Participating Writer, Ontario Writers-in-the-Schools Program
Writers' Union of Canada Electronic Rights and Copyright Committee. Chair 2005 – present
Chair, Writers' Union of Canada, 2005-2006
Certificate of Commendation, Heritage Toronto, October 2000 for A Magical Place: Toronto Island and Its People
Nominated for Silver Birch Award, 2000, Sioux Winter
Award of Merit, Heritage Toronto, October, 1999, Casa Loma: Toronto’s Fairy-tale Castle and its Owner, Sir Henry Pellatt
Prairie Fire selected for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre “Our Choice” list and nominated for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, 1998
Several other books in the Bains Series were selected for Canadian Children's Book Centre
“Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature,” 1984 (for a body of work, Bains Series)
Canada Council Award for Juvenile Literature, 1975 for Shantymen of Cache Lake. (This award is now called the Governor General's Award for English language children's literature)
Member PEN Canada
Founding member of CommunityAIR, an environmental group that opposes the expansion of a downtown Toronto airport and promotes quality of life in the city. Author of the group’s website www.communityair.org
Founding member of VoteToronto.ca, a citizen group that researches and publishes information on financial donations received by candidates in the City of Toronto and surrounding municipalities. www.votetoronto.ca
