Douglas Elliott has received numerous awards for his human rights and class action work. He was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. The Law Society of Ontario has awarded him its two highest honours, the Law Society Medal and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. The R. Douglas Elliott Fellowship was created by the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in his honour with generous support from the LGBT Purge Fund. More recently, he was awarded the inaugural Carl Mitchell Community Impact Award by the University of Toronto Alumni Association, the Ontario Bar Association’s Robert Muir Award for Mentoring and The Advocates’ Society Award of Justice.
Each Member of the Order of Canada receives a citation for their appointment. The citation for his appointment to the Order of Canada reads as follows:
Roy Douglas Elliott, C.M.
Elliot Lake, Ontario
Douglas Elliott has striven to advance and protect 2SLGBTQI+ rights under Canadian law. He is recognized for his involvement in landmark constitutional cases and class actions, notably serving as lead counsel in the LGBT Purge class action. He is also an experienced leader and volunteer with professional and non-profit organizations.
The Order of Canada and Membership Criteria
The Order of Canada is the cornerstone of the Canadian honours system. To coincide with the centennial of Canadian Confederation, the three-tiered Order was established in 1967 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Membership in the Order recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. The Order recognizes people in all sectors of Canadian society. Their contributions are varied, yet they have all enriched the lives of others and made a difference to this country. This honour is administered by the Chancellery of Honours at Rideau Hall.
Membership is accorded to those who exemplify the Order’s Latin motto, desiderantes meliorem patriam, meaning “they desire a better country”, a phrase taken from Hebrews 11:16. The three tiers of the Order are Member, Officer and Companion.
King Charles III, the reigning Canadian monarch, is the Order’s sovereign; the Governor General administers the Order on his behalf as Chancellor and Principal Companion. Appointees to the Order are recommended by an advisory board and formally inducted at a later date by the Governor General or the sovereign. As of January 2024, 8,375 people have been appointed to the Order from among our current population of 41.842,875. Douglas Elliott is one of just 154 Canadians recently appointed to the Order as announced by Rideau Hall on December 18, 2024.
Members of the Order of Canada (post-nominals: CM, in French: Membre de l’ordre du Canada) have made an exceptional contribution to Canada or Canadians at a local or regional level, group, field or activity. As many as 136 Members may be appointed annually, not including extraordinary Members and those inducted on an honorary basis, and there is no limit on how many Members may be living at one time.
The insignia of the Order is a stylized snowflake of six points with a red annulus at its centre which bears a stylized maple leaf circumscribed with the motto of the Order, DESIDERANTES MELIOREM PATRIAM (They desire a better country), surmounted by the Royal Crown. It is struck in fine silver and is composed of three individual pieces: the snowflake, annulus, and maple leaf. The colour is added by hand through a unique application of opaque and translucent viscous enamel.
The design of the insignia of the Order of Canada dates from 1967 and is credited to Bruce Beatty, CM, SOM, CD.