in the summer of 1997 she returned to painting and continued to show and develop her style. after having sold her house in toronto, she moved back to montreal in 2004. she went on to be awarded the order of canada in 2005, an honorary ph.d. from the university of montreal and the governor general’s award in 2010 and the queen elizabeth ii diamond jubilee medal in 2012. at 87, rita has continued to produce and show works created as recently as 2014. in 2017 her work was included in the exhibition, "the ornament of a house: fifty years of collecting" at the burnaby art gallery