Authors and Canada Reads winners Michelle Good and Ziya Tong were among the 80 new appointees to the Order of Canada, which were announced on December 31, CBC News reported. Gov. General Mary Simon's office named six new companions, the highest level of the Order of Canada; 15 officers; and 59 members, the introductory level in the order. Good and Tong were both appointed as members.
Good is a Cree writer and retired lawyer, as well as a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. She was appointed for her work towards "reconciliation, truth and respect" through her writing, activism and practice as a lawyer. Her debut novel, Five Little Indians, won Canada Reads 2022, as well as the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction. She is also the author of Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada.
Tong, an author, broadcaster, filmmaker and science journalist, was appointed for her commitment to improving animal rights through media and education. She won Canada Reads in 2019, defending Max Eisen's memoir By Chance Alone, and published her first book, The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World, in that same year. The book was on the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize shortlist and won the 2019-2020 Lane Anderson Award for science writing in Canada.
Also appointed members of the Order of Canada were Toronto children's author Elizabeth MacLeod, who has written more than 70 nonfiction titles, including the Scholastic Canada Biography series about influential Canadians, and Quebec writer and professor Hans-Jürgen Greif, who writes in French, for his contributions to literature, teaching, and cultural exchanges.