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There are places in Toronto where the snowflakes pile up into drifts. Massey College on the University of Toronto campus is in the heart of the civic snow belt, where encountering somebody with a bejewelled and enamelled Order of Canada snowflake pin affixed is as common as meeting a high school-aged kid with a button of their favourite band on their knapsack. At any given event at Massey the glint off the pins can dazzle and give the impression everybody has one. Of course, everybody does not have one, but Massey is a special place that regularly attracts Order of Canada types into its orbit. During the 2011-2012 academic year I was lucky to be a Canadian Journalism Fellow at Massey, a program that’s been taking practising journalists and writers in since 1962. The idea is, in part, to give journalists a chance to recharge, take university courses, and immerse themselves into collegial life, learning and sharing with the graduate student Junior Fellows and the Senior Fellows who are faculty members and other accomplished folk.
Many of the latter have the Order of Canada too and it became a bit of good-natured sport among my fellow Fellows to spot and point out the pins like kids would do with Volkswagen Beetles on road trips in the recent past. During the second semester it’s customary at Massey for the journalists to organize a party one night at the college. To poke a little good-natured fun at members of the Massey community, I had a friend create one-inch buttons with the Order of Canada insignia printed on them and made enough for everyone in an effort to “level the playing field.”
At the beginning of the evening I pinned one of the giant buttons to John Fraser, then Master of Massey and already an Order of Canada recipient himself, declaring him the “best Governor General Canada never had.” He and I then proceeded to hand them out to everyone. I worried about a bit of blowback or shade from the people who had earned them with a lifetime of good and hard work, but there wasn’t any that I was aware of: people enjoyed the joke.
Six years later I still have a few dozen left over from the event and occasionally give to someone I think is deserving. Bigger than the real things, my buttons don’t catch the light like the proper pins do: though rather tiny, the pins stick out mightily once you know what they are. During the most recent Oscar ceremony, Christopher Plummer sported his pin on his lapel, shining Hollywood-bright as the broadcast cut to him when his Best Supporting Actor nomination for All the Money in the World was announced.
Though only partially as glamorous as Hollywood, there’ll be a little more glint around Fort York now. Stephen Otto, co-founder of the Friends of Fort York and indefatigable champion of the fort and Toronto and Ontario history, received his long-overdue appointment to the Order at an intimate February ceremony in Toronto with Governor General Julie Payette. He’s been a mentor to many of us who started working on civic issues, Toronto or otherwise, in the last two decades.
He’s been a mentor to many of us who started working on civic issues, Toronto or otherwise, in the last two decades
His appointment also recognizes his writing, including his revision of Eric Arthur’s canonical book Toronto, No Mean City and being the founding editor of The Fife and Drum, the Friends of Fort York’s quarterly journal, a volunteer position he held for 20 years (including 14 as managing editor). His 1994 publication “Once more unto the Breach: Defending Fort York in the 20th century” chronicled the decades-long fight to preserve the fort in a rapidly expanding and rebuilding city, a story of eternal vigilance, negotiation and perseverance, themes that apply to so many civic struggles that Stephen has advised on, and those he’s watched as a private citizen. As a civil servant, he was head of the Heritage Conservation Division at Ontario’s Ministry of Culture and Recreation between 1975 and 1981.
Just as the fake buttons at Massey were intended to “level the playing field,” Stephen’s Order of Canada appointment can also be seen in the same light, as he’s generously shared his knowledge and experience with others.
May the snow at Fort York never melt.
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