Scott Anderson

Topic

Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition

Alumni

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

Trinity College

University College

Together, they have inspired countless others with their thoughtful leadership and generous spirit. And as donors, they like to think ahead. With an eye on future generations, Joannah and Brian Lawson have made climate change and child nutrition central to their philanthropy, including at the University of Toronto.

Today, for their outstanding service to the university as supporters, ambassadors and thoughtful advisers, and for their commitment to making a positive difference in everything they do, the Lawsons will each receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from U of T.

Raised in Toronto, Brian attended U of T, earning a bachelor of arts degree in 1982, with an emphasis on economics and computer science. After graduation, he joined Touche Ross (now Deloitte) and decided to study accounting, becoming a chartered accountant in 1985.

Joannah, who also grew up in Toronto, completed a master’s degree in industrial relations at U of T in 1989.

Brian joined Brookfield, an investment firm, in 1988 and soon moved into senior roles, including chief financial officer of Brookfield Asset Management, which he held from 2002 to 2020. In 2013, he was selected as Canada’s CFO of the year by Financial Executives International Canada, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Robert Half International.

During Brian’s tenure as CFO, Brookfield evolved into a large, global investment firm, with assets under management of US$600 billion in 2020 and operations in more than 20 countries – principally in Canada, the United States, Australia and Brazil.

(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Joannah, meanwhile, worked in change management in the high-tech sector before launching a second career as a nutritionist in 2012 via her own consulting business: Appetite for Change.

She is also co-founder and president of the Brian and Joannah Lawson Family Foundation, which collaborates with other philanthropic foundations, not-for-profits, universities and think tanks to make food systems around the world healthier and more sustainable. The couple created the foundation in 2008 to advance two causes they believe in: addressing climate change and promoting healthy dietary patterns. Joannah has since shifted her focus to leading the foundation.

“Our particular emphasis is on supporting and sponsoring initiatives that improve the health and well-being of our communities [and] the environment,” Brian told the Globe and Mail in 2014.

In an interview with U of T, Joannah drew a connection between healthy food and sustainability, noting that “nutrient-empty foods take a heavy toll on the planet.”

These concerns are reflected in how the couple has supported U of T philanthropically, with significant donations to establish the Lawson Centre for Sustainability at Trinity College and the Joannah and Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

They view their focus on child nutrition as strategic, adding that a person’s first few years is a critical window for lifelong health. “If you start changing things in childhood, you have the greatest opportunity to have a bigger impact on a person’s life,” Joannah told the Temerty Faculty of Medicine in 2017. “It’s going further upstream to get to the root of the problem.”

“It’s an inflection point for parents too,” Brian said in the same interview. “Parents often start trying to eat healthier when kids come along, so focusing on children benefits the whole family.”

“Ultimately,” Joannah said, “the number one thing we’re doing is setting out to prevent chronic disease. If you prevent chronic disease, you reduce suffering, improve quality of life and improve economic outcomes. It’s a win-win-win.”

Both Brian and Joannah have volunteered extensively with U of T. Brian is chancellor of Trinity College, co-chair of the Defy Gravity Campaign and a past chair of U of T’s Governing Council. Joannah is a past member of the Trinity College Board of Trustees and continues to serve as an adviser to the college. Together, they have served as co-chairs of the campaign cabinet at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and on the Boundless Campaign executive

Both have received the university’s Arbor Award for volunteer service, and honorary doctorates from Trinity College.

In his speech today, Brian urged graduates of Trinity and University colleges to focus their efforts on opportunities that tick three boxes: what they’re good at, what they’re passionate about and where they can make a difference. “Think of how you want the world to be – and exemplify that yourself,” he said. “People around you will notice. And that might be the greatest impact of all.”

In her speech, Joannah encouraged graduates to draw inspiration from others. “Find out who is already working on the issues you care about most, and look for ways to contribute, either directly by working with them or indirectly by building on their work.”

And if no one else is working on the issue? “Lead the way.”

