The History of Queen’s Graduation

The first convocation ceremony in Queen's history took place on June 2, 1847, when the Senate awarded degrees to the university's first three graduates, probably in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.

It was not until 1858 that convocations got their first designated, on-campus home: in a special Convocation Hall, constructed as part of the Old Medical building. The university soon outgrew that venue: that hall was dismantled after a bigger, more splendid Convocation Hall was included in Theological Hall, opened in 1878. That hall and its name both survive; but convocations soon moved on again, this time to the yet more spacious Grant Hall, completed in 1905. And after the rapid growth of Queen's in the 1950s and 1960s, convocations moved to the Jock Harty Arena in the early 1970s, although fall ceremonies continue to be held at Grant Hall. With the dismantling of Jock Harty Arena in 2007 (to make way for the new student life and athletics facility, the Queen's Centre), Grant Hall became the host location for spring ceremonies until 2022, when the main spring schedule moved to the large venue entertainment centre (currently named Slush Puppie Place). Grant Hall remains the venue for Fall convocation ceremonies, typically held in November.

Convocations have always been a time for pomp and circumstance. Until the 1950s, however, they were also frequently marked by rowdy behaviour, as students were notorious for drowning out speakers with catcalls and other noise and were even known to pelt the audience with assorted vegetables. The ceremonies have become quieter in recent decades, and also much bigger. There are approximately 14 ceremonies every year, - spring and fall - attracting more than 5,000 graduating students (more than 6,500 students qualify to graduate every year, but not all attend convocation). The main features of the convocation ceremony are a speech to the graduands by the Principal, a speech by the Honorary Graduate or guest speaker - a tradition that dates from the granting of the first honorary degree in 1858 - and the granting of degrees by the Chancellor. Traditional music includes "Flourish for the Chancellor," an organ composition written specially for Convocation by Queen's music professor Fred Clarke.

Convocations are organized by the Office of the University Registrar. The Office is responsible for the main logistical arrangements and coordinates the work of other departments involved in the ceremony, including Physical Plant Services, Information Technology Services, Marketing and Communications, CFRC Radio, Environmental Health and Safety, and Student Wellness Services. The Registrar's Office also compiles the list of graduands and award winners, informs them of the time and place of convocation, produces diplomas, prints the convocation programs, and works with the Alma Mater Society's Hoods and Convocation Service to supply students with hoods and gowns. The Senate Academic Procedures Committee has authority for approving the list of graduands. The Senate Honorary Degrees Committee makes recommendations to the Senate for the award of honorary degrees.

The hood as an academical vestment is distinctly British and is worn by graduates of English speaking universities all over the world.

In its original form it was the upper part of the cowl worn by the Monks and Friars of the Middle Ages. The hood covered the head during inclement weather and in the draughty cloisters when taking exercise. If not needed for this purpose it could be pulled off and allowed to hang behind over the tippet. The tippet was the lower part, a short cape, reaching to the elbow and forming a very welcome article of clothing in the monasteries and hostels which were still unglazed at the end of the 15th century. Indeed, it would appear that glass was not in general use until 1650, for three years later an order was issued to all students at Oxford to "keep his chamber windows in repair after they have once been glazed by the college."

The cowl still forms part of the dress of the religious orders, but the hood, separated from the tippet now denotes a graduate of some British or American University or similar institution while the tippet is worn by certain dignitaries of both the Roman and Anglican church. A smaller type is also used to distinguish Diocesan Readers.

For the purposes of laureation at Queen's University, the design and colour scheme of regalia is as follows:

Honorary Doctor of Divinity: Purple silk shell with a white silk lining

Honorary Doctor of Laws: Black silk shell with a full blue silk lining

Honorary Doctor of Science: Gold silk shell with a black border

Doctor of Philosophy: Red/Gold/Blue

Doctor of Medicine: Red/White

Master of Applied Science: Black/Yellow

Master of Arts: Black/Red

Master of Arts (Art Leadership): Black/Red/Sky Blue/Emerald Green

Master of Art Conservation: Black/Red/Gold

Master of Business Administration: Black/Green

Master of Divinity: Black/Purple

Master of Education: Black/Powder Blue

Master of Engineering: Black/Yellow/Purple/Yellow

Master of Environmental Studies: Black/Gold/Royal Blue/Emerald Green

Master of Finance: Black/Green/Gold

Master of Industrial Relations: Black/Orange

Master of International Business: Black/Green/Gold

Master of Laws: Queen's Blue/White

Master of Management Analytics: Black/Gold/Green

Master of Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Black/Green/Yellow

Master of Nursing: Black/White/Red/Green

Master of Nursing Science: Black/White/Red/Green

Master of Public Administration: Black/Honeydew/Henna

Master of Public Health: Black/Honeydew/Red

Master of Science: Black/Gold/Red

Master of Science (Physical Therapy/Occupational Therapy): Black/Pale Blue/Royal Blue

Master of Science (Aging and Health): Black/Gold/Royal Blue

Master of Science (Anatomical Sciences): Black/Gold/Red/Gold

Master of Theology: Purple/Red/White

Master of Theological Studies: Black/Red/Purple

Master of Urban and Regional Planning: Black/Pistache Green/Red

Professional Master of Education: Black/Powder Blue/Red

Bachelor of Arts: Black/Red

Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education: Black/Red/Pale Blue

Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Physical and Health Education: Black/Red/White/Red

Bachelor of Commerce: Black/Green border

Bachelor of Computing: Black/Purple/Gold

Bachelor of Education: Black/Pale Blue

Bachelor of Fine Art: Black/Emerald Green

Bachelor of Health Sciences: Royal Pilgrim / Old Gold Satin

Bachelor of Laws: Queen's Blue/White

Juris Doctor: Queen's Blue/White

Bachelor of Applied Science: Black/Yellow

Bachelor of Music: Sapphire Blue/Sky Blue

Bachelor of Nursing Science: White/Red

Bachelor of Physical and Health Education: Black/Red/White

Bachelor of Science (Arts and Science): Black/Red/Gold

Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Education: Black/Red/Gold/Pale Blue

Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Physical and Health Education: Black/Red/White/Gold

Bachelor of Theology: White/Purple

The Coat of Arms of the university that hangs behind the Chancellor's dais is based on that of Edinburgh University, the institution after which Queen's was modeled.

The Coat of Arms consists of a gold shield with red edges, divided into four triangular compartments by a blue, diagonal St. Andrew's Cross, which represents the university's Scottish origins.

A golden book, symbolizing learning, sits open at the centre of the cross.

In each of the four compartments is an emblem of the university's Canadian and British origins: a pine tree for Canada, a thistle for Scotland, a rose for England, and a shamrock for Ireland.

The red colour of the border is a mark of cadency, indicating that Queen's is younger than Edinburgh University.

The border is decorated with eight gold crowns, symbolic of Queen Victoria and the university's Royal Charter.

The official heraldic description of the coat of arms is: "Or on a Saltire Azure between in chief a Fir tree eradicated in base a Thistle stalked and leaved in fesse a Red Rose barbed, seeded, stalked and leaved all proper and a Trefoil Vert, an open Book of the First, a Bordure also Gules charged with eight Ancient Crowns Gold."

The shield is underlined by the Latin phrase "Sapientia et Doctrina Stabilitas" which is translated as "Wisdom and Learning shall be the stability of thy times."

Although the Coat of Arms has been in use throughout the 20th century, it was not until 1953 that it was sanctioned by the College of Arms of England and subsequently registered through Letters Patent, dated 27 November 1981, and recorded in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, that is the Court of the Lord Lyon, Edinburgh, Scotland.

On 30 September 1991, during Queen's Sesquicentennial Celebrations, the Coat of Arms was registered in the Canadian Registry of Flags, Arms and Badges.

Reference:

The Queen's Encyclopedia

With its tall limestone clock-tower, this assembly and concert hall, completed in 1905, is Queen's best-known landmark.      

Fittingly, it is named after Queen's most important principal, The Rev. George Monro Grant, a national figure in his own right who gave Queen's, for the first time, a national mission and profile.      

The hall seats 900 people and is used for public lectures and meetings, concerts, convocation ceremonies, dances, and exams. During the First World War it was used as a military hospital.

The building was originally supposed to be funded by the Frontenac County Council, and named Frontenac Hall. Abstemious county councillors, however, became angry with Grant for his public opposition to their plan to ban the sale of alcohol in the county. In 1901 they withdrew their support – despite an emotional plea by the now weak and ailing Principal.

Such was the devotion that Grant inspired in his students that they stepped into the breach themselves, raising the necessary $30,000 over the winter of 1901-1902 and planning to name the building Grant Hall to honour the 25th anniversary of his principalship in December 1902. Grant died in May, several months short of that anniversary, and the building was named for him posthumously on its completion in 1905.

It was designed in the Victorian Romanesque style by Symons and Rae, an architectural firm from Toronto that also designed Kingston Hall and Ontario Hall. The original tower clock was designed by Dr. Nathan Fellowes Dupuis, a professor of mathematics and other sciences, who served as Dean of Applied Science around the turn of the century. After years of unreliable service, the old clock was replaced in 1993 with an electrical mechanism designed in England and – like the building itself – paid for by students. The old clock mechanism is on display in Stirling Hall.

Grant Hall is located at the south end of University Avenue.

The Rev. George Monro Grant (1835-1902) is the most important of all Queen's Principals. More famous in his day that any Queen's Principal before – or since – Grant transformed the university in his 25 years of leadership (1877-1902) from a struggling denominational college into a dynamic national institution.

He was born into a farming family in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. At the age of eight, he lost his right hand in an agricultural accident, which guaranteed that his future would lie in mental rather than physical labour. He was educated at Pictou Academy, the West River Seminary, and Glasgow University, where he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1860. From 1863 to 1877 he served as Minister of St Matthew's Church in Halifax; one of his parishioners there was Sandford Fleming, who in 1871 was appointed Chief Engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1872, Fleming invited Grant to join him as a member of the CPR's survey party for the trans-Canada railway, and Grant wrote an account of the gruelling cross-country journey in his popular book Ocean to Ocean. That trip deepened Grant's ardent nationalism which, along with his profound religious convictions, formed the basis of his vision for Queen's.

He was selected Principal of the university in 1877. Queen's mission, he believed, should be to join moral and scientific education, sacred and secular knowledge, to produce graduates who would build the growing country in a spirit of dedicated service rather than material gain. To achieve these aims he first had to put the chronically poor university on a firm financial footing. This he did with a series of spectacularly successful fundraising campaigns. Queen's flourished under his leadership. It attracted first-rate faculty and increasing numbers of students; it began a program of graduate studies; and it added new buildings, faculties, and departments – the most important being the Ontario School of Mining and Agriculture, the precursor to the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science.

