MONTREAL – Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame announced this week it will hold the 2006 Telecom Laureate Awards on October 16, 2006 at The Carlu in Toronto.
The inaugural induction ceremony in October 2005 honoured nine important individuals who have contributed to the development of telecommunications in Canada, including Alexander Graham Bell, Reginald Fessenden, Terry Matthews and David Colville. The Laureate selection process is a transparent one, beginning with candidate nominations from the public at large and from professionals in the telecom industry.
Nominations are screened for eligibility by a Nominations Committee, this year chaired by Professor Hudson Janisch, past professor of law at the University of Toronto. A Selections Committee then chooses the Laureate award winners from a short list of qualified nominees developed by the Nominations Committee. This year the Selections Committee was chaired by David Colville, past vice-chairman, Telecommunications of the CRTC and its other members included Francoise Bertrand, president of the Federation of Quebec Chambers of Commerce and past chair of the CRTC, and Carol Stephenson, Dean of the Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.
The identities of the 2006 Laureates will be announced at a press conference in September, in Montreal. Nominations are now closed but the hall of fame is accepting noms for 2007.
"The Canadian telecommunications industry has a rich heritage of achievement, invention and innovation that pre-dates Confederation," said Lorne Abugov, founder of Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame. "Telecommunications in Canada has so many unsung heroes and little-know success stories. Ours is the greatest story never told."
