Order of Ontario recognizes Aboriginal accomplishments

Recent Order of Ontario
recipients Ronald Common and Allison Fisher have worked tirelessly to support
equal opportunities for First Nations people, said Anishinabek Nation Grand
Council Chief Patrick Madahbee. Common, who is currently president of Sault
College, worked extensively with Aboriginal communities throughout Canada
creating First Nations school systems. He was the driving force behind the
Anishinabek Educational Institute that now has campuses on Nipissing First
Nation and Munsee-Delaware Nation. Fisher, of Wikwemikong Unceded Indian
Reserve, is the executive director of Ottawa's Wabano Centre for Aboriginal
Health, a state-of-the-art facility serving more than 10,000 Aboriginal people
every year and widely regarded as the premier Aboriginal health centre in the
country.  The new Wabano centre, which opened in May 2013, provides a wide
range of social services, health supports, and youth programs for 35,000
Aboriginal people living in the Ottawa region. In its 14-year history, Wabano
has had dramatic success in creating programs that reduce homelessness,
poverty, unemployment, addiction rates and family violence among Aboriginal
people.