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1983 Recipients
The Honourable Florence Bird
Ottawa, Ontario
Florence Bird was Chair of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women from 1967 to 1970, whose report paved the way to advance the status of women in Canada. In 1978, she was summoned to the Senate, from which post she retired in 1983.
Emma Jane Ducie
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
She has spent many years in voluntary activity, including serving on the executive with the Women's Institute at the local, provincial and national levels. Other organizations for which she worked include the Saskatoon Council of Women, the Saskatoon Friendship Club and the Canadian Institute of International Affairs.
Marie Hamilton
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Marie Hamilton has worked for many years to improve the status of black women in Halifax County. She was a founding member of the Halifax North End Volunteers for Seniors, a member of the Congress of Black Women of Nova Scotia, and a member of the Women's Institute of the African United Baptist Association.
Isabel Ross Hunt
Winnipeg, Manitoba
She has achieved many firsts in the legal profession in Manitoba: in 1916, the first woman to receive a LLB degree from the University of Manitoba; the first one to be called to the bar in 1917; and in 1953 the first one to be appointed as the Queen's Counsel in Manitoba. She became an authority in family law.
Gabrielle Labbé
Montreal, Quebec
Gabrielle Labbé has been actively involved with women's groups in Quebec for many years. A teacher for forty years, she was a founder of a documentation centre for La Fédération des Femmes du Québec and of the Yvette Rousseau Prize.
Laura Sabia
Toronto, Ontario
Laura Sabia is a long time activist for the rights of women, and was National Chair of the Committee for the Equality of Women that lobbied successfully for the appointment of a Royal Commission on the Status of Women. She was a founding member and first President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, an umbrella organization that now has a membership of roughly 500 women's associations.
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