Jane Rule has been inducted as a member of the Order of Canada, announced Governor General Michaëlle Jean, Feb 20.
Rule, an out lesbian, immigrated to Canada from the US in 1956 and became an internationally renowned novelist, essayist, columnist and critic. She is an occasional contributor to Xtra West and was a columnist in the sexual liberation journal, The Body Politic.
Although Rule prefers not to politicize the human family in her fiction, she has been an outspoken critic of censorship and proponent of sexual liberation.
“I feel very pleased,” she told Xtra West Feb 23. “I am often dubious about awards. I think they are often given and withheld for the wrong reasons but this particular one touches me. I’ve had a wonderfully productive and happy life here and Canada is now choosing me. I think that openly gay people are acknowledged is one of the symptoms of how far we’ve come.”
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