Grant also wrote and spoke frequently and forcefully on the main political questions of the day and was one of Canada's most influential shapers of opinion. In his 25 years at Queen's he inspired deep devotion in students, who affectionately called him "Geordie, Our King." In his final years, as his health was deteriorating, they spearheaded a drive for a new stone building to be named in his honour. Grant Hall opened shortly after his death and, with its tall limestone tower, is Queen's best-known landmark.

Several of Grant's descendants have also made their mark on Canada. His son, William Lawson Grant, taught history at Queen's from 1909 until the First World War, and co-authored his father's biography 'Principal Grant' with alumnus F.C. Hamilton. His grandson, George Parkin Grant, was one of Canada's most distinguished philosophers and the author of the influential book Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism. The Principal's great-grandson, Michael Ignatieff, is well known in Canada and Britain as an author, television host, former Member of Parliament and Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, as well as an expert on international affairs.

Reference:

The Queen's Encyclopedia

Queen's Chronicles Honorary Degree Recipients

by Kay Langmuir

Queen's Gazette, April 24, 2006

This spring marked the 148th year that Queen’s has awarded honorary degrees. The history of this honour however, was, until recently, in danger of being lost amidst the dust of time.

When Dean of Arts and Science Bob Silverman realized one day in conversation with University Registrar Jo-Anne Brady that the university lacked a complete and accurate record of its honorary-degree recipients, they decided to rectify the situation. It proved to be a substantial task of detective work. A student hired as a researcher for the project spent one summer full-time and two semesters working part-time on the list before it was recently completed – two dozen pages and hundreds of names covering the 148 years between 1858 and today.

The university does a fairly broad call for nominations, says University Secretary Georgina Moore. Through newspaper notices and email postings sent throughout campus, the call goes out asking members of the Queen’s community to reflect on which individuals embody the values and actions they most admire.

Any two people can put forward a name. Some suggestions come from the university at large. Others originate with the Senate Committee for Honorary Degrees, which makes the final recommendations to the Senate. Some come regularly from a special think-tank on honorary degree recipients, currently chaired by Principal Emeritus Bill Leggett, which searches for particularly prominent individuals.

The nominating committee looks for individuals who have made outstanding contributions to society on a national or international scale. Nominations can contain up to 15 pages of supporting information on the merits of an individual, Ms. Moore says.

In the early years of awarding honorary degrees, the recipients were almost exclusively male clergymen. Little is known about these people, says Dean Silverman. “Hopefully, some day we will know.”

From time to time in the latter part of the 19th century, prominent political figures took home the honour. Gradually over time, the dominance of clergy was balanced with other figures from public life. Sir John A. Macdonald (1863) appears to have been the first lay person, and one of the few politicians to receive the honour during an active career. Today, the guidelines wisely discourage honoring politicians before the end of their public service.

In the early days, the university also recognized the British royalty with The Prince of Wales (1919) and King George V (1901) donning robes in Kingston. A generous number of dukes, lords and ladies, earls and countesses, viscounts and rear admirals and knights were also honoured. Prominent politicians who collected honorary degrees and lectured to graduating classes over the years include Sir Oliver Mowat, Sir Wilfred Laurier, Sir Robert Borden, William Lyon Mackenzie King and Pierre Trudeau.

More recently, Jean Chrétien passed through the doors of Jock Harty Arena in June 2004. Even American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt collected an honorary degree in 1938 during a trip he made to the area to officially open the Thousand Islands Bridge on Aug.18 that year. Ten years later, his wife Eleanor Roosevelt, an early champion of human rights and social causes, became one of the first women to receive the honour.

The very first woman to be awarded an honorary degree from Queen’s, as well as from any Canadian university, was Lady Aberdeen, wife of then Governor General Lord Aberdeen, in 1897. Lady Aberdeen was a prominent social reformer, founder of the VON and feminist.

There were also captains of industry, Colonel Sam McLaughlin of Oshawa (1946) and Andrew Carnegie (1901), eminent doctors such as pioneering brain surgeon Wilder Penfield (1957) and outstanding scientists such as Alexander Graham Bell and Sir Frederick Banting.

The first representative of the arts appears to have joined the distinguished field in 1919 when writer and humorist Stephen Leacock received the honour. Further recipients from the field of the creative arts continued to be few. Hollywood actor Raymond Massey collected a degree in 1949, portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh in 1960 and author Ernest Buckler in 1964.

Beginning in the late 1960s, artists and writers were frequently honoured at convocation. They include Margaret Atwood, Oscar Peterson, Antoine Maillet, Peter Newman, Gordon Pinsent, Farley Mowat, Carl Sagan, Donald Sutherland, Carol Shields and Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak.

“We’re not setting out to find glitzy, starry people,” says Ms. Moore. “A person who has made an outstanding contribution to something may also be celebrated for that, but it’s the merit of this contribution that counts.”

The number of recipients varies each year, but usually ranges between several to a dozen or more people for both spring and fall convocations. The number of recipients increases in special years such as the Royal Convocation in the university’s sesquicentennial in 1991, when Prince Charles and 24 others received honorary degrees.

The nomination and selection process for honorary degree candidates is overseen by the University Senate.

For more information regarding the policies that pertain to honorary degrees at Queen's, please visit the University Secretariat's website.

Marie Henein, LLD

Ms. Marie Henein is widely recognized as one of the most prominent litigators in Canada, with extensive experience as lead counsel on high-profile criminal, civil, and regulatory cases. In addition to her broad criminal law practice, Marie’s experience includes acting as lead counsel for plaintiffs and defendants in class actions and in respect of major civil and commercial disputes. She has argued at all levels of court, including the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Marie Henein received her LL.B. in 1989 from Osgoode Hall Law School and her Masters in Law from Columbia University in 1991. She is the past President of The Advocates’ Society (2010-2011) and is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a member of the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute and is one of the founders of the Court of Appeal’s Appellate Duty Counsel Program.

Marie is a frequent lecturer nationally and was an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School where she was co-chair of the Masters of Law Program. She frequently lectures at the Law Society of Ontario, The Advocates’ Society, the Ontario Bar Association, Criminal Lawyers’ Association and the National Judicial Institute in numerous areas including trial advocacy, evidence and appellate advocacy.

Marie authored her memoir, ‘Nothing But The Truth’, and is co-editor of Martin’s Criminal Code, Martin’s Annual Criminal Practice, and Martin’s Related Criminal Statutes. She is the Associate Editor of the Canadian Criminal Cases.

In 2013, Marie Henein was the recipient of Laura Legge Award and has repeatedly been named one of Canada’s 25 Most Influential Lawyers by Canadian Lawyer Magazine. In 2017, she was the recipient of The Law Society Medal for outstanding service to the administration of justice. Most recently in 2023, Marie Henein was selected to be the recipient of the prestigious G. Arthur Martin Medal. In 2024, she was awarded a Doctorate of Laws by the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Marie Henein is a Senior Partner at Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP and was called to the Ontario bar in 1992.

Uzma Jalaluddin, LLD

Uzma Jalaluddin writes heartfelt and nuanced stories about first-and-second-generation South Asian and Muslim immigrants. She is the author of DETECTIVE AUNTY (2025), featuring Kausar Khan, a South Asian Miss Marple, as well as MUCH ADO ABOUT NADA (2023), inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which the New York Times described as, “in a word, brilliant.” Her novel THREE HOLIDAYS AND A WEDDING (2023), was co-written with Marissa Stapley, and was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick. Her debut novel, AYESHA AT LAST (2019), was a Cosmopolitan UK Book of the Year and Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of 2019. Her second novel, HANA KHAN CARRIES ON (2021) was named a 2021 Best Romance Novel by the Washington Post. Her first play, The Rishta was performed at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal. Uzma is a high school teacher and former contributor to The Toronto Star, and The Atlantic. She lives outside Toronto, Canada, with her husband and two sons.

Cheryl L'Hirondelle, LLD

A mixed-blood, multi and interdisciplinary artist, singer/songwriter and critical thinker, L’Hirondelle’s creative practice investigates and articulates a dynamism of cree worldview (nēhiyawin itāpisinowin) in contemporary time-place incorporating Indigenous language(s), music, audio, video, VR, sewn objects, the olfactory, and audience/user participation to create immersive environments toward ‘radical inclusion’ and decolonization. As a songwriter, L’Hirondelle focuses on nēhiyawēwin (Cree language) and Indigenous sound shapes, contemporary song forms and personal narrative songwriting as methodologies toward survivance. 

Cheryl was part of the historic Minquon Panchayat, a group of Indigenous and artists of colour who radically challenged and changed the artist-run centre movement in the early 1990s. Since 2008, she has been co-writing songs with incarcerated women, men, and detained youth in federal prisons, provincial correctional centres, and municipal detention centres. The project entitled Why the Caged Bird Sings is a series of singles, a limited edition double vinyl album, and karaoke videos. Additionally, a touring exhibition of media and sensory-rich transmissions using virtual reality (VR), video, hyper-directional audio, and olfactory create immersive experiences featuring the lyrics, voices and musical arrangements that resulted from the artist’s decades-long commitment to engaging in collaborative songwriting processes with incarcerated and detained populations in Saskatchewan.

In 2004 L’Hirondelle was also the first Aboriginal artist from Canada to be invited to present new media work at DAK’ART Lab, as part of the 6th Edition of the Dakar Biennale for Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal. In both 2005 and 2006, She was the recipient of the imagineNATIVE New Media Award for her online net.art projects: treatycard.ca, 17:TELL and wēpināsowina.net. Cheryl’s previous musical efforts have also garnered her critical acclaim with two Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards 2006 and 2007 (with M’Girl). In 2009 was recognized as an Honoree in the Net.Art category from the esteemed Webby Awards for the interdisciplinary project, nikamon ohci askiy (songs because of the land) – a project that is considered a contemporary and interdisciplinary example of Indigenous sonic mapping. L’Hirondelle has also been co-writing ‘freedom songs’ with incarcerated women, men and detained youth since 2008, with 

Cheryl most recently received the 2021 Governor General’s Visual and Media Art Award. Her family roots are from Papaschase First Nation / amiskwaciy wāskahikan (Edmonton) and Kikino Metis Settlement, AB. Her work has been acquired for several permanent collections, and she continues to exhibit, present, perform, and lecture nationally and internationally.

