by BK Munn

Among the recent round of announcements of appointees to the Order of Canada was one overlooked tidbit: Manitoba political cartoonist and artist Réal Bérard​ was appointed to the Order for “his contributions as a visual artist and cartoonist and for his support of various fundraisers benefiting the Franco-Manitoban community.”

Bérard (who sometimes signs his work “Cayouche”) is one of only a handful of cartoonists to ever receive the Order of Canada, the country’s highest non-military honour,  joining several of the legendary names of newspaper cartooning like Lynn Johnston (1992) and Aislin (2003). Bérard was born in 1935 and worked for Manitoba’s parks department before becoming a cartoonist for La Liberté, Winnipeg’s French-language newspaper, in 1982. He is also an illustrator, painter, sculptor and map-maker.

see all of this year’s appointees here