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Carl Ray, Cree artist, illustrator, editor and art teacher (born January 1943 in Sandy Lake, ON; died 26 September 1978 in Sioux Lookout, ON). Ray was known for his innovative paintings in the Woodlands style and was a founding member of the Indian Group of Seven. Ray’s work has influenced Indigenous art in Canada and can be found in the collections of various galleries and museums across the country.

Armenian-Canadian photographer Malak Karsh was best known for his photographs of Canada, and of the Ottawa region in particular. His 1963 photograph of a tugboat bringing logs up the Ottawa River, with the Library of Parliament in the background, was featured on the reverse of the $1 banknote first issued in 1974. Karsh amassed perhaps the most comprehensive visual record of Canada in existence. He also founded the Ottawa Tulip Festival and was the younger brother of famed photographer Yousuf Karsh.

​Freda Ahenakew, OC, Cree scholar, author (born 11 February 1932 on Ahtahkakoop First Nation, SK; died 8 April 2011 at Muskeg Lake First Nation, SK). Ahenakew is recognized as a leader in the acknowledgment and revitalization of the Cree language in Canada. In her life, Ahenakew helped to preserve the oral traditions of the Cree people and share Cree traditions and stories with Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples alike. (See also Indigenous Language Revitalization in Canada.)

Ludger Duvernay, newspaperman, editor, printer, politician, Patriote (born 22 January 1799 in Verchères, Lower Canada; died 28 November 1852 in Montréal, Canada East).

Sturla Gunnarsson, director, producer, writer (born 30 August 1951 in Reykjavik, Iceland).

Thomas James Hunter, CM, O Ont, singer, guitarist, television host (born 20 March 1937 in London, ON.)

James Paton Clarke, composer, conductor, organist, choirmaster, teacher (born 1807 or 1808, likely in Edinburgh, Scotland; died 27 August 1877 in Toronto, ON).

​Thaïs Lacoste-Frémont, women’s rights activist, journalist, speaker (born 18 October 1886 in Montréal, Québec; died there 6 April 1963).

In 2005, to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Canadian celebrities spoke about the meaning of remembrance as part of the Stories of Remembrance Campaign, a project of CanWest News Service (now Postmedia News), the Dominion Institute (now Historica Canada) and Veterans Affairs Canada. This article is reprinted from that campaign.

Katherena Vermette, Métis poet, short-story writer, novelist, filmmaker, teacher (born 29 January 1977 in Winnipeg, MB). Métis writer Katherena Vermette is a rising star of Canadian literature. In her poetry, prose and film, she explores some of the most vital issues facing Canada today: the search for identity and the ongoing effects of historical and institutional prejudice. She won the Governor General’s Award in 2013 for her first collection of poems, North End Love Songs, and is the author of the acclaimed 2016 novel The Break.

Jackson Beardy (also known as Quincy Pickering Jackson Beardy), Oji-Cree artist (born 24 July 1944 in Island Lake, MB; died 8 December 1984 in Winnipeg, MB). Beardy was part of the Woodlands School of Indigenous art, and in 1973 he became part of a group of Indigenous artists popularly known as the Indian Group of Seven. His stylized artworks — sometimes painted on canvas, birch bark or beaver skins — were often concerned with the interdependence of humans and nature. They also tended to depict figures from Ojibwe and Cree oral traditions. From the late 1960s to his death in the early 1980s, Beardy promoted Indigenous art as a valid category of contemporary art. His influence as a Woodland artist has contributed to the development of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada.

Rose Marie “Tantoo” Cardinal, CM, actor (born 20 Jul 1950 in Fort McMurray, AB). Cree and Métis actor Tantoo Cardinal has broken barriers for onscreen representation of Indigenous peoples. She has more than 120 film, television and theatre roles to her credit, including the films Dances With Wolves (1990), Black Robe (1991), Smoke Signals (1998) and Through Black Spruce (2018); as well as the TV series Street Legal (1987–94), Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993–95), North of 60 (1993–97), Moccasin Flats (2003-06) and Mohawk Girls (2010–17). She is known for her strong presence, the depth of her performances and her activism on behalf of the environment. A Member of the Order of Canada, she has won a Gemini Award, the Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement in Canadian television, a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award.

John Wesley Dafoe, journalist and liberal reformer (born 8 March 1866 in Combermere, Canada West; died 9 January 1944 in Winnipeg, Manitoba).

Stephen Butler Leacock, FRSC, humorist, author, academic (born 30 December 1869 in Swanmore, England; died 28 March 1944 in Toronto, ON). Stephen Leacock was the English-speaking world’s best-known humorist between 1915 and 1925. He was awarded the Mark Twain Medal for humour, the Royal Society of Canada’s Lorne Pierce Medal and the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction. Trained as an economist, historian and political scientist, he served as a professor in the Department of Economics and Political Science at McGill University from 1903 to 1936. The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour was established in his honour in 1947. He was designated a National Historic Person of Canada in 1968.

While a composition pupil of Louis Waizman in the 1930s, Farnon arranged music for Faith's choral groups and for the US orchestras of André Kostelanetz and Paul Whiteman. His first symphony, completed in 1940, was premiered 7 Jan 1941 as Symphonic Suite by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

In 1940 Vallerand won the Schumann trophy at the Festival-concours de musique du Québec for his song "Les Roses à la mer," later performed by Jeanne Desjardins and Mary Henderson.

Jean-Claude Lauzon, director, screenwriter (born 29 September 1953 in Montréal, QC; died 10 August 1997 near Kuujjuag, QC).

Perhaps the first musically important immigrant to Canada from what later was to be known as Czechoslovakia was Wilhelm Labitzky (violinist, b Becov 1829, d Toronto 1871; son of Joseph Labitzky, 'the waltz king of Bohemia').