Chatham-area couple named to Order of Canada

Five Southwestern Ontarians prominent in arts, history and agriculture, including the founder of one of London’s largest summer festivals, are among dozens of Canadians being saluted as the year ends with Order of Canada appointments and promotions.

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The 78 companions, officers and members – different ranks with the Order – released by the office of Gov. Gen. Mary Simon includes Alfredo Caxaj, founder and longtime head of Sunfest in London, and Shannon and Bryan Prince of the Merlin area, a couple active for decades telling and preserving Southwestern Ontario’s Black history and its ties to the Underground Railroad that helped escaped slaves from the United States made their way to freedom in Ontario in the 1800s.

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Caxaj – who called the honor “absolutely beautiful news that I accepted with humility” – and the Princes were both named as members of the Order, one of the country’s highest honors.

Also appointed as a member was Lorne Hepworth of London, a retired former farmer, veterinarian and Saskatchewan provincial politician, who went on to head an umbrella group for plant science in Canada, CropLife Canada, and chaired Genome Canada.

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Richard Wayne Hill Sr. of Oshweken, near Brantford, was appointed as an honorary officer in the Order, for leadership in Indigenous art history and culture and his efforts to recover and restore Haudenosaunee artifacts and ways of living.

The Southwestern Ontarians will join a who’s who of Canadians being honored by Rideau Hall for achievements in fields ranging from cultural diversity, to entertainment, research and journalism. Among them is broadcaster George Stroumboulopoulos, whom many Canadians remember for introducing them to new bands and musicians on the MuchMusic television show. He went on to host his own CBC show for a decade, followed by a stint on Hockey Night in Canada from 2014 to 2016.

“It was this golden era of television that I don’t think could ever be created again,” Stroumboulopoulos said of his early years in music television.

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Other new officers in the Order include Willie Adams, the first Inuit senator in Canada, guitar-maker Linda Manzer, editorial cartoonist Michael de Adder and pollster Nik Nanos.

Being promoted within the order are former MP and senator Serge Joyal, former MP, Cree chief and lawyer Wilton Littlechild and Dr. Ronald Stewart, who is recognized for his contributions to emergency medicine.

When New York Times journalist Susanne Craig found out she was receiving the honor, the journalist was in the middle of a Zoom call with editors, finishing up a story on independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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“I couldn’t believe it,” she recalled. “And then I had to get right back on the call and close the story.”

Craig’s journalism in recent years has been as high-profile as he gets, reporting on former US president Donald Trump’s taxes.

Shannon Prince recently retired after 25 years as curator of the Buxton National Historic Site and Museum, near Chatham, but said she will never completely give up her work promoting the area’s rich Black history, as she’s done for decades, including working with universities in Canada and the United States and even appearing on CNN.

“The older I get, it’s time to pass that torch on. But (I’ll) still (be) involved. I’ll never leave, per se. I’m just stepping down and stepping back,” she told the Chatham Daily News, adding she looks forward to spending more time with family including her husband, Bryan Prince, an author and researcher in the areas of slavery, abolition and the Underground Railroad .

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An artist himself, Caxaj came to Canada from his native Guatemala amid his political turmoil in the mid-1980s and wound up in London, where he began Sunfest in 1995, gradually transforming it into what it is today – a major celebration of international music, food and crafts.

The annual festival takes over Victoria Park for days in July, drawing massive crowds – and performers from around the world – to downtown London.

Caxaj said his appointment to the Order is “tremendous encouragement for me to continue what I am doing for so many years,” and its timing – on the same date he arrived in Canada in 1985 – made it extra special.

“When you get this kind of news you re-energize yourself and (it) makes you feel like you want to keep going,” he said. “It’s a beautiful inspiration, I accepted on behalf of my family, because my family is big part of it. It’s been a long journey.”

-With files by Heather Rivers, Free Press reporter

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