CTV Montreal's Chief News Anchor, Mutsumi Takahashi, was among 40 people invested into the Order of Canada on Thursday.

Other Quebecers granted the country's highest civilian honour included Micheline Dumont, Lucienne Robillard, and the Wurtele sisters.

Takahashi has been a mainstay of Canadian broadcasting for more than three decades, making her debut on the station then known as CFCF 12 in 1982 as a news reporter.

Four years later, she assumed her now-familiar post as an anchor.

Takahashi was awed that an immigrant could be granted the highest award in the nation.

"It's the immigrant story. I came here with my parents. There were three of us, two suitcases. It's an amazing country and I am so fortunate," said Takahashi.

Takahashi was born in Shiroishi, Japan but moved to Canada with her family as a child. She attended Vanier College and Concordia University, earning a B.A. and M.B.A. In 2013, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Concordia. In 2017, she was recognized by the RTDNA with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

During the ceremony, Takahashi said she was impressed by the other recipients of the award.

"This is an amazing group of people and I'm so fortunate and humbled to be among them," said Takahashi.

Since being named to the Order of Canada, Takahashi has been able to preside over citizenship ceremonies, and she did that in Montreal in January.

"It was important for me to tell them that I was once there too. I stood there, I took the oath of citizenship, and I know what kind of hope these people have for themselves and for their children. I wanted them to understand that anything is possible now," she said.

Her longtime co-anchor, and friend, Bill Haugland was honoured to watch Takahashi in Ottawa.

"Let me say that I never won anything except the invitation from Mutsumi to be here today and it's such an honour to have witnessed this really, really remarkable event in Mutsumi's life and in the life of all the honorees today," said Haugland.

"It was an incredible ceremony and what an honour for Mutsumi."

40 notable Canadians invested

Other notable Quebecers being honoured Thursday include:

  • Matthew Coon Come, who is being promoted to an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is a former Grand Chief of the Council of Crees, and national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
  • Micheline Dumont, retired professor at Sherbrooke University.
  • Hilary Pearson, president of Philanthropic Foundations Canada
  • Michele Rivet, president and founder of the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal
  • Lucienne Robillard , former MNA and and federal MP who served as a cabinet minister under Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.
  • Louis Sabourin, was a professor at Ecole nationale d’administration publique and the University of Ottawa. He later served as a diplomat and was president of the OECD Development Centre in Paris.
  • Isabella Rhoda Wurtele Eaves and Grace Rhona Wurtele Gillis were the first women to qualify for Canada's Olympic ski team and won almost every ski competition in North American in the 1940s and '50s.