Mr. Speaker, last Thursday evening I had the honour of representing the Minister of Health at the annual Courage to Come Back awards of the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto.
The evening provided an opportunity for us to share in the remarkable stories of individuals who have shown extraordinary courage in their recovering from life threatening illness, injury or addiction and now serve as models of hope and inspiration.
I would like to thank Janice O'Born, the chair of the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry Foundation; president and CEO of the Addiction and Mental Health Services Corporation, Dr. Paul Garfinkel; and Nancy Coldham, chair of the courage committee. They are fighting the difficult battle against ignorance with respect to mental illness.
We were all very pleased and impressed by the empathy of the evening's special hosts Mark Tewksbury and Silken Laumann. Most important, we were all truly inspired by the evening's award recipients: David Shannon, Ralph Booker, Gabriella Melendez, Jeffrey Ostofsky, Andrea OuHingwan, Sandy Naiman and Ian Chovil. They have all had the courage to come back and go that extra mile in the invaluable role of public education. They are role models for all of us.