The Current - Newly minted inductees to the Order of Canada

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

Last week, the Governor General made 88 new appointments to the Order of Canada. Heather Rankin, singer-songwriter and member of the award-winning band The Rankin Family, Maureen Jennings, author of Murdoch Mysteries, and Zulfiqar Bhutta, a leader in advancing maternal and child health, tell guest host Mark Kelley what it means to be recognized as a gamechanger in their community and beyond. 

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with Season 3 of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current Podcast. In the trees We rise again In the faces of our children We rise again In the voices of our song That's the Rankin family singing Rise Again. And now one of their own has risen to one of the highest honours in the country.

The Governor General made 88 new appointments to the Order of Canada last week. It recognizes the contributions Canadian trailblazers have made to their communities and beyond. And we have three recipients here this morning to talk about their work. And we begin, first up is Heather Rankin. You know her as a member of the Rankin Family Group. She's also an accomplished performer, is a solo artist and an actor. And she joins me from her hometown of Mabu in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Heather, congratulations.

Thank you so very much. I'm so delighted and excited. Well, you know, I read, I love the line. I read this in the Cape Breton Post where it said, what does Heather Rankin and Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds now have in common? And you're both members of the Order of Canada. So do you get like a secret handshake or like, what is it? Is there a code, something that you get now? Oh, yes. We have these very secretive meetings underground after hours. Yes, it's a very, very privileged organization.

Well, tell me, you're known for, you know, first and foremost, for your work with the Rankin family, you and your four of your siblings. So do you see this as an individual or kind of in a collective award for you? Absolutely. It's not about me. It's about much more. about me it's about much more it's about my my siblings that I made music with um my my parents who encouraged us from a very young age that the community of Mabu promoted us and encouraged us um in all of their community events um and you know all the musicians I've worked with and actors

and and people in my circle who've who've've supported me. It's, it's, it's about all of them. And there are so many, I mean, in your family alone, you grew up in a family of 12 siblings. You're the 11th of 12 siblings. What role did music play in, in, in, in your life and your family, in your life particularly? It was, we could be outside playing and people would drop in to visit and my parents would call us in to perform for them. It was part of every celebration in the community. We were musical in the church. It was everything. Music was everything. And it still is. It's so important to me. And I'm so lucky that I get to continue to do what I do without my family.

Things have changed over the years. And now I surround myself with other family, other musicians. And it's a very important part of my life. And your life has been a storied one, just looking at some of your accomplishments. Of course, you've performed across Canada, you've performed across the US, you know, the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, some of these legendary venues, the Royal Albert Hall in London, I could go on. But what I think is special about you is you bought the Red Shoe Pub back in Mabu in Cape Breton, and you're still so closely connected to that community. in Cape Breton, and you're still so closely connected to that community.

Why is that? Explain that to me. I think people who come from here have very deep roots. It's a very strong community where people are here to support you in good times and in bad. The community was built by the ancestors of most of the people who still live here. And the traditions, the musical traditions and the culture and the values are very strong here still. And it's important to everyone.

And what does, I'm sure, you know, as you were mentioning at the outset, how you like to share this distinction really with so many people. But for a small community like that from coming and you're still so closely tied to your roots, what do you think this means for the folks in Cape Breton who must be so incredibly proud of you? I hope so. There was another singer who came out of Mabu, John Allen Cameron, and he was older than us, an earlier generation, who showed that it was possible to go out and make music for a living. But it was still very much an unusual path to take at the time that we did it. And people really, the community really got behind us and were thrilled and supported us wherever we played. So I think it's a special, it puts Mabu on the map in some regard. And so what's next for you now?

Because you're not the type of person, judging from your career, that say, well, okay, I got the Order of Canada, I'm done. I'm just going to put my feet up and pour myself a drink. What would you like to do next? Well, I will be making dinner for 30 people tonight. Of course you are. Of course you are. Never mind the Order of Canada.

You've got to get into the kitchen and you've got to feed the family. And I've got to go clean the bathrooms before they get here. But other than that, no, I'll be pursuing all of the same things, hopefully, for the next while. Some singing and acting and maybe some TV hosting. And God knows what else. The door is wide open. Well, we're looking forward to see what's next, Heather. Congratulations.

