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Canada Reads winners Michelle Good and Ziya Tong are among the 80 new appointees to the Order of Canada announced on Dec. 31.
Gov. Gen. Mary Simon’s office announced six new companions, the highest level of the Order of Canada; 15 officers; and 59 members, the introductory level in the order. Six appointments are a promotion within the Order of Canada and another is an honorary appointment.
Good and Tong were both appointed as members.
Good is a Cree writer and retired lawyer, as well as a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. She was appointed for her work towards “reconciliation, truth and respect” through her writing, activism and practice as a lawyer.
Her debut novel, Five Little Indians, won Canada Reads 2022 when it was championed by Ojibway fashion journalist Christian Allaire.
It also won the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.
She’s also the author of Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada, in which she explores many issues that are currently affecting Indigenous people in Canada while incorporating her own experience and family’s legacy.
Tong, an author, broadcaster, filmmaker and science journalist, based in Toronto and Vancouver, was appointed for her commitment to improving animal rights through media and education.
She won Canada Reads in 2019, defending Max Eisen’s memoir By Chance Alone, and published her first book, The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World, in that same year. It was on the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize shortlist and won the 2019-2020 Lane Anderson Award for science writing in Canada.
Her credits include co-host of Daily Planet on the Discovery Channel, host of ZeD on CBC, and producer and host of The Leading Edge on The Knowledge Network.
Toronto children’s author Elizabeth MacLeod was appointed a member, as well. She’s written over 70 nonfiction titles, including the Scholastic Canada Biography series about influential Canadians.
Quebec writer and professor Hans-Jürgen Greif, who writes in French, is a new member, honoured for his contributions to literature.
Read more about the Olympians, journalists, Indigenous leaders and doctors who were appointed here.
With files from Racy Rafique.
