- Sylvia Fedoruk
Sylvia Olga Fedoruk, OC, SOM (born
May 5 ,1927 ) is a Canadian scientist, curler and formerLieutenant Governor ofSaskatchewan .Born in
Canora, Saskatchewan , of Ukrainian immigrants, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics at theUniversity of Saskatchewan , in 1949, and a M.A. in 1951.She was the chief medical physicist at the Saskatoon Cancer Clinic and director of physics services at the Saskatchewan Cancer Clinic. She was a professor of oncology and associate member in physics at the University of Saskatchewan. She was involved in the development of the world’s first
Cobalt 60 unit and one of the firstnuclear medicine scanning machines.She was the first woman member of the
Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada .From 1986 to 1989 she was chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan.
She is a past president (1971 to 1972) of the Canadian Ladies
Curling Association. In 1986, she was inducted into theCanadian Curling Hall of Fame , as a builder, and was awarded theSaskatchewan Order of Merit . In 1961, she won the very first Diamond 'D' Championships for team Saskatchewan as the third forJoyce McKee .In 1987, she was made an Officer of the
Order of Canada .From 1988 to 1994, she was
Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan .In 1992 controversy arose over her sexual orientation as a lesbian and her close financial relationship to the Progressive Conservative government of Grant Devine, which appointed her to the vice-regal position. (CTV coverage, Dec 1992). In her tenure Saskatchewan was the only province to elect-out of federal funding for AIDS research and education (AIDS Saskatoon, Oct 1992); even though the Royal University Hospital at the University of Saskatchewan – Fedoruk’s faculty – was seeking financial support for its AIDS related research. (UoS President Dec 1992).
In 1993 Christopher Lefler, a final-year masters student in fine arts at the University of Saskatchewan had his artwork censored by the university when in a public art installation during Day Without Art he addressed Fedoruk’s complicity in the province’s official government position on both homosexuality and AIDS. He was then suspended when he voiced resistance to the university’s unconstitutional actions, and eventually expelled from the university without appeal in 1994. (FUSE Magazine 1993). The university claimed that Lefler’s art was not art, and that by acknowledging the sexual orientation of the Lieutenant Governor he was putting the university in danger of a libel suit. (Canadian Periodical Index 1994). His subsequent complaint to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission was dismissed by the Ministry of Justice under the New Democratic Party government of Roy Romanow which also ruled that public recognition of another’s homosexuality, but not heterosexuality, is a libelous act (Star Phoenix 1996). Sylvia Fedoruk remains publicly silent on the matter. The Saskatchewan Arts Board also acted against Lefler by withdrawing his provincial arts grant citing similar fears of libel by Fedoruk (Hansard 1994). "Interpreting Censorship in Canada" edited by Allan C. Hutchinson and Klaus Petersen.
In the 1990s, the City of Saskatoon named a new road named Fedoruk Drive in her honour. Fedoruk Drive runs north of the community of Silver Springs, which honours noted Saskatchewan sports figures in its street names, and in the future is expected to evolve into one of the major arterial roadways in the northeast sector of the city.
ee also
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Monarchy in Saskatchewan External links
* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/women/002026-819-e.html Sylvia Olga Fedoruk - Canadian Women in Government]
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