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Michael Keith Hicks, clergyman and civil servant, was born in 1928. He attended University of Toronto Schools and then Trinity College, obtaining a BA in 1949 and an MA in 1950. He worked for the government of Canada and lived in Ottawa with his wife Barbara Findlay. They had three daughters.

Iris received her PhD from the University of Toronto in Comparative Literature with a dissertation on Paul Ricoeur’s phenomenological hermeneutics.

Dr. James M. Estes is a historian of early modern European history and a former professor at the University of Toronto. Estes received his doctorate from Ohio State University in 1964, however accepted his first appointment at UofT two years prior, in 1962. His scholarly work focused particularly on early modern Germany, the institutionalization of the reformation, the relationship between church and state during the Reformation era, and the role of humanism in religious change. Estes retired from the University in 1997.

In addition to his academic career, Estes was actively engaged in the University’s Faculty Association. From 1982 to 1997, he served as a member of the Council of the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA), representing Victoria College as one of its two delegates. Following his retirement, he continued his involvement with UTFA, serving on the retirees’ constituency from December 2000 to June 30, 2002.

Alison More came to St. Mike’s from the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent where she designed and taught core courses on Latin and palaeography. She studied Latin in Rome with Reginald Foster, and has further developed her skills through teaching and research fellowships at Harvard, the University of Edinburgh, and Radboud Universiteit.

Margot King earned a B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan, a M.L.S. from University of Western Ontario, an M.A. from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. from the University of California – Berkeley. Margot was an esteemed mediaevalist and professor of English and Comparative Literature who, as the founder of Peregrina Publishing Company, discovered, translated and popularized the lives of many previously unknown mediaeval women. Margot worked for many years as the Librarian at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan.

Born on June 10, 1934, in Sydney Mines, N.S., Fr. Hugh received his early schooling in Sydney Mines and at Xavier Junior College in Sydney. He graduated in 1956 with a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and entered the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society one year later. Ordained to the priesthood on August 21, 1960, Fr. Hugh was appointed to St. Vincent, West Indies, in 1961. IN 1975 he undertook his new assignment as director of student formation in Canada, and from 1980-82 he served in Halifax, N.S. promoting vocations and the work of the Society.

In 1982 he began missionary work in Chiclayo, Peru where he remained until recalled in 1991 to serve again as director of the student formation program. From 1992 – 1997 he served as a member of the General Council, and in 1995 took on the additional responsibility as pastor of St. Theresa’s Shrine parish in Scarborough, Ontario.In 1999 Fr. Hugh was assigned to work in Cuba with the Quebec Foreign Mission Society. This was an exciting assignment for him as Cuba was a new area to work for Scarboro Missions.

Fr. Hugh died outside of his residence in Havana, Cuba on November 13, 2001 after due to injuries sustained after being hit by a bicycle. A funeral Mass of the Resurrection was celebrated on Thursday, November 15 in Fr. Hugh’s parish of San José, Bahia Honda, in the diocese of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, where he was buried.

GTAnet evolved out of a series of early Canadian digital networking research projects and efforts. CA*net was the first national network to provide internet-connected services across Canada. Founded in 1990, the network focused on connecting education and research institutions to one another. The University of Toronto acted as the network operations centre, led by members of its Computer and Networking Services (CNS) department (now known as Information Technology Services). CA*net was renamed to the Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education (CANARIE) in 1993.

As CA*net was originally established, so too were individual provincial networks that became CANARIE members. In Ontario, this began as Onet, established in 1988 with initiative from the assistant director of the University of Toronto’s CNS department. Onet eventually evolved into the Optical Regional Advanced Network of Ontario (ORANO) in 2001, which soon changed its name to the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION).

GTAnet was established in conjunction with ORANO during the transition from Onet, specifically to service education and research institutions in the Greater Toronto Area. It was led in part by senior members of U of T’s CNS department. U of T was also a member of the network itself, as well as a significant contributor to network infrastructure. Other partners have included York University, the Royal Ontario Museum, and Hospital for Sick Children, for example. GTAnet officially amalgamated with ORION in April 2023.

In 1903 with the completion of Annesley Hall, the first women's residence, the position of Dean of [Women's] Residence was created. Margaret Addison was appointed the first Dean. The duties of the Dean included corresponding with prospective students, arranging room assignments and room-mates and the administration of rules in the residence. The Dean was accountable to the Committee of Management for the "general direction of the residences, and for the discipline and management of Annesley Hall (By-laws of 1914)." In 1920, Margaret Addison was made Dean of Women (also known as Dean of Women Students) in order to reflect that not all women students lived in residence. The responsibilities of the Dean included counseling women students, acting as a member of various University bodies, working on orientation programs, working with student government, and overseeing all matters regarding residence, including selection of dons. In 1990, the position was discontinued and the Dean of Students was created.

List of former Dean's of Women:
-Margaret Addison, 1903-1931
-Norma (Ford) Walker, 1931-1934
-Jessie Macpherson, 1934-1963
-Margaret (Carmichael) Bond, 1963-1970
-Betty (Bindon) Graham, 1970-1972
-Margaret Penman, 1972-1975
-Aida Farrag Graff, 1975-1990

Anthony Bernard Chan was born in Victoria, BC, in 1944, into one of the city's oldest Chinese families dating back to the arrival of his grandfather, Chan Dun, in the late-1800s. The family was well known for owning and operating the Panama Cafe on Government Street.

Chan completed undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria. In 1974, he was one of the first Chinese Canadians to live and study in the People’s Republic of China, obtaining a Diploma in Chinese from the Beijing Language Institute. In Toronto, he co-founded the Asianadian Resource Workshop which published The Asianadian magazine from 1978 to 1985. In 1979, Chan was the Halifax, Nova Scotia delegate in the Ad-hoc Committee Against W5 protesting the CTV broadcast “Campus Giveaway.” He was also a founding member of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Equality that was formed as a result.

