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Jean Coutu, O.C., O.Q., pharmacist, entrepreneur and philanthropist (born 29 May 1927 in Montreal, Quebec). Jean Coutu is the founder of the Jean Coutu Group, a chain of pharmacies established in 1969 under the name Pharm-Escomptes Jean Coutu. He is also the cofounder of the Marcelle and Jean Coutu Foundation, a private charitable foundation. Jean Coutu has received many honours and awards recognizing both his career and his philanthropy.

Wilder Graves Penfield, OM, CC, FRS, FRSC neurosurgeon, scientist (born 26 January 1891 in Spokane, Washington; died 5 April 1976 in Montreal, QC). Dr. Penfield was the founder and first director of the Montreal Neurological Institute and established the "Montreal procedure" for the surgical treatment of epilepsy. (See also Neuroscience.)

Nadine Rena Caron, OBC, surgeon, researcher, mentor, educator, patient advocate, community leader (born 1970 in Kamloops, BC). Nadine Caron was the first female First Nations student to graduate from the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine. She was also the first female First Nations general surgeon in Canada. For many years, Caron has highlighted the needs and voices of northern, rural and Indigenous populations in Canada.

Flordeliz (a.k.a. Gigi) Osler (née Sharma), FRCSC, senator, physician and educator (born 1968 in Winnipeg, MB). Dr. Osler is an Otolaryngology – Head and Neck surgeon (ENT) surgeon and has practiced in Winnipeg since 1998. She was the past president of the Canadian Medical Association, making her the first female surgeon and the first woman of colour to assume the role. Osler was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 2022, making her the second senator of Filipino descent and the first woman of Filipino heritage to sit in the Senate.

Israel Halperin, CM, mathematician, human rights activist (born 5 January 1911 in Montreal, QC; died 8 March 2007 in Toronto, ON). Halperin advanced mathematical knowledge in the fields of operator algebras and operator theory. (See also Mathematics.) He became embroiled in the Gouzenko Affair in 1946 when he was accused of being an informant for the Soviet Union. After this ordeal, Halperin returned to his post as a professor at Queen’s University, later also teaching at the University of Toronto. Beginning in the 1970s, he created letter-writing campaigns that aimed to end human rights abuses and free political prisoners.

Dominique François Gaspard, physician and community builder (born 22 December 1884 in New Orleans, Louisiana; died 6 February 1938 in Montreal, QC). Gaspard was a respected doctor and a trailblazer in Montreal’s Black district. After serving with distinction at a field hospital during the First World War, he devoted himself to medical practice in Montreal. He also worked to create social and intellectual outlets for Black men in the city. A bilingual Catholic, he was unique in the city’s early-20th-century anglophone Protestant Black community. His story speaks of a complexity of language, ethnicity and migration not often explored in narratives of Quebec’s English-speaking and Black communities.

Margaret Newton, FRSC, plant pathologist (born 20 April 1887 in Montreal, QC; died 6 April 1971 in Victoria, BC). Margaret Newton was a pioneer for women in agricultural science. Throughout her career, she enhanced knowledge of wheat rust, which could result in crop loss and negatively impact the Canadian economy (see Wheat; Agricultural Economics).

William Ewart Taylor, Jr., archaeologist (born 21 November 1927 in Toronto, ON; died 13 November 1994 in Ottawa, ON).

COVID-19 vaccines were the first vaccines to be developed, tested, produced and delivered amid a global pandemic (see Covid-19 Pandemic in Canada). As the typical vaccine development, testing and regulatory approval process can take anywhere from 10 to 15 years, several distinctive strategies, coupled with previous research work in key areas, combined to expedite the approval of COVID-19 vaccines, especially messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based vaccines. Among the most significant of this previous work was the research undertaken by the team of Pieter Cullis, Michael Hope and Thomas Madden at the University of British Columbia that began in the early 1980s. Their work, which focused on studying and developing lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), as well as pioneering the technology to produce them, provided the key to making COVID-19 mRNA vaccines possible.