music. He has won Solo Artist of the Year (2008) at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, and three-time Juno nominee. http://www.michaeljeromebrowne.com/bio
"Timothy Chaisson (born September 6, 1986) is a Canadian singer/songwriter from Souris, Prince Edward Island. He is a member of Juno Award winning group, The East Pointers." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Chaisson
A Canadian folk singer from Waterloo, Ontario who was nomiated for a Juno Award for "Traditional Album of the Year" in 2012.
David Celia is a Canadian "open alternative, roots-pop, and folk singer-songwriter and guitarist." He is also a producer, working with artists such as "More Please!" and his brother Mike Celia. He has amassed a following across canada and europe and tours often. http://www.davidcelia.com/about/
Mike Celia is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist, his brother is Canadian singer-songwriter David Celia. "He was featured on the soundtrack of the motion picture, has toured Canada, performed live-to-air on the radio, and has appeared as a guest and featured artist on live television". http://mikecelia.com/ Mariposa Festival Program, 2011, p. 52
Daniel Champagne is a folk, blues, classical, jazz, and rock singer and guitarist.
"Susan Charters is a storyteller, musician, retired editor and teacher from Orilla, Ontario. Susan leads storytelling workshops for adults and children. Susan is a co-founder of SO… (Storytelling Orillia) and its storytelling circle." http://www.storytellers-conteurs.ca/en/storytellers-directory/Susan-Charters.html
Cindy Church is a Canadian country singer-songwriter. She is a part of the Canadian country-folk group "Quartette", as well as the Canadian group "Lunch at Allen's". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartette_(band)
“Kevin Breit is a Canadian musician from Northern Canada. Breit has collaborated in numerous bands, and recorded solo albums on his own Poverty Playlist label, and Stony Plain Records. He is also well known for session work on numerous Grammy award winning albums by a wide range of artists including Cassandra Wilson and Norah Jones. Breit is the leader of the quartet Sisters Euclid, comprising Breit, Ian DeSouza, Gary Taylor and Mark Lalama. Sisters Euclid formed in 1996, and have earned Juno and National Jazz Awards. In 2006, they released an instrumental jazz fusion album of Neil Young songs entitled Run Neil Run. Kevin and Cyro Baptista formed Supergenerous in 1998 and were signed to Blue Note Records.They recorded two records together. Breit is a member of The Stretch Orchestra with fellow "quite tall" musicians Matt Brubeck and drummer Jesse Stewart. Their self titled recording won a Juno Award in 2012 for Best Instrumental Album. Kevin and Harry Manx have recorded three albums together, collecting a Maple Blues Award. He also performs as a solo artist, and as a member of the folk group Folkalarm. Breit's "Ernesto and Delilah" earned a National Folk Award.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Breit
"Matthew Byrne is a Canadian folk singer and guitarist, who has performed and recorded both as a solo artist and as a member of The Dardanelles. The son of Joe Byrne of the folk duo Pat and Joe Byrne, Byrne released his debut solo album Ballads in 2010. His second album, Hearts and Heroes, was released in 2014. Byrne received two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations at the 11th Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2015, for Traditional Album and Traditional Singer, and won the award for Traditional Album. Byrne released his third album, Horizon Lines, in 2017.[1] He received two more CFMA nominations at the 14th Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2018, and for Traditional Album and Traditional Singer. He won the award for Traditional Album.[7] Byrne released his fourth album, Matthew Byrne & The Lady Cove Women's Choir, in early 2020." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Byrne_(musician)
“Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American country and folk music singer-songwriter. [...] Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards out of eighteen nominations, including four consecutive wins in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance between 1992 and 1995. She has charted 27 times on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, with her 1994 single "Shut Up and Kiss Me" representing her only number-one single there. Her musical style takes influence from contemporary country and folk, with many of her songs including feminist themes. While largely composed of songs she wrote herself or with longtime producer John Jennings, her discography includes covers of Gene Vincent, Lucinda Williams, and Dire Straits among others.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Chapin_Carpenter
"Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, Johnny Cash's first wife. Although she is often classified as a country artist, her music draws on many genres, including folk, pop, rock, blues, and most notably Americana. In the 1980s, she had a string of genre-crossing singles that entered both the country and pop charts, the most commercially successful being her 1981 breakthrough hit "Seven Year Ache", which topped the U.S. country singles chart and reached the Top 30 on the U.S. pop chart. Cash won a Grammy Award in 1985 for "I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me" and has received 12 other Grammy nominations. She has had 11 No. 1 country hit singles, 21 Top 40 country singles, and two gold records. Cash was the 2014 recipient of Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award in the Performing Arts category. On February 8, 2015, Cash won three Grammy awards for Best Americana Album for The River & the Thread, Best American Roots Song with John Leventhal and Best American Roots Performance for A Feather's Not A Bird. Cash was honored further in October that year, when she was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosanne_Cash
“Born in 1971 and raised in Bowling Green, Ohio, Sugar Brown was born as Ken Chester Kawashima to a Japanese father and Korean mother who both immigrated to the United States in the mid-1960s. Now a permanent resident of Toronto, Canada, Sugar Brown is a modern blues musician, singer and songwriter. His brand of dark, sweet, and inconsolable blues has caught the attention of the Canadian music scene, winning the Toronto Blues Society Talent Search and quickly receiving invitations to play at the Kitchener Blues Festival and the prestigious Mariposa Folk Festival. Sugar Brown’s blues originated while studying as a college student at the University of Chicago. By day, he studied history, political economy, and philosophy; by night he learned to play the blues from Chicago’s famed West Side blues raconteur and singer, Taildragger, as well as from blues legends such as Dave Myers and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, the late drummer of Muddy Waters’ band. Sugar Brown’s blues were shaped by playing the small clubs and venues along the West Side of Chicago, where the sounds and memories of past blues greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, and Magic Sam were still very much alive. Taildragger’s band, The La-Z Boys, played this style of blues every week at the 5105 Club and every weekend in the summer months at the now-defunct Delta Fish Market, originally a gas station that was renovated in into a fish market (with fish transported fresh from the Mississippi delta). There, in the parking lot, Sugar Brown played harmonica on a large, red-painted stage behind Taildragger and before delighted, dancing audiences of the West Side of Chicago. From the 1970s until the late 1990s, the Delta Fish Market hosted performances by the likes of Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Taylor, Taildragger, and even Lightnin’ Hopkins. For Sugar Brown, playing at the Fish Market was better than heaven on earth and it changed him and his thinking forever. Taildragger is responsible for giving Ken the stage name Sugar Brown in 1992, saying to him, “You ain’t black…..and you sure ain’t white….You’re Sugar Brown.” After a tragic incident between Taildragger and fellow west side guitarist, Boston Blackie, which landed Taildragger in prison for some years, Sugar Brown left Chicago to pursue a Ph.D. in modern Japanese history under the supervision of intellectual historian, Professor Harry D. Harootunian. He moved for several years to Tokyo to study Japanese language and history, but couldn’t stop playing and singing the blues. He studied during the day and played blues at night as a regular performer in one of Tokyo’s best known blues bars, Bright Brown. Since completing his Ph.D. in history from New York University in 2002, Sugar Brown has been living and working in Toronto. By day, he studies and teaches at school, now as Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. In Canada, Sugar Brown began recording his original blues songs in 2011, when he recorded Sugar Brown’s Sad Day in Montreal with his friend and fellow harmonica player and blues singer, Bharath Rajakumar. This album was followed by Poor Lazarus in 2015 and then It’s a Blues World in 2018. He is presently working on his fourth studio album, Toronto Bound.” https://www.sugarbrownmusic.com/bio
Jim Bryson is a Canadian traditional folk singer-songwriter and record producer.