Chan earned Master’s degrees from Bowling Green State University (in Ohio) and the University of Arizona before returning to Canada to complete a PhD in modern Chinese history at York University in 1980. Shortly after, he published Arming the Chinese: The Western Armaments Trade in Warlord China, 1920-1928 (1982) and Gold Mountain: The Chinese in the New World (1983).

In 1984, Chan participated in the CBC’s visible minority training program in Toronto, thereafter, becoming one of the first Asian Canadians to have a career as a television journalist and independent filmmaker with a filmography spanning Canada, Hong Kong, and the United States. He first worked as a television reporter with the CBC in Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Calgary, and was a host of The Canadians at CBC Regina. In 1986, he took a job in Hong Kong with TVB as a senior producer, television journalist and anchor where he produced and directed over thirty television documentaries and narrated over a hundred.

Chan remained an independent documentary filmmaker; in Canada, he produced and directed Chinese Cafes in Rural Saskatchewan (1985) and The Panama (1996) on his family's cafe in Victoria. Later, he produced and directed films on Asian Americans and the Vietnam War, and on the Asian diaspora in North America. His teaching career started at California State University in Hayward, CA, as an Associate Professor of Mass Communication where he taught film production, digital journalism and Asian cinema.

At the University of Washington in Seattle, Chan served as Chair of the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs in Canadian Studies, Director of the Canadian Studies Center in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, and Associate Professor of Communication and Head of Broadcast Journalism. His final academic position was with the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Ontario, as Professor and Associate Dean of Communication in the Faculty of Education.

His many writing and publishing credits include historical biographies on Anna May Wong and Li Ka-shing.

Chan died in Toronto in 2018. He was married to Wei DJAO with one daughter together (Lian).

Cheuk Kwan was born in 1950 and grew up in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the United States before immigrating to Canada in 1976 and settling in Toronto.

Well-educated, well-traveled and multilingual (English, Japanese, French, and several Chinese dialects), Kwan was engaged in and helped lead the community activism of Chinese Canadians in the late 1970s as the first generation of Chinese born in Canada were coming of age. The Asian American movement had reached its peak over the past decade and inspired development of the Asian Canadian identity needed to affect racial, social and political change in the country.

In 1978, Kwan co-founded (with Tony Chan and Paul Levine) The Asianadian: An Asian Canadian Magazine dedicated to the promotion of Asian Canadian arts, culture and politics. The following year, he helped lead a national fight for equality for Chinese Canadians and their representation in mainstream news media following CTV’s airing of the W5 segment called ‘Campus Giveaway.’ The segment depicted all ethnic Chinese students as foreigners taking up “Canadian” spots at university campuses across the country, regardless of their citizenship status as Chinese nationals or as Chinese Canadians.

Kwan was a member of the ‘ad hoc committee against W5’ championed under the Council for Chinese Canadians in Ontario (CCCO), then served as the organization’s President. The fight started locally and involved a lawsuit against CTV filed by University of Toronto students shown in the segment. The issue grew into a national movement that was successful in soliciting public apology from the national television news network. A major outcome included creation of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Equality (CCNC) in 1980, on which Kwan served as a director in its founding year. The anti-W5 movement has since been recognized as a watershed moment in the development of Chinese Canadian identity and consciousness.

Other significant activism includes Kwan’s long involvement with the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, including as Chair from 1992-2016. Formed in 1989 in response to the June Fourth Incident (六四事件) in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the organization is dedicated to memorializing the event annually, and promoting human rights and democracy in China.

In 1998, Kwan undertook filmmaking and film production through establishing Tissa Films. His Chinese Restaurants film series that brings together his love of food, travel and appreciation of Chinese diasporic culture inspired Have You Eaten Yet? published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2022.

He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

The Asianadian Resource Workshop was formed in Toronto in 1978 to publish and distribute a quarterly magazine called The Asianadian: An Asian Canadian Magazine. The magazine ran original work concerning the Asian experience in Canada. It solicited submissions in the form of critical essays, community news and articles, poetry, artwork, short stories, and reviews, thereby providing a platform for emerging Asian Canadian scholars and creatives.

Founders and members of The Asianadian were largely university students who had developed cultural consciousness of their Asian Canadian identity. In its own words published in its opening pages, The Asianadian’s aims were to find new dignity and pride in being Asian in Canada; to promote an understanding between Asian Canadians and other Canadians; to speak out against those conditions, individuals and institutions perpetuating racism in Canada; to stand up against the distortions of our history in Canada, stereotypes, economic exploitations, and the general tendency towards injustice and inequality practised on minority groups; to provide a forum for Asian Canadian writers, artists, musicians, etc.; and to promote unity by bridging the gap between Asians with roots in Canada and recent immigrants.

The concept for The Asianadian was conceived by co-founders Anthony Chan, Cheuk Kwan, and Paul Levine under the pseudonym Lau Bo. They served as some of the first members of the editorial collective under which the grassroots magazine was structured, moving on to other personal and community projects. Members came and went, moved into different roles and/or contributed work for publication.

The Asianadian was active through the late-1970s/early-1980s alongside other grassroots publishing efforts in North America. Inspired by various human and civil rights movements, its members sought to call out the unacknowledged histories of Asians in Canada and the persistent Orientalism of the late nineteenth century. In its time, the publication was considered the first and only anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-homophobic social justice magazine in Canada, tackling themes around sexuality, women, and youth. Magazine issues dedicated to Quebec and Vancouver reflect the organization’s national reach and perspectives.

The Asianadian Resource Workshop operated as a registered non-profit organization. Over its run, it produced a total of 24 issues of The Asianadian: An Asian Canadian Magazine before ceasing operations in 1985.

The Asianadian (magazine) had a short-lived prototype under the title 海外述林 The Crossroads. Conceived as a monthly, Chinese-language Hong Kong news magazine catered to the large number of Chinese in Canada from Hong Kong, the magazine ran Chinese-language articles, then added English-language articles in the back aimed at reaching a growing population of Canadian-born Chinese. The bilingual publication ran a handful of issues in 1977 before being abandoned and re-conceived the following year as The Asianadian.