Thank you, Mark. And I'm a big fan. I love your show. Thank you so much. And I love this show, The Current, but I also love The Fifth Estate. I appreciate that. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you. Heather Rank love this show, The Current, but I also love The Fifth Estate. I appreciate that. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you.

Heather Rankin is a new officer in the Order of Canada, a musician, artist, member of the Rankin family, and sounds like a heck of a mom as well. Well, on to our next. Zulfikar Butta is also appointed to the Order of Canada last week. He is the co-director at the Center for Global Child Health at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, the Robert Harding Chair in Global Child Health and Policy. He's a world-renowned leader in efforts to improve maternal and child health globally. Zulfi Budha, good morning to you this morning. Good morning. And what a pleasure to have you here, and congratulations about this. I was looking

at your accomplishments. I could fill the next five minutes with all the distinctions that you have been awarded with in your very illustrious career. And I kid you not, this is true. But, you know, you grew up in Pakistan. You're a relatively new Canadian. Please put this into perspective for me.

What does this mean to be named to the Order of Canada? Well, it's huge. It's huge. I mean, as a new Canadian, this is completely unexpected, but it is also perhaps a recognition of decades of work. So I've been working in women in children's health globally, in low and middle income countries, in particular in my own country

of origin from in Pakistan, Central Asia, East Africa, and other parts of Africa. I moved to Canada about 13 years ago, largely to establish the Global Child Health Program, help establish the Global Child Health Program at SickKids. And it's been a fantastic journey. And now this is the icing on the cake. I'm not going to put my feet up, but this is wonderful. No, and you can't because sadly, there's just too much work to do. Like you've led research and public health initiatives, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia. Tell us, I mean, we don't have the time to hear the whole journey, but what puts you on that journey to focus on maternal and child health? So a couple of things. First of all, I'm a pediatrician. I specialized in newborn medicine.

I had the great opportunity of training in the United Kingdom, and I went back to Pakistan in 1986 to help establish a newborn care program in the premier university teaching hospital. And after about two decades or so, I realized that you could do whatever you could in a big tertiary hospital, but could not reach poor people in rural populations, those who did not have the same privilege and who lived in much less than ideal environments. And that's when I shifted gears and moved a lot of my program for preventive maternal and newborn care to community settings, to rural villages, and worked with community health workers. to community settings, to rural villages, and worked with community health workers. So in some ways, this has been a fantastic opportunity to see what can be accomplished with very little means in some of the poorest parts of the world and help influence policy. And if I understand this correctly, I mean, the difference for you than leaving that sort of safe hospital, the confines of a safe hospital setting is you're dealing with

a handful of patients there. And yet when you go out in the community, you're dealing with hundreds, if not thousands of patients there. Is that the biggest impact of what you've learned? Absolutely. I mean, you know, many of these districts have a population of a million or more. You know, in the Millennium Development Goals, Mark, between 2000 and 2015, the world set itself a target of reducing child deaths under five by half by 2015. And it was a virtually impossible target. and lack of resources, notably human resources, was through this outreach program, reaching out to poor populations and those who needed help most through ancillary health workers, through nurses, through midwives, through community health workers. And it is mainly with community health outreach programs that my group has worked across the world and helped establish the evidence on

which global agencies have built the scaffolding for improving maternal and newborn health. Can you just give us an example of what you have seen as progress? Just a small example that gives you great hope. Well, I can give you a very specific example. There were 10 million children dying under five years of age in the year 2000. By 2015, that number had reduced by almost half. So we nearly achieved the Millennium Development Goals, if you take the global increase in population into account. They were close to around four and a half million newborn deaths

at the time when we started. They are down to now just a little above two million deaths annually. So that's progress, despite all the limitations. So what we are left with now is really doing a lot more in rather difficult geographies, conflict zones, places which are affected by climate change, and polycrisis. And that's where my group, and here particularly at the SickKids Center for Global Child Health, is largely focused on trying to find solutions for the very difficult circumstances that the world faces. And before I let you go, I know you really wanted to also pay tribute to your wife who worked alongside with you for many years before she

passed. Does she share in this honor with you? Well, I certainly give her a lot of credit for my own life's journey. And she was not only a wonderful individual, but she was a very accomplished academician. Shireen was an obstetrician. We were married 45 years. And a lot of my work on maternal and newborn health could not have been done without having her by my side. And it's tragic that she fell ill just at the time when she was retiring from her clinical position. And although she's not with me in person, I feel her presence all the time and I want to give her a lot of the credit for the work that we've been able to accomplish over the years. Well, thank you for all the work you do.

