The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is proud to announce the 2007 Gemini Awards Special Awards recipients. Each winner of these prestigious Special Awards represents the finest in Canadian television and will be honoured at upcoming galas for their outstanding contributions.

This year’s honourees include Canadian icon Don Harron, producer/writer/director John Kastner, the creative writing team of Canada’s highly regarded children’s program Mr. Dressup,Chris Clarke, Lilly Barnes, Joy Simons-Newall and Susan Marcus, and broadcast journalist Tony Burman. Special Awards will also be given to singer/songwriter and actor Tom Jackson and to the producers of Little Mosque On The Prairie

The Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism will be presented at the Sports and Documentary Gala on Monday, October 15; the Academy Achievement Award will be presented at the Gemini Lifestyle, Children’s and Youth Gala on Tuesday, October 16; and the Earle Grey Award, the Canada Award, the Gemini Humanitarian Award and the Margaret Collier Award will be presented at the Gemini Drama, Variety and Comedy Gala on Wednesday, October 17.

The 22nd Annual Gemini Awards Gala will be presented at the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan and broadcast live on CBC Television at 8:00 p.m. Sunday October 28, 2007. Global Television will kick off the evening with its signature red carpet pre-show in a special broadcast of ET Canada at The Gemini Awards at 7:30 p.m.

22nd Annual Gemini Special Awards Recipients:

Don Harron – Earle Grey Award

Award-winning actor Don Harron will be presented with the 2007 Gemini Earle Grey Award for his impressive body of work and contribution to the international profile of Canadian television.

Since 1936, Don Harron has delivered outstanding performances on television and radio, on stage and through the pages of various best-selling novels. A member of the Canadian Radio Commission, Harron spent five years in public affairs radio at CBC, winning an ACTRA Award for Best Host of CBC Morningside. This was followed by his own television interview show on CTV, The Don Harron Show, which led to Harron’s writing and performing for Global Television’s first season in 1973.

Not only has Don Harron made his mark in the Canadian entertainment industry, he has also played memorable roles on various American network television programs and films, along with English and American theatre. Under the pen name Charlie Farquharson, Harron’s novels have all become best sellers and his musicals are seen around the world. These accomplishments earned him the title of Officer of the Order of Canada in 1980 and, a decade later, he received the Order of Ontario.

John Kastner – Academy Achievement Award

The Gemini Academy Achievement Award was introduced in 1995 to recognize individuals who quietly shape the television industry for the better without asking for recognition themselves. This year, John Kastner is honoured for his positive and significant contribution to Canadian journalism and Canada’s television industry.

Known for his dark and wildly comical Canadian documentaries, John Kastner has won numerous awards, including three Emmys, the Prix Jeunesse (Project DARE), the Grand Prize at the World Red Cross Festival of Health and Medical Films (Four Women and Fighting Back) and a Special Jury Citation at the Prix Italia (Sharing the Secret). In addition, his project Rage Against the Darkness has aired on CBC-TV and CBC Newsworld and won national and international awards. Most recently, Kastner’s two-part documentary, Monster In The Family, aired on CTV in August of 2007.

Documentaries are only a part of Kastner's extensive broadcasting career. He has produced, directed, written or performed in nearly every kind of television programming from quiz shows (Photo Finish) to confrontation shows (Under Attack); from Candid Camera-type segments (90 Minutes Live) to children's comedies (the CTV series Just Kidding). He has long had a particular involvement in drama, beginning as a professional child actor. He co-wrote the feature film, The Terry Fox Story, starring Robert Duvall; and produced the CBC-TV movie Turning To Stone.

Tony Burman – Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism

The Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism is given to the deserving recipient who has made significant contributions to Canadian journalism.

Starting his journalistic career as a reporter with the Montreal Star, Tony Burman went on to work with the CBC for 35 years in various capacities. Most recently, he was the Editor in Chief of CBC News, Current Affairs and Newsworld.

Over the course of his career, Burman has been recognized as one of Canada’s most experienced journalists, producing many award-winning news and documentary programs for CBC. In addition, many of his Gemini-award winning documentaries (Sudan: Children of Darkness, The Last Great Cause, Mandela) have been viewed worldwide on networks such as BBC and PBS.

Burman has made great advances on behalf of Canadian broadcasting: producing the first on-air French/English collaboration with simultaneous translation heard on both CBC’s French and English language networks; organizing the first two-country hook-up involving the CBC and National Public Radio in the U.S.; and creating the first three-continent hook-up - debating the merits of the Monarchy - involving the CBC, the BBC and ABC in Australia.

