Honourable senators, thank you for this opportunity to say a few words about our colleague, to highlight and recognize a rare and special moment. It’s not just about the stories he has told. This time, his own story has taken pride of place.

A stunning, compelling and powerful documentary entitled The Geographies of DAR, or David Adams Richards, has just captured the Best Canadian Film prize at Le FIFA 2024, the forty‑second edition of the International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal.

This follows a win at the New Brunswick film festival as well.

It was written and directed by Monique LeBlanc, and it is a story told in his own words and in his own voice. For those of us who attended the showing here in Ottawa, well, it took our breath away. The story of his muse, his inspiration, is a story of the people and the land of the Miramichi. It is central to his work. As David says, the characters come from the soil. They’re like the trees and, in a certain respect, they cling to that river and soil. Well, so does David.

He was born in 1950 in Newcastle, New Brunswick, the third of six. After giving up on his highly unlikely dream of a career in the NHL, he found his calling at the age of 14. He was going to be a poet, and he set out to shape a life of extraordinary purpose.

He finished his first novel at the age of 20, The Keeping of Gusties. He found other writers and read Faulkner and Brontë and Dostoyevsky and said of himself that he was truly “. . . nothing more than a thug with Tolstoy in my pocket.”

In 1971, however, he put his most convincing talent to work as a crafter of words. He put it to good use, convincing the beautiful Peggy McIntyre to marry him. It was, by his own admission, the smartest move of his life. They remain today soulmates, best friends, partners and fellow bikers, as in motorcycles.

There must have been a short supply of men in the Miramichi.

He has viewed his community always as a place to carry out a life of service. After more than 25 books, for which he has won the Giller Prize and Governor General’s Literary Awards, sometimes both for fiction and non-fiction at the same time, he has won the Order of New Brunswick, the Order of Canada and too many more to list.

His books — you know the titles — include Mercy Among the Children, River of the Brokenhearted, Nights Below Station Street. He remains through it all gracious, humble, witty, opinionated, talented and kind. He has never broken faith with his first friends nor with the land from where he came, which are his roots.

He said that he knew that earning a living as a writer would be hard. At times, he thought he would be better off if he had become a plumber. It probably wouldn’t have worked out. So, today, you sit amongst us as a poet, a novelist, a playwright. You write short stories, essays, polemics and thousands of wise words.

David once said that there is no worse flaw in a man’s character than wanting to belong, but it’s not true. You belong to that community of wordsmiths, and now you have chosen all of us as your community in this chamber. We are proud and we are rewarded that you can be part of our lives.

I want to end with a quote. These are not David’s own words, but I think they capture today, the moment, and reflect his life: “Work hard in silence, let success be your noise.”

Colleagues, let’s make some noise for our colleague.