Media Releases

Renowned author to receive honorary degree

January 21, 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 11 hon­orary degrees, rec­og­niz­ing extra­or­di­nary achieve­ments in com­mu­ni­ty, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al ser­vice.

Acclaimed Cana­di­an nov­el­ist Lawrence Hill, Reform Par­ty founder Pre­ston Man­ning and for­mer Deputy Prime Min­is­ter John Man­ley are among this year’s hon­orary grad­u­ates, a group of indi­vid­u­als whose accom­plish­ments are of such excel­lence that they pro­vide, through exam­ple, inspi­ra­tion and lead­er­ship to the grad­u­ates of the Uni­ver­si­ty. 

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 the con­vo­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny to be held on June 15th.

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 cer­e­monies is as fol­lows:  

  • Thurs­day, June 3, 2010, 10:00 a.m.: Pre­ston Man­ning, mem­ber of Par­lia­ment from 1993–2001 and founder of the Reform Par­ty and the Cana­di­an Alliance;
  • Mon­day, June 7, 2010, 9:30 a.m.: 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;
  • Wednes­day, June 9, 2010, 2:00 p.m.: Mary Anne Cham­bers, for­mer Ontario Min­is­ter of Train­ing, Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties and Min­is­ter of Chil­dren and Youth Ser­vices;
  • Thurs­day, June 10, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: Richard M.H. Alway, for­mer Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty St. Michael’s Col­lege at U of T and cur­rent Pres­i­dent of the Pon­tif­i­cal Insti­tute of Medi­ae­val Stud­ies;
  • Fri­day, June 11, 2010, 2:30 p.m.: 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, 10:00 a.m.: 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.: Charles S. Pachter, one of Canada’s most iden­ti­fi­able and influ­en­tial visu­al artists;
  • Tues­day, June 15, 2010, 10:00 a.m.: 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.: John Man­ley, for­mer Deputy Prime Min­is­ter and 2007 Chair of the Inde­pen­dent Pan­el on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan;
  • Thurs­day, June 17. 2:30 p.m.: Marie Sander­son, a lead­ing schol­ar in the field of Cana­di­an cli­ma­tol­ogy, in par­tic­u­lar the effect of cli­mate change on the Great Lakes water­shed;
  • Date TBD: Dorothy Shoichet, a patron of the arts and edu­ca­tion.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Media Rela­tions
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
media.relations@utoronto.ca
416–978-0100