Sen. Rosemary Moodie, DSc

The Honourable Senator Rosemary Moodie is an independent Senator for Ontario, born in Jamaica and recognized nationally and internationally as a distinguished pediatrician, senior neonatologist, and Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. She holds both a Master of Business Administration (University of Toronto) and a Master of Public Administration (Queen’s University), reflecting her dual commitment to excellence in health care and public policy.

In the Senate of Canada, Senator Moodie serves as Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology and as a member of the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration. A leading voice on emerging technologies—particularly Artificial Intelligence—she launched a Senate inquiry into its societal implications. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus and Chair of the African Canadian Senate Group.

Throughout her career, Senator Moodie has worked to reduce social inequities and health disparities, earning the title “Children’s Senator” for her unwavering advocacy on behalf of women, children, and marginalized communities. She has sponsored Bill C-35, establishing a national early learning and childcare system; introduced Bill S-212, a National Strategy for Children; and championed Bill S-210, creating the Office of the Commissioner for Children in Canada. Her leadership in a national consultation further underscored the urgent need for such an office.

A passionate advocate for racial equity, Senator Moodie initiated the Senate’s historic Emergency Debate on systemic racism and, as Chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus, brought critical issues facing Black Canadians to the forefront of government attention. She has advanced recommendations based on disaggregated data, influenced equitable hiring practices in the Senate, and promoted a more inclusive legislative environment. Internationally, she has partnered with the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus, co-chaired the Canada–CARICOM Friendship Group, and led Canada’s delegation to the Ghana Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference, contributing to the global dialogue on racial equity and inclusion.

Senator Moodie’s contributions have been recognized with numerous awards and honours, including the Order of Ontario. Her work embodies Queen’s University’s values of leadership, equity, and service, and her legacy is defined by transformative action—championing the rights of women and children, dismantling systemic barriers, and shaping policies for a fairer society.

Nancy Darrah Olewiler, LLD

Nancy Olewiler is a distinguished economist who has made significant contributions to the fields of natural resource and environmental economics. A professor emerita at Simon Fraser University, Nancy was founding Director of its School of Public Policy and continued in that role for over 15 years. She was a professor in the Department of Economics at SFU and served as its Chair from 1995 to 2000. Prior to moving to SFU in 1990 she was a faculty member in the Department of Economics at Queen’s. With a PhD in economics from the University of British Columbia, Nancy has dedicated her career to advancing public policy through extensive research and publications on energy and climate policy, natural capital and ecosystem services, and tax policy. In 1990 for a five-year term, she became the first and thus far, only woman to be Editor of the journal Canadian Public Policy. She was the co-author of two widely used textbooks, The Economics of Natural Resource Use (with John Hartwick of Queen’s) and Environmental Economics, Canadian Edition.

Nancy's leadership extends beyond academia. She is currently leading a major four-year project funded by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions to help build climate resilience in rural and remote communities in British Columbia. This interdisciplinary project, focusing on housing and energy systems, involves collaboration with BC Housing, First Nations Housing and Infrastructure Council, and Technical Safety BC. 

Throughout her career, Nancy has served on numerous federal and provincial advisory committees, including, for the federal government, the Technical Committee on Business Taxation and the External Advisory Committee on Regulatory Excellence. She was a member of the Ecofiscal Commission and currently sits on the Commission on Carbon Competitiveness. Nancy co-chairs B.C.’s Climate Solutions Council and is Chair of the Macroeconomics Accounts Advisory Committee for Statistics Canada. Additionally, she is an expert panelist for the Mitigation and Adaptation committees of the Canadian Climate Institute.

Nancy has also served on the board of directors for TransLink (and their Chair from 2011 to 2013), BC Hydro, the Pembina Institute, Technical Safety BC, and the Institute for Research on Public Policy. She is currently a board member of Genome BC. Her dedication to public service and her impactful research has made her a respected leader in the field of environmental and natural resource economics.

Veena Rawat, DSc

In 1973 Dr. Rawat graduated from Queen’s University, Canada, with a PhD. in Electrical Engineering. In 2014 Dr Rawat was appointed ‘Officer of the Order of Canada’ for her “contributions to telecommunications engineering and for leadership in establishing the global regulatory framework for radio spectrum management”. In 2019, Dr Rawat received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa.

Currently she is President and CEO of Expert Strategies International, a US-based consulting firm specializing in telecommunication policies and regulations. She is Senior Spectrum Advisor to the international organization GSMA which represents mobile wireless service providers worldwide.

During 2004 -11, Dr. Rawat was President of Communications Research Centre (CRC), the only Canadian federal government research lab conducting R&D in wireless technologies. Before heading CRC, Dr. Rawat spent 28 years within the Canadian Government where she held executive positions managing programs related to radio frequency spectrum engineering, policy and regulations for wireless services. Between 2011-14, Dr. Rawat worked as Vice President and Ambassador to ITU (International Telecommunications Union, a UN agency) for BlackBerry.

Dr. Rawat has had many "firsts" in her career, a trail blazer, starting from first female PhD in 1973 in Electrical Engineering from Queens University, Canada, to being the first woman (and first Canadian as well) to chair ITU's (a United Nations Agency) highest level meeting for wireless communications (World Radio Conference- WRC) in 2003, for which she was awarded ITU’s gold medal by the ITU’s Secretary General. 

She is a Fellow of WWRF (Wireless World Research Forum), Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), and member of the External Advisory Board of Spectrum X Center, NSF, USA. 

William Lee Young, LLD

Bill Young began his studies at Queen's University in 1972 after attending Shore School in Sydney, Australia. Although he started his studies in Arts and Science, Bill graduated as a Chemical Engineer in 1977.

He began his Engineering career with Imperial Oil in the Engineering Design Division in Toronto and worked as a project design engineer for lmperial's two western refineries in Vancouver and Edmonton. He received his P. Eng. designation (Ontario) in 1979.

In 1979 Bill was admitted to the MBA program at Harvard University, where he graduated with distinction in 1981. From Harvard Business School he joined Bain & Company - an international management consulting firm in their London, England office. He lived in London for 7 years working in Bain's European practice.

In 1989 Bill returned to Canada and together with a business school classmate, started Westbourne Management Group which worked with troubled companies to improve operating performance. In 1991, Westbourne took on the management of Canadian retailer Consumers Distributing, and Bill was CEO of this business until 1995. He then returned to the Boston area and worked with a private equity investment firm - Monitor Clipper Partners (MCP) until 2018. Over this period, MCP invested in 45 companies in Canada, the US and Western Europe.

Bill has served as board chair of a number of Canadian public companies: Magna International (2012-2022), AtkinsRealis (formerly SNC Lavalin) (2020-present) and Intact Financial (2022- present). In addition, he chaired the Queen's University Board of Trustees from 2006-2012. And more recently chaired the board of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (2019-2024).

Three of Bill and Ruth Dowling's four children: Ken West '22, Sophie Young '18 and William Young, Jr '24 graduated from Queen's University. And Bill's sister Joanne Young is a Queen's '78 alumna.

Alice Baumgart, DSc

Dr. Alice Baumgart is Professor Emeritus, Queens University. She was the Dean of the School of Nursing (1977-1988) and served a further term as Dean from 1994 until her retirement in 1997. In 1988, she was appointed Vice-Principal, Human Services, the first woman in the 150-year history of Queens to be appointed as Vice-Principal. She has also held faculty appointments at the University of British Columbia and Western Michigan University.

A nursing graduate of the University of British Columbia, she holds a Master’s degree from McGill University and a PhD from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Baumgart has held several national and international offices and appointments including President of the Canadian Nurses Association, President of the Canadian Association of University Schools of Nursing -  the precursor to the current Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, Member of the Board of Directors, International Council of Nurses, a federation of more than 130 national nursing organizations, and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia-based Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools, the organization responsible for screening credentials of nurses and other non-medical professionals  seeking employment in the United States.

Widely published and an internationally known nurse leader, she has been a keynote speaker at numerous conferences in countries as widespread as Australia, China, and Saudi Arabia. She was also the co-editor and a contributing author to a widely used textbook, Canadian Nursing Faces the Future.

On retirement, Dr. Baumgart moved to central Pennsylvania where, until her return to Canada in late 2020, she served as a member of several local non-profit boards devoted to providing continuing education for seniors and improving the mental health and life chances of children in low-income families.

She is the recipient of several honours and awards including the 75th Anniversary Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of British Columbia, the Distinguished Service Award of Queens University, the Ethel Johns Award for distinguished service to university nursing education in Canada, and Commemorative Awards for Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver and Golden Jubilees.  In 2019, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia, she was one of 100 graduates awarded a Centenary Medal for her many contributions to nursing and her pioneering work in introducing interprofessional perspectives into health sciences programs. In 2000 she received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of British Columbia.
 

James Leech, LLD

Jim Leech comes from a military family – his father, uncle and brother all served as Regular Force Generals - and as an “army brat”, Jim grew up in many cities across Canada, including Kingston. 

Jim attended Royal Roads and Royal Military College, graduating with a BSc (Honours Math & Physics) and earning the Canadian Army Award. Upon graduation, he joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals and served with the storied Royal 22e Régiment (anglicized as “Van Doos”) in Germany during the height of the Cold War. 

Following this military service, Jim earned an MBA from Queen's University which provided the springboard for a successful 42-year business career, with leadership positions across several industries – financial services, energy, real estate, technology start-ups, private equity and pension management. During his career, Jim was involved in many of the largest high profile corporate transactions in Canada and internationally.

Jim is best known for his leadership of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan which he joined in 2001 to build a global private investment programme; he was appointed President and CEO in 2007. In each year of his leadership, Teachers’ investment returns and service to beneficiaries ranked first in the world and Jim was recognized internationally as the champion of the successful “Canadian Model” of pension management. 

Upon his retirement in 2014, Jim co-authored The Third Rail, Confronting our Pension Failures, which won the Best Canadian Business Book Award. He continues to be a thought leader on pensions and investments, consulted regularly by governments around the world.

Since retirement, Jim has dedicated his working life to voluntary philanthropic leadership and non-partisan public service, including Board Chair of the UHN Foundation which supports the top research hospital in Canada and the world’s #1 publicly funded hospital; Board Chair of the Mastercard Foundation, the world’s second largest charitable foundation, focused on youth livelihood in Africa and indigenous youth in Canada; Founding Director of Right to Play International, a global humanitarian organization focused on the most disadvantaged communities in the world; Founding Advisory Board Chair of the Institute for Sustainable Finance at Smith School of Business; Honorary Colonel of 32 Signal Regiment; Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada to establish the Canada Infrastructure Bank; and 14th Chancellor of Queen's University.