Note: The sole purpose of the Asianadian Resource Workshop was to publish The Asianadian: An Asian Canadian Magazine. Often used in shorthand, “The Asianadian” usually refers to the magazine, or to both the magazine and its publishing body as little to no distinction was made between the two.

The Yet Hoy Cantonese Music Club was founded in Toronto in 1963 as an apolitical organization. It operated out of rented basement suites on Dundas Street West in the city’s Chinatown – first at Centre Avenue, then at 111 Dundas St W in the building owned by the Wong’s Benevolent Association.

Founding members include 何醒華 HO Sing-Wah, 許國光 (William Kwok Fong HOY, or Billy Hoy), 謝耀光 (JAI Yew Kwong, or Raymond Jai) and 廖瑤華 (LEW Yew Wah, or Beatrice Jai).

Through the 1960s, it was the sole Cantonese music club in Toronto, becoming the decade’s centre of Cantonese music and dominating the scene throughout the 1970s. It offered the only school for neophytes of Cantonese opera and music, the only rehearsal hall for the experienced to practice together with advanced amateurs and professionals, and the only stage for enthusiasts to display their musical talents each week and to appreciate those of others.

In its first decade, the club mounted a full-scale show every two years, then annually through the 1970s. Theatrical productions were presented on the proscenium stage of the historic 1,000-seat Ryerson Theatre in downtown Toronto.

The club attracted veteran actors whose guidance helped develop a strong line-up of actors and actresses with a music ensemble of a dozen or more musicians. Its members were sought after to fill in roles in the orchestras and the casts of new and emerging music clubs, and to teach. These musical and dramatic forces of the club contributed also to the revival of other clubs, and in the development of Cantonese music departments within other organizations such as seniors’ and women’s clubs.

Faced with greater competition, the club declined. A fire in 1979 destroyed the majority of the club’s records. The club mounted its final Cantonese opera production in 1982, afterwards focusing on singing over acting.

History of the club’s productions:

1963
《雙槍陸文龍》 (commonly translated as Double Shot Lu Wenlong )
《金釧龍鳳配》 (commonly translated as The Golden Bracelet)

1965
《秦瓊賣馬》 (commonly translated as Qin Qiong Selling His Horse)
《仙女牧羊》 (commonly translated as The Fairy Shepherdess)

1967
《劉金定斬四門》 (commonly translated as The Heroine Who Conquered the Four Gates)

1968
《白蛇傳》 (commonly translated as The Legend of the White Snake)

1970
《胡不歸》 (commonly translated as Time to Go Home)

1971
《陳後主夜祭雙妃/胭脂並化合歡墳》 (commonly translated as The Night Sacrifice of the Two Concubines by the Emperor Chen)

1972
《鳳閣恩仇未了情》 (commonly translated as Romance of the Phoenix Chamber)

1973
《血雁重歸燕未歸》 (commonly translated as The Revenge)

1974
《玉女凡心》 (commonly translated as A Sweet Girl's Fancies)
《白蛇傳》 (commonly translated as The Legend of the White Snake)

1975
《雙仙拜月亭》 (commonly translated as Praying to the Moon)
《鳳閣恩仇未了情》 (commonly translated as Romance of the Phoenix Chamber)

1976
《金釧龍鳳配》 (commonly translated as The Golden Bracelet)

1977
《鴛鴦淚》 (commonly translated as Lovers' Tears)

1982
《劉備過江招親》 (commonly translated as Liu Bei Crosses the River to Meet His Bride)

David Laurence is a Toronto based photographer / photo-illustrator, whose work has appeared in numerous publications over the years, including; the Globe & Mail, Toronto Life, Elle Decoration, Saturday Night Magazine, NOW Magazine, Canadian Art Magazine, Air Canada’s enRoute Magazine, Chatelaine, Canadian Screenwriter Magazine, Information Highways Magazine, Canadian Business Magazine, Quill and Quire, Maclean’s Magazine. Corporate publication clients have included Royal Trust, HSBC, Hydro-One and Ontario Place.
His work has been exhibited in Mexico City, San Francisco and Canada, including representation by the former Jane Corkin Photography Gallery, Toronto and his photo-illustration has been represented by stock agency First Light Associated Photographers. Awards include a National Magazine (Canada) Gold Award for portrait photography and several CAPIC awards for digital imaging.

Beatrice Jai was born LEW Yew Wah on January 30, 1928 in Vancouver, BC, to mother, Lily Hong Far WONG 黃杏花 (1893-1990) and father, LEW Bak-Ho 廖崇岳 (1880-1960), who had arrived in Canada as a farmer from Sunwui county in China’s Guangdong province. There were eight children in the family (Chew, Chuck, Henry, Arthur, Pat, Florence, Beatrice and Betty); Beatrice was second youngest.

The Lew family was a Cantonese opera family, participating in the various music clubs in Vancouver’s Chinatown, in particular, with the Ching Won Music Society. From a young age, the children performed on stage and learned music. The youngest, Beatrice and Betty, performed together, specializing in acrobatics and singing. Beatrice’s beauty, confidence and charm distinguished her among other performers, and the local mainstream media lauded her as the Chinese Shirley Temple. At Ching Won Music Society, she received tutelage from music teacher, Raymond Jai, who would be her future husband.

Beatrice obtained an education at the Vancouver Chinese Public School and at the local middle school for girls, thereafter, completing high school before moving to Toronto in 1950 to pursue better opportunities with her sister, Florence. Raymond followed suit and the couple wed the following year. They settled in the Rosedale neighbourhood, purchasing a home to raise their daughter, Julie, whom they adopted in 1961. Beatrice first worked close to home at a fruit and vegetable store, then as an educational assistant at Church Street and Lord Landsdowne Public Schools supporting the kindergarten curriculum.

In Toronto, Beatrice and Raymond were active in the Cantonese opera scene, becoming founding members of the Yet Hoy Cantonese Music Club when it was established in 1963 on Dundas Street West in the city’s changing Chinatown. Beatrice often played the lead female role in Yet Hoy productions, donning full make-up and traditional costume. She starred in the club’s 1965 production of 《仙女牧羊》 which included Julie in a child role, and in the 1970 production of 《胡不歸》. In non-acting productions, she would play the 揚琴 (yangqin) or sing.

