Appointment to the Order of Canada
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The Order of Canada is the highest civilian honour that can be presented by the Canadian Government. Because of this, any living Canadian can be appointed to membership in the Order. The only exceptions to this is any Canadian that is serving in the capacity of a political or judicial office or the person has died before nomination. The nomination process is started by any Canadian citizen or group, but the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada and the Governor General of Canada make the finial decision. Once an appointment is made, an official ceremony is held and the appointee is awarded his or her insignia by the Governor General. A member of the Order can also be promoted to a higher rank if he or she has continued to provide service to Canada or to humanity at large after their appointment.
Eligibility
Paragraph nine of the Constitution of the Order of Canada lists that any citizen of Canada can be selected, or appointed, to one of three levels, or ranks, in the Order: Member (lowest), Officer and Companion (highest). Section two of the same paragrah allows for non-Canadians to be appointed to the same ranks, but their membership is considered honorary. The Constitution does state in section three that anyone who is appointed to the Order's Advisory Council is not automatically made a member of the Order, though some members of the Council were appointed to the Order before they were selected to the Council. The other exception, which is not listed in the Order's Consitution, is that Canadians who are either politicians or judges serving in either the federal government or any provincial or territorial government. The Order is also not permitted to be awarded posthumously. [1] The Governor General has the option, at the member's consent, to promote anyone in the Order to a higher rank. This act is generally performed five years after a member has been appointed to the Order, and the person who is being promoted demostrated higher degrees of service to Canada and to humanity at large after their appointment. The Order also allows for multiple people to be appointed to the Order while performing the same act, which occured in the case of the members of the Canadian band Rush: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart. All three were appointed to Officer for raising "over a million dollars for charities such as food banks and the United Way. Their efforts have enhanced an awareness of the plight faced by society's less fortunate, inspiring and awakening the social consciousness of an entire generation. Musicians far and wide have been influenced by the band's accomplishments, a testament to their contribution to popular music." [2]
Nomination
The Chancellery of Honours at Rideau Hall, which adminsiters the Canadian honours system, permits any citizen of Canada or group located in Canada to submit nominations of Canadians or non-Canadians to the Order. A form, which can be either picked up from Rideau Hall or downloaded from http://www.gg.ca/honours/oc-info_e.asp, is completed and sent to the Chancellery. The form needs to include notes on the candidate's life and accomplishments, which is either placed as a cover letter or on a separate page; the nominator's and the candidate's information, such as birth, citizenship, address, occupation, and also three people who would support the nomination. Once it is mailed to the Chancellery (free if it is inside Canada), the file will be kept and no one from the Chancellery will announce the nomination and the Chancellery asks for the nominatiors to do the same, mainly to avoid disappointment and respect the privacy of all parties involved. Rideau Hall mentioned that they receieve about 700-800 nominations per year, but not everyone who is nominated is promoted to the Order and that there is no deadline for nominations, since this process is on-going.
Companion (C.C.)
To be considered for appointment for the rank of Companion, he or she must have made "outstanding achievement and merit of the highest degree, especially in service to Canada or to humanity at large." [3] Since there can only be 165 living Companions at one time, an appointment to the rank of Companion is very rare. The Order Contitution dictates that three people out of the 165 are auto-matically made Companions to the Order: the Governor General, their spouse and the the Monarch of Canada, which is currently Queen Elizabeth the II. However, honorary Companions do not count towards the 165 total and there are currently are four honoary Companions: Nelson Mandela, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Václav Havel and His Highness the Aga Khan. The fifth honorary Companion, HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, passed away in 2002.
The Governor General will continue to hold the rank of Companion long after he or she leaves the post of Governor General. Their spouse will also be able to hold the rank of Companion not only after that situation, but after their spouse, the former Governor General, passes away. And if the maximum number of Companions has been reached, no more appointments can be made until a vancancy occurs, which can either happen by death, resignation or removal from the Order. Unless the maximum number will be reached, up to 15 people can be either appointed to the rank directly or promoted to Companion from the rank of Officer.
