Media Releases

University of Toronto honours public service and philanthropy

May 5, 2011

TORONTO, ON — The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to will rec­og­nize extra­or­di­nary achieve­ments in pub­lic ser­vice and phil­an­thropy at its Con­vo­ca­tion cer­e­monies this spring, award­ing hon­orary degrees to a select group of men and women who have made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions in these fields.

“The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to stu­dents, fac­ul­ty, staff and alum­ni are com­mit­ted to build­ing stronger com­mu­ni­ties in Cana­da and through­out the world,” said U of T pres­i­dent David Nay­lor. “These hon­orary degrees reflect and cel­e­brate that com­mit­ment.”

Approx­i­mate­ly 12,500 stu­dents will grad­u­ate from the uni­ver­si­ty at cer­e­monies tak­ing place from May 31 to June 17 in Con­vo­ca­tion Hall, 31 King’s Col­lege Cir­cle. Mem­bers of the media are wel­come to attend con­vo­ca­tion cer­e­monies but are asked to con­firm their atten­dance in advance by call­ing U of T media rela­tions at 416–978-0100.

The list of pub­lic ser­vants and phil­an­thropists receiv­ing hon­orary degrees includes:

The Right Hon­ourable Paul Mar­tin, Canada’s 21st Prime Min­is­ter. Since leav­ing office, Mar­tin has led high-lev­el ini­tia­tives pro­mot­ing social and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in Africa and among Abo­rig­i­nal Cana­di­ans.  A grad­u­ate of St. Michael’s Col­lege and the uni­ver­si­ty’s Fac­ul­ty of Law, Mar­tin will receive his hon­orary doc­tor­ate of laws June 3 at 10 am.

Dr. Sonia Labatt and Arthur Labatt, dis­tin­guished phil­an­thropists and vol­un­teers. Arthur Labatt, co-founder and for­mer pres­i­dent of Tri­mark Finan­cial, is a past chan­cel­lor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of West­ern Ontario. Sonia Labatt, Ph.D., is an adjunct pro­fes­sor at U of T’s Cen­tre for Envi­ron­ment, an Arbor Award win­ner and a long­time mem­ber of the Dean’s Advi­so­ry Board of the Fac­ul­ty of Arts and Sci­ence. The Labatts will receive their hon­orary doc­tor­ates of laws June 13 at 2:30 pm.

The High Com­mis­sion­er of Sin­ga­pore to Cana­da, Koh Yong Guan. Koh is one of the most esteemed pub­lic ser­vants in the mod­ern his­to­ry of Sin­ga­pore.  As a Colum­bo Plan schol­ar from 1966–72, he com­plet­ed two degrees in engi­neer­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. Now serv­ing as chair of Sin­ga­pore’s nation­al pen­sion fund and the board of the Sin­ga­pore Can­cer Sci­ences Research Insti­tute, Koh will receive his hon­orary doc­tor­ate of laws June 6 at 2 pm.

Renowned phil­an­thropist and devel­op­er John H. Daniels. A Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to alum­nus in archi­tec­ture, Daniels led Cadil­lac Fairview Cor­po­ra­tion for more than 20 years. Since 1983, his Daniels Cor­po­ra­tion has sup­port­ed ini­tia­tives such as Sec­ond Har­vest, Habi­tat for Human­i­ty and Eva’s Ini­tia­tives and, in 2008, Daniels pro­vid­ed the uni­ver­si­ty with the largest-ever pri­vate gift received by an archi­tec­ture school in Cana­da. Daniels will receive his hon­orary doc­tor­ate of laws June 2 at 2:30 pm.

Anne Sado, Pres­i­dent of George Brown Col­lege. Sado is a dou­ble alum­na of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, hav­ing grad­u­at­ed from engi­neer­ing in 1977 and from the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment in 1981. She had a long and dis­tin­guished career at Bell and is a role mod­el for women in engi­neer­ing and busi­ness across Ontario and Cana­da. She has served as pres­i­dent of the YWCA of Met­ro­pol­i­tan Toron­to, chair of the Tril­li­um Health Cen­tre, and as a mem­ber of the Advi­so­ry Board for the Fac­ul­ty of Applied Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing and the Advi­so­ry Board for the Ontario Insti­tute for Stud­ies in Edu­ca­tion. Sado will receive her hon­orary doc­tor­ate of laws June 15 at 10 am.

Dis­tin­guished vol­un­teers and phil­an­thropists David M. Dun­lap and J. Mof­fat Dun­lap. The Dun­laps’ sig­nif­i­cant endowed gifts to estab­lish the Dun­lap Insti­tute of Astron­o­my and Astro­physics built on a lega­cy that began with their fam­i­ly’s estab­lish­ment of the Dun­lap Obser­va­to­ry in 1935. David, who grad­u­at­ed from engi­neer­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to in 1961, and Mof­fat, an eques­tri­an and for­mer Show Jump­ing World Cham­pi­on, have been tire­less sup­port­ers of edu­ca­tion, health­care, and equine research at Guelph Uni­ver­si­ty and Seneca and Hum­ber Col­leges. The Dun­laps will receive their hon­orary doc­tor­ates of laws June 10 at 10 am.

As pre­vi­ous­ly announced, the uni­ver­si­ty will also con­fer hon­orary doc­tor­ates rec­og­niz­ing extra­or­di­nary glob­al con­tri­bu­tions by Mal­colm Glad­well, (June 14) Nan­dan Nilekani (May 31) and Craig and Marc Kiel­burg­er (June 8), as well as extra­or­di­nary knowl­edge con­tri­bu­tions by Uni­ver­si­ty Toron­to Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus Mladen Vran­ic (June 1), Bert Was­mund PhD (June 15) and Cam­bridge Pro­fes­sor Michael Lapidge (June 10).

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Jen­nifer Lan­thi­er
416–978-8362
jennifer.lanthier@utoronto.ca

Media Rela­tions
416–978-0100