Beatrice had grown up on Canada’s west coast where racism against Chinese people was most acute, and it had a deep and lasting impact on her. Performing on stage and in front of audiences gave her self-esteem and a sense of self-worth.

Beatrice died in Toronto on August 24, 2017.

Beatrice Lew and Raymond Jai met in Vancouver’s Chinatown as fellow members and performers of the Ching Won Music Society from the late-1930s through the 1940s. Beatrice was a child performer, active in singing, dancing and acting. She was a young actress of Cantonese opera and a student of Chinese music. At twelve years her senior, Raymond was a violinist and music teacher, and Beatrice was one of his pupils.

They were dating by 1950 when Beatrice decided to relocate to Toronto with an older sister after finishing high school. Raymond followed suit and the couple wed the following year, on June 1, 1951. They settled in Toronto’s Rosedale neighbourhood, purchasing a home at 88 Pricefield Road and adopting daughter, Julie, into the family in 1961. Beatrice worked at a produce shop, then as an educational assistant in the public school system, while Raymond worked the front-of-house in Chinatown’s Chinese restaurants.

In Toronto, Beatrice and Raymond continued to practice Cantonese opera, but the number of players and music clubs was far fewer in the smaller Chinese community. In 1963, with a handful of other musicians, they founded the Yet Hoy Cantonese Music Club in the city’s Chinatown, with the mounting of its first full production held downtown in the historic, 1,000-seat Ryerson Theatre.

The family and their artistry grew with the club, with Beatrice playing lead female roles, Raymond anchoring the music department and orchestra, and Julie performing on stage in child and youth female parts. Beatrice and Raymond brought young Julie to their rehearsals and performances, and taught her to sing and to act; but they made sure their daughter had the opportunity for a university education to make up for the opportunities they were not afforded in their time period as Chinese people, and particularly as a Chinese woman, as was the case with Beatrice. Julie outgrew Cantonese opera as a teenager, but her performing skills would serve her well in her studies and in her future career in law.

Through Cantonese opera, the Jai family contributed to the development of a thriving, post-war Chinese community in Toronto, helping establish the city as a centre for the art form. As principals of Yet Hoy, Beatrice and Raymond helped build up its strong cast of actors and actresses and a music ensemble of a dozen musicians. The club dominated the city’s Cantonese music scene through the 1960s and 1970s, with the only school, rehearsal space, and stage available to host weekly practice among both amateurs and professionals looking to develop their skills.

Beatrice and Raymond performed in and produced Cantonese opera through their own club, accepted invitations to perform at social events and fundraisers for other Chinese community organizations, and lent their talents to support new music clubs in need of a musician, actress and/or teacher. In later decades when Yet Hoy had declined and stopped mounting shows, the couple remained active in welcoming and hosting visiting performers and their presentations in the city.

Beatrice and Raymond were both born in Canada. They grew up during the Great Depression and under prevailing anti-Chinese sentiment that placed severe restrictions on Chinese people and their lives and livelihoods. Cantonese opera was one of the few forms of cultural entertainment enjoyed by early overseas Chinese communities; the art form was a lifeline for building community, lifting spirits, and offering the chance for rich social and artistic lives.

Beatrice and Raymond navigated seamlessly across both Chinese and Canadian cultures. As Chinese people born in Canada, their proficiency in Cantonese opera and traditional Chinese music was considered rare and they were generous in sharing it.

Julie Jai was born in Canada in 1957 and adopted by Beatrice and Raymond Jai in 1961 and raised as an only child. Growing up in Toronto, she spent her evenings at the Yet Hoy Cantonese Music Club in the city’s Chinatown, accompanying her parents at Cantonese opera practice.

Julie learned to read Chinese music and to sing from her father, and to act on stage from her mother. She developed proficiency in singing and performing a few Cantonese opera titles and appeared in several Yet Hoy shows, often in child or supporting youth female roles. In the early 1970s, she worked summers helping with community efforts to run an Elizabeth Street mall in the changing Chinatown.

Julie attended university in Toronto. She studied chemistry at the University of Toronto before pursuing law, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall at York University in 1980, followed by a Master of Laws from the University of Toronto in 2000, focusing on Aboriginal law. She has served as executive and senior legal counsel with the governments of Ontario, Yukon and Canada, and was the Yukon's Chief Negotiator on self-government negotiations in the justice field.

Julie wed David Trick in 2008; the couple split their time between Toronto and Whitehorse, Yukon Territories. In 2019, they founded the annual Yukon Prize for Visual Arts. Julie served on the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights from 2019 to 2022, and was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Canada in 2022.

First started in 2019, the Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA) is a twelve-week event held every two years. It commissions artists to create new works for a city-wide exhibition in dialogue with Toronto’s diverse local contexts.

The third edition of TBA was titled Precarious Joys and curated by Dominique Fontaine and Miguel A. López. Held from September 21 to December 1 in 2024, it featured work from 36 exhibition artists, including 16 Canadian artists and 20 newly commissioned works in 11 venues across the city.

Karen Tam was born in 1977 in Montreal, Quebec. Her roots in Canada trace back to 1907 with the arrival of her great-grandfather from China.

Tam holds a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a PhD in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work as an artist and curator focuses on the constructions and imaginations of cultures and communities, recreating Chinese restaurants, karaoke lounges, opium dens, curio shops and other sites of cultural engagement. Her installations explore how tangible encounters with spaces and objects can offer profound insights into particular locales, historical narratives, and communities, suggesting how such encounters actively influence the portrayal of Chinese identity in North America.

Tam has exhibited her work and participated in residencies in North America, Europe, and China, since 2000. Her exhibition, Swallowing Mountains, presented by the McCord Stewart Museum, received an Honourable Mention at the 2024 Canadian Museums Association Awards. She was the winner of the 2021 Giverny Capital Prize awarded by the Fondation Giverny pour l'art contemporain, a finalist for the 2017 Louis-Comtois Prize, a finalist for the 2016 Prix en art actuel from the Musée national des beaux-arts de Québec, and long-listed for the 2010 and 2016 Sobey Art Awards.

