WINNIPEG -- A dozen Manitobans were honoured for their lifetime achievements Thursday afternoon.

The Order of Manitoba ceremony took place at the Manitoba Legislature, with 12 Manitobans receiving the honour.

The ceremony usually has upwards of 200 guests, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only those invested and their guests were on hand.

"The individuals being invested in the Order of Manitoba today have made too many contributions to this province to recount in a single ceremony," said Lt.-Gov. Janice Filmon, who oversees the Order of Manitoba.

The new members come from a variety of backgrounds, including the arts, community activism, education, and health.

The full list of Manitobans being invested in the Order of Manitoba are:

  • Dr. Stephen Borys, director and CEO of the Winnipeg Art Gallery;
  • Mitch Bourbonniere, one of the founding members of the original Bear Clan Patrol, and a community activist;
  • Elder Mary Courchene, a residential school survivor and an Indigenous leader in the field of public education;
  • Dr. Krishnamurti Dakshinamurti, an emeritus professor in the University of Manitoba faculty of medicine and a senior advisor to the St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre;
  • Bill Elliott, the founding executive director of Fort Whyte Alive;
  • Richard Frost, CEO of the Winnipeg Foundation;
  • Tina Jones, chair of the Health Sciences Centre Foundation board;
  • Dr. Marion Lewis, co-founder of the Winnipeg Rh Laboratory to study and eradicate hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN);
  • Margaret Morse, Manitoba's first speech therapist;
  • Stuart Murray, the former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba (2000-2006), the first president and CEO of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and a former chair of Travel Manitoba;
  • Scott Oake, a hockey broadcaster and director of the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, a project dedicated to the memory of his 25-year-old son, who passed away in 2011 following a drug overdose; and
  • Dr. Ernest Rady, a local entrepreneur.

"For all the enormous value of the contributions they've made in their own fields of endeavour, the inspiration that you provide to others is perhaps the thing that stands out the most this year," Filmon said.

The Order of Manitoba was created in 1999 to recognize Manitobans who have enriched the social, cultural, or economic well-being of the province.