"Douglas John Cameron is a Canadian musician and composer best known for writing and performing a protest song entitled "Mona with the Children" about a Persian Baháʼí girl aged 16, Mona Mahmudnizhad, who, in 1983, together with nine other Baháʼí women, was sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran, because of her membership in the Baháʼí Faith. Cameron recreated Mahmudnizhad's story in a music video, Mona with the Children, which made the pop charts in Canada (#14 for the week of October 19, 1985). Partly to distinguish himself from new age composer Doug Cameron the name John was added." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Cameron_(musician)
“Annabelle Chvostek is a Canadian singer-songwriter, composer and producer whose musical achievements range from folk to jazz to indie pop. Her latest album String of Pearls is a cross-cultural collaboration between Canadian and Uruguayan musicians that pushes the boundaries between the worlds of Folk and Swing, evoking the grittiness of 1930s tango, Berlin cabaret and Hot Club Jazz.” https://annabellechvostek.bandcamp.com/
Del Barber is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Barber composes traditional folk music, alternative music, and folk music. Barber has won two Western Canadian music awards and has been nominated for many awards during the course of his career so far.
"Ian Bell is a Canadian folk musician, composer, and singer-songwriter who has been active in the Canadian folk music scene since the 1970s. With Anne Lederman, he was part of the seminal Canadian folk group Muddy York. Bell has performed at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and the Mariposa Folk Festival, among others. He has contributed to the development and preservation of Canadian folk music for more than twenty-five years." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Bell_(musician)
Meaghan Blanchard is a two time ECMA Award winning songwriter. She has played 47 shows in 14 days at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. A notable performance of hers was performing for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their Honeymoon tour. https://meaghanblanchard.com/
“After her previous life as an award winning stand-up comedian, she brings her quirky humour to her musical performances, as well as the ability to tug at your heart strings with her more serious songs. [...] Helen's main focus is the band, Big Little Lions which she formed with with Cincinnati's Paul Otten. They have released several albums which have won a bunch of awards including Canadian Folk Music Award's Ensemble of the Year.”
"Dave Bidini is a Canadian musician and writer. Originally from Etobicoke, Ontario, he was a founding member of the rock band Rheostatics, and currently performs with Bidiniband. In addition, he has published several books about music, travel and sports, and has written feature journalism pieces and columns for numerous Canadian magazines and newspapers. He is the only Canadian to have been nominated for all three of Canada's main entertainment awards, the Gemini Award for television work, the Genie Awards for film work and the Juno Awards for music, as well as being nominated on Canada's national book awards program, Canada Reads." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Bidini
Dickie Bird is an alter-ego for Richard Knechtel, a Canadian singer-songwriter and performer from Walkerton, Ontario. As Dickie Bird, he is a children's performer, performing "action packed shows filled with magic, props and lots of audience participation." Knechtel can also play guitar and harmonica. Knechtel "performs swing, pop, novelty, blues, country, comedy, and folk". http://richardknechtel.wordpress.com/about/
“An American musician from Los Angeles. A vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Paxton's style draws from blues and jazz music before World War II and was influenced by Fats Waller and "Blind" Lemon Jefferson. According to Will Friedwald in The Wall Street Journal, Paxton is "virtually the only music-maker of his generation — playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements — to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and '30s, the blues of Bessie Smith and Lonnie Johnson."” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerron_%22Blind_Boy%22_Paxton
“Dave Borins plays a high-tempo rhythm based modern interpretation of folk, blues and rock'n'roll.” https://soundcloud.com/dave-borins
"David Bradstreet (born London, England) is a Canadian-based musician. He spent his childhood in Oakville, Ontario and began his music career in the late 1960s. He is best known for his song "Renaissance" ("Let’s Dance That Old Dance Once More") - a hit for the Canadian country and folk musician, Valdy. He has been recognized for his work as a singer-songwriter, composer and producer, twenty albums bearing his name; a Juno Award early in his career; three subsequent Juno nominations and music credits including a Gemini nomination." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bradstreet
"Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is heavily centred on bringing about change and involving the younger generation in activist causes." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bragg
"Mr. B. (born Mark Lincoln Braun, 1957), is an American boogie-woogie pianist." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._B._(Mark_Braun)
“Lance is a Juno award winning producer (Leahy) and the 2014 Maple Blues Award ‘Keyboardist of the Year’. He was trained as a classical composer and has both film and TV credits as a writer. [...] As musical director and session pianist Lance has worked with Roger Whittaker, Shakura S’Aida, Danny Brooks, Jackie Richardson, John Finley, amongst many others. Lance has had an eclectic career, from writing songs with Gordon Pinsent to touring with Mr. Dress-up! From rockin’ boogie piano to jazz and orchestral music and filmscores. Lance premiered the two man theatrical production ‘Oscar Peterson – The Jazz Legend and the Man I Knew’ in 2013 at the Orillia Opera House and performed it at Barrie’s Classical Colours of Music festival in 2014. The show interweaves Oscar’s compositions with Lance’s personal anecdotes of working with Oscar and witnessing first hand the extent of Oscar’s genius. Lance is also an internationally known Hammond organ player, and his organ and drum duo, Anderson & Sloski are set to release their second CD in the spring of 2016. They have performed at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, The Mont Tremblant Blues Festival, The Southside Shuffle and the Kitchener Blues Festivals amongst many others and have been featured on CBC Radio’s Saturday Night Blues. Lance spent ten years touring North America and the world with Shakura S’Aida and wrote two Symphony shows for her. He conducted the Wheeling West Virginia Symphony for the premiere of ‘Symphony in G Minor’ and wrote and performed piano in the show ‘Four Women’ featuring Shakura S’Aida which had it’s premiere with the Kamloops Symphony in 2013. Lance also scored Judy and David’s Orchestral Adventure (children’s show for orchestra) which has thrilled young audiences across Canada and the U.S.” https://www.makeitrealrecords.com/bio/
