Issued on: January 29, 2018
The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and Chancellor of the Order of Ontario, announced 23 new appointments to the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest honour.
Our Dr. Peter Chang is one of the appointees. As one of the three founders of Hong Fook Mental Health Association and Foundation, Dr. Chang has improved access to mental health services for Ontario’s East Asian communities. He established the Hong Fook Mental Health Association to provide culturally-sensitive services in five Asian languages, as well as the Hong Fook Mental Health Foundation to address the stigma of mental illness.
The Order of Ontario recognizes individuals whose exceptional achievement in their field have left a lasting legacy in the province, in Canada and beyond. Order members come from all walks of life, represent diverse professions and have played an important role in shaping our province.
The other new members of the Order of Ontario include:
- Internationally renowned pediatrician Dr. Upton Allen, whose approaches to treating hospital-borne diseases have prevented the deaths of countless children
- Comedian Dan Aykroyd, now a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist as well as an accomplished entertainer
- Retired nursing professor Myrtha Lapierre, who broke barriers for black Francophone nurses in Canada
- Mental health advocate Dr. Dorothy Cotton, whose recommendations have helped change the way police respond to people with mental health crises
- Residential school survivor Elder Geraldine Robertson, whose efforts have helped other survivors heal and who educated Canadians on the legacies of colonialism
- Celebrated science-fiction author Robert J. Sawyer, who has published 23 novels and is a champion of the Canadian fiction industry