Media Releases

Renowned author Lawrence Hill to receive honorary degree

May 28, 2010

TORONTO, ON – Approx­i­mate­ly 11,500 stu­dents will grad­u­ate from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to this spring at con­vo­ca­tion cer­e­monies tak­ing place from Wednes­day, June 2, to Fri­day, June 18. All cer­e­monies will be held in Con­vo­ca­tion Hall, 31 King’s Col­lege Cir­cle.   

The Uni­ver­si­ty will also con­fer nine hon­orary degrees, rec­og­niz­ing extra­or­di­nary achieve­ments in com­mu­ni­ty, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al ser­vice. 

Acclaimed Cana­di­an nov­el­ist Lawrence Hill, philoso­pher Ian Hack­ing and for­mer Deputy Prime Min­is­ter John Man­ley are among this year’s hon­orary grad­u­ates, a group of indi­vid­u­als whose accom­plish­ments are of such dis­tinc­tion that they pro­vide, by exam­ple, inspi­ra­tion and lead­er­ship to the grad­u­ates of the uni­ver­si­ty.  

At each con­vo­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny an hon­orary grad­u­ate, esteemed alum­ni or promi­nent mem­ber of the U of T com­mu­ni­ty will address grad­u­at­ing stu­dents and their guests. 

Lawrence Hill will be rec­og­nized for his con­tri­bu­tions to Cana­di­an lit­er­a­ture, in par­tic­u­lar through his explo­ration of race rela­tions and human­i­tar­i­an con­cerns. He will speak at a con­vo­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny on June 15. 

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 sched­ule of con­vo­ca­tion speak­ers is as fol­lows. Please note: * denotes hon­orary grad­u­ates. 