"Duane Andrews (born November 30, 1972 in Carbonear, Newfoundland and Labrador is a Canadian guitarist. He combines traditional Newfoundland folk music with jazz similar to the way that guitarist Django Reinhardt infused jazz with Manouche influences. He is also a composer for film and television." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Andrews
“Rick was born in England. He graduated from Leeds University as a Civil Engineer in 1964 and immigrated to Canada in 1970. Rick discovered folk music along with the rest of the baby boomers during the folk revival of the 1960’s. A skilled accompanist on guitar, 5-string banjo and keyboards. Rick also plays spoons, dulcimer, bowed psaltery and his cheeks! Rick was a founding member of the now legendary ‘Fiddler’s Green’ coffeehouse in Toronto. An economic downturn in 1973 led to his adopting music as a career.” https://relativeharmony.wordpress.com/about/rick-avery/
"Jay Aymar is a Canadian singer-songwriter born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. As an acoustic guitar player and singer, he is known for his storytelling through music. His songs cover themes central to everyday life, love and the human condition." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Aymar
"Ruth Berhe, better known by her stage name Ruth B., is a Canadian singer and songwriter from Edmonton, Alberta. She started by singing songs on Vine in early 2013. In November 2015, she released her debut extended play The Intro. On May 5, 2017, she released her debut album Safe Haven. It has gathered over 1.96 billion overall streams on Spotify as of March 2023. Her single "Lost Boy" has accumulated over 745 million streams on Spotify, and her YouTube channel has received a total of 526 million views as of December 2022." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_B.
“Njacko Backo is a musician, poet, writer, composer, performer, and choreographer from Cameroon. [...] He spent most of his childhood in a village called Bazou in western Cameroon where he was introduced to music. [...] He studied drumming (toum and kak), kalimba (also called the thumb piano, however, he plays with his fingers), percussion (various instruments), and an African harp called zaa koua. [...] He has worked with African artists, including the late Boubacar Diabaté, Oumar Diayé, and dancer Zab Maboungo. He formed his band Njacko Backo and Kalimba Kalimba in 1990 and has independently released a total of 11 full-length albums to date. Njacko has performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Louisiana Folk Festival (Lafayette, LA) and the Houston International Jazz Festival (Houston, TX), among countless other events. He has also composed music for films including To Walk with Lions, Born Free, and Spirit in the Tree. In addition to music, Njacko also teaches extensively in the Greater Toronto Area through an organization called Mariposa in the Schools.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Njacko_Backo
“Sam Baker is an American folk musician based in Austin, Texas. He writes sparse poetic lyrics that have gained him acclaim from other notable folk artists such as Gurf Morlix and Fred Eaglesmith.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Baker_(musician)
“Oscar Brand was a Canadian-born American folk singer-songwriter, radio host, and author. In his career, spanning 70 years, he composed at least 300 songs and released nearly 100 albums, among them Canadian and American patriotic songs. Brand's music ran the gamut from novelty songs to serious social commentary and spanned a number of genres. Brand also wrote a number of short stories. And for 70 years, he was the host of a weekly folk music show on WNYC Radio in New York City, which is credited as the longest running radio show with only one host in broadcasting history.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Brand
"Matt Andersen is a Canadian blues guitarist and singer-songwriter from Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, signed to True North Records. He is a Juno Award nominee. His musical career started in 2002 with the New Brunswick band Flat Top." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Andersen
"Arden has received a total of 19 Juno Award nominations to date. She has won eight of them, including solo artist of the year in 1994, Songwriter of the Year in 1995 and 2002, and Female Artist of the Year in 1995 and 2001." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jann_Arden
“Afie Jurvanen is a singer-songwriter and musician professionally known as Bahamas. The Ontario-born, Nova Scotia-based artist is known for albums Barchords, Bahamas is Afie and Sad Hunk. Jurvanen's Sad Hunk won the 2021 Juno Award for adult alternative album of the year.” https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/full-episode-aug-9-2021-1.5869059/juno-award-winner-afie-jurvanen-was-jolted-out-of-his-comfort-zone-after-reading-david-goggins-can-t-hurt-me-1.5869169
"Megan Bonnell is a Canadian folk musician, born in Caledon, Ontario." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Bonnell
"Shining a modern light on the roots of North American popular music, Patrick Brealey blends elements of folk, country, cabaret and blues, delivering lyrically driven songs with a uniquely powerful voice that harkens the crooners of early rock and roll. An agile vocalist, adept guitar picker and accomplished pianist, Brealey is a natural performer. Originally from Vancouver, he moved to Toronto in 2008, and was welcomed into the city's vibrant country and roots scene. [...]" Mariposa Folk Festival programme, 2009, p. 51
“Charlie A'Court is a Canadian musician, songwriter and producer. [...] As a five-time East Coast Music Award winner and eight-time Nova Scotia Music Award winner, A'Court has earned awards for Blues, Pop, and R&B/Soul Recordings of the Year, and on multiple occasions been recognised as Entertainer of the Year. A'Court has also received multiple Maple Blues Award nominations including Male Vocalist and Songwriter of the Year.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_A%27Court