Jim has been the recipient of many honours and awards, including: Champion of Public Education by the Learning Partnership; Friend of Education by the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education; Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for his involvement with the True Patriot Love Foundation which subsequently included his participation in a 125km ski trek to Canada’s North Magnetic Pole, in support of injured soldiers suffering from PTSD; Wall of Honour and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Royal Military College as a “Scholar, Athlete, International Business Builder, Volunteer Leader”; the Canadian Decoration for his military service; the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada for his contributions as an innovator in pension management, for his writings on the subject of retirement funding and for his community involvement in the areas of international development, postsecondary education, health care and the military. 

Queen’s has recognized Jim’s service as a member of the Advisory Board to Smith School of Business, a member of University Council and Board of Trustees plus his seven years as Chancellor and personal philanthropy with the Toronto Branch Award, Alumni Achievement Award and Distinguished Service Award, as well as The Jim Leech Mastercard Foundation Fellowship in Entrepreneurship, the Jim Leech MBA Scholarship, the Leech classroom in Goodes Hall, the Chancellor Jim Leech Bursary for Indigenous Students and the Jim Leech Ceilidh Centre in the new John Deutsch University Centre.
 

Robert McCormack, DSc

Dr. McCormack is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia. The focus of his clinical practice has been on knee and shoulder injuries with subspecialty interest, and research activities, in articular cartilage regeneration and ligament reconstruction. His research has generated over 160 peer reviewed publications, and he has made over 600 national and international oral presentations. He was a founding member of three of the major multicenter Orthopaedic research groups in Canada. This led to his appointment as a Fellow of International Orthopaedic Research (FIOR).

He is active in sports medicine and cares for athletes at the university, national and professional levels. This includes the varsity athletes at two universities, in both U Sports and the NCAA. At the professional level, Dr. McCormack is the head physician for the BC Lions (CFL), is the Orthopaedic Surgeon for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC (MLS) and works as a consultant for the NHL/NHLPA.

He is a physician for several national teams, in both summer and winter sports and has been part of the medical team at numerous international multi-sport events (including eleven Olympic Games). He was the head physician for the Canadian Olympic team from 2004 to 2020. 

Leadership roles in professional sports include being a Chief Medical Officer for the Canadian Football League as well as the Canadian Premiere League. Internationally he is the medical lead for the International Federation for Curling and is on the PASO medical commission, which is responsible for health care and antidoping at the Pan Am Games.

Professor McCormack attended Queen's University from 1973 to 1979, as a science undergraduate followed by medical school. While at Queen's, Professor McCormack was successful as a track athlete, winning several intercollegiate championships as a middle-distance runner and setting Canadian records in the 1500m and 1000 m indoors. As a result of all this, Professor McCormack was awarded the Jenkins Trophy for the Graduating Queens Student Best Combining Academic and Athletic Excellence.  
 

Val Napoleon, LLD

Dr. Val Napoleon is Cree from Saulteau First Nation located in northeast British Columbia in the Treaty 8 region. She is an adopted member of the House of Luuxhon, Frog Clan from Gitanyow (Gitxsan).

Dr. Napoleon is the Law Foundation Chair of Indigenous Justice and Governance, and a professor [and former dean] at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria. Her research, publications, and community engagement focus on Indigenous legal traditions as they relate to feminism, citizenship, lands and property, intellectual property, democracy, self-determination, and governance.

Napoleon is a leader with her vision and rigorous approach to Indigenous legal traditions. She connects ideas and builds relationships across theoretical and historical divides. In her work, she squarely addresses critical issues and practical realities with Indigenous laws.

Three breakthrough accomplishments encapsulate Napoleon’s vision for a revitalized Indigenous lawscape in Canada and beyond. These watershed moments are founded on the relentless and tireless work of preceding Indigenous generations to uphold their legal orders and to fulfill their legal obligations. Napoleon’s work engenders the recognition of Indigenous law as law, and as an interdisciplinary, intellectual field with its own complexities and challenges, and promise to enable Indigenous peoples to manage complex problems of today.

Dr. Napoleon established the first research centre to focus exclusively on recovering and rebuilding Indigenous laws. The Indigenous Law Research Unit (ILRU) partners with communities across Canada to articulate Indigenous laws in a way that has revolutionized and redefined how Indigenous law is researched and restated. She and her team developed and tested critical Indigenous legal methodologies and have been partnering with communities to rebuild Indigenous law on a sector-by-sector basis across the country (e.g., governance, harms and injuries, lands and resources, water, family and children, citizenship and belonging, dispute resolution, and human rights).

Dr. Napoleon co-developed and launched in 2018 the dual degree Juris Doctor/Juris Indigenarum Doctor Program at UVic. This was a paradigm shift in legal education that redefined Indigenous legal pedagogies and legal practices. Over four years, students earn two law degrees – a Canadian law degree and an Indigenous law degree. Core subjects are comprised of substantive law from various legal orders (e.g., Cree, Coast Salish, Gitxsan, Dene, Blackfoot, Secwépemc, Anishinabek, and Métis) taught comparatively alongside Canadian and state law.

Dr. Napoleon is also the driving force behind the new National Centre of Indigenous Laws, which will house the Indigenous law initiatives, as well as facilitate local, national, and international conversations about the most challenging and divisive Indigenous law issues and questions of the day. This forum of Indigenous legal knowledge is unparalleled and is at the forefront for Indigenous critical thought.
 

Nathalie Provost, DSC

Throughout her career, Nathalie Provost has consistently been motivated by a profound commitment to enhancing the collective well-being of citizens.

Graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (1990) and a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering (1993) from Polytechnique Montréal, Mrs. Provost has distinguished herself through over two decades of dedicated service in high-ranking civil service roles. She is currently General Manager of Analysis and Expertise for the Center and South of Quebec within the Ministry of Environment, Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife, and Parks of Quebec, where she has worked since 2015. In this capacity, she plays a strategic role in addressing environmental health issues by bringing together key stakeholders from the various government of Quebec agencies such as Public Health, Environment, and Economic Development.

Her professional journey has encompassed diverse roles, including strategic positions at the Ministry of Immigration, Francization, and Integration from 2008 to 2015. Until 2013, Nathalie Provost held the position of General Manager of Transformation and Information Technologies. Earlier in her career, as Director for the Public Curator of Quebec from 2002 to 2008, she contributed to the protection of incapacitated individuals and played a key role in shaping policies concerning this issue.

Madame Provost is not only a distinguished professional but also a survivor of the 1989 Polytechnique femicide. Her steadfast determination during those tragic events earned her the Medal of Bravery of Canada. In the aftermath of the incident, she delivered a message of hope to the Polytechnique community and the broader Quebec population. Subsequently, she has become a pivotal spokesperson and dedicated activist on the issue of firearm control in Canada, notably serving as a spokesperson for PolyRemembers (PolySeSouvient). She also held the position of Vice President of the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Public Safety from 2017 to 2019.

In February 2024, on their 50th anniversary, the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) honored Nathalie Provost with the inaugural Shirley Greenberg Award for outstanding leadership in feminist law reform. This prestigious recognition was jointly presented to Nathalie Provost and Heidi Rathjen, both renowned gun control activists who have been at the forefront of advocating for stronger gun control laws in Canada for more than 30 years.

Since 2014, Nathalie Provost has continued her unwavering support for and encouragement of women in engineering. Notably, she serves as the godmother of the Order of the White Rose, a pan-Canadian scholarship established by her alma mater in tribute to the victims, as well as the injured, families, professors, employees, and students who were at the heart of the tragedy.

Despite the indelible tragedy that marked her life, Nathalie Provost has demonstrated remarkable resilience, evolving into the inspiring woman she is today. Her journey serves as a testament to the possibility of rising, finding one's place in society, and pursuing ambitions while upholding and transmitting deeply rooted values.
 

Ngũgĩ wa  Thiong'o, LLD

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was born in Kenya and educated at Makerere University College (then a campus of London University), Kampala, Uganda, and the University of Leeds, Britain. The Kenya of his birth and youth was a British settler colony (1895-1963). As an adolescent, he lived through the Mau Mau War of Independence (1952-1962), the central historical episode in the making of modern Kenya and a major theme in his early works.

Ngũgĩ burst onto the literary scene in East Africa with the performance of his first major play, The Black Hermit, at the National Theatre in Kampala, Uganda, in 1962, as part of the celebration of Uganda’s Independence.

He is the author of the novel Weep Not Child (1964), published to critical acclaim; followed by his second novel, The River Between (1965). His third, A Grain of Wheat (1967), was a turning point in the formal and ideological direction of his works. Multi-narrative lines and multi-viewpoints unfolding at different times and spaces replace the linear temporal unfolding of the plot from a single viewpoint. The collective replaces the individual as the center of history.

His first novel in ten years, Petals of Blood (1977), paints a harsh and unsparing picture of life in neo-colonial Kenya. It was received with even more emphatic critical acclaim in Kenya and abroad. The Kenya Weekly Review described it as “this bomb shell” and the Sunday Times of London as capturing every form and shape that power can take. The same year Ngũgĩ’s controversial play, Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), written with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii, was performed at Kamirithu Educational and Cultural Center, Limuru, in an open air theatre, with actors from the workers and peasants of the village.

Sharply critical of the inequalities and injustices of Kenyan society, publicly identified with unequivocally championing the cause of ordinary Kenyans, and committed to communicating with them in the languages of their daily lives, Ngũgĩ was arrested and imprisoned without charge at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in 1977. An account of those experiences is to be found in his memoir, Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary (1982). It was at Kamiti Maximum Prison that Ngũgĩ made the decision to abandon English as his primary language of creative writing and committed himself to writing in Gikuyu, his mother tongue. In prison, and following that decision, he wrote on toilet paper the novel Caitani Mutharabaini (1981) translated into English as Devil on the Cross (1982).

After Amnesty International named him a Prisoner of Conscience, an international campaign secured his release a year later. However, the Moi dictatorship barred him from jobs at colleges and university in the country. While Ngũgĩ was in Britain for the launch and promotion of Devil on the Cross, he learned about the Moi regime’s plot to eliminate him on his return, or as coded, give a red carpet welcome on arrival at Jomo Kenyatta Airport. This forced him into exile, first in Britain (1982 –1989), and then the U.S. after (1989-2002), during which time, the Moi dictatorship hounded him trying, unsuccessfully, to get him expelled from London and from other countries he visited. In 1986, at a conference in Harare, an assassination squad outside his hotel in Harare was thwarted by the Zimbwean security. His next Gikuyu novel, Matigari (1986), lead to the Moi dictatorship’s removal of wa Ngũgĩ’s books from all educational institutions and Kenyan Bookshops.
Ngũgĩ has continued to write prolifically, publishing what some have described as his crowning achievement, Wizard of the Crow (2006), an English translation of the Gikuyu language novel, Murogi wa Kagogo. wa Thiong’o’s books have been translated into more than thirty languages and they continue to be the subject of books, critical monographs, and dissertations.

