By RON FANFAIR
Zanana Akande, the first Black woman to be elected to the province’s legislative assembly and to serve as a cabinet minister in Ontario; award-winning journalist Royson James; retired banking executive Winston Kassim and retired Canadian Armed Services reservist Kevin Junor have been appointed to the Order of Ontario.
The daughter of St. Lucian and Barbadian immigrants, Akande was a school principal before entering politics. She won the St. Andrew-St. Patrick riding for the New Democratic Party in 1990 and was appointed Minister of Community & Social Services.
After serving as Bob Rae’s parliamentary secretary for two years, she quit politics but continued to advocate for the community.
Graduating from Andrews University in Michigan, Jamaican-born James spent two years with the now-defunct Contrast community newspaper before joining the Toronto Star in 1981.
Starting as a reporter covering municipal politics in Scarborough, North York and Toronto before amalgamation, James was the Toronto Star’s city hall bureau chief and an editorial board member before becoming the municipal affairs columnist in 1998.
Kassim, who spent over three decades with RBC and volunteered with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, co-chairs the Guyana-Canada Chamber of Commerce.
He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2009.
Junor joined the Canadian Forces Reserves in 1980 as an infantry soldier in the Toronto Scottish Regiment. He was promoted to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer in 1998 and then Regimental Sergeant Major.
Deployed as a Senior Military Advisor to the Republic of Sierra Leone’s Armed Forces in 2007 and later Jordan, he was the first Black Regimental Sergeant Major for the Toronto Scottish Regiment.
Junor was commissioned as a Captain with The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada.
