The honors and accolades have streamed in over the decades as Joe Segal built a business empire that includes starting Fields department stores, acquiring Zellers and becoming the largest single shareholder of the Hudson’s Bay Company. But the billionaire would rather talk about the plight of the mentally ill than himself.
“Twenty-five percent of the population walking the streets around the world have a mental health problem of one type or another. There is a stigma. When you have cancer or a heart problem, there is lots of support. When you have mental health problems, you walk alone.”
Segal learned that mental health was chronically underfunded and it was his clarion call.
(READ the story from the Vancouver Sun)