Raymond Jai was born JAI Yew Kwong on January 29, 1916, in Vancouver, BC, to father, JAI Kee, a tailor from Punyu county in China’s Guangdong province. His father died when he was young, leaving him and his four older siblings under the care of their mother. Unable to support the family on her own, she took the children (back) to China where extended family could help raise them. At this difficult time, it is presumed that the family sought and received support from their clansmen through the Chau Luen Society.

In China, Raymond received a classical Chinese education that included Cantonese opera, Chinese music, calligraphy and martial arts, which became lifelong practices. He was a gifted musician; in addition to singing, he played the violin, banjo, flute, and Chinese instruments including the erhu, pipa, yangqin, and other percussion.

Raymond was born in Canada. At the age of 18, he exercised his right to return to the country, arriving in Vancouver in 1934 at the peak of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1923-1947). He found work in a Chinese restaurant before joining the Ching Won Music Society as a violinist and music teacher. His singing student and fellow member of the music club, Beatrice Lew, would become his future wife when he followed her to Toronto where the couple wed on June 1st, 1951. A decade later, they adopted their daughter, Julie, whom they raised as their only child in their home in the Rosedale neighbourhood.

Together, the couple was active in the Cantonese opera communities both locally and back in Vancouver. In Toronto, they founded the Yet Hoy Cantonese Music Club in 1963 in the city’s Chinatown. Beatrice played lead female roles, while Raymond assumed lead roles in the music department as music director, conductor, and principal percussionist.

It was rare for a Canadian-born Chinese person to be so skilled in such a wide range of traditional Chinese arts. Raymond's music training in China made him a valuable teacher and resource in the community. Possessing great stage presence and public speaking skills, he also often served as emcee for Yet Hoy performances and social events, and would be invited to perform this role for other community groups and associations.

In Canada and through his adulthood, Raymond maintained close connections with his family clansmen through the Chau Luen Society and its branches in both Vancouver and Toronto. He participated actively in its gatherings and activities, serving on its leadership later in life.

Raymond worked in front-of-house positions in Chinese restaurants in Toronto’s Chinatown, retiring at the age of 70 from Lichee Gardens as maître d'.

He died in Toronto on September 15, 2004.

Abbé Casgrain was a Roman Catholic priest who served as immigration chaplain in the ports of Quebec City, Halifax, and St. John.

Born: August 8, 1947, daughter of Thomas Francoeur and Mary O’Hara in Montreal; entered 8 September 1976; first vows 15 July 1978; final vows 15 August 1984.

David Chuenyan Lai was born in Guangzhou, China on September 16, 1937, the eldest of three boys. His family moved to Hong Kong when he was two years old; his father died during World War II.

Lai earned his Bachelor of Arts (1962) and Master of Arts (1964) from the University of Hong Kong. A British Commonwealth Scholarship helped him earn a Doctorate in geography from the London School of Economics in 1967. His thesis examined the industrial geography of the cotton spinning and weaving industry of China in the early 1900s.

Lai returned to Hong Kong and taught briefly at his alma mater before immigrating to Canada in 1968 with his new wife, settling in Victoria, BC, through a teaching appointment in the geography department at the University of Victoria. Upon arriving in the city, Lai experienced some of the discrimination that characterized the history of the Chinese in Canada when he was unable to find suitable accommodation for the couple.

Lai was the only Chinese person in his department; when it planned to organize a seminar on urban development in 1971, he was assigned to research the city’s Chinatown. The project would spark Lai’s lifelong interest in Chinese Canadian history and the development of Chinese communities in Canada, with a focus on Victoria’s Chinatown, the country’s oldest Chinatown.

By the 1970s, the historic area had become a slum and was at risk of being razed by the city. Working with members of its community, Lai researched and documented the significance of the neighbourhood. His 1979 report on “The Future of Victoria’s Chinatown: A Survey of Views and Opinions” led to the city’s refurbishment of the area, which included restoring historic buildings, burying power lines, and erecting the first permanent Chinese arch in Canada in 1981.

Lai’s ongoing efforts to preserve the history, heritage and contributions of Chinese Canadians in the city was far-reaching. He spearheaded the designation of Victoria’s Chinatown as a National Historic Site in 1995, and the Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point the following year. When the old immigration house on Dallas Road was to be demolished, he intervened to save plaster pieces of the walls on which Chinese poetry had been etched by early immigrants while under detention. The majority of the historical records and artifacts that Lai recovered in the community were donated to the University of Victoria Library and to the Royal BC Museum for preservation.

Lai’s study of Chinatowns and consulting for various municipal governments extended across Canada and North America, and he published on the topic in both English and Chinese in scholarly journals, books, community newsletters and publications, and newspaper op-eds. Through the 1990s, he expanded his study of Chinese Canadian communities and their urban form to the growing development of Asian-themed malls in the Greater Vancouver (Richmond) and Greater Toronto areas in reflection of new waves of Chinese immigration, particularly from his native Hong Kong.

Lai’s many recognitions include his induction as a Member of the Order of Canada in 1983. He retired from teaching at the University of Victoria in 2003, remaining active in community issues including efforts related to the federal government’s apology offered in 2006 to Chinese Canadians for the Chinese head tax and Chinese Exclusion Act. Throughout his career and lifetime, he also studied aging and advocated for seniors care, particularly related to Chinese seniors supports within Chinese Canadian communities. In his retirement, he held appointments with the University of Victoria’s Centre on Aging.

Lai died on June 15, 2018, survived by wife, Roberta Manyuk, and their two children: Jim Yuan (b. 1971) and Joan Man (b. 1972).

The Toronto Chapter of the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNCTO) was incorporated in Ontario in 1985. The grassroots, non-profit organization is made up of Chinese Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area organizing to advance equity, social justice, and inclusive civic participation of Chinese Canadians, under an overarching respect for diversity and human rights. Major activities include public education, systemic advocacy, community development, coalition building, and providing direct assistance to individuals facing discrimination.

