Loved one will accept Barry Sherman’s award on his behalf
A family member or friend will be invited to accept Barry Sherman’s Order of Canada on his behalf at a future investiture ceremony, the Governor General’s office says.
Sherman was among the latest appointees announced Friday for his entrepreneurship in the pharmaceutical industry and massive philanthropic contributions.
Sherman and his wife, Honey, were found dead in their North York home on Dec. 15. An autopsy found the pair died of “ligature neck compression” and Toronto police homicide investigators are treating the deaths as suspicious.
The billionaire couple’s only son, Jonathon, told the mourners at his parents’ funeral on Dec. 21 that the 75-year-old Apotex founder privately revealed to family two weeks earlier that he had been appointed to the Order of Canada.
“I don’t know what will happen now with that award, if anything, but to our family, you were always the greatest Canadian,” Jonathon said. “You were always so humble, but I know how proud you were to get that news, and how excited you were to finally be recognized for what you are.”
Nominations for the award are kept confidential to respect the appointee’s privacy, Josephine Laframboise, a spokesperson for the Governor General’s office, wrote in an email.
Sherman’s achievements include founding pharmaceutical company Apotex, which manufactures and exports generic drugs to more than 115 countries. With a net worth of $4.62 billion, he ranked 15th on Canadian Business magazine’s list of the richest 100 Canadians.
The Shermans and his company carried a proud tradition of philanthropic donations over the years.
The couple gave tens of millions to education, health care, politics and the Jewish community, including $10 million to Mount Sinai Hospital and $3 million to the University Health Network.
In 1992, while expressing his anger about federal changes to the patent act that could cost Apotex tens of millions of dollars, then-executive vice-president and now CEO Jack Kay said Sherman was deserving of the appointment.
“Barry deserves the Order of Canada,” he told the Star at the time. “Not the royal shaft that he’s getting.” With files from Betsy Powell and Victoria Gibson