Leslie Dan receives Honorary Doctorate from York University
November 25th 2010
By Eva Hegyi
On October 15th 2010, the world-famous pharmacist and businessman Leslie Dan was among four distinguished leaders in public service, business, health care and philanthropy to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from York University’s Kellog-Schulich Executive MBA Program in Toronto.
Leslie Dan was born in Budapest in 1929 and arrived in Canada in 1947 as a Hungarian war refugee. He came to Canada without a family, with little money and poor knowledge of the English language. Through determination, hard work and study, he became a driving force both in the Canadian economy and internationally. Read more
Hungarian Entrepreneurs in Canada
by Eva M. Tomory
Many Hungarian Canadians have made significant contributions to business in Canada. We hope to tell some of their stories on this website; here are a handful of examples.
Read about six Canadian Entrepreneurs of Hungarian origin, four of whom came to Canada after the 1956 Revolution: Leslie Dan, Frank Hasenfratz, Robert Lantos, Peter Munk, Anna Porter and Andrew Sarlos. Read more
Peter Munk Named Ivey Business Leader of the Year
TORONTO, Jan. 15 /CNW/ - Peter Munk, Founder and Chairman of Barrick Gold Corporation, will receive this year's Ivey Business Leader Award at a gala dinner on October 20, 2010. Read moreAgnes Laing - Pioneering in business and sports
by Nausikaa Muresan
Like so many Hungarians fleeing after the 1956 Revolution, Agnes Laing escaped by foot across the border with Austria. It took four days to reach the border. For security reasons the family split: Agnes’s father and her sister left together and Agnes left with her mother. At six and a half she was well prepared for the trip: she knew that, if stopped by the Russians she had to pretend to be going to the country to recuperate after chickenpox. Read more
Before Starbucks came the Hungarians
LESLEY CHESTERMAN. The Gazette. Montreal, Que.: Oct 24, 2006. pg. A.3 In search of our daily java fix, Montreal coffee aficionados head to Caffe Art Java on the Plateau or Mile End's Cafe Olimpico or Toi Moi & Cafe. For the slightly less obsessed, La Brulerie St-Denis, Starbucks and Second Cup are the chains of choice for cappuccino, espresso or latte....Read more
Our place in Montreal
The Rosemary on Metcalfe Street
by George PandiMy Canadian life began in July, 1957, in the kitchen of the Muskoka Sanitarium outside Gravenhurst. I was a diligent immigrant, ready to learn the language, customs, social behaviour —I had trouble only with the food. The cuisine at my workplace gave me mild culture shock. No wonder; we had Ontario hospital meals by an English chef who used to cook in the army. I moved to Montreal after two months.... Read more
Where to wait for the muse
Judy Stoffman, Toronto Star, Toronto, ON, May 21, 1998
Paris has the Deux Magots, Dublin has the James Joyce Pub, Budapest has the New York Cafe, where writers were traditionally given free pens and paper. Toronto, too, has its literary cafes, like The Coffee Mill in Yorkville, which just celebrated its 35th birthday. Read more
Watching a Toronto neighbourhood fade away
By Judy Stoffman
The glass-fronted cases running the length of the shop have just a few cold cuts left. The shelves, once full of pickles, mustards, jams, spices, transparent bags of beans and vermicelli are almost bare.
Going out of business. Everything must go. 50 per cent off," says the sad hand-lettered sign in the window. Read more