“Steve Addabbo is a record producer, songwriter and audio engineer who helped launch the careers of Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin. He had a vital hand in Vega's hit single, "Luka" and Colvin's album Steady On. He has produced and/or engineered for artists including Bobby McFerrin, Bob Dylan, Eric Andersen, Loudon Wainwright III, Jeff Buckley, Gary Lucas, Lara Bello, Richard Barone, The Bongos, Robby Romero and Red Thunder, Richard Shindell, Suzanne Vega, Ana Egge and The Stray Birds, Chiara Civello, Jane Olivor, Olivia Newton-John, The Manhattans and Dar Williams.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Addabbo
"Coco Love Alcorn is a Canadian pop and jazz singer. The daughter of jazz singer John Alcorn, she released her debut album in 1995. She toured as an opening act for Burton Cummings, Chantal Kreviazuk, Jesse Cook, and Ani DiFranco and performed on some Lilith Fair dates. She is a backing vocalist for 54-40, and her music has appeared on the television programs The Dead Zone and The L Word. ... She won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Singer of the Year at the 16th Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2021, for her album Rebirth." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Love_Alcorn
“David Werner Amram III is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of orchestral, chamber, and choral works, many with jazz flavorings. He plays piano, French horn, Spanish guitar, and pennywhistle, and sings. [...] As a sideman or leader, Amram has worked with Aaron Copland, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Jack Kerouac, Sonny Rollins, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz, George Barrow, Jerry Dodgion, Paquito D'Rivera, Pepper Adams, Arturo Sandoval, Oscar Pettiford, Allen Ginsberg, Mary Lou Williams, Kenny Dorham, Ray Barretto, Wynton Marsalis, and others.He has also worked with a wide range of folk, pop, and country figures, such as Bob Dylan, the Roche sisters, Pete Seeger, Odetta, Willie Nelson, Oscar Brand, Judy Collins, Peter Yarrow, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Josh White, Patti Smith, Arlo Guthrie, and others.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Amram
“ Inge Andersen has been writing poetry and songs all her life and she performs regularly as a singer. Her vocal harmonies appear on several albums, as well as her debut solo-album Fallen Angel. As long as she can remember, Inge Andersen loved poetry and music. Inspired by Dutch poets such as Hans Andreus and Ellen Warmond, the American poet Irvin Layton, and songwriters like Phil Ochs, Fred Neil, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, she wrote many poems and songs. She studied Educational Psychology in Utrecht and Amsterdam, got her Ph.D. in Social Sciences and has worked as a researcher and consultant. Throughout her career she has continued writing songs, performing regularly as a back-up singer. In 2005, she accompanied Eric Andersen on his tour throughout Japan, providing back-up vocals. Many joint performances followed, in venues all over the globe. In 2006, Eric and Inge got married. In 2008, she was invited by Norwegian Hardanger fiddle player Hallvard Bjørgum to record vocal harmonies for his album “Peace Will Come”. The song “ The Prodigal Son” -- produced by Hallvard Bjørgum and Garth Hudson from The Band -- documents Inge’s debut recording. The album was released in March 2009. In 2009, Inge and Kersten de Ligny sang harmony for “The Lone Wolves”, a vocal collaboration of Eric Andersen, Ad Vanderveen and the Texan songwriter Richard Dobson. Spanning sixties Greenwich Village folk and today’s Americana, this project gave a musical overview from the protest singer to contemporary singer-songwriter. In 2011, she performed as a guest on Eric Andersen’s webcast in Woodstock, New York, along with performers such as John Sebastian, Happy Traum and Joe Flood. Following the webcast, John Sebastian commented on her singing with – Inge, you were the secret weapon! Performing as a back-up singer gave Inge a lot of stage experience. But given her passion for poetry and lyrics she wanted to record her own writings. In 2011, she recorded her debut album “Fallen Angel" in Italy. The album was produced for MEYER RECORDS by Eric Andersen, together with the Italian violinist, composer and song poet Michele Gazich. Eric, Inge and Michele Gazich had previously collaborated on Eric Andersen’s live album, The Cologne Concert, and they still perform together regularly.” https://www.eomega.org/workshops/teachers/inge-andersen
“Eric Andersen is an American folk music singer-songwriter, who has written songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead and many others. Early in his career, in the 1960s, he was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene. After two decades and sixteen albums of solo performance he became a member of the group Danko/Fjeld/Andersen.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Andersen
"Mr. B. (born Mark Lincoln Braun, 1957), is an American boogie-woogie pianist." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._B._(Mark_Braun)
Beverley Noel Salmon, nurse, politician and prominent anti-racism and community activist, was the first Black female commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the first Black woman elected municipally in Toronto.
Salmon graduated as a registered nurse at Wellesley Hospital, Toronto in 1953 and obtained a public health nurse certificate in 1954 from the University of Toronto. After marrying Dr. Douglas Salmon (Canada’s first Black surgeon,hospital medical staff president, and Chief of General Surgery), Salmon worked in Detroit, Michigan until 1960 and left the nursing field.
In 1975, Salmon founded the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, a non-profit organization that works with the community, public, and private sectors to provide education programs and research to address racism in society. Salmon was also a member of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. In 1985, Salmon entered municipal politics and encumbent Councillor Andrew Borins to become Councillor of Ward 8 in North York; then elected to Metro Toronto Council until her retirement in 1997. Her career also includes work with the Ontario Status of Women Council, the Toronto Board of Education, and Toronto Transit Commission board member (1989-1994) and vice-chair (1991-1994). In the 1990s, she co-founded the Black Educators Working Group with former school principal MacArthur Hunter to advocate for an inclusive curriculum, teacher training, and anti-racism policies.