Renowned architect Bruce Kuwabara receives U of T honorary degree

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 19:40:50 +0000

Renowned architect Bruce Kuwabara receives U of T honorary degree Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 06/20/2024 - 15:40

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(photo by Steve Frost)

Topic

One of Canada’s most distinguished architects, Bruce Kuwabara has designed some of the country’s finest structures. An accomplished city-builder, he is also a valued campus-builder – a University of Toronto alum who has helped shape the university’s development and contributed to the success of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

Today, for his superlative architectural and design sensibility, and for his outstanding contributions to the university, Kuwabara will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from U of T.

Born in Hamilton, Ont in 1949, Kuwabara earned a degree in architecture from U of T in 1972. After graduating, he joined the teaching studio of architect George Baird, whose interest in public spaces, Jane Jacobs and Scandinavian urban design influenced how Kuwabara thought about city-building. (Decades later, Baird would serve as dean of the Daniels Faculty.)

Following the apprenticeship with Baird, Kuwabara joined Barton Myers Associates, where he worked for 12 years. When Myers left in 1987, he handed over his Toronto practice to Kuwabara and two of his fellow associates at the firm – Marianne McKenna and Shirley Blumberg – and a friend, Thomas Payne. Together, they created the new firm KPMB. (Payne ventured out on his own in 2013, but the remaining principals kept the “P.”)

As an architect – and a citizen – Kuwabara is deeply engaged with how architecture and landscape design can work together to bring about a more diverse, equitable and sustainable city. In his projects, he aims to marry performance with aesthetics in ways that improve people’s well-being, while also being kind to the planet. His philosophy is visible in the evolution of Waterfront Toronto and U of T, where he has helped steer design choices to create a greater number of beautiful and vibrant public spaces.

(photo by Steve Frost)

His work in Toronto includes cultural and academic institutions such as the Gardiner Museum, the Rotman School of Management, Canada’s National Ballet School and TIFF Bell Lightbox, in which he often blends contemporary details with historical elements. His designs for Kitchener City Hall, Richmond City Hall and Vaughan City Hall have all won Governor General’s Medals in Architecture. “What’s important to [KPMB] is to be very consistently good,” Kuwabara told the Globe and Mail in 2014.

Larry Richards (who has also served as dean of the Daniels Faculty) wrote in Canadian Architect that “Kuwabara’s agenda is not just about making objects and places of great beauty but something more active, more profound. Something that is simultaneously both culturally stabilizing and transforming.”

As part of his creative process, Kuwabara still sketches every day, putting ideas onto paper at every stage of design. In an interview with the CBC earlier this year, he described what he does as a “tug of war” between his “intuition about what things should be like” and “the reality of not having it all figured out…. For me, it’s a way of tracking thought.”

His colleagues have tried to convince him to switch to a computer or tablet, but he prefers the old-fashioned way. “The key,” he told the CBC, “is to find a way to slow things down so you can actually make a really good decision ... There’s so much flux, there’s so much confusion, there’s so much thrown at you every single day.”

In Kuwabara’s body of work, it’s difficult to discern a single, unifying “look.” Globe and Mail architecture critic Alex Bozikovic observed two commonalities in his 2014 article: “an intense attention to the public realm” (such as creating spaces for people to gather) and “carefully conceived details and material choices.”

“Those two impulses – to look out to the city and inward to small things – have been KPMB’s since the beginning,” Bozikovic wrote.

Even before climate change became the high-profile issue it is today, Kuwabara found ways to integrate sustainability into his practice. As the principal designer for the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, he studied international strategies for reducing energy consumption, and continued to put the ideas into use when he returned home.

The foundation for his commitment to sustainability formed early. In his 2006 acceptance speech for the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal (the country’s highest award for architecture), Kuwabara made a connection between the tropical fish he kept as a child and his green mindset: “Aquariums are finite ecologies, fragile environments within which everything needs to be balanced and maintained,” he said.

In his convocation address to this year’s architecture graduates, Kuwabara encouraged them to think about the challenges of the day. “We have a collective responsibility as architects, landscape architects, urban designers, visual artists and foresters to engage with the issues of our time. We can only be contemporary. Your area of study will be meaningful if it serves the needs of society and the world.

“Develop your natural intelligence while asking what you can do to enhance the lives of others. Keep working towards making the world we want. Keep reminding yourself to move beyond ‘what’s good for me is all that counts.’ Keep thinking and acting in citizenship.”

Kuwabara is an officer of the