Chris Clark, Lilly Barnes, Joy Simons-Newall and Susan Marcus – Margaret Collier Award

Chris Clarke, Lilly Barnes, Joy Simons-Newall and Susan Marcus are the recipients of the Margaret Collier Award for their collective body of work for the series Mr. Dressup as well as their significant contribution to the national and international profile of screenwriters in Canadian television.

These four writers collectively wrote over 800 episodes of the renowned Canadian children’s television series Mr. Dressup that captured the imagination of generations of Canadians growing up in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Airing every weekday morning, the series starred the inimitable Ernie Coombs as Mr. Dressup, who each day would lead children through a series of songs, stories, arts, crafts and games. Mr. Dressup was joined each morning by two helpful friends, Casey—a rosy-cheeked boy, and Finnegan—a dog who lived in a tree house in the back yard, each brought to life by puppeteer Judith Lawrence.

The writers created a safe place for children on Canadian television, one that was humane, fun, imaginative yet firmly planted in the real world. The reality they formed in each episode of Mr. Dressup encompassed both the familiar and the new through humour, wisdom and truly iconic characters while respecting the intelligence of its audience. The program dealt with a wide range of topics in a gentle manner enabling children to begin to understand and appreciate the world that they knew and wished to know.

Tom Jackson – Gemini Humanitarian Award

Tom Jackson will be awarded the Gemini Humanitarian Award for his humanitarian activities and commitment to public service.

Appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000 for his music and humanitarian work, Tom is well known to Canadians as an accomplished musician and actor dedicated to helping the less fortunate. Tom has recorded 14 albums, two of which have received Juno nominations. His rich bass baritone is recognizable to country music fans and concertgoers across the country. Tom is also an award-winning actor. Fans of the CBC hit television series North of 60 will know him as Chief Peter Kenidi, a role he portrayed for six seasons.

One of Tom's prime motivators is his drive to end hunger. He has applied his musical and entrepreneurial gifts to his Huron Carol Benefit Concert Series and his newly launched Singing for Supper and Swinging for Supper tours—events raising money and awareness for food banks. Singing for Supper carries on his annual Christmas tradition, with over 20 concerts performed in churches and community halls from coast to coast. Swinging for Supper highlight’s Tom’s love of golf and live music. Tom’s passion for travel across Canada forged his commitment to tour with Canadian Pacific Railway’s fundraiser The Holiday Train from 1999 to 2003. From that experience Tom has produced two compilation CDs and along with The Huron Carol and Singing and Swinging for Supper has raised over $4.1M dollars for food banks and family agencies across the country.

Tom has a unique way of uniting people to create change and this instinct prevails despite all odds. The Vigil, a post-9/11 concert fundraiser held September 12, 2001, engaged Canadian Country Music industry professionals, raising money for the Red Cross and marking the first of many similar events around the globe. Tom spearheaded and hosted the CBC Newsworld coverage of Say Hay, an Alberta event that raised $1.8M for drought-stricken prairie farmers. And in 2003, Tom collaborated with Calgary-based industries to create Beef Relief in aid of cattle ranchers devastated by border closures. Combined cash and beef contributions for the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank topped the $600,000 mark.

Little Mosque on the Prairie – Canada Award

Sponsored by Canadian Heritage

Created and supported by the Multiculturalism Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage since 1988, the Canada Award honours excellence in mainstream television programming that reflects the racial and cultural diversity of Canada. This year’s honour goes to Little Mosque on the Prairie.

Created by well-known Muslim Canadian writer and director Zarqa Nawaz along with WestWind Pictures, executive produced by Mary Darling and Clark Donnelly, produced by Michael Snook and Susan Flanders-Alexander, and directed by the highly acclaimed Michael Kennedy, Little Mosque on the Prairie explores the dynamics of Muslim and non-Muslim relationships with a comedic twist and tackles the decidedly difficult task of countering the prevailing negative image of Muslims that appears on an almost daily basis in news reports.

The principal cast, writers and producers of this unique series are as ethnically diverse as the characters portrayed and include individuals from five different religious backgrounds, four of them non-Christian. The characters represent the mosaic found in the Muslim faith as well as in Canada and serve to illustrate the point that any one community is not homogeneous and that it is important to view a group within the greater community so as not to be seen as the “other.”. The characters in Little Mosque enable the writers and producers to derive comedy from stereotypical situations and expectations, mutual suspicion and misunderstanding to reveal the universal human themes that are the reality.

The Canada Award is sponsored by Canadian Heritage.
The Gemini Humanitarian Award is sponsored by Global Television.

For more information on the 22nd Annual Gemini Awards, visit www.geminiawards.ca.