4 Concordians appointed to Order of Quebec

Peter A. Howlett, BA 63

Peter A. Howlett has built a legacy of leadership in both business — primarily at Montorsan Holdings and Meta Energy — and community service.

He has dedicated much of his life to philanthropy, founding Portage Canada, a national non-profit that has supported tens of thousands of individuals struggling with addiction. He has also served as president of Les Amis de la montagne, as founding member of the Montreal International Institute for the Environment and has contributed to numerous fundraising campaigns benefiting Montreal’s schools, health centres and heritage institutions.

A former professional athlete with the Montreal Alouettes and the Canadian national rugby team, Howlett later served Concordia as a member of the Board of Governors, vice-president of the Concordia University Inter-Generational Fund (formerly Concordia University Foundation) and supporter of the School of Irish Studies. His dedication to public service has earned him many accolades, including the Order of Canada, the Order of Montreal and the Humberto Santos Award of Merit from the Concordia University Alumni Association.

Chantal Hébert, LLD 14

Chantal Hébert has shaped national conversations for decades with her incisive analysis and bilingual reporting. A senior political columnist for the Toronto Star and contributor to Le Devoir, she is also a regular on CBC’s The National and other current affairs programs.

Hébert began her career in the 1970s with Radio-Canada and has served as bureau chief for Le Devoir and La Presse in Ottawa. Her books, French Kiss and The Morning After, offer deep insights into the evolving relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada.

She has received numerous honorary degrees across Canada — including one from Concordia in 2014 — and has been recognized with the Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism and the APEX Public Service Citation. Hébert was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012.

Serge Chapleau, LLD 18

Known for his political satire, Serge Chapleau has been one of Quebec’s most influential editorial cartoonists for more than five decades. Through his wit and instantly recognizable caricatures, Chapleau has skewered political and cultural figures from Jean Drapeau to Donald Trump in his long-running column for La Presse.

His annual compilation L’Année Chapleau has been a bestseller since 1993, and his TV character Gérard D. Laflaque, first a puppet and later a CGI creation, delighted audiences for 14 seasons on Radio-Canada’s Et Dieu créa Laflaque.

Chapleau’s work has earned him seven National Newspaper Awards and multiple nominations. He was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015 and received an honorary doctorate from Concordia in 2018 in recognition of his contributions to journalism and public discourse.

Farah Alibay, DSc 23

A trailblazing aerospace engineer, Alibay has contributed to some of the most ambitious space exploration projects of the past decade. A key figure at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), she has worked on six planetary missions, including the Mars 2020 mission and the historic Ingenuity helicopter flight — the first controlled flight on another planet.

Since joining JPL in 2014, Alibay has held leadership roles on missions to Mars and Venus and is currently lead systems engineer of payloads for a future Venus exploration mission. Her passion for space science is equaled by her commitment to diversity and inclusion in STEM.

She has delivered hundreds of talks in both French and English to inspire the next generation — particularly women and underrepresented groups — to pursue careers in science and engineering.

Alibay’s 2022 memoir, Mon année martienne (My Martian Year), offered an inside look at the intense preparation behind her groundbreaking work on the Red Planet.

In recognition of her scientific and social impact, she has received numerous accolades, including the Médaille de l’Assemblée nationale, the title of “Personality of the Year” by Le Devoir, the Commander’s rank of the Ordre de Montréal, and an honorary degree from Concordia.