Search for "south asian canadians"

Adrienne Louise Clarkson, PC, CC, CMM, COM, CD, 26th governor general of Canada 1999–2005, television personality, journalist, novelist, public servant, publisher (born 10 February 1939 in Hong Kong). In 1999, Clarkson was appointed as Canada’s 26th governor general by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. She was the first racialized person, the first person of Asian heritage and the first without a political or military background appointed to the vice-regal position. Her appointment came after an award-winning career in broadcast and print journalism, where she was best known as host and reporter of CBC’s the fifth estate. After her tenure as governor general, Clarkson and her husband, John Ralston Saul, launched the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, an organization that aims to accelerate the cultural integration of new citizens into Canadian society. She is the author of two novels and five works of nonfiction.

​Patrick Lewis Wai-Kuan Chan, figure skater (born 31 December 1990 in Ottawa,ON). Patrick Chan is a Canadian champion and world champion men’s singles figure skater. A three-time world champion, he has won 10 national championships in the singles competition, breaking the record set by Montgomery Wilson in 1939. Known for dazzling artistry, Chan has repeatedly won major international competitions such as the World Figure Skating Championships and the Skate Canada, Grand Prix, Trophée Eric Bompard, and Four Continents events. He has set world records for points at competitions including the 2011 and 2013 World Championships and the 2013 Trophée Bompard, and has won three medals at the Olympic Winter Games: a silver in the men’s competition (2014) and a gold (2018) and silver (2014) in the team event.

Donald (Munro) Bell. Bass-baritone, b South Burnaby, BC, 19 Jun 1934. In 1948, while still a pupil of Nancy Paisley Benn in Vancouver, he sang with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Tecumseh, Shawnee chief, leader of a First Nations confederacy, military leader in the War of 1812 (born circa 1768 in south-central Ohio; died 5 October 1813 near Moraviantown [Thamesville, ON]).

In 1992–93, Canada contributed military forces to UNITAF, a United Nations–backed humanitarian mission in the African nation of Somalia. The mission was hampered by the fact that some of the warring factions in the Somalia conflict attacked the international forces that were trying to restore order and deliver food to a starving population. The Canadian effort was also clouded by the murder of a Somali teenager by Canadian troops. The crime — and alleged cover-up by Defence officials in Ottawa — became one of the most infamous scandals in Canadian history.

Norman Kirby, soldier (born 9 July 1925 in New Westminster, BC). Kirby served with the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment during the Second World War. He was involved in the D-Day landings and Normandy Campaign, the Battle of the Rhineland and the Liberation of the Netherlands.

Richard Pierpoint (also Pawpine, Parepoint; Captain Pierpoint, Captain Dick; Black Dick), loyalist, soldier, community leader, storyteller (born c. 1744 in Bondu [now Senegal]; died c. 1838, near present-day Fergus, ON). Pierpoint was an early leader in Canada’s Black community. Taken from West Africa as a teenager and sold into slavery, Pierpoint regained his freedom during the American Revolution. He settled in Niagara, Upper Canada, and attempted to live communally with other Black Canadians. In the War of 1812, he petitioned for an all-Black unit to fight for the British and fought with the Coloured Corps.

William Fernie, prospector, miner, entrepreneur (b at Kimbolton, Eng 2 Apr 1837; d at Victoria 15 May 1921). After travelling through Australasia and South America, he came to Vancouver Island in 1860.

Roland Brener, sculptor (b at Johannesburg, South Africa 22 February 1942). He completed his artistic training at St Martin's School of Art, London, England, in 1965 where he studied with Anthony Caro.

Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer, known as the hero of Lake Erie (b at South Kingston, Rhode Island, 23 Aug 1785; d at sea near Trinidad and Tabago, 23 Aug 1819).

Paul Desmarais, financier (born 4 January 1927 in Sudbury, ON; died 8 October 2013 in Charlevoix, QC).

Kim Echlin, writer (born 1955 in Burlington, ON). Kim Echlin earned a doctorate in Ojibway storytelling from York University, after attending McGill University and the Sorbonne, Paris. Echlin has worked as a documentarian for CBC and served as fiction editor for the Ottawa Citizen.

Anthony (Charles) Genge. Composer, pianist, teacher, b Vancouver 22 May 1952; B MUS (Victoria) 1979, M MUS (McGill) 1981, PH D (State U of New York, Buffalo) 1985. He began to play jazz piano professionally as a teenager.

Joseph Lewis, alias Levi Johnston, also Lewes and Louis, fur trader (born c. 1772–73 in Manchester, New Hampshire; died 1820 in Saskatchewan District). Joseph Lewis was a Black fur trader, originally from the United States, who participated in the fur industry’s early expansion into the Canadian Northwest in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is one of very few Black people involved in the fur trade whose name was documented in existing texts. Joseph Lewis is further notable for being the first Black person in present-day Saskatchewan, as well as, in all likelihood, Alberta.

“Canuck” is a nickname for a Canadian — sometimes bearing a negative implication, more often wielded with pride. It goes back at least as far as the 1830s, and its meaning has changed over time. The word “Canuck” may be most familiar today as the name of a National Hockey League franchise, the Vancouver Canucks (see British Columbia). In the 20th century, the term enjoyed a much broader use.

Gordon G. Thiessen, economist, banker (b at South Porcupine, Ont 14 Aug 1938). Raised and educated in Saskatchewan, Thiessen joined the BANK OF CANADA in 1963 as a research economist specializing in monetary analysis.

Haida are Indigenous people who have traditionally occupied the coastal bays and inlets of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia. In the 2016 census, 501 people claimed Haida ancestry, while 445 people identified as speakers of the Haida language.

Cabbagetown, a district in east-central Toronto, the general boundaries of which are the Don River on the east, Parliament St on the west, Gerrard St on the north, and Queen St on the south.