Born as Beverley Bell on 25 December 1930, she is the daughter of Herbert McLean Bell Sr., who immigrated from Jamaica to enlist in the Canadian army during the First World War (he remained in Canada to own and operate an automotive repair business in Toronto for twenty-four years) and Violet Bryan, a fifth-generation Canadian of Scottish and Irish descent. Salmon’s younger brother, Dr. David Bell was Professor Emeritus and former dean of York University’s Faculties of Environmental Studies and Graduate Studies.
Her awards and achievements include the African Canadian Achievement Award for Excellence in Politics (1995), Federation of Canadian Municipalities Roll of Honour recipient (1999), an honorary doctorate from Ryerson University (1999), the Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), the Order of Ontario (2016), and the Order of Canada (2017). She passed away on 6 July 2023.
William Jaffé (1898-1980), educator and author, was associated with York University for the last ten years of his life as a professor in the Economics Department. Prior to his tenure at York, Jaffé had spent 1928 to 1966 at Northwestern University (Illinois), where he began his lifelong work on the French nineteenth-century economist, Leon Walras. He translated Walras’s "The elements of pure economics," and edited three volumes of Walras correspondence. Jaffé was made a Member of the French Legion of Honour, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science and Letters, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the British Academy.
Ellie E. Prepas, Professor Emeritus of Natural Resource Management at Lakehead University, author and activist was born in Hamilton, Ontario and received her Bachelor of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo, her Master of Environmental Studies from York University in 1974 and her Doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1980. She was a prominent member of the Waffle movement in Canada.
Prepas joined the Waffle movement within the New Democratic Party (NDP) as a graduate student in 1971. The Waffle was a Canadian national socialist party that opposed American and foreign ownership of Canadian resources and industries. As a Waffler, Prepas participated in protests that included the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project and the Canada-US Auto Pact. Prepas was also a prominent member of the women’s group within the Waffle, advocating for women in the workforce and changes to the Criminal Code on the issue of abortion. During the 1972 Canadian Federal Election, Prepas was successfully nominated as the NDP candidate for the riding of Trinity-Spadina but resigned her candidacy prior to the election date due to the expulsion of the Waffle from the NDP.
Prepas’ early research centred on limnology, the study of fresh or saline waters within continental boundaries, which later expanded to studies of watershed disturbance and climate factors and their impact on surface water quality and biota. She taught at McGill University, the University of Alberta and Lakehead University. During her tenure at Lakehead University, she was awarded the Canada Research Chair by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada in 2001 and received it again in 2008. Prepas was involved with the Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance Project (FORWARD I to III) from 2001 to 2016.
Judith Rudakoff, playwright, author, and professor, was educated at McGill (BA), the University of Alberta (MA), and the University of Toronto (PhD). She was the literary manager and resident dramaturge for a number of Toronto theatres including Toronto Free Theatre, Canadian Stage Company, and Theatre Passe Muraille and has worked with both new and established playwrights throughout Canada. She is the author or editor of a number of works on dramaturgy, contemporary Canadian theatre and Cuban theatre including "Fair Play: Conversations with Canadian Women Playwrights," "Dangerous Traditions: A Passe Muraille Anthology," and "Questionable Activities: Canadian Theatre Artists in Conversation with Canadian Theatre Students." She has been an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University since 1989 and has lectured on topics including cultural identity and the role of archetypes in artistic creation in such diverse places as Cuba, Denmark, South Africa, England and the United States. She was awarded the Dean's Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Faculty of Fine Arts and the University Wide Teaching Prize for her work. She was also awarded the Elliott Hayes Prize in Dramaturgy for her work on South Asian choreographer Lata Pada's multidisciplinary work "Revealed by Fire."
Ray Stevenson was a trade union organizer and peace movement participant. He was born near Virden, Manitoba in 17 December 1919 and started working in mines there before joining Upper Canada Mines in Kirkland Lake, Ontario in 1939. He participated in the Mine Mill union organizational drive that culminated in the 'union recognition' strike of 1941-1942, which led to the Federal Government legislating compulsory bargaining. Stevenson was a member of the Communist Party of Canada from 1940 to 1998. He was commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant in the Canadian Army in (1942-1946), but served at home, due to his political affiliations. Stevenson ran unsuccessfully for the Communist Party in the Ontario Provincial Election in 1945, and in 1946, he moved to Northern Ontario and became the Educational Director for Workers Co-op. He joined the Labour Progressive Party soon after and was a political organizer in Northern Ontario and Northwestern Quebec. In 1950, Stevenson went to work for Inco and was elected to the executive of Local 598 in 1951. Nationally, he served on the Canadian Mine Mill Council, sitting on Canadian Executive Board of the council until 1961 when he became executive editor at the Mine Mill Herald. When the Mine Mill Canada union merged in 1967 with the United Steel Workers of America, Stevenson served as editor of the USWA magazine "Information" until 1972. From 1972-1978, he was acting Public Relations Director for USWA Canada. He left the USWA in 1978 to pursue his interests in the peace movement organizations, including the World Peace Council in Helsinki, Finland, the International Committee of Trade Unionists for Peace and Disarmament and the Canadian Peace Congress. Stevenson was also a founding editor of the "Northstar Compass" from 1991 until his retirement in 1995. Stevenson died in Toronto on 24 August 2004.