My pleasure. And thank you for being with us this morning. We appreciate this. Thank you, Mark. Cheers. Cheers. Zulfiqar Budha is the new recipient of the Order of Canada. He is a global leader in efforts to improve maternal and child health. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news.

So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. And we go to Maureen Jennings. She's also a recipient of the Order of Canada. She is the author known for her historical crime novels. Her Detective Murdoch series inspired the long-running CBC TV show Murdoch Mysteries. Maureen, good morning and congratulations. Good morning, Mark.

Thank you very much. What does this mean to you, being named in the Order of Canada? It's hard to put into words. Even just listening to Heather and Dr. Wooter, I am overawed by what they've done. And I think, oh my gosh, and you're making the joke about secret handshakes. There's a secret pin. We all get a little pin that it's actually a snowflake. And I think going anywhere and you see someone wearing, authorized person, it's very strict

about that. An authorized person wearing a snowflake, you're going to go, wow, hello, how are you? Tell me about yourself. Yeah, he or she, they're one of us. I know my colleague, Bob McEwen from the Fifth Estate, who's now retired, but he was named to the Order of Canada. So he's part of your club, and that's a pretty good club to be in. It's a good club to be in. I want to just get this. You wrote a book, Expect the Dying, published in 1997. Accept the Dying.

And what were your hopes, or how would you have defined success at that point? Where did you think it was going, your career was going with this book? Success was simply getting the book accepted initially. And then, then just, it just kind of goes out there and said, Oh, that seemed to do okay. I might write another one then. And then that went on. And I think I had four books published when my husband, Iden, took them down to Shaftesbury Films. And Christina Jennings, we're not related physically anyway, but we are psychically, said they would take them. And that's how it started. And it all seemed so impossible.

And we always kept saying, do you think we'll continue? Do you think we'll get another season? And so on and so on. And as you said, we're here at 18 seasons now. Yeah, it's seven books, 18 seasons of the TV series, and so many people love it. I've seen this. You and I met a few weeks ago where there was a Murdoch Mysteries event. Yes.

Why do you think it has attracted so many fans and has this faithful following? What's the secret sauce? I wish I knew. I'd do lots more, but it was just a secret sauce, just one of those wonderful combination of timing, very good acting, production values. It just sort of came together. Heather's talking about making dinner, and it's like making the perfect soup. Soup tends to imply catastrophe. What a soup.

But this was actually just a strange combination of things coming together, and I'm very grateful, but I cannot explain it, so don't even ask me to. How's this journey been for you? You were also born in the UK. You came to Canada. You start later in your life with this writing career that turns into this massive success. What's this journey been like for you? Well, it's a bit complicated to answer that because I think I was one,

Well, it's a bit complicated to answer that because I think I was one, the kind of person who I hear about quite often is I was really enjoying my life. I was a psychotherapist, a teacher, but there was always a little sort of nagging voice saying, is that all there is? And so I finally listened and the voice said, listen, since you were about three years old, you've been reading books and it's about time you went and wrote one. So I said, okay. And that's how that started. It was Lady Knife, really. And did you have, so you had this always within you? There was a book that was just yearning to be written?

I think so, something like that. I didn't know if it was a book so much as going through the secret gate into the world of books on the other side, as opposed to being a voracious reader, which I was, stepping through and saying, all right, books are created by people, so why don't I try to do one myself? Well, I'm so glad you did, and I know you're still writing. I know you're still writing.

You've got the Paradise Cafe Mysteries. You're not done yet, Maureen, and I'm glad you're not. And I want to celebrate your success. It's been great for you. It's been great for you. It's been great for the CBC. Murdoch Mysteries is a terrific show. And we appreciate all your hard work. Thank you very much, Mark.

Pleasure talking to you. Thank you. Maureen Jennings is an appointee of the Order of Canada. She's an author. Her Detective Murdoch series inspired the TV show Murdoch Mysteries. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.