  • Wednes­day, June 2, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: Dr. Richard Reznick, R.S. McLaugh­lin Pro­fes­sor and Chair, Depart­ment of Surgery, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to &  Vice Pres­i­dent Edu­ca­tion, Uni­ver­si­ty Health Net­work;
  • Thurs­day, June 3, 2010, 10 a.m.: Mr. Pre­ston Man­ning*, mem­ber of Par­lia­ment from 1993–2001 and founder of the Reform Par­ty and the Cana­di­an Alliance;
  • Thurs­day, June 3, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: Uni­ver­si­ty Pro­fes­sor Lin­da Hutcheon, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to lit­er­ary the­o­rist and accom­plished writer;
  • Fri­day, June 4, 2010, 10 a.m.: Hon. Jus­tice Stephen Goudge, Court of Appeal  for Ontario, pro­fes­sor, lit­i­ga­tor and mem­ber of the Law Com­mis­sion of Ontario’s board of gov­er­nors;
  • Fri­day, June 4, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: Pro­fes­sor Bruce Kidd, Olympic ath­lete, author and respect­ed expert on Cana­di­an and inter­na­tion­al sport pol­i­cy;
  • Mon­day, June 7, 2010, 9:30 a.m.: Her Wor­ship Hazel McCal­lion*, May­or of the City of Mis­sis­sauga since 1978 and tire­less sup­port­er of World Vision through her “Hazel’s Hope” char­i­ty for chil­dren affect­ed by HIV/AIDS in Africa;
  • Mon­day, June 7, 2010, 2 p.m.: Pro­fes­sor Abdal­lah S. Daar, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to pro­fes­sor of Pub­lic Health Sci­ences and of Surgery; Direc­tor of Ethics and Com­mer­cial­iza­tion at the McLaugh­lin-Rot­man Cen­tre for Glob­al Health, Uni­ver­si­ty Health Net­work and Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, Chief Sci­ence and Ethics Offi­cer and Chair of the Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­so­ry Board Grand Chal­lenges Cana­da;
  • Mon­day, June 7, 2010, 5 p.m.: Mr. Robert Fother­ing­ham, cel­e­brat­ed busi­ness leader and cur­rent Senior Vice Pres­i­dent, Trad­ing, with TMX Group;
  • Tues­day, June 8, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: Dr. Joseph Rot­man, high­ly regard­ed busi­ness leader, phil­an­thropist, hon­orary grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and Offi­cer of the Order of Cana­da;
  • Wednes­day, June 9, 2010, 9:30 a.m.: Uni­ver­si­ty Pro­fes­sor John Kennedy, dis­tin­guished psy­chol­o­gist and for­mer Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty and cur­rent Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chol­o­gy at UTSC;
  • Wednes­day, June 9, 2010, 2 p.m.: Ms Mary Anne Cham­bers*, for­mer Ontario Min­is­ter of Train­ing, Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties and Min­is­ter of Chil­dren and Youth Ser­vices;
  • Wednes­day, June 9, 2010, 5 p.m.: Ms Lor­raine McLach­lan, Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of the Cana­di­an Fran­chise Asso­ci­a­tion;
  • Thurs­day, June 10, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: Dr. Richard M. H. Alway*, for­mer Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of St. Michael’s Col­lege at U of T and cur­rent Pres­i­dent of the Pon­tif­i­cal Insti­tute of Medi­ae­val Stud­ies;
  • Fri­day, June 11, 2010, 10 a.m.: Pro­fes­sor Roger Mar­tin, pro­fes­sor of Strate­gic Man­age­ment and Dean of the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment;
  • Fri­day, June 11, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: Pro­fes­sor Scott D. Tremaine*, a Pro­fes­sor of Astro­physics at Princeton’s Insti­tute for Advanced Study and one of Canada’s most dis­tin­guished astro­physi­cists;
  • Mon­day, June 14, 2010, 10 a.m.: Uni­ver­si­ty Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus Ian Hack­ing*, a Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus at U of T and one of the fore­most philoso­phers in the world;
  • Mon­day, June 14, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: Mr. Charles S. Pachter*, one of Canada’s most iden­ti­fi­able and influ­en­tial visu­al artists;
  • Tues­day, June 15, 2010, 10 a.m.: Mr. Lawrence Hill*, an acclaimed Cana­di­an writer of fic­tion and non-fic­tion whose works explore the theme of race rela­tions both in Cana­da and inter­na­tion­al­ly;
  • Tues­day, June 15, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: The Hon­ourable John Man­ley*, for­mer Deputy Prime Min­is­ter and 2007 Chair of the Inde­pen­dent Pan­el on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan;
  • Wednes­day, June 16, 10 a.m.: Mr. George Rot­er, co-founder of Engi­neers With­out Bor­ders (EWB) and the group’s cur­rent co-CEO;
  • Wednes­day, June 16, 2:30 p.m.: Pro­fes­sor Yu-Ling Cheng, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to pro­fes­sor in the Depart­ment of Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing and Applied Chem­istry and direc­tor of the new­ly-formed Cen­tre for Glob­al Engi­neer­ing (CGEN);
  • Thurs­day, June 17, 10 a.m.: Dr. Avis Glaze, Ontario’s first Chief Stu­dent Achieve­ment Offi­cer and CEO of the Lit­er­a­cy and Numer­a­cy Sec­re­tari­at;
  • Thurs­day, June 17. 2:30 p.m.: Dr. Marie Sander­son*, a dis­tin­guished schol­ar in the field of Cana­di­an cli­ma­tol­ogy, and a lead­ing expert on the effects of cli­mate change on the Great Lakes water­shed. (Please note, Marie Sanderson’s hon­orary degree was con­ferred at a pri­vate cer­e­mo­ny in May. Her con­vo­ca­tion address will be read by her daugh­ter);
  • Fri­day, June 18, 10 a.m.: Dr. Charles E. Pas­cal, pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, and spe­cial advi­sor on Ear­ly Learn­ing for the Gov­ern­ment of Ontario

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For more infor­ma­tion:

Media Rela­tions
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
media.relations@utoronto.ca
417–089-0100