Barbara Godard (1941-2010), educator, critic, and translator was born in Toronto, Ontario on 24 December 1941. She received her B.A. in 1964 from the University of Toronto, Trinity College and her M.A. in 1967 from the Université de Montreal. She received her Maitrise from the Université de Paris in 1969 and her PhD from the Université de Bordeaux in 1971. She lectured at the Universities of Montreal and Paris before joining York University in 1971 as an Assistant Professor of English. She subsequently taught as a professor of English, French, Social and Political Thought and Women's Studies and was the Avie Bennett Historica Chair of Canadian Literature. The author and editor of numerous scholarly publications, articles and essays, Godard's publications include the books "Talking about ourselves: the cultural productions of native women in Canada" (1985) and "Audrey Thomas: her life and work" (1989). She also edited "Gynocritics/gynocritiques: feminist approaches to Canadian and Quebec women's writing" (1987), "Collaboration in the feminine: writing on women and 'Culture' from 'Tessera'" (1994) and "Intersexions: issues of race and gender in Canadian women's writing" (1996). A noted translator of numerous Quebec women writers including Nicole Brossard's "Intimate journal" (2004) and "Picture theory" (1991), Antoinine Maillet's "The tale of Don l'Orignal" (2004) and France Théoret's "The tangible world" (1991), Godard was shortlisted twice for the Felix-Antoine Savard Translation Prize. In 2001, she collaborated in organizing the conference 'Wider boundaries of daring: the modernist impulse in Canadian women's poetry' with Di Brandt, the proceedings of which were published as "Re:generations: Canadian women poets in conversation." The founding co-editor of the feminist journal "Tessera", Godard received numerous awards for her work including the Vinay-Darbelnet Prize of the Canadian Association of Translation Studies (2000) and the Teaching Award of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University (2002) and of the Northeast Association of Graduate Schools (2002). Godard belonged to a wide variety of organizations including P.E.N. Canada, the Association of Canadian and Quebec Literature and the Canadian Semiotics Association. She passed away 16 May 2010.
Wanda MacNevin (1950-), social worker, activist and author, lived and worked in the Jane and Finch community for sixty years. Born in O’Leary, Prince Edward Island, she moved with her family to Ontario in 1955 and spent her childhood years on the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Station Downsview, where her father was stationed. She moved to a public housing complex at 15 Tobermory Drive in the 1970s as a single mother of three children. Aware of the rapid growth of the Jane-Finch community and the lack of social services in the area, MacNevin began working with the Black Creek Venture Group in 1975.
She was a founding board member of the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre when it opened in 1976. Her education in social work was nurtured by York University’s Bridging Program for Women, which began classes in 1981. From 1991 to 2003, she worked as a program manager at Black Creek Community Health Centre and developed programs and services that supported teenage mothers and seniors. She returned as a Program Manager at the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre in 2003 and retired as its Director of Community Programs in 2016.
MacNevin received Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her lifelong social work in 2016. In 2017, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by York University for her social work and her contributions to collaborations between the Jane/Finch Community and the university.
Dennis Charles Hefferon (1933- ) taught at the Osgoode Hall Law School and was active in the affiliation agreement that saw the school relocate on the York University campus in 1968. In 1970 he also began teaching in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York. He left the University in 1988. In addition to his teaching activity, Hefferon was interested in planning issues and has supplied legal advice to the City of Toronto on questions involving development. He was a member of the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board. Hefferon was the legal counsel to the Province of Manitoba on question involving development and planning. He has also served the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Canadian Association of Law Teachers, where he has developed ideas on the teaching of law in Canada. In addition, Hefferon has written several articles and co-authored works including, 'Cases and material on Property Law', 'Cases and materials on real estate transactions' (1976-1977), 'Cases and materials on land use planning' (1976-1977), and others.
Dini Petty (b. 15 January 1945) is a Canadian broadcaster, television personality and talk show host. Born in England, her family emigrated to Canada when she was four months old. In her early childhood Petty moved with her parents and two siblings to various cities in Canada and the United States, including the Rockcliffe neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario, Galt, Ontario, Baltimore, Maryland, and Danbury Connecticut, until settling in Toronto at the age of eleven where Dini Petty's mother Molly started a modeling agency with Sylvia Train , Producers' Services and her father Gord opened one of the country's first animation houses, Film Technique. Petty attended Park Lawn Public School in Etobicoke, and the Brown School and North Toronto Collegiate in Toronto. Petty has remarked that "I got thrown out of every high school I went to, for talking. No one mentioned this could be a career move."
As an adolescent, Petty worked as a model for her mother's agency working in local commercials, photo shoots and documentaries ("Who is Sylvia", 1957) under the name Diana Kerr (her mother's maiden name). She married at 18 and worked in Peterson Productions (one of Canada's first commercial studios). In 1968, Petty was approached by CKEY radio employee Tommy Vradenberg to join the company. Petty had been active in the Toronto Parachute Club as a skydiver and as a result, CKEY thought she would be a good candidate to fly the company's helicopter to report the morning weather and traffic for the city of Toronto. Petty acquired her pilot's license and became known as "The Girl in the Pink Helicopter" as the radio station developed a marketing strategy around Petty in which she dressed in pink, rode a pink helicopter and drove a pink car while on the job. Petty was a traffic reporter for CKEY for several years before giving birth to her first child, at which point she took a job at CITYTV in 1979, where she hosted a phone-in show titled "HELP", later reworked as "Sweet City Woman" which eventually developed into "City Line". She also worked as a reporter for City Pulse news along with Gord Martineau, Colin Vaughan, Peter Silverman, Anne Mroczkowski and Jojo Chintoh.
Dini has received the Jaycees nomination for "Outstanding Canadian." She was one of three finalists in the 1980 ACTRA awards for "best TV Documentary Writer". Her series "Incest: Scandal in the Family", won the silver medal in the nation-wide Can Pro Awards in 1980. In 1981 her documentary "Having A Baby" (which followed her own pregnancy and the birth of her son) won the gold medal at Can Pro, plus the "Award of Excellance", the highest award for the Can Pro festival. She was also nominated for "best TV documentary writer" in the 1981 ACTRA awards.
Petty anchored CITY-TV'scurrent affairs program CityWide from May 1987 to 1989 when she left to work for CFTO-TV, which launched The Dini Petty Show. Directed by Randy Gulliver, The Dini Petty show ran from 1989 to 1999. A reflection of the popular culture at the time, the daily talk show featured interviews with actors, authors, singers and performers. The show received the NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) International Iris Award in 1992 for an hour-long interview with Red Skelton, as well as Gemini Awards for best host (awarded in 1992, nominated in 1997 and 1998), a Can-Pro Award in 1997 for a one hour interview with Sara Ferguson, Duchess of York. Petty's contract ended with CTV in 2000 which led to a legal case that resulted in Petty being awarded the broadcast tapes of "The Dini Petty Show".