In exile, Ngũgĩ worked with the London based Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya (1982-1998), which championed the cause of democratic and human rights in Kenya. In between, he was Visiting Professor at Byreuth University; and Writer in Residence, for the Borough of Islington, London; and took time to study film, at Dramatiska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. After 1988, Ngũgĩ became Visiting Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Yale in between holding The Five Colleges (Amherst, Mount Holyoke, New Hampshire, Smith, East Massachusetts) Visiting Distinguished Professor of English and African Literature. He then became Professor of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at New York University where he also held the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of languages, from where he moved to his present position at the University of California Irvine. He remained in exile for the duration of the Moi Dictatorship 1982-2002. When he and his wife, Njeeri, returned to Kenya in 2004 after twenty-two years in exile, they were attacked by four hired gunmen and narrowly escaped with their lives.

He is recipient of many honors, including the 2001 Nonino International Prize for Literature and eleven honorary doctorates. Currently, Ngũgĩ is a Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.
 

Brent Belzberg, LLD

Brent Belzberg formed TorQuest in 2002 following the 2001 sale of Harrowston, Inc., a publicly traded private equity fund he founded in 1992.

Prior to that Mr. Belzberg restructured multi-billion dollars of debt for a family holding company.
Mr. Belzberg has more than 30 years of executive management experience in finance, acquisitions, corporate restructuring, and operations.

Mr. Belzberg served as chairman of Mount Sinai Hospital and its Foundations Board of Directors from 2012 to 2020. Prior to that he was chairman of Mount Sinai Hospital Foundations Patient Safety and Quality Committee from 2006 to 2010, and chairman of the Resource Committee from 2003 to 2006. He previously held directorships at CIBC where he chaired the Management Resource Committee, and its Risk Committee; held directorships at O&Y REIT; and Four Seasons Hotel. He has been a director of many of the TorQuest Partners portfolio companies, and currently serves as a Director of Sinai Health System. He is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of the University of Toronto.

Mr. Belzberg received a B.Comm. (Honours) from Queen's University in 1972, and a J.D. from the University of Toronto in 1976. He received the Arbor Award from the University of Toronto, the Canada 150 Commemorative Medal from the Senate of Canada, and the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers from the Governor General. Most recently, in December 2018, Mr. Belzberg was awarded the Order of Canada as a Member (C.M.) for his work as a business leader and philanthropist.
 

David Bottrill, LLD

It’s undeniable that the merits of diversity lay at the heart of David Bottrill’s vast discography. With artists like Peter Gabriel, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Muse, I Mother Earth, Crown Lands and Rush, David’s work spans genres and generations, lending to a sound that is both familiar and progressive. He’s cultivated the aggressive hard-rock palette of bands like Stone Sour, Godsmack, and Coheed and Cambria, while maintaining a connection to other ends of the spectrum with artists like Elsiean and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

With three Grammy Awards and the success of millions of copies sold worldwide, David has produced and mixed career-defining albums that have established paradigms and redefined genres. “I prefer to work on music that has a strong identity and shows elements of originality,” David states, “genre isn’t really important.” It’s this focus on identity and potential that inspires David to push artists to curate the best of themselves and make music that defines who they are in that moment. And yet, even in their individuality, each album that David works on distinctly shows his fingerprint.  David spent 20 years living in the UK, followed by a term in New York, but has settled back in Toronto, Canada, for the time being, to be closer to his hometown. Despite his roots, David still spends much of his time working with artists in various international locations.

Since 2009, David has also sat on the board of directors for Make Music Matter, a non-profit that uses music and socially conscious art to help heal trauma in marginalized communities around the world and Indigenous communities at home in Canada. Through Make Music Matter, David has found an outlet for his experience, truly helping better the lives of others and bringing awareness to the community at large.

Rt. Hon. Charles Joesph Clark, PC, CC, AOE, LLD (Hon.), PhD (Hon.)

The Rt. Hon. Joe Clark served 25 years in the House of Commons of Canada, including as Prime Minister of Canada (1979-80), Secretary of State for External Affairs (1984-1991), Minister of Constitutional Affairs (1991-93), Acting Minister of both National Defence and Justice, and Leader of the Opposition.  He led the Progressive Conservative Party from 1976-83 and 1998-2004.  

He is a member of the board of Meridiam Infrastructure, chair of the Supervisory Board of Meridiam Africa, member of the board of GlobeScan, has served as vice-chairman of the Global Leadership Foundation, as Chair of the Jury for the Global Centre for Pluralism’s Global Pluralism Award, as an “honorary witness” of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and a board member of several Canadian and international companies and not-for-profit organizations.  

He has led international Election and Governance missions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East through The Carter Center and the National Democratic Institute, and was a member of the Panel of Senior Figures of the Electoral Integrity Initiative of the Kofi Annan Foundation.  

Mr. Clark is a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Alberta Order of Excellence and l’Ordre de la Pléiade, the author of “Canada: A Nation Too Good to Lose” (1994), and, in 2013, the best-selling “How We Lead: Canada in a Century of Change”.  Joe Clark is married to author and lawyer Maureen McTeer, and they live in Ottawa.
 

Eleanor Daley, LLD

Born and raised in Parry Sound, Ontario, Eleanor Daley received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Organ Performance from Queen’s University and holds diplomas in piano and organ from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, and Trinity College, England. She has been the Director of Music at Fairlawn Avenue United Church in Toronto since 1982, during which time she has established a thriving choral program thanks to the continuing support and talent of her choirs.

One of Canada’s most successful and gifted composers of choral music, Eleanor is a recognized leader in choral circles the world over. Her compositions are distinguished by a rich imagination and lyricism, enduring qualities that are immediately appealing to singers and listeners alike. A prolific composer, she has a remarkable gift for melody, and her works are most notable for their sensitive interweaving of text and music.  

Eleanor has over one hundred and fifty published compositions and has been commissioned extensively. Her works are widely performed, recorded, and aired throughout North America, Great Britain, Europe, South Africa, and the Far East, and are published by fourteen publishing houses in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. Included in her unpublished choral output are dozens of anthems, twelve Missae Breves, five full length pageants, and hundreds of descants, introits, and psalm settings. Her Rose Trilogy received the Association of Canadian Choral Communities’ National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Composition of the Year in 2004. Her Requiem received the same honour in 1994.  

Eleanor was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2022, was the recipient of the Ontario Arts Council’s Louis Applebaum Composers Award in 2020 and was the first Composer-in-Residence at the 2005 international choral festival, FESTIVAL 500, in St. John’s, Newfoundland. 
   
As well as being a highly respected choral clinician in Canada and the United States, Eleanor has had the privilege of accompanying choirs under the baton of many distinguished conductors, including Lydia Adams, Jean Ashworth Bartle, Linda Beaupré, the late Dr. Elmer Iseler, and the late Sir David Willcocks.
 

Elizabeth Eisenhauer, DSC

Dr. Eisenhauer obtained her MD from Queen’s University Kingston, Canada in 1976 and subsequently received fellowships in Internal Medicine and Hematology from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Canada. 

From 1982 to 2012, she was Director of the Investigational New Drug Program of the NCIC Clinical Trials Group (now the Canadian Cancer Trials Group) where her major responsibilities lay in identifying and bringing into clinical trial novel cancer agents. Her major research interest has been the evaluation of new anti-cancer agents. In that role she coordinated over 170 phase I, II and III trials which were conducted in institutions in Canada, the US and Europe. Several of these trials have led to the identification of new cancer agents now used in clinical practice. She served as Interim Director of NCIC Clinical Trials Group from 2013-2014. In addition, she held the role of Research Lead for the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and Co-Chair of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance from 2007-2017. 

From 2012-2017 she was Professor and Head of the Department of Oncology at Queen’s University and Cancer Program Medical Director at Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Kingston. She is currently Professor Emerita at Queen’s University and, since January 2018, the Innovation Lead at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC). In her recent work as Innovation Lead, she has been focused on creating a portfolio of opportunities for innovation and improvement at KHSC and Queen’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

She has chaired or served on numerous committees and organizations in Canada and internationally including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association of Cancer Research, the European Society of Medical Oncology and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. From 2006-2009 she served as President, National Cancer Institute of Canada and form 2007-2017, she held the role of Research Lead for the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and Co-Chair of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance. She currently Chairs the Scientific Audit Committee of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and co-Chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the French National Cancer Institute.

For her contributions to cancer research and patient care, she has received several awards including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal, Officer of the Order of Canada and the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award.
 

Gloria Epstein, LLD

In 1972 Justice Epstein received an Honours Bachelor of Commerce from Queens University.  For the next few years, she owned and ran a fishing camp on an island in Northern Ontario after which she returned to Toronto to attend the University of Toronto law school.

Called to the Bar in 1979, Justice Epstein practised litigation in two large Toronto law firms before starting a firm of her own - one of the first Toronto-based firms led and owned by a woman. 

She was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 1993 and to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 2007. Throughout her judicial career, Justice Epstein presided over hundreds of cases, one of the most impactful being the landmark case known as M. v. H., the decision that paved the way for the recognition of same-sex marriage in Canada.   

While a trial judge, she was appointed by the Premier of Ontario to review the government’s involvement in the lives of the Dionne Quintuplets.

In 2018, Judge Epstein retired from the Court of Appeal, to accept an appointment from the Toronto Police Services Board to lead the Independent Civilian Review into Missing Person Investigations.  The Report Judge Epstein released in April 20 2021 was received with universal acclaim. The Chief of the Toronto Police Service has publicly committed to ensuring the implementation of every one of the Report’s 151 recommendations.

Judge Epstein has recently joined Arbitration Place to continue her career as a Mediator/Arbitrator.
Included among her community engagement, Judge Epstein founded the McMurtry Gardens of Justice, was Co-Chair of the Ontario Justice Education Network and Director of the Canadian Women’s Foundation and a member of the Pathways National Board of Directors.  Justice Epstein is now a member of the Sinai Health Foundation Board of Directors, the Smith School of Business Advisory Board and the Ontario Water Centre Board of Directors.

