New garden to be developed along Bayshore Trail in honour of Belleville native

Mayor Mitch Panciuk accepts a cheque to develop the Dr. Collip Courtyard and Reflection Garden along the Bayshore Trail. Photo courtesy the city of Belleville

By Jacob Willis

BELLEVILLE – The city of Belleville accepted a $50,600 donation from the Dr. James Bertram Collip Memorial Committee on Monday. The money will go towards a new garden, to be named the Dr. Collip Courtyard and Reflection Garden, along the Bayshore Trail behind Belleville General Hospital.

Dr. Collip was a pioneer in the field of biology and a major player in the discovery of insulin in the early 1920s. Collip, born in Belleville, was a member of a Toronto group that isolated, extracted and purified the hormone insulin for the treatment of diabetes, a disease that was practically a death sentence before insulin’s discovery. 

“The Dr. James Betram Collip Memorial Committee is very pleased to see our vision coming to life,” said Rowland Tipper, chairman of the committee said in a news release.

“We would like to give a special thank you to our two major donors, Sanofi Pasteur Limited and Novo Nordisk Canada Inc. These plans would not have been possible without their generous support. We look forward to unveiling this beautiful monument and opening this new community space to the public very soon.”

The garden will be unveiled October 16, along with a six-foot monument to Dr. Collip himself. An event is planned for the reveal, with guest speakers Allison Li, author of J.B. Collip and the Development of Medical Research in Canada, and Collip’s great-grandson, coming all the way from Texas.

“It’s so important in our communities to recognize the people that came from our hometown and went on to make contributions on a national and global scale,” said Richard Hughes, a member of the memorial committee.

“They’re an inspiration for others. People in their field can say to themselves, ‘if they can do that, then maybe I can too.’”

Collip’s research team sold their insulin patent for a mere $1 in 1921, turning away the promise of millions.

“Insulin belongs to the world, not to me,” said Dr. Frederick Banting, a member of the group.

Today, it is estimated that over 150 million people living with diabetes receive insulin treatment. Collip died in 1965, but his legacy lives on through the countless lives that have been saved by his research in the last century.

Collip was one of the more unsung heroes in the battle against diabetes. While his peers Banting and J.J.R. MacLeod received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923, Collip was overlooked. MacLeod had to share his portion of the award with Collip in recognition. 

“Collip is one of Canada’s greatest medical scientists of the 20th century, but he is little-known in his own hometown of Belleville,” read the original news release.

“This committee was founded upon one purpose: to raise awareness for Dr. Collip and his work,” Hughes said. “This monument has been the goal right from the beginning.”