Dini Petty continued to contribute and develop documentary television as well as contributing to charitable causes such as the Coats for Kids campaign, the Pregnancy Youth Line and the Christian Children's Fund projects related to children, and as a spokesperson for Amnesty International. Petty has also written a best-selling children's book "The Queen, The Bear and The Bumblebee" which has been translated into three languages and developed into a musical by The Children's Group. She continues to speak publicly and in recently toured her one-woman show, A Broad View in Canada.
John Francis Bosher (1929-2020), historian and educator, was born in Sidney, British Columbia. He graduated from the University of British Columbia with first class honours in 1950 and a Canadian Government Andison scholarship from the French Department. He received a teacher’s training diploma in 1951 from the provincial Education Department, but took an administrative position with the Canadian Civil Service Commission while continuing his studies in French. In 1952, he travelled to London, England, where he met Professor Alfred Cobban of University College and discussed Bosher’s interest in the French foundations of Canada. Cobbon put Bosher in contact with professors at the Sorbonne, where he wrote his MA thesis on the attitude of the Physiocrats toward Great Britain and received his degree in June 1954. He returned to London to study under Cobban’s supervision, leading to a PhD in March 1957 for the dissertation, The Single Duty Project: A Study of the Movement for a French Customs Union, which was published in 1964. He taught as an assistant lecturer at King’s College, London, from 1956 to 1959, when he joined UBC’s History Department as an assistant professor. He taught at Cornell University in from 1967 to 1969, which was followed by his appointment as a professor in York University’s Department of History where he was appointed Distinguished Research Professor in 1989. Bosher was a prolific scholar whose work included: a series of lectures on CBC Radio that dealt with the French in the Fifth Republic and the controversial remarks of French President Charles de Gaulle; French Finances 1770-1795: From Business to Bureaucracy (Cambridge, 1970); French Government and Society 1500-1850: Essays in Memory of Alfred Cobban (Athlone, 1973); The Canada Merchants, 1713 -1763 (Oxford, 1987); The French Revolution (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1989); Men and Ships in the Canada Trade, 1660-1760: A Biographical Dictionary (Canadian Parks Service, 1992); Business and Religion in the Age of New France, 1600-1760: Twenty-two Studies (Canadian Scholars’ Press, 1994); The Gaullist Attack on Canada 1967-1997 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1998); Imperial Vancouver Island: Who was Who, 1850-1950 (Xlibris, 2010); and Vancouver Island in the Empire (Llumina Press, 2012). Bosher was invited to join the Royal Society of Canada in 1976 and he was a visiting fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford in 1991-1992.
Dr. Pat Armstrong was born in Matheson, Ontario. She received her BA in Sociology from Victoria College, University of Toronto in 1966, her MA in Canadian Studies from Carlton University in 1974, and her PhD in Sociology from Carlton University in 1984. She is recognized as an expert in the areas of gender equity; women’s work, women’s health and care labour; expertise acknowledged not only by Canadian courts and international consultations but also by reports commissioned by the Canadian and Ontario Governments as well as by the Romanow Commission and the Pan American Health Organization. She has held various academic positions, most notably: Teaching Master at Sir Sandford Fleming College of Applied Arts and Technology (1971-1973), Professor of Social Sciences at Vanier College (1974-1987), Lecturer at Concordia University-Layola Campus (1975-1976), Associate Professor of Sociology at York University (1986-1990), Director and Professor of Canadian Studies at Carlton University (1994-1999), and since 1990 she has been Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at York University. From 2001-2011 she held one of twelve Canada Health Services Research Foundation/Canadian Institute of Health Research Chairs in Health Services and Nursing Research. From 1998-2011 she was Chair of the Women and Health Care Reform Working Group. In her other work, Armstrong has served as an expert witness on women’s work, in particular on cases related to pay equity and she has been heard before bodies ranging from the Federal Court to the federal Human Rights Tribunals and the Ontario Pay Equity Tribunal.
Armstrong has published widely, co-authoring and co-editing such books as Thinking Women and Health Care Reform in Canada (2012); Women’s Health: Intersections of Research, Policy and Practice (2008); They Deserve Better: the Long-term Care Experience in Canada and Scandinavia (2009); A Place to Call Home: Long-term Care in Canada (2009); Critical to Care: the Invisible Women in Health Services (2008) and Wasting Away: The Undermining of Canadian Health Care (1996), as well as more than seventy-five book chapters and numerous journal articles. Armstrong is a recipient of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sociology (2002), and has also been recognized with invitations to give multiple keynote addresses to domestic and international audiences and received professional honours in the form of special lectureships across Canada including McGill, University of Toronto, University of Saskatchewan and Ryerson. At York University, Dr. Armstrong is the recipient of the Dean of Arts Award for Outstanding Research (2007) and the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Contribution in Teaching (1991-92). In addition, she has been recognized in 2010 as a York University Distinguished Research Professor. Since 2011, she has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Ellen C. Adams (1925-1982), was born in Germany and emigrated to Canada in 1948. Her original name was Cammnitzer, which she changed during an election campaign in 1963. Adams was a member of the administrative staff of the Canadian Co-operative Federation and later served for twenty years as assistant to Ontario New Democratic Party leaders Donald MacDonald and Stephen Lewis. She was twice unsuccessful in provincial elections (1963, 1973) running under the NDP banner. Adams was also influential in Toronto municipal politics as a leader in the Stop Spadina (Expressway) movement, executive of the Avenue-Bay Cottingham Ratepayers' Association, and as a founding executive member of the Confederation of Residents' and Ratepayers' Associations. In 1975 Adams took up a position in the Institutional Branch of the Ontario Ombudsmans Office.