In 2007, Judge Epstein received a University of Toronto Arbor Award for volunteerism, and in 2013 she received a YWCA Women of Distinction Award.  She has also been recognized with three Honorary Doctorate degrees - from the Law Society of Ontario, the University of Toronto Law School and the Queen’s University Faculty of Law.  
 

Paul Finkelstein, LLD

Paul Finkelstein is a Queen's alumnus, former Gael cheerleader, TV host, food columnist, front-line teacher, globally celebrated educator, and chef who knows that food can be one of the most powerful tools for change.

Chef turned culinary arts teacher Paul is one of Canada's leading advocates for healthy living through good nutrition and culinary skill training. For "Fink" - as his students, colleagues and legions of fans know him – cooking is an essential skill and the most important one for all Canadians to live a whole and healthy life.

Paul spearheaded the creation of the Screaming Avocado, a student-run canteen, which provides healthy, bistro quality made-from-scratch meals by and for students. Other schools across Canada followed The Screaming Avocado model, opening canteens that empower students.

The success of the Screaming Avocado caught the attention of Food Network Canada, leading to a thirteen-episode series, "Fink," which shone a spotlight on Paul, the Screaming Avocado café and the lives of his students who become as passionate as Paul about "food as a tool for change." Soon after Fink aired, Best Health Magazine gave Paul a monthly column that shared recipes and healthy eating advice that spanned seven-years.

Undoubtedly one of Paul's greatest passions is Canada's North. Since 2010, he has led fifteen of his branded 'EatFit Project Exchanges' with First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities in Ontario, NWT, and Nunavut. Using 'food as the tool for change,' the youth participants share food, fitness, exploration, culture and lived experiences, building personal bonds that continue throughout their lives.

The uniqueness of the Screaming Avocado and EatFit Project led Paul and his students to share their food stories with audiences in Italy, Ireland, Japan and across Canada. In addition, they've worked with the Governor General's Chef at the esteemed James Beard House in New York City, cooked for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their visit to Canada and hosted the Governor General at the Screaming Avocado Cafe.

A married father of three and grandfather of one, Paul Finkelstein has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Meritorious Service Medal, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, the Premier's Award for Teaching Excellence, the OHI Gold Teacher of the Year Award, Food Canada Food Hero in 2014, the Rotary Paul Wallace Fellow and the Perth County Federation of Agriculture Award.
 

Suzanne Fortier, DSc

Suzanne Fortier served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University from September 2013 to September 2022. Prior to her appointment as Principal, she was President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) from 2006 to 2013. She spent twenty-five years at Queen’s University where she was a Professor of Chemistry and served in the roles of Vice-Principal (Academic) and Vice-Principal (Research). 

A native of St-Timothée, Québec, Canada, Professor Fortier graduated from McGill with a BSc (1972) and a PhD in Crystallography (1976). Her research work has focused on the development of mathematical and artificial intelligence methodologies for protein structure determination. 

Suzanne Fortier has served on many Boards and Councils, including as Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global University Leaders Forum (GULF), co-chair of the WEF Global Future Agenda on Education and Skills and member of the Canadian Federal Minister of Finance Advisory Council on Economic growth.

She is currently a Board member of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Madan Bhandari University of Science and Technology (Nepal) and SRM Andhra Pradesh University (India). She is also on the International Advisory Board of HEC Paris and of the University de Bordeaux and serves on the President’s Council of the University of the People. 

Suzanne Fortier was appointed Officière de l’Ordre national du Quebec (2023), Officer of the Order of Canada (2018) and Officer of France’s National Order of Merit (2012). She holds honorary doctorates from Thompson Rivers University, Carleton University, and the University of Glasgow. She has been honoured with the Queen’s University Distinguished Service Award (2005), the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) and was named Principal and vice-chancellor emerita by McGill University (2022).

Professor Fortier is a vocal proponent for the creation of rich learning environments that ignite students’ curiosity and creativity, equip them to be future ready, hone their leadership capacity and inspire them to put their knowledge and talents to work to build a better future for all. 
 

Caroline Hargrove, DSc

Caroline is passionate about Technology.  She is currently Chief Technology Officer at Ceres, overseeing the development of next generation fuel cell and green hydrogen technology. She is also a non-Exec Director at Zedsen, a med-tech start-up developing non-invasive sensors for detecting and monitoring breast cancer tumours.  

She started her career as a lecturer in Applied Mechanics at Cambridge and then moved to work in Formula 1 for McLaren Racing, where she spent 10 years developing simulations and the first F1 simulator.  She then became a founding member of McLaren Applied Technologies, a company set up to exploit McLaren F1 technology and expertise to new markets and eventually became its CTO until she left in 2018.  She subsequently spent 3 years at Babylon Health as its CTO, developing AI tools to support primary care health.

Caroline is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), was a Visiting Professor at Oxford from 2015-2018 and holds a PhD in Applied Mechanics from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Applied Math and Mechanical Engineering) from Queen’s. She received a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to Engineering in 2020.

She is also a member of the Science and Technology Advisory Board at the National Physics Laboratory, and a Trustee of the National Saturday Club, a charity that encourages teenagers from underprivileged backgrounds to consider careers in the creative industries.
 

Natan Obed, LLD

Natan Obed is the President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. He was first elected in 2015 and was acclaimed to his third consecutive term in 2021. He grew up in Nain, the northernmost community of Nunatsiavut (Northern Labrador). He graduated from Tufts University in 2001.

President Obed is the national spokesperson for Inuit in Canada and also serves as Vice-President of Inuit Circumpolar Council-Canada. As ITK President, he implements the direction set out by Inuit Leadership from the four regions of Inuit Nunangat — the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut. 
 

m. nourbeSe philip, LLD

M. NourbeSe Philip was born on the island of Tobago in the “huddled hunchbacked hills” of Woodlands, Moriah, where the blue of sky and ocean often appears as one. She studied at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica and took graduate degrees in political science and in law at Western University London, Ontario. She practised law for seven years in the space-time of Toronto where she still lives as an unembedded poet without ambition, essayist, novelist, playwright, reader and thinker. Her first collection of poetry, Thorns, was published in 1980. A further four books of poetry have followed including the seminal She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks and Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence. 

Her published fiction includes the young-adult novel Harriet’s Daughter, a now-classic work that navigates the adolescent friendship between two girls of Caribbean background living in Toronto, while her dramatic work includes Coups and Calypsos, produced in both London and Toronto in 1996. Her essay collections, including her most recent, BlanK, are in the tradition of the socially and politically engaged poets, novelists and artists of the Caribbean. Alongside her poetry they articulate a powerful and decades-long engagement with issues generated by the destructive legacies of colonialism in both the Caribbean and Canada, even as they display a lifelong concern with the possibilities afforded by language to interrogate and remake these legacies.

Zong! As told to the author by Setaey Adamu Boateng, first published in the US and Canada in 2008, takes its title and subject from the massacre on board in the slave ship Zong in 1781, when the captain ordered that some 150 enslaved Africans be thrown overboard to their deaths so that the ship’s owners could claim insurance monies. Zong!, the poem, is a conceptually innovative, genre-breaking epic, which explodes the legal archive as it relates to slavery, and creates an anti-narrative lament that stretches the boundaries of the poetic form. It remains a haunting lifeline between archive and memory, law and poetry.

Among her awards are numerous Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council grants, including the prestigious Chalmers Award (Ontario Arts Council), the Canada Council’s Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award (Outstanding mid-career artist), as well as the Pushcart Prize (USA), the Casa de las Americas Prize (Cuba), the Lawrence Foundation Prize (USA), the Arts Foundation of Toronto Writing and Publishing Award (Canada), and Dora Award finalist (drama, Canada).  Her fellowships include Guggenheim, McDowell, and Rockefeller (Bellagio).  She is an awardee of both the YWCA Woman of Distinction (Arts) and the Elizabeth Fry Rebels for a Cause awards.  She has been Writer-in-Residence at several universities and a guest at writers' retreats.  In 2020 nourbeSe Philip was awarded the PEN/Nabokov Award (USA) for Achievement in International Literature; in 2021 she received the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize for outstanding achievement and was the Spring 2023 Bain-Swigget Chair in Poetry at Princeton University.
 

Kimberly Prost, LLD

Graduating as a gold medallist from the University of Manitoba Law School, Ms.Prost worked for the Canadian Department of Justice for eighteen years appearing before all levels of the Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court. For 7 years she served as Director of the International Assistance Group which is responsible for extradition and mutual legal assistance matters for Canada. She participated in the negotiation of over 40 extradition/mutual legal assistance treaties and was a member of the Canadian delegation for the negotiation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and related documents, as well as the UN Conventions against Transnational Organized Crime and Corruption.

Ms. Prost also held managerial positions with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime delivering a range of programs for States on international cooperation, money laundering and asset forfeiture, counter terrorism, implementation of the Rome Statute, and combating organized crime and corruption.

After election by the General Assembly, in July 2006, she was appointed to sit as an ad litem judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on a multi-accused trial (Popovic et al) related to events at Srebrenica and Zepa. Judgement was delivered in that case in June 2010. She also served as and pre-trial judge and presiding judge in the pre-trial phase of a related case.

In June 2010 Ms. Prost was appointed by the Secretary General as the first Ombudsperson for the Security Council Al Qaida Sanctions Committee. She completed her five year term in that role in mid July 2015. She subsequently served as Chef de Cabinet for the President of the International Criminal Court for a two year term, prior to her election as a judge of the ICC.

Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould, LLD

The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, PC, OBC, KC, was raised to be a leader. The daughter of a hereditary chief and Indigenous leader, she always knew that she would seek leadership roles and responsibilities. As a lawyer, an advocate, and a leader among Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, she’s built a strong reputation as a bridge builder and champion of good governance and accountability. She shares her unique perspective as both a community and political leader on topics such as Indigenous rights and
reconciliation, democracy and governance, leadership, and justice.

Wilson-Raybould was first elected as a Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Vancouver Granville in 2015. She was then appointed the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada making her the first Indigenous person to serve in this portfolio. In January 2019, she was appointed the Minister of Veterans Affairs of Canada and Associate Minister of National Defence, positions she held until her resignation from cabinet in February 2019.

During the 2019 election, Wilson-Raybould was re-elected as an Independent Member of Parliament for Vancouver Granville, making her Canada’s first ever female Independent MP elected and the only elected Independent in the 43rd Parliament. Prior to politics, Wilson-Raybould was a provincial crown prosecutor in Vancouver and served three terms as an elected Commissioner of the BC Treaty Commission. She was
also elected BC Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in 2009, where she devoted herself to the advancement of First Nations governance, fair access to land and resources, as well as improved education and health care services. She served until 2015, holding responsibilities for governance and Nation building on the Assembly of First Nations Executive.