Officer (O.C.)
A person can be appointed to the rank of Officer for "achievement and merit of a high degree, especially service to Canada or to humanity at large." Unlike the rank of Companion, there is no limit on how many Officers can be living at one time and no one is automatically appointed to the rank of Officer. The Governor General can appoint up to sixty-four Officers per year, excluding honorary appointments. A person can either be promoted from Member to Officer or be appointed directly to Officer.
Member (C.M.)
A person can be appointed to the rank of Member for "distinguished service in or to a particular community, group or field of activity." As with the rank of Officer, there is no limit to how many Members can be living at one time. The Governor General can appoint up to 136 Members per year, excluding honorary Members.
Honorary
A non-Canadian can be considered for membership in all three ranks and he or she is nominated by the same process and rules as Canadians are. However, the Governor General can only appoint five foreigners to the Order, regardless of the rank they are appointed to. Honorary members do have the same privledges as members do, such as the use of post-nominal letters and wearing the insignia in public.
Appointment
Once the nomination has been receieved by the Chancellery, it will be evaluated by a group known as the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada. This body of 11 is made up of Canadian officials and of receipients of the Order, and is chaired by the Chief Justice of Canada. Other officials on the body are Clerk of the Privy Council, the Deputy Minister of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Chairperson of the Canada Council for the Arts, the President of the Royal Society of Canada, and the Chairperson of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. The rest is filled up by receipients of the Order. If a non-citizen is being evaluated for membership in the Order, the Deputy Minister of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade will be invited by the Advisory Council to evaluate the nomination. [4] The members of the Council vote on the nomination at their meetings, and then give their recommendation to the Governor General, who is the Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order. The Govenor General will follow the recommendation and will sign a Ordinance appointing the members to the Order. The ordinance, which is affixed with the Seal of the Order of Canada, will be published in the Canada Gazette and the appointment is effective on the date the ordinance is signed, unless otherwise noted. Announcements of appoitments occur twice a year, usually around New Year's Day (January 1) and on Canada Day (July 1).
Investure
After the announcement of an appointment, the Governor General announces when an induction ceremony, called investure, will take place. The investure are generally conducted by the Governor General at Rideau Hall in Ottawa or, on rare occasions when she is in the country, by the Queen herself. Those who make it to Ottawa sit in Rideau Hall and listen to remarks from the Governor General. She presents the "distinctive snowflake symbol" insignia to each member and there is a formal lunch or dinner afterwards. However there have been occasions where the investure was delayed or had to take place at a location other than Rideau Hall.
The most common reason for the Order not being presented at Rideau Hall is the recipient's inability to come to Ottawa. One such example occurred in 2003 with singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. In 2002, shortly before a concert, Lightfoot suffered a serious abdominal haemorrhage that resulted in his being in a coma for a time and months in hospital recovering. On the news of his near-death condition, Lightfoot was promoted to the rank of Companion. Since his condition left him unable to travel, Adrienne Clarkson flew to Toronto and presented him with the insignia in a private ceremony performed in his hospital room. [5] [6]
Another example is Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother: in 2000, at the age of 100, she was invested as a Companion at Clarence House in London. Rather than place the insignia on the elderly woman, who was recovering from a hip replacement, which would have required the Queen to stand, Clarkson handed the very frail woman the medallion. She made a point of wearing it around her neck at a special lunch following the private ceremony.
An example for a long overdue investure was for hockey great Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky was appointed to the rank of Officer in 1984 for his outstanding contributions to the game. However, the ceremonies always conflicted with his hockey schedule. It took Gretzky 13 years, 7 months and two governor generals before Gretzky could accept the honour.
References
- ^ http://www.gg.ca/honours/oc-info_e.asp Governor General's Order of Canada Information Page
- ^ http://www.gg.ca/Search/honours_descript_e.asp?type=2&id=3594 Rush's Order citation
- ^ http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/13/canada/lightfoot_031213 CBC story on Lightfoot's C.C. presentation.
- ^ http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=4090. Gordon Lightfoot's C.C. Citation.