TT doctor wins top award in Canada

Trinidad-born Patricia Horsham, a paediatrician and lawyer based in  Ottawa, has been chosen to receive the prestigious Harry Jerome Awards next May for excellence in community service. Dr Horsham, old girl of Bishop Anstey High School, originally from Barataria, is one of 12 to be honoured in this year’s Harry Jerome Award ceremony which annually recognises outstanding people in Canada’s black community. Also celebrated in this year’s Harry Jerome Awards is Louise Bennett-Coverley (“Miss Lou”), famed Jamaican poet, writer and folklorist who lives in Scarborough, Ontario. Dr Bennett-Coverley will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr  Horsham, a specialist in the healing and protection of children, is a leading authority on child abuse and child sexual abuse, who lectures in Canada and in the Caribbean on the medico-legal aspects of child abuse. She has served as an expert  witness in child abuse cases, and is a Board member of the  University of Ottawa International  Association of Child Abuse and Neglect. Apart from practising medicine and teaching law in Ottawa, Dr Horsham is a noted mas player and Carnival organiser in Ottawa and Toronto. The Harry Jerome award is named after a champion black Canadian Olympian athlete of the 1960s.

The Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA), which administers the awards, describes recipients as “stellar examples of excellence, commitment and success.” The awards recognise high-performing black Canadians in academics, athletics, arts, business, community service, leadership, media and entertainment, professional excellence, and technology and innovation. The Lifetime Achievement, Trailblazer, and President’s Awards are three additional “special distinctions.” Perdita Felicien, Canadian world champion hurdler, who won gold medals in the 2003 World Track and Field Championships 100-metre hurdles and in the 60-metre hurdles in the 2004 World Championships, will receive this year’s  Trailblazer Award.