Choose a Donor Story:

$7 Million Gift from G. Raymond Chang to Further Research at CAMH $5 million donation will support new inpatient centre for youth McCain Family gift supports vision for CAMH Redevelopment CIBC The T.R. Meighen Family The Labatt Family The Beamish Family

Labatt Family pledges $5 million to create the Labatt Family Wing at the new CAMH.

With this single gesture, the Labatts have become one of the first families in North America to put their name on a mental health facility. This speaks to the stigma that still surround mental illness – other kinds of hospitals are awash with donors’ names – and the fact that mental illness is still not getting the funding it deserves.

So what prompted Arthur and Sonia Labatt to make such an extraordinary gesture and such a public one? The first reason is that the Labatts like to support leading-edge institutions in Canada, and they believe we need more of them. Says Arthur Labatt: “We decided to focus our giving on health, education and research. CAMH is a world-calibre facility that’s all about health, education and research. We’re also supporting the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto for the same reasons.”

As Mr. Labatt said at the launch of the Transforming Lives campaign, “We believe CAMH is already a world-class institution, and when the transformation of the Queen Street property is complete, it will be recognized as such alongside Sick Kids.”

The Labatts were also attracted to CAMH because of their long friendship with Dr. Paul Garfinkel and respect for his achievements in research and care, and because of Sonia Labatt’s years of service on the board of the Clarke Institute. But there’s another reason the Labatts have stepped up so early and generously to put their names to the new CAMH. Early in his career, Arthur Labatt was asked to move to Paris to open the office of the investment dealer McLeod Young Weir, now ScotiaMcLeod. He could speak French, but not well enough to open a new territory in a completely foreign market. As Arthur Labatt recounts, “The job also called for a big sales personality, which I definitely didn’t have. So I was getting pretty anxious. Then I had a hard time sleeping. I went through a period that was very real, difficult and painful for me.”

“So I went to see a doctor at the American hospital in Paris. After checking me over, he said, ‘Vous etes dépaysé.’ In other words, I was just out of my element and I’d soon get better. I did. So I have a little understanding of some of the issues faced by the kind of people whom CAMH treats so well.”