H.V. (Henry Vivian) Nelles was born in 1942 and educated at the University of Toronto where he received his B.A. (1964), M.A. (1965) and his PhD. (1970). A professor in the Department of History at York University since 1970, he was appointed Distinguished Research Professor of History at York in June 2001. In July 2004 he was appointed first L.R. Wilson Professor in Canadian History at McMaster University, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard University, and in Japan. In addition to teaching, Nelles was the Chair of the Ontario Council of University Affairs (1988-1992), co-editor of the Canadian Historical Review (1988-1992) and was a general editor of the Social History of Canada series (1978-1988). He is the author and/or editor of numerous books, among them "The Art of Nation-Building: Pageantry and Spectacle at Quebecs Tercentenary", "Monopolys Moment: The Organization and Regulation of Canadian Utilities, 1830-1930", "The Politics of Development: Forests, Mines and Hydro-Electric Power in Ontario, 1849-1941" and, most recently, "A Little History of Canada". He is the recipient of several awards including Le Prix Lionel Groulx, the Toronto Book Award, and has twice received the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize of the Canadian Historical Association for the best book on Canadian History.
Reg Whitaker, author, professor and political commentator, was born in Ottawa, Ontario and educated at Carleton University where he received his BA and MA in Political Science in 1965 and 1968, respectively. He received a PhD in Political Economy from the University of Toronto in 1975. He was a lecturer, assistant and associate professor in the Department of Political Science, Carleton University beginning in 1972, and Whitaker was the director of Carleton's Institute of Canadian Studies from 1979-1981. He joined York as a professor of political science in 1984. At York, he has served as coordinator of the Public Policy and Administration Program, 1986-1989, and as director of the Graduate Program in Political Science, 1990-1992. In 2001, he was named Distinguished Research Professor. Whitaker is a prolific and leading authority in the study of political parties, federalism, security and intelligence, immigration policy and the history of political thought in Canada. As well, Whitaker has collaborated with historian Greg Kealey to compile, edit and publish eight volumes of RCMP security bulletins, covering the entire inter-war period and the Second World War.
Kenneth Faiz Neamath Shah (ca. 1939-2002) was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago as one of eight children. He spent his childhood in Trinidad, and at the age of 15, represented Trinidad and Tobago at the 1957 World Scout Jamboree held in England.
In 1965, he immigrated to Canada to pursue a degree in Petroleum Engineering at Carleton University. Upon his graduation, he was employed with Texaco Canada before leaving to follow his passion in carnival arts and costume design full time. In Canada, he married and began his family and had four sons.
Shah was one of the founding members of Caribana, and the Caribbean Cultural Committee (CCC). Formed in 1966, the CCC—originally named the Caribbean Centennial Committee—put on Carnival to represent the West Indian community and participate in the celebrations for Canada’s Centennial in 1967. After the success of the first Caribana Festival, the event became an annual occurrence, with the CCC operating year-round. Caribana remains the largest Carnival Festival in North America. Caribana was held over a weekend in August and culminated in the Caribana mas (masquerade) parade, where bands (groups of people), their band leader, and the King and Queen of the band, would “play mas” (walk the parade) often accompanied by music such as calypso or steel drums. There were also a series of prizes and competitions in order to determine the King and Queen of the Carnival, and the Band of the Year.
Over a period of thirty years, Shah was a carnival leader, assisting with the development of the vision and programming of Caribana; mas-producer and bandleader, project managing the design and manufacture of a mas band and its costumes each year; co-founder of Caribana’s Kiddies Carnival; and founder of the first J’Ouvert in 1995, a pre-dawn parade modeled after the traditional celebration in Trinidad. Additionally, Shah developed his own costume manufacturing business in Toronto under the name “Creative Costumes.” It became Canada’s second largest enterprise in dealings with parades, shows, operas, and other costume-based performance art.
Shah’s other roles and achievements include: President of Multi-Fest Canada, Inc.; editor of Canadian Caribbean Carnival Magazine; and contributing editor and circulating manager for the magazine So Yu Going to Carnival.
In May 2002, Shah died after complications from a surgery.
J. David Wood, geography professor at York University, was born in Galt, Ontario, on 23 February 1934. He received a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Toronto in 1955 and 1958 respectively, and a PhD from Edinburgh University in 1962. Wood began his career as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Toronto. Other major academic positions include: Assistant Lecturer, Edinburgh University; Assistant Professor, University of Alberta; and since 1965 at Atkinson College, York University as Associate Professor (and founding Chairman), Geography Department; Professor, Department of Geography; Director, Graduate Program in Geography; Co-ordinator, Canadian Studies Program; Professor and Chair, Department of Geography and Co-ordinator, Urban Studies Program and Professor, Department of Geography and Urban Studies Program. Wood is the author of "Making Ontario: Agricultural Colonization and Landscape Re-Creation Before the Railway" and numerous articles in prominent journals relating to the study of geography. He organized, delivered numerous papers and chaired many sessions at geographical conferences and symposia. He was inducted into the York University Founders' Society on March 1, 2000 in recognition of his achievements at York University and in the field of geography. Wood died on 15 October 2022.
George James Rogers, public relations promoter, was born in Rock Terry, Cheshire, England in June 11, 1905. He emigrated to Canada as an adult prior to 1941 at which time he joined Canadian General Electric as a promotions man and editor of in-house publications. In 1949 he removed to New York and became assistant to the chairman, American Economic Foundation. He was very active in promoting the Foundation's educational programmes and films such as In our hands, Its your decision, Backfire, and Let's face it. In 1953 Rogers formed his own public relations firm in the Midwest, American Free Enterprise Productions and began to provide corporations and the general public with media shows, such as Our job security and The Milwaukee Baby, promoting the 'American way of life' (capitalism and representative government). In addition, he provided in-house publications, annual reports and training sessions for private clients. In 1962 he moved to Canada and formed the Canadian Economic Foundation before returning to New York in 1968. Both of Rogers' enterprises proposed to alleviate labour-management conflicts through a programme of economic education directed at workers and the general public. Their message was based on an attack of government spending and socialism in North America. The Canadian Economic Foundation sought to broaden out beyond the shop floor to have its material taught in community centres and public school systems. The Canadian Economic Foundation was a profit-taking organization which also relied substantially on donations from corporations to pursue its work.
Charles Nisbet (b. 1736), a Scottish-born American, was educated at the University of Edinburgh and the College of New Jersey (Princeton). He became principal of Dickenson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Davies, Peter Maxwell, 1934-2016