Wilson-Raybould is a descendant of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk and Laich-Kwil-Tach peoples, which are part of the Kwakwaka’wakw and also known as the Kwak’wala speaking peoples. She is a member of the We Wai Kai Nation with her traditional name, Puglaas, means “woman born to noble people.” She served two terms as an elected councillor for her Nation and was also a director and chair of the First Nations Finance Authority and a director of the First Nations Lands Advisory Board. 

Wilson-Raybould is the national #1 best-selling author of “Indian” In The Cabinet: Speaking Truth To Power, which was a finalist for The Writers' Trust Balsillie Prize for Public Policy and Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, From Where I Stand: Rebuilding Indigenous Nations for a Stronger Canada and True Reconciliation: How To Be A Force For Change.
 

Adelle Blackett, LLD

Dr. Adelle Blackett has been at the forefront of international and national human rights law for the past 25 years.

A prolific, world-class scholar in labour law and its interface with trade, she is a key thinker behind the emerging field of transnational labour law, foregrounding decolonial approaches.

She joined the McGill Faculty of Law in 2000, becoming McGill’s first Black law professor. A Tier 1 Canada Research Chairholder in Transnational Labour Law and Development, she was the lead architect of an historic international treaty, the 2011 ILO Domestic Workers’ Convention. Her recent book, Everyday Transgressions: Domestic Workers’ Transnational Challenge to International Labor Law (Cornell University Press, 2019) earned the 2020 Canadian Council on International Law’s Scholarly Book Award. An elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, she has worked closely with the ILO, governments, employers and trade unions to prepare a draft Haitian labour code. She offers expert advice on trade-labour interface, and is on dispute-resolution rosters for the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement and the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

Professor Blackett is also a cherished educator and mentor, who has throughout her career brought innovative, contemplative approaches to teaching, and shared them in award-winning scholarship. She has been a leader in fostering equity in law, and in Canadian higher education. Notably, she founded and convened the Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus, chaired professorial recruitment that yielded pathbreaking hires, and was the principal drafter of the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education, signed by approximately 60 universities and colleges across Canada.

Professor Blackett’s human rights engagements include her unanimous appointment by the National Assembly of Quebec to the Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission. She subsequently chaired the federal Court Challenges Program’s Human Rights Experts Panel. The Quebec Superior Court has recognized her as an expert witness on forced labour. She is currently chairing the 12-member federal Employment Equity Act Review Task Force, the first review of its kind since the Hon. Rosalie Abella proposed employment equity legislation in the 1984 Royal Commission on Equality in Employment.

Professor Blackett’s numerous recognitions include the Barreau du Québec’s Christine Tourigny Award of Merit and the Advocatus Emeritus (Ad. E.) designation; the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal; the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers’ Pathfinder Award; and the McGill Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
 

Daniel Christmas, LLD

Daniel Christmas, a lifelong resident of the Mi’kmaw community of Membertou, has been active in a number of international, national, provincial and local organizations in a range of fields including Aboriginal and treaty rights, youth, justice, policing, education, health care, human rights, adult training, business development and the environment. 

He is the first Mi'kmaw individual to be appointed to the Senate of Canada and sits as an independent and made sure to open a constituency office, a step not normally taken by those appointed to the upper house.  Senator Christmas reasoned that he wanted to ensure he was available year-round, in his community, for those with questions, concerns, ideas, and issues.

Senator Christmas is also a consultant with Membertou Quality Management Services, providing services to a number of Mi’kmaw organizations. He has served with or chaired many provincial and national boards, advisory committees, and organizations. For 18 years, he chaired a local charitable organization, Educational Program Innovation Charity, which was recognized as the best run non-profit organization in Canada by the Donner Canadian Foundation in 2010. He has received numerous awards and distinctions for his work.

While working with the Union of Nova Scotia Indians, which represents multiple Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw First Nations, Senator Christmas helped organize a political and legal strategy to defend Mi'kmaw rights.  This work then contributed to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling (Simon v. The Queen, 1985) in a case associated with a 1752 treaty concerning hunting rights, which recognized the validity of the treaty and confirmed that it continued to provide a right to hunt for Mi'kmaw peoples.
 
Senator Christmas' priorities for his time in government include using his experience and position to assist the federal government in rebuilding its relationships with the Indigenous peoples of Canada.  He was the Senate sponsor of Bill C-68, which proposed amending the Fisheries Act to require the government to consider any adverse effects a decision made under the Act may have on the rights of Indigenous peoples of Canada.  Senator Christmas also plans to press for the involvement of Indigenous peoples in major energy sector projects and for more work to be done against sexual exploitation and modern slavery.
Senator Christmas has been active in a number of international, national, provincial, and local agencies in a wide range of fields, including Indigenous and treaty rights, justice, policing, education, health care, human rights, adult training, business development, and the environment.
 
Senator Christmas spent his time with the Membertou First Nation focusing on how to recover from a financial situation close to bankruptcy, with 95% unemployment, eventually resulting in the recovery of the community to a profitable status with a ten-fold growth in labour force and revenue.
 

Evelyn Forget, DSc

Evelyn L Forget is an economist whose research has been dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to the tools and resources they need to live full lives. She has advocated for a basic income guarantee that would offer financial support to those living below the poverty line, without shame and without making resources conditional on meeting arbitrary regulations.

Born and raised in Scarborough Ontario, she first came across the idea of a basic income guarantee as a psychology undergraduate at Glendon College when she accidentally found herself in an economics class trying to fulfill a university requirement. One day, her economics professor came to class with a story about a massive Canadian social experiment on guaranteed income then underway. She was so intrigued that she changed her major to economics and nothing was ever the same again.

Professor Forget went on to do a PhD in economics at the University of Toronto, and then moved to Winnipeg where she was Professor of Economics at the University of Manitoba until 2000. She published many books and articles in various areas of economics, but poverty was always central to her analysis. In 2000, she was hired as Professor of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Anyone working in healthcare recognizes very quickly that we spend a lot of time and money treating the effects of poverty in our healthcare system. Our Emergency Departments are full of people who have lived hard lives, showing the effects of poor housing, inadequate diets and poor working conditions at far too young an age.

Professor Forget’s research into this important and too-often neglected aspect of health policy has transformed international research, and helped move discussion from the political margins to serious policy consideration. She has advised policymakers and researchers around the world. Her work has received international media coverage, and featured in a documentary that opened at the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in 2018.
Professor Forget has received many awards and prizes from academic societies. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, past president of the History of Economics Society and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Her most recent books are Basic Income for Canadians: from the COVID-19 emergency to financial security for all (Lorimer and Co., 2020) and (with Hannah Owczar) Radical Trust: Basic Income for Complicated Lives.
 

Helen Humphreys, LLD

Helen Humphreys is the award-winning author of four books of poetry, nine novels, and six works of creative non-fiction. She has won the City of Toronto Book Award, the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize, a Lambda Award for fiction, the Canadian Author’s Association Award for poetry, and the Harbourfront Festival Prize for Literary Excellence. Her work has also been nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Book Prize, the B.C. Non-Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Prize, and has been a finalist on CBC Canada Reads. Her books have been translated and published all over the world and have been adapted for stage, screen, TV, and opera. She has been a writer in residence at many institutions, including the University of Toronto and Queen’s University, and has been a resident artist at the arts colonies Yaddo and McDowell. From 2014 to 2018 she was the Poet Laureate for the City of Kingston. She lives and writes in Kingston. Her most recent books are the novel, Rabbit Foot Bill, the non-fiction “Field Study”, and the memoir, “And A Dog Called Fig.” 
 

Suzanne Lacasse, DSc

Dr. Suzanne Lacasse was born in Noranda, Québec, did a Bachelor of Arts at Université de Montréal and her civil engineering degrees at École Polytechnique de Montréal and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

She was first Lecturer at École Polytechnique (1973-1975) and then on the faculty of the Civil Engineering and Environmental Department at MIT (1975-1984), where she also was Head of the Geotechnical Laboratory. Dr. Lacasse then went to the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), and became NGI’s Managing Director in 1991, a position she held until 2012. She served as President of the Canadian Geotechnical Society in 2003-2004.

During the early part of her career, Dr. Lacasse concentrated her work on geotechnical laboratory techniques, soil behaviour studies and in-situ investigation methods. Subsequently, she worked on foundation engineering and design for structures on land and offshore, slope stability and development of calculation procedures. In her work, Dr. Lacasse concentrated on combining mathematical and numerical analyses with practical geotechnical engineering design considerations. She was a key member of the NGI-team developing practical design analysis procedures for offshore platforms subjected to storm loading. She then worked extensively on geotechnical risk and reliability with implementations for offshore and onshore foundations, landslides, tunnelling and both water-retaining and tailings dams.

Dr. Lacasse was honoured with several awards, including doctorates honoris causa from Scotland, Norway and Canada, the Robert Legget Medal of the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS), the Kennedy and K.Y. Lo Medals of the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Effective Teaching Award in Civil Engineering at MIT and the Robert Schuster Medal from the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists and the CGS. She is elected member of the National Academy of Engineers in the US, Canada, Norway and France. She is Honorary Professor at Tongji University in Shanghai and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, and Advisory Professor at the Shanghai Jiaotong University, China. She published over 380 papers. She gave the Terzaghi Lecture in 2001, the Terzaghi Oration in 2013 and the Rankine Lecture in 2015 and will give the Nabor Carrillo Lecture in 2022. The ISSMGE established in her honour the ‘Suzanne Lacasse Lecture’ on risk and reliability in geotechnical engineering. She is a Knight of the 1st Order of the Falcon in Iceland and an Officer of the Order of Canada.
 

Wesley Hall, LLD

Wes Hall came from very humble beginnings in Jamaica to become one of the most influential businesspeople in Canada. He has established himself as the preeminent leader in shareholder advisory services and contested investor situations. The Globe and Mail, has called him one of the nation’s “most influential powerbrokers,” Canadian Business magazine named him one of the “most powerful business people” in 2016, Toronto Life magazine voted him among the “50 most influential Torontonians in 2020, ”the International Association of Business Communicators (Toronto) named him their “2020 Communicator of the Year,” and Maclean’s magazine ranked him number 18 on their 2021 Power List of the “50 most powerful people in Canada.”

