Soccer star, stem cell pioneer and leading women’s health advocate among B.C. inductees to Order of Canada

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Karina LeBlanc’s achievements as a star keeper with Canada’s groundbreaking women’s soccer team and her post-career leadership in the sport earned an appointment to the Order of Canada in Gov.-Gen. Mary Simon’s year-end list of honours.

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As meaningful as that award is for LeBlanc, who arrived in Canada from Dominica as a shy eight-year-old and rose to prominence after finding community in sport, her 2 ½-year-old daughter Paris handed her a more touching accolade just the other day.

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“She actually said to me yesterday, ‘Mommy, you’re my superhero,’ and I was like, ‘OK, I win, I’m good,’ ” LeBlanc said. “I got some amazing texts yesterday, but that one is probably my top (compliment).”

Simon appointed LeBlanc, who grew up in Maple Ridge, as a member of the Order of Canada, one of eight British Columbians named to the honour this week on the list of 99 Canadians added to the Order, four as Members and four as Officers.

“It was just an absolute shock,” LeBlanc said about receiving the confidential email from the Governor-General’s Office, then a phone call, about two weeks ago.

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“I dreamt of winning a medal and standing on the podium, hopefully going to the Olympics and World Cups for Canada,” LeBlanc said, which are things she did manage to do over an 18 year career, that included five Cup appearances and three Olympics, including with the team that won an historic bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

“So to be recognized in this way, it’s truly special,” LeBlanc said.

And something that wouldn’t have been possible if her parents hadn’t made the decision to uproot a comfortable life in Dominica for less certain opportunities in Maple Ridge.

“For me, if this means that there’s young girls who see a woman of colour, or maybe an immigrant to this country or somebody who was shy and bullied and (says), ‘Wait, if that happened to her, then it could happen to me,’ I think that’s what’s incredible about this. It’s beyond sport.”

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The Order of Canada recognizes the service of Canadians that “have shaped our society, whose innovations have ignited our imaginations and whose compassion has united our communities,” according to the annual announcement.

The B.C. inductees installed as Officers, the second-highest level in the three-tiered award, were University of Victoria geographer Budd Hall, for his contributions as a pioneer in community-based research; Vancouver radiologist Dr. Paula Gordon; Stemcell Technologies founder and health researcher Dr. Allen Eaves; and renowned University of B.C. geographer David Ley.

Pitman Potter, UBC Peter A. Allard School of Law professor emeritus, a leading scholar in Chinese law studies, was inducted as a Member with LeBlanc and alongside award-winning Vancouver film director and cinematographer Vic Sarin, as was Gary Segal, philanthropist and scion of the late Joseph Segal’s family firm Kingswood Capital.

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Gordon, an innovator in medical imaging and tireless advocate for better breast-cancer screening for almost four decades, certainly fits in the definition for recognition, but it still caught her by surprise.

She was invested in the Order of B.C. in 2013 but had also become accustomed to providing references for others being vetted for the Order of Canada.

“I was speechless, quite frankly, which is not characteristic of me at all,” Gordon said of the notification she was being invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Gordon cried a little at first, thinking: “Wouldn’t it be nice for my parents to (have) known” of the honour she characterized as the “penultimate” recognition for a career of hard work?

“It’s a huge honour, especially when you think of the calibre of the other members,” Gordon added.

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Her next thought, however, was about how it might help shine a spotlight on the need for better breast-cancer screening across Canada.

“I’ve been fighting with, well everybody who’s in a position to make change, so the second thing that popped into my head was maybe this will help with the advocacy effort,” Gordon said.

For 81-year-old Eaves, being named an Officer of the Order was “the honour or a lifetime” in a career that included co-founding the Terry Fox Lab for hematology and oncology research before starting Stemcell Technologies as a means to foster leading research and provide opportunities for scientists outside of academia.

Eaves said his life goal has been to “do science in a positive way that helps patients.”

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“But what is really energizing is to go have my meetings with all these smart, young people who love science and are really good at it,” Eaves said. “And just facilitating what they want to do. So it keeps me young.”

Ley, professor emeritus at UBC, said he has “come to terms” with the great surprise of being inducted as an Officer.

“I’m an immigrant, though I’ve lived in Vancouver for 50 years, and it’s a sense of gratitude to the nation that it’s given me an opportunity to flourish here,” Ley said of receiving the honour. “I think that’s my most fundamental response.”

As an urban geographer Ley has researched gentrification in communities. His work in understanding the impacts of wealth migration under Canada’s business immigrant program culminated in the book Millionaire Migrants: Trans-Pacific Life Lines, whose publication coincided with the end of that program.

“I’m not sure I’m proudest of that, but it was one area of impact,” Ley said.

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