Norman+Bethune



=Extraordinary Canadians: Norman Bethune = =by Adrienne Clarkson =

**Overview:** Honored as a hero in China, Ontario-born Norman Bethune was a surgeon, medical innovator and charismatic political activist who deployed his skills on the battlefields of Spain and China in the 1930s. His prodigious energy included inventing surgical instruments, mobile blood-transfusion units, teaching, and advocating for social justice at home and abroad. Adrienne Clarkson, a Chinese-Canadian, has always been fascinated by the dynamic man who married his social conscience to his medical mission. Reviled as a Communist by some, revered as a humanitarian by others, Bethune was a complicated, inspirational figure who lived and loved on a large canvas.