As the Founder of Kingsdale Advisors, Wes has delivered an unparalleled track record of success for North America’s biggest names including Air Canada, Barrick, BHP Billiton, Citigroup, CN, CP, Ovintiv, Goldcorp, Talisman, and Suncor. He has been sought out to lead some of the highest profile deals and activist campaigns in North America. They include Enbridge’s $37 billion merger with Spectra Energy, Agrium and Potash Corp.’s $36 billion merger, Tim Hortons’ $12.5 billion merger with Burger King, Pershing Square Capital Management’s campaign to replace the board of Canadian Pacific Railway, and Petro Canada’s $19 billion merger with Suncor Energy.

Wes is also the owner of QM Environmental, a leading national environmental and industrial services provider with over 450 employees; Titan Supply, a top manufacturer and distributor of rigging and wear products serving industries in the oil and gas, construction, and transportation sectors; and Harbor Club hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton, one of St. Lucia’s premier resorts. He is an instructor at the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto (Rotman), where he teaches Black Entrepreneurship & Leadership in Canada, a first-of-its-kind course in North America that provides students with a deep understanding of the systemic anti-Black racism faced by Black entrepreneurs, the cultural impacts and how to navigate the system. In 2020, he was appointed to the Ontario government’s Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce, an advisory group of experts tasked to review and modernize the province’s capital markets regulations.

In June 2020 Wes launched the BlackNorth Initiative. BNI challenges Canadian businesses to end systemic racism head on in a business centric approach. Hall and his highly esteemed team of experts are collaboratively improving the lives of millions of black Canadians by opening doors that otherwise would have been shut.

You can find Wes on the upcoming 16th season of CBC’s Dragons Den as the first black Dragon, making an impact and conscious effort to award opportunities to up and coming BIPOC entrepreneurs. Wes is also the Executive Producer for the Dionne Warwick documentary: “Don’t Make Me Over” which premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2021, Wes received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce Business Achievement Awards for his exceptional leadership in business. Wes also received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa, Ryerson University, as well as the recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Award and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies.

Wes’ first ever biography “No Bootstraps When You’re Barefoot”, published by Penguin Random House will hit bookshelves everywhere in Fall of 2022.
Wes sits as a board member of the SickKids Foundation, Pathways to Education, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and The Black Academy. He is also a Member of the Board of Governors at Huron University College, and is Founder and Chairman of The Canadian Council of Business Leaders Against Anti-Black Systemic Racism. He has also changed the lives of thousands of children in the Caribbean and Canada, donating both his money and time.
 

Clarence Louie, LLD

Clarence Louie was elected Chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) in 1984 at the age of 24 and has held the position for more than 12 terms. The OIB Development Corporation (OIBDC) was formed in 1988 under Louie’s leadership. As CEO, he has developed over eleven successful on-reserve, OIB-owned
businesses and five joint ventures in pursuit of economic self-sufficiency for the community. 

For over 30 years, Chief Clarence Louie has been a champion for the Osoyoos Indian Band’s working culture, inspiring generations not only within the ban but around the world with his message about self-empowerment through employment, hard work, and community building. Louie is quoted widely in media and is a highly sought-after speaker for his strong and straightforward views on the link between economic development and First Nations self-reliance. Known for doing business in a modern First Nations context, Chief Louie wants to build an ‘indigenous economy’ where First Nations business people and leaders not only participate in the mainstream of Canada’s business economy, but more and more, take a stronger leadership position to shape environmentally and socially responsible outcomes that still feed the bottom line.

As Chief, he negotiated settlement of three specific land claims with the B.C. government, the settlement of more than 1,000 acres of lease land development, and the expansion of the OIB reserve by hundreds of acres of land. In 2000, Louie joined the Governor General of Canada on a leadership tour, and in 2001, he was appointed to the board of Aboriginal Business Canada, becoming chair in 2007. In 2003, the U.S. Department of State invited Louie as one of six First Nations representatives to participate in a two-week tour of Indigenous tribes in the US, and in 2008 he consulted with federal finance minister Jim Flaherty on matters of economic development in Canada. In 2014, he served as a mentor for doctoral students with the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation. He is a past member of the B.C. Region Indian Affairs committee, the board of directors of First Nations organizations Denendeh Investments (2007), Sts’ailes Development Corporation (2009), the board of directors for Destination B.C. (2015) and the B.C. Provincial Health Services Authority (2015). In 2020, he was on the selection committee for the Governor General’s Innovation Awards.

In 2003, MacLean’s magazine named him in Top 50 Canadians to Watch. In 2004, he won the Business and Community Development award from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, and in 2008, he received the “Partnership with Community Special Citation” award from Ernst & Young – the first First Nations person to receive such an award. He won the Aboriginal Business Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business in 2011.

Recipient of the Order of Canada in 2017 and two years later, inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame, Chief Clarence Louie is an internationally acclaimed leader dedicated to the economic and social prosperity of his people. 
 

Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue, LLD

Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue is a Labrador Innu environmental and cultural activist who has been featured in numerous documentaries, books, and articles. She was born near Churchill Falls, Labrador; however, in the early 1960s, her family and community was relocated to Sheshatshiu, Labrador with the promises of a better, more easier life.  By the time they expressed a desire to return, development of Churchill Falls and the creation of the Smallwood Reservoir had destroyed the traditional hunting grounds off which they lived.  Her campaigns have inspired countless to advocate for legal and environmental rights, both in Canada and internationally.
 
Tshaukuesh's high profile work began with leading the Innu community's campaign against NATO's low-level flying and bomb testing on Innu land in the 1980s and 1990s.  She stayed the course despite going to jail with nine others as a result of their actions.  She then moved on to a role as a key respondent in a legal case related to the "colour of right", in which a judge held that the Innu could occupy a Canadian Forces base in Goose Bay, Labrador.
 
One of Tshaukuesh's primary goals has always been to pass along what she learned from her elders and own experiences to others.  She has taught people from around the world about Innu culture for over two decades, often during multi-day or multi-week canoe trips and walks in the Mealys Mountains and surrounding bush during summer and winter.
 
Her book, Nitinikiau Innusi: I Keep The Land Alive (2020), was composed based on her diaries from 1987 to 2016 and describes in detail her day-to-day life and thoughts on Innu politics, culture, land, and history.

Alexis Puentes, LLD

Alexis Puentes is a multiple Latin Grammy/Grammy/Juno winning singer-songwriter/producer/musician, born Alexis Puentes in Artemisa, Cuba. He was immersed in music at a very young age, joining his father’s (guitarist and teacher Valentin Puentes) group of 24 guitarists. Alex then went on to study electric and upright bass and touring and recording nationally and internationally. His sound is the unique confluence of tradition and global influences in articulate arrangements that convey emotions through melody and lyric.

Though raised in Artemisa, an hour outside of Havana, Alexis Puentes’ artistry is as far-flung as the place he has set- tled and lived for over ten years: Smithers, BC, 14 hours north of Vancouver. His music at once incorporates his Cuban roots and is a unique amalgam of styles from funk, pop to soul. Collaborating with peers ranging from Nelly Furtado and Jason Mraz to Ron Sexsmith and Jim Cuddy to Pablo Milanes and Lionel Garcia.

A forward-thinking, indie-minded artist, Alex has amassed a steadily growing following among critics and fans, garnering over 20 awards and nominations to his name, including a Grammy Award and 4 Latin Grammys and two Junos Awards. Over the course of 8 albums Alex has explored and expanded on his Cuban and international influences. Uplifting and bright to soulful and philosophical, his songs will speak to the listener though melody as well as lyrics. In 2022 Alexis Puentes’ 8th studio release, Mendó, won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album where he won as artist, producer and engineer.

Overcoming obstacles of politics and cliché, Alex’s music rises above commonly held notions of Cuban music and makes a space to understand more about bringing together different genres to create something new, about being accepted on your own terms and forging a path for others to follow. His journey has included being at the forefront of independent artists entrepreneurs, concurrent with raising a family of three wonderful children.

Romek (Robbie) Waisman, LLD

Romek (Robbie) Waisman was born in 1931 in Poland.  He was raised in a very close family and community according to the traditions of the Orthodox Jewish faith.  
 
When the Nazi army invaded Poland in September 1939, Waisman was to stay with friends who were not of the Jewish faith.  He soon returned to his family, but was relocated to his city's Jewish ghetto in 1941.  He was subsequently put to work in the city's munitions factory for two years, but was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944.  The camp was liberated by the American military in April 1945; however, the children of the camp were required to stay for an additional three months given many had become orphans and had no homes.
 
In 1949, after time spent in various French villages where the Buchenwald orphans were housed with families, Waisman chose to emigrate to Canada, first to Calgary, then Saskatoon where he met his wife, and finally Vancouver in 1978.
 
In 1983, charges were laid against a public school teacher in Alberta for spreading antisemitism in his classes.  This incident caused Waisman to reflect on his experiences during the Holocaust and to confront the threat of Holocaust denial.  He chose to take an active role in Holocaust education, speaking to the public at various events and publishing a book, "None is Too Many".  He became highly involved in the work of the Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society, serving as its Treasurer, Vice-President, and President since the 1980s.
 
In the early 2000s, Waisman became involved in work with Indigenous communities and acted as a key figure in conversations between the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Assembly of First Nations, eventually traveling across British Columbia and to the Northwest Territories to speak to residential school survivors about shared experiences of persecution, violence, and ongoing trauma.  Waisman was declared an honorary witness by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2011 and has spoke alongside its Chairman, Justice Murray Sinclair, in a summit on historical trauma and injustice in 2012.  Having survived the horrors of the Holocaust and discovered the importance and healing power of sharing one’s painful experiences, he became involved in helping residential schools survivors find the strength to speak up about the horrors they experienced and the impact these have had on their lives and families. Together with TRC head Justice Murray Sinclair, Waisman traveled the country for two years, meeting with many of the estimated 80,000 surviving residential school students to share his story and to listen to theirs.
 
Waisman made a crucial recommendation that was adopted by the commission. The Holocaust survivor told Sinclair that he had not been able to speak about his wartime experiences to his own children — and that it wasn’t until they overheard him speaking later to school groups that they learned what he had gone through.  “Based on that, when we go to a community, we bring all the [residential school] survivors in and we always make a point to bring their children in so that when the survivors are talking to us, the children are hearing them,” Sinclair told the Jewish Independent. “That proved to be an exceptionally strong piece of advice for us to open the lines of communication within families. From the perspective of residential school survivors, often the most important process of reconciliation that they wanted to engage in, that they needed to engage in, was to apologize to their own families for how they behaved after residential schools and to be given an act of forgiveness by their children, their spouses, their family members,” he said.

1858-2025 recipients (PDF, 640.2 KB)