SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — The Late Norman Mark Hiscock

Honourable senators, today I am pleased to present Chapter 88 of “Telling Our Story.”

The 2025 East Coast Music Awards, or ECMAs, took place from May 7 to 11 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. It was a five-day non-stop musical celebration showcasing and recognizing the best of our East Coast talent. It was a week to celebrate and honour the top Atlantic Canadian musical artists from the past year.

Once again, the host city of St. John’s outdid itself, and the thirty-seventh annual ECMA week was a tremendous success. I want to congratulate all those involved in making it so.

Sadly, this year’s celebration had a grey cloud hanging over it, with the sudden and untimely passing of one of our province’s most talented and prolific musicians, Mark Hiscock.

On May 6, one day before the opening of the ECMAs, Mark passed away at the young age of 53. Mark was a mainstay of the musical landscape of Newfoundland and Labrador and a founding member of the well-known and much-loved folk group Shanneyganock.

The band, which was formed more than 30 years ago as a musical duo along with Chris Andrews, is well known and much loved for their many songs and tunes steeped in our province’s long history of storytelling. In 2020, Shanneyganock received a lifetime achievement award during the East Coast Music Awards Gala.

At a very young age, Mark began playing the button accordion, and, through his talent and passion for the instrument, he became one of the best that our province has ever produced.

Apart from being a member of the band, Mark also had a solo career, released his own albums and worked with other artists. He has left an incredible mark on our province’s music industry.

In a CBC interview, fellow band member Chris Andrews, who was with Mark when he passed away, summed up Mark’s legacy very well when he said:

Mark was a very kind, gentle person. He liked everybody. He loved music. . . . He loved Newfoundland. He loved the accordion and music, and he loved his life and his family and his wife. You know, [he] was a happy man, and it’s just so sad at this great stage of his life, he was taken away.

Friends, I ask you to join with me in expressing our sympathies and condolences to Mark’s wife, Kelly; his son, Daniel; his parents, Norman and Linda; and all his family, friends and fans.

On many occasions, I had the privilege to be in Mark’s company, a true patriot of and a great ambassador for Newfoundland and Labrador. He was indeed a kind, gentle and humble human being.

I will conclude with the words of a famous song which Mark performed many times, called “Fiddlers Green.”

Now I don’t want a harp nor a halo, not me

Just give me a breeze and a good rolling sea

I’ll play me old squeeze-box as we sail along

With the wind in the riggin to sing me a song

Wrap me up in me oilskin and jumper

No more on the docks I’ll be seen

Just tell me old shipmates, I’m taking a trip mates

And I’ll see you someday on Fiddlers Green

Rest in peace, my friend.