Women of Note Spring 09

Taking home a national literary prize this past winter were Manitoba-born sisters Claire and Louise Chabalier. The sisters shared a 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award for their French translation of Maureen Medved’s The Tracey Fragments. This is the 72nd presentation of the awards, known as Canada’s oldest and most prestigious English- and French-language, Canadian literature awards. The honours were presented at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Dec. 10. This is the first Governor General’s award for the sisters. Claire currently works as a translator in the private sector and Louise is an editor in literary and academic publishing.

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The Canadian Nurses Association honoured five Manitoba nurses during a November awards ceremony in Ottawa, which celebrated the work of 100 dedicated Canadian nurses. The Centennial Awards marked the association’s 100th anniversary. Three University of Manitoba nursing professors received the award: Dr. Maureen Heaman, Dr. Pamela Hawranik and Dr. Lesley Degner. Heaman is associate dean of research at the faculty of nursing and director of the Manitoba Nursing Research Institute. She specializes in women’s prenatal health research. Hawranik is an associate professor at the faculty of nursing and has been the CNA Manitoba representative since 2003, making significant contributions as chair of the Nursing Research Awards committee. Degner is a distinguished professor at the faculty of nursing and specializes in cancer care, acting as senior investigator of the Cancer Nursing Research Group. She is also chair of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation/Canadian Institute of Health Research. Also winning awards at the event were Janice Currie, vice president and chief nursing officer of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and Jodi Dusik-Sharpe, a neuroscience nurse in Winnipeg for over 20 years.

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Winnipeg speed skater Shannon Rempel spent the end of 2008 representing Canada in the 2008/2009 International Skating Union world cup circuit. On the fourth stop of the circuit in Changchun, China, Rempel took silver in the women’s 1000-metre race, finishing 0.02 seconds behind first place. In the same race fellow Winnipegger Brittany Schussler finished fourth. The 24-year-old Rempel has a few medals under her belt and is particularly known for helping her team take home silver at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin.

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The Hon. Dave Chomiak presented Winnipeg’s new deputy chief of police, Shelly Hart, with an Attorney General’s Excellence in Law Enforcement Award on Nov. 20. The awards honour police officers that have distinguished themselves through exceptional performance in their duties and in their communities. Hart has been with the police force since 1978, and has held a wide range of assignments, including uniform general patrol, vice, property crimes, robbery/homicide and traffic.

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Winnipeg-born actor, Anna Paquin, won best actress in a television series at the Golden Globes Jan. 11. Paquin won for her role as Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO TV series True Blood. On the show, which debuted last fall and had a successful first season, Paquin plays a waitress who falls in love with a vampire. The 26-year-old actor was born in Winnipeg but raised in New Zealand, and has had a successful film career. Her breakout role in The Piano at the age of 11 earned her an Oscar.