Discovery Channel president Trina McQueen has been named Woman of the Year by Canadian Women in Communications.

In gala festivities in Ottawa Feb. 17, the packed house met the announcement with a standing ovation for McQueen, who subsequently managed to both inspire and amuse.

Faced with 520 colleagues, a members list of the upper echelons of the broadcasting and production industry, McQueen paid tribute to the efforts and accomplishments of the cwc, adding, ‘When I see how far this organization has come in five years, I really am impressed by the power of male guilt.’

Reinforced ideals

On a more serious note, McQueen took the opportunity to reinforce cultural protection ideals, saying Canadians are more than the sum of their economic parts.

‘We are dreamers and lovers, with a capacity for sacrifice, generosity, reverence and wit. We hope. We create. We desire justice and peace, and most of all, individual freedom. Our culture is our freedom. Let’s not sell it, or trade it, or give it away. Let’s not melt it into a global pudding. Most of all, let’s not pretend it doesn’t matter.’

Moffat Communications also came up gold this year, sharing the CWC Employer of the Year Citation with AT&T Long Distance Services, and employing the winner of the CWC Mentoring Award, Susan Millican. Millican, vp of programming for wtn, was toasted as a ready coach and a role model for women in the industry.

The CWC Trailblazer Award went to Laura Dierker, Canada’s first product manager of a national Internet network and creator of the first ‘turn-key’ intranets.

Industry Canada made its first cwc dinner appearance to announce its participation in a new leg of the Jeanne Sauve Award. The Sauve Award – a 10-week internship program at Heritage Canada for two women in the private sector – is expanding to include two postings at Industry Canada. In turn, Industry will send two representatives into the private sector. The who and where are a work in progress, but the program is expected to launch in July 1997.

This year’s winners of the Heritage postings are Izabell Fagan of Fundy Cable in New Brunswick and Donna Bevelander of cbc, Toronto.

In other cwc news, eight months after the appointment of executive director Stephanie MacKendrick, the organization’s mentoring program is getting off the ground. Pilot projects begin in six weeks in Toronto and Ottawa, with plans to go national by the fall.