2017 Continuing Contribution Award

David taught French, acted in and directed plays, and translated sixty into English. Fourteen have been published, and many performed in Canadian, U.S., and U.K. theatres. Post-retirement, he earned his second Queen’s University B.A.Hons (Spanish/History) and helped to select the Governor General’s Prize winner in French-to-English literary translation.

Ontario’s 2006 Stratford Festival produced Edney’s translation of Moliere’s Don Juan. This summer he polished his commissioned translation of Jean Giraudoux’s The Madwoman of Chaillot in rehearsal with the Festival’s star-studded cast.

David generously promotes cross-cultural/linguistic understanding with grants to visit Paris for Festival artists and Queen’s University graduate students; to travel to or from the Third World for our University’s M.A. students; and to support a Visiting Research Fellow in non-English language theatre. David has taught yoga to prisoners and seniors and now funds scholarships to train indigenous yoga teachers. He also organized a 2016-17 Saskatoon group sponsorship of Syrian refugees.