Aurora Awards in the Senate!

The remarks below were made today in Canada's Senate by The Honourable Nick G. Sibbeston (pictured above), Senator for the Northwest Territories, and will be recorded in Hansard, the official parliamentary transcripts:

Honourable Senators, on Sunday, May 18th, the Aurora Awards, honouring the best in Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing in both English and French, were awarded in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

These Awards, which are voted on by fans of the field, are in their twenty-eighth year and have recognized many of the greats of Canadian science fiction -- people who have gone on to win many international awards as well. One multiple award winner, Robert J. Sawyer, was recently named one of the 30 most influential people in Canadian publishing.

This year the winner for Best English Novel went to Toronto writer Nalo Hopkinson for her book, The New Moon's Arms. One of Ms. Hopkinson's earlier novels, Brown Girl in the Ring, was featured this year on CBC's Canada Reads.

I am particularly pleased to tell honourable senators that one of the other winners this year was my own policy advisor, Hayden Trenholm, who won for best English Short Story for his novelette, "Like Water in the Desert." Mr. Trenholm also had his science fiction novel, Defining Diana, published earlier this year. I congratulate him and others for their writing skills.

My relationship with Mr. Trenholm goes back to the 1980s when I was a government minister and leader in the Northwest Territories. He was my assistant and policy adviser. Later, when I returned to politics as a member of the Senate, he rejoined me and is my policy adviser today. I have always admired his brilliance, his knowledge of the North and his political acumen, which he provides capably to my office.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site