I spent the afternoon at the Rosedale United Church for the memorial service of David Pecaut who—as you have most likely read in the newspapers—died of cancer at the age of 54 a week ago.

Among many other things David was the co-founder of the Luminato Festival and an amazing entrepreneur with an insatiable passion for our city and its citizens. Immediately after my arrival at the COC he had reached out to me and he came to see me in my office to talk about his plans and visions for the future. Unfortunately, his health didn't allow any follow-up on our first conversation and I only saw him once again at a performance of R. Murray Schafer's The Children's Crusade during the Luminato Festival in June.

The memorial service was a very moving tribute by members of his family, friends and colleagues with prayers from three different religions. All of them expressed so much love and admiration for David that even as someone who hadn't known him well I could only feel the huge gap his untimely death leaves in many peoples' lives and in our city.

All of us will have to work very hard to honour and live up to his legacy.