CPAWS Montreal Board member honoured with award

02.11.06

QUEBEC CITY - Dr. John O’Driscoll, president of CPAWS-Quebec, has been named recipient of the 2006 Environmental Health Award by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), and of the 2006 Nicole Bruinsma Award of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE). The two awards will be conferred at a ceremony in Quebec City tonight.

The awards were granted in recognition of Dr. O’Driscoll’s work as founding president of both the Quebec chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), and of the Environment and Health Committee of the Quebec College of Family Physicians.

Elected to CPAWS’ Board of Trustees in 2000, Dr. O’Driscoll presided over the establishment of its Quebec chapter in 2001. Since then he has worked to better protect the province’s natural areas. He also led CPAWS-Quebec’s initiative to create a coalition of Quebec environmental groups - now known as Aux Arbres Citoyens ! - pushing for new protected areas in Quebec, notably in the boreal forest. His work with the Quebec College of Family Physicians (QCFP) began in 2000 when he joined its board of directors to improve the province’s drinking water standards. Dr. O’Driscoll created a coalition that includes rural mayors, agronomists, and environmentalists, to lobby for a provincial moratorium on new hog operations – the principal cause of the problem. The government ultimately imposed a three year moratorium on new hog operations.

“I’m proud that this kind of work has received such recognition”, says Dr. O’Driscoll, “but it only happened because of the support of many committed people in CPAWS, at the QCFP, and among our partners. I think these awards are a tribute to all of them.”

Dr. O’Driscoll is a full-time emergency physician at the University of
Montreal Medical Centre, and teacher in its Faculty of Medicine.

CPAWS congratulates Dr. O’Driscoll for receiving these prestigious awards.

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Contact: Marie-Eve Marchand, CPAWS Québec
Ph. 514 278-7627
CPAWS is Canada's pre-eminent, non-profit wilderness protection organization. With a network of 13 chapters, 20,000 members, over 50 staff and hundreds of committed volunteers, since 1963 CPAWS has helped to conserve over 400,000