Lived experience with mental health issues, as well as his mother’s cancer treatment at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, was the driving force behind Toronto entrepreneur Garry Hurvitz’s support for Sunnybrook’s Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre. The Centre celebrated its opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 17, and it will begin treating patients early next year.
“From a very early age, I had my own battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder,” recalls the media-shy founder of Ash City apparel. “These overwhelming feelings would come over me and I didn’t know what they were or how to deal with them.
“Mental health is still one of the most underfunded diseases out there,” Hurvitz adds. “I really feel philanthropy has made a huge difference.”
That belief fueled Hurvitz’s pledge a decade ago to begin funding the Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre, says Kelly Cole, president and chief executive of Sunnybrook Foundation. So, too, did the care received by his mother at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, under the supervision of Dr. Yoo-Joung Ko and his team.
The completion of the final phase of the 121,000-square-foot, three-storey Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre marks a uniquely collaborative initiative, whose over-arching goal is to better understand brain disorders across many medical disciplines, including psychiatry, neurology, imaging, pharmacology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, neuropsychology, neurosurgery and geriatric medicine.

“The existing mental health facility (F-Wing) is the oldest building at Bayview Campus and does not meet contemporary standards for mental health programming as recommended in the Ontario Ministry of Health’s Mental Health Care Facility Planning,” explains Cole. “F-wing needed to be replaced, and the plan grew from there.”
It had long been clear that simply refurbishing the existing wing would not be sufficient—and Hurvitz’s vision and financial support made a brand-new, multidisciplinary centre possible.
His continued donations will allow further research in the field and help shrink the gap between research and translating discovery into practice and new standards of care, Cole adds.
A champion for mental health
Hurvitz’s journey to helping people experiencing mental health issues has been a long one. It began with a button machine at the Canadian National Exhibition when he was 12. He worked his way up to his own booth, where he made band T-shirts at the age of 16, even flying to and from Asia to collect merchandising material. But by his early 20s, he began suffering mental-health setbacks. They cost him his business.
“I would check every door 20 times within an hour or check the stove constantly to ensure it’s off—the list goes on and on,” he recalls. “It took a full breakdown in my 20s and 10 years to find the support that worked for me and the proper caregiver, Dr. Ian Gilmore, who is now retired.”
As he rebuilt his health and his self-esteem, in 1977 he founded the company that would become Ash City. He went on to build it into one of North America’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of promotional apparel.
After selling the company in 2014, Hurvitz was determined to help others facing the kinds of challenges he knew only too well. The turning point came when he toured Sunnybrook after his mother died of cancer following her care at the hospital, and he asked what was most needed. The answer? “Mental health.”
For too long, mental illness was just something that was swept under the rug.
GARRY HURVITZ
In 2017, he made a lead donation to Sunnybrook—$20 million—to create the Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre. Then, in 2022, he donated $50 million to the SickKids Foundation to create the Garry Hurvitz Centre for Brain & Mental Health and the Garry Hurvitz Centre for Community Mental Health at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
“For too long, mental illness was just something that was swept under the rug, not something we talked about, either because we were embarrassed or in most cases there was little help available,” says Hurvitz. “It’s now in the forefront, and although we are talking more openly about it, which is a huge improvement, we still have a long way to go.”
“We have all heard the stats, and they can be overwhelming,” says Cole. “A stroke happens every five minutes in Canada. Every day, more than 350 people in Canada develop dementia. More and more Canadians are meeting the diagnostic criteria for a mood, anxiety or substance use disorder.”
Uniting “bright minds under one roof”
Cole says Hurvitz has been instrumental in the Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre’s transformation from need to reality. After he made his lead gift, other philanthropists were inspired to follow suit, leading to more than 7,000 donors and the Ontario government contributing to what would become a $140-million-plus capital project.
“Garry is very good at visualizing the big picture,” says Cole. “He saw how the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program had made such great strides, and he could see the immense potential of uniting our bright minds under one roof.”
The Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre is also home to the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation, one of the world’s first to offer a complete range of neuromodulation strategies to influence brain circuitry; the Murphy Family Centre for Mental Health, providing compassionate and comprehensive in-patient psychiatric care for youth and adults; the Yuval & Lori Barzakay Brain Health Clinic, where research directly impacts outpatient care in stroke, mental health, memory, ALS, traumatic brain injury and more; and Ontario’s first circadian sleep centre, with sleep rooms dedicated to round-the-clock testing.
“It’s clear that brain disorders are on the rise and gaining momentum,” says Cole. “Now, more than ever, we must change the way we understand and treat the brain, and the Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre allows us to take an integrated approach to better understand the deep connections between physical and mental health. We recognize major mental disorders are rooted in abnormalities of brain function.”
She adds: “Garry has been a passionate and committed donor from Day 1. He has worked closely with Sunnybrook to push this project forward and see it come to reality. Garry has been outspoken about the importance of investing in mental health, sharing his own personal experiences. He felt compelled to do something for one of the most underfunded diseases out there—and that is both brave and inspiring.”
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