The CCNCTO is a local member chapter of the umbrella Chinese Canadian National Council that was formed in Ontario in 1980 (as the Chinese Canadian National Council for Equality) as an outcome of the Anti-W5 campaign protesting the irresponsible journalism of CTV. Chinese Canadians across the country had mobilized against the national television network’s W5 program segment “Campus Giveaway” (aired September 30, 1979) that depicted Chinese-presenting students as “foreigners” taking up “Canadian” spots on university campuses. In Toronto, an Ad Hoc Committee Against W5 under the Chinese Canadian Council of Ontario first gathered in support of University of Toronto students whose images were included in the segment without their consent and who took legal action against CTV. The campaign concluded in April 1980 with a public apology from CTV and the formation of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Equality and some of its first member chapters. The Toronto Chapter is a direct offspring of the Toronto Ad Hoc Committee Against W5.

A major, decades-long issue within the Chinese Canadian community taken up by the CCNC and supported by the CCNCTO was the campaign for redress among those who had paid the discriminatory Chinese head tax to enter Canada under the country's Chinese Immigration Act (1885-1947).

Vivienne Poy was born Vivienne May LEE on May 15, 1941 in Hong Kong, to mother Esther Yewpick WONG and father Richard Charles LEE Ming Chak, an Oxford-educated civil engineer. Her father took over the family’s businesses in Hong Kong after his father’s (Hysan LEE’s) assassination in 1928 in the midst of a dispute with the Macao’s government over the opium trade. With Vivienne as an infant, the Lee family fled to mainland China as refugees from the Japanese occupation of the British colony, returning to Hong Kong at the end of the war.

Vivienne completed schooling in Hong Kong and England before moving to Montreal in 1959 to study at McGill University, graduating with an honours Bachelor's degree in history. She later completed Master's and PhD degrees in history at the University of Toronto.

At McGill, she met Neville Poy, a fellow Hong Kong native and family friend who would become a prominent burn specialist and plastic surgeon. (His sister is Adrienne Clarkson, the former broadcaster who served as Canada’s 26th Governor General from 1999 to 2005.) They wed in 1962, settling in Toronto in 1967 where they raised three children together (Ashley, Carter and Justin).

An interest in fashion design led Vivienne to complete a diploma in fashion arts (knitwear design) at Seneca College in 1981. That same year, she embarked on a career in fashion design, manufacturing, wholesale and retail, as President of Vivienne Poy Enterprises Ltd. and Designer of Vivienne Poy Mode, until winding down the business in 1995.

In 1998, she was named to the Senate by Prime Minister Jean Chretien, sitting with the Liberal caucus while representing Toronto as one of Ontario’s 24 senators. Her appointment was significant; she was the first Canadian of Asian descent to be appointed to the Senate of Canada and the first person of Chinese ancestry to serve in the Upper House of the Canadian Parliament. Vivienne served as senator until 2012, working to advance issues related to gender equality, multiculturalism, immigration and human rights. She is best known for her work to have the month of May designated as Asian Heritage Month; sponsor the Famous Five monuments in Calgary and Ottawa commemorating the landmark Persons Case; and lay the groundwork to make the lyrics of Canada’s national anthem more inclusive.

While a senator, Vivienne completed her doctoral studies at the University of Toronto in 2003, and served as the institution’s chancellor from 2003 to 2006. She is an accomplished author and publisher of histories and biographies of her father, the Lee family, and the Poy family, among other titles.  In 2013, she published Passage to Promise Land: Voices of Chinese Immigrant Women to Canada which expanded upon her PhD dissertation and its interviews. She has served as a patron and advisor to countless charities and organizations, particularly related to academia, and holds numerous honorary degrees.

Since 1980, Vivienne has served as chairman of the family business, Lee Tak Wai Holdings Limited, and president of the Lee Tak Wai Foundation and Calyan Publishing. She is a trustee of the Hong Kong-based Drs. Richard Charles and Esther Yewpick Lee Charitable Foundation, which funds scholarships and university research chairs in Asian studies.

Brian Job is a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia. From 1988 to 2005, he was a professor at UBC, and was director of the Canadian Consortium for Human Security (CCHS). He also played key roles in the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia (CSCAP) at the national and regional levels, and was co-chair of the Canada-Japan Peace and Security Symposium.

Paul Evans is a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia. From 1988 to 2005, he was a professor at York University, and then at the University of British Columbia. He was co-director of the North Pacific Cooperative Security Dialogue (NPCSD), and co-founder of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) and Canadian Consortium on Asia Pacific Security (CANCAPS).

David Dewitt is a Professor Emeritus at York University. From 1988 to 2005, Dewitt was a professor at York University and director of its Centre for International and Security Studies. He was co-director of the North Pacific Cooperative Security Dialogue (NPCSD), and was co-founder of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) and the Canadian Consortium on Asia Pacific (CANCAPS).

Dr. Chandrakant ("Chan") Padamshi Shah is a physician, public health practitioner, social advocate, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

He was born on 7 April 1936 in Nandurbar, India. He studied at Gujarat University receiving his Bachelor of Medicine (MBBS) in 1961; the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow (Diploma of Child Health, 1964; MRCP, 1965); and the Harvard School of Public Health (Master's in Science (SM), Health Services Administration, 1974).

After receiving his medical degree in 1961, he decided to pursue further training in the United States beginning in 1962. He worked in Cleveland and Chicago before pursuing postgraduate studies in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1965, he immigrated to Vancouver, and his wife Sudha joined him a year later. In 1967, he was hired as a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of British Columbia. While in Vancouver he also served as the Medical Director of the Children’s Aid Society from 1970-1972. In 1972, he and his family moved to Toronto as he joined the University of Toronto’s Department of Preventative Medicine and Biostatistics as an Assistant Professor. He became an Associate Professor in 1976 and Professor in 1980, with cross-appointments in the Department of Paediatrics, Department of Health Administration, and the Department of Public Health Sciences, amongst others. From 1975-1988, he was also a frequent visitor to Northwestern Ontario as part of the U of T’s Sioux Lookout Program, providing health care and conducting research.

