On June 3, the Catholic Civil Rights League honoured Frank Chauvin with its Archbishop Adam Exner Award for Catholic Excellence at its annual dinner in Toronto.

Phil Horgan, president of the Catholic Civil Rights League and Joanne McGarry, executive director of the CCRL, present Frank Chauvin (right) with the Archbishop Adam Exner Award for Catholic Excellence at the league's annual dinner in Toronto.

Phil Horgan, president of the Catholic Civil Rights League and Joanne McGarry, executive director of the CCRL, present Frank Chauvin (right) with the Archbishop Adam Exner Award for Catholic Excellence at the league's annual dinner in Toronto.

Chauvin, a former Windsor, Ont. police detective, is founder of the Holy Name of Mary Food Fund in Haiti, which operates one of the country’s few orphanages for girls. For his extensive charitable work, Chauvin has been given numerous honours and awards, including an honourary doctorate at Assumption College at the University of Windsor, the City of Windsor Award, the Ontario Medal of Good Citizenship and, in 1987, the Order of Canada.

In 2008, Chauvin launched a judicial challenge to review the decision to give abortionist Henry Morgentaler the Order of Canada. He argued that Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin should not have involved herself in the process of awarding Morgentaler such an honour when he could reasonably be expected to have business before the Supreme Court of Canada.

CCRL president Phil Horgan told the audience that because he is a member of the Order of Canada, Chauvin had standing to challenge the dishonour brought to the award by Morgentaler’s inclusion. Horgan also highlighted the irony of Chauvin’s charitable work in helping Haitian girls, while a Haitian-born governor-general, Michaelle Jean, bestowed the Order of Canada on an abortionist who has killed untold thousands of unborn babies.

Chauvin did not return his Order of Canada, as at least eight other recipients had, in order to pursue the judicial review. As Horgan noted, it is the first time that anyone has returned an Order of Canada in protest of someone else receiving the honour or that anyone has challenged the process by which the honour is given.

Radio and television personality, and Toronto Sun and Interim columnist Michael Coren, was the featured speaker at the CCRL annual dinner, during which he spoke of his spiritual journey. While he moved from Catholicism to evangelicalism back to Roman Catholicism, he noted that, “I always, consistently, unwaveringly, remained pro-life.”