In 1990 he helped found the Faculty of Medicine’s Visiting Lectureship Program in Native Health (1990-2001), an annual three-week program that featured visiting Indigenous speakers discussing the health issues of Indigenous peoples in Canada, to further educate students, faculty, staff, and the public to these issues. He also played an important role in helping establish in 2000 an endowed Chair in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing at the University of Toronto.

In 1996, he became a Staff Physician at Anishnawbe Health Toronto. He retired from the University of Toronto in 2001, but remained busy as a consultant, researcher, and physician at Anishnawbe Health Toronto.

Dr. Shah’s primary areas of research has been about improving the health and well-being of systematically marginalized people in Canada including Indigenous people, the unhoused, and children living in poverty. He has authored and co-authored over xx articles, reviews, chapters, and reports, throughout his academic career.

In addition, his textbook Public Health and Preventive Medicine in Canada (now in it's 6th edition) is still widely used in universities across the country. He has also served as a consultant to various branches of government including Peel Public Health, the Government of Ontario’s Ministry of Community and Social Services, and the Government of Canada.

In addition to his career as a physician and professor, Dr. Shah is an advocate for social change. Throughout the course of his life he has undertaken numerous causes and campaigns including: a letter writing campaign to urge the federal government to update the citizenship examination booklet and examination to include more content about Indigenous peoples in Canada; advocacy work on employment equity, in particular in the area of Canadian universities’ hiring policies with regards to racialized professors; and a letter writing campaign to urge the Canadian Blood Services to improve its policies, goals, and timelines with regards to the hiring of racialized individuals, women, Indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities, so that its workforce composition is representative of the Canadian population.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the R.D. Defries Award from the Canadian Public Health Association (1999) for outstanding contributions in the broad field of public health; Honorary Life Membership of the Ontario Medical Association (2002); the Order of Ontario (2005); and the Order of Canada (2025). In addition, in October 1999, he was gifted an eagle feather by elder-in-residence at First Nations House Lillian McGregor, on behalf of U of T’s indigenous community, in recognition of his work against injustices in indigenous health care, and in particular the establishment of the Visiting Lectureship on Native Health. In June 2021, he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Toronto for outstanding service for the public good.

He published a memoir, To Change the World: My Work With Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Canada (Toronto: Mawenzi House) in 2023.

Deborah Barnett (born December 15, 1953) is a Canadian creative director, fine press printer, and graphic designer based in Toronto.

She attended high school at Central Technical School in Toronto and was accepted into the school’s art program, where she took an interest in sculpture and drawing. Shortly after graduating, she became a founding member of Dreadnaught Press, working first as an apprentice, and later as an art director. The fine press printing collective was well-known in the Canadian literary and publishing community, and served as a space for Barnett to hone her print, design, and typography skills.

Beginning in 1981, Barnett lectured at the annual Banff Publishing Workshop in Alberta for nearly a decade, teaching design, art direction, and colour theory. After Dreadnaught Press disbanded in the mid 1980s, she started her own commercial design studio under the name Dreadnaught Design. Clients included Price Waterhouse Cooper, The National Arts Centre, The National Ballet of Canada, the AIDS Committee of Toronto, and Reed Books Canada. In 2001, Dreadnaught Design became Someone.ca. Launched by Barnett and business partner Aaron Benson, Someone.ca specialized in website development, web design, and communications. During this time, Barnett also took on creative director roles for several large investment firms. She returned to more extensive fine press printing in 2010, collaborating on letterpress projects and creating custom materials for clients. In 2015, she launched Someone Editions, a specialty letterpress imprint in the spirit of Dreadnaught Press, alongside editor and poet Beatriz Hausner.

In 2018, Barnett took on the role of Master Printer at Kelly Library at St. Michael’s College, where she taught printing and typesetting workshops, and led production of a series of limited edition chapbooks for the Kelly Library Print Studio. In 2021, she earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design (IAMD) from OCAD University.

In 2024, Barnett launched an imprint of Someone Editions called the French Letter Society. For this project, Barnett designs, typesets, and prints broadsides comprised of creative work by various visual artists and poets, reviving the casual "kitchen table print" culture popularized by private presses and literary circles in the first half of the 20th century. In 2025, Barnett began making an active effort to turn her letterpress studio into a community space and salon for poetry readings, gallery openings, artists' alleys, print demonstrations, and workshops. Her book arts practice continues to evolve.

William Armstrong was an Irish born Canadian artist. Armstrong immigrated to Toronto in 1851 and eventually co-founded the firm of Armstrong, Beere, & Hime, which specialized as land agents, engineers and photographers. During his travels, he began sketching scenic views of Canada. In 1864 Armstrong began to teach drawing at the Toronto Normal School and then taught at the University of Toronto from 1872 to 1877. He died in 1914.

Professor Emmet I. Robbins (1939–2011) was a classicist and Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Toronto. His scholarship focused on ancient Greek poetry, particularly Greek lyric. His approach also explored Greek texts within broader cultural and literary frameworks, drawing connections between ancient Greek poetry and other artistic and mythological traditions.

Robbins started his post-secondary education at Carleton University, then continued at the University of Toronto, where he completed his B.A. (Honours Classics, 1963), M.A. (1965), and Ph.D. (1968). After several years abroad, Robbins returned to the University of Toronto in 1972, joining St. Michael’s College. He served as Chair of the Department of Classics from 1990 to 2000. His collected essays were published posthumously in Thalia Delighting in Song (2017). In addition to his scholarly work, Robbins was known for his broad interests, particularly as a musician and avid language learner.

Robbins died in Toronto in 2011.

References:
MacLachlan, B. (2011). In memoriam : Emmet Robbins. Canadian Classical Bulletin,
17.12.1. https://www.cac-scec.ca/wp-content/uploads/bulletin/ccb17/ccb17_12.1.html

Robbins, E. I., & MacLachlan, B. (2017). Forward in Thalia Delighting in Song : Essays on Ancient Greek Poetry (1st ed.). University of Toronto Press,. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442662346

Christina McCall was a prominent Canadian political journalist and writer, best known for her analytical work on the Liberal Party of Canada and her biographical studies of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. McCall was born on January 29, 1935, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She attended the University of Toronto, studying English at Victoria College, and graduated in 1956. After school, McCall worked at Maclean’s, where she initially conducted secretarial-type work. However, by 1957, McCall had her article on the female mining pioneer, Viola MacMillan, published as her first feature for the magazine. After the acknowledgment of her writing abilities, she continued to receive important projects in journalism. During her early career, McCall met the notable journalist Peter C. Newman, whom she married in 1959 and later divorced in 1977.

McCall then went to work for Chatelaine from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. She then worked in 1967 as the Ottawa editor for Saturday Night magazine. Within this same year, McCall’s first book, The Man from Oxbow, was published. In the early 1970s, McCall returned to Maclean’s as an associate editor. From 1974 to 1976, McCall worked as a national reporter for The Globe and Mail. McCall later worked as the executive editor at Saturday Night in 1976 and then became contributing editor in 1980.

In the 1980s, McCall became focused primarily on political writing in the form of books rather than articles. Her book, Grits: An Intimate Portrait of the Liberal Party, was published in 1982 and focused on Pierre Trudeau and the environment of the inner workings of the Liberal Party under his leadership. This book was called, at the time, one of the most important Canadian books of the 1980s. McCall continued to write books even after Pierre Trudeau’s retirement from politics, and she later co-wrote a two-volume biography of Trudeau in 1990 and 1994 entitled Trudeau and Our Times, with her second husband, Stephen Clarkson, who was a political economy professor at the University of Toronto. In 1990, the first volume won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and in 1995, the second volume won the John Dafoe Prize for Distinguished Writing.

Even though McCall was primarily focused in her writing on the topic of the Canadian Liberal Party, she was also interested in a variety of other topics. These issues and topics included feminism, urban planning, and Canadian nationalism.

McCall died in 2005 in Toronto, and she left behind her partially written autobiography. Clarkson collected a selection of McCall’s writing, which he compiled and edited, and it was later published in 2008 as her autobiography entitled My Life as a Dame: The Personal and Political Writings of Christina McCall.

Bruce Yama was a student at the University of Toronto Scarborough (then Scarborough College) in the late 1960s and early 1970s, receiving a Bachelor's degree in 1974, and a Master's degree in 1979. He went to to work as a schoolteacher in Ontario, with a specialization in Special Education.

Michael Bedard is an award-winning author of books for children and youth. He was born in 1949 in Toronto, Canada, and studied English and Philosophy at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. After graduating with a B.A. in 1971, Bedard worked as a library assistant in St. Michael's College Library until 1978. He then worked as a pressman at the small print shop Gardenshore Press until 1981. Bedard has been a full-time writer since 1982.

Bedard's works are aimed at a young adult audience and include re-tellings of fairy tales and Chinese fables, dark fiction novels, picture books about Emily Dickinson, Willa Cather, the Bronte children, and Canadian sculptors Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, as well as a biography of William Blake.

He has won several awards including the Governor General's Literary Award, the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award for Children, the IODE Violet Downey Book Award, the runner-up for the Young Adult Canadian Award, and the Toronto IODE Book Award.

The Print Studio is located inside the John M. Kelly Library. It was founded at St. Michael's College in 2002 and underwent renovations in 2023. This effort was largely supported by the Friends of the Kelly Library organization, who donated $18,000 towards the remodeling. The studio reopened in 2024 and is currently in use for embodied, hands-on learning associated with the Book and Media Studies department.

The studio houses historical equipment, including an Adana Press donated by printers Paul Bottero and Morrison Wethers.

Ann Augusta Stowe-Gullen was a medical doctor, a lecturer and a suffragette. She was born in Mt. Pleasant, Ontario, the daughter of John Stowe and Emily Howard Jennings. She married Dr. John Benjamin Gullen in 1883. She died in Toronto in 1943.

Stowe-Gullen was educated at the Toronto School of Medicine, then at the Faculty of Medicine at Victoria University, Toronto, where she became an M.D. in 1883—the first woman to graduate from a Canadian medical school. Immediately after graduating she was appointed Demonstrator in Anatomy at the Woman’s Medical College in Toronto (from 1894 onwards known as the Ontario Medical College for Women). In 1890 she was appointed Lecturer on Diseases of Children, subsequently Professor of Diseases of Children. She also served among the original staff members of Toronto Western Hospital (founded in 1896). Her husband, Dr. John B. Gullen, was one of the twelve physicians who founded the Toronto Western Hospital in December 1895, and Stowe-Gullen was the first woman appointed to the TWH medical staff. She helped to organize, and later served as President of the TWH Women's Board (later the (Women's) Auxiliary).

Stowe-Gullen was a member of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Ontario Social Service Council, the University Women's Club, the Women's Art Association, and the Women's Canadian Club. She was also active in the suffrage, temperance and other social movements. From 1893 to 1907 she was a member of the Toronto Women's Suffrage Club founded by her mother Emily Stowe, and when the Club evolved into the Canadian Suffrage Association in 1907 Stowe-Gullen was elected honourary President. She served as the first woman member of the Toronto Public School Board (1892-1896) and in 1910 was appointed to the Senate of the University of Toronto where she represented women in the medical profession until 1924. She was among the founders of the National Council of Women in 1893, (Vice-President) of the National Council of Women, and succeeded her mother as President of the Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association in 1903. In 1935, she was awarded the King's Jubilee Medal.

Cité Libre was a Québécois political magazine founded in the 1950s. It was published between 1950 and 1972 and again between 1991 and 2000, following a hiatus. The magazine’s first run played a key role in the Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille), a significant period of transformation in Québec’s history. The second run was launched in 1991 to help promote Canadian national unity. It covered the 1995 referendum and surrounding political issues. The Nemnis were co-editors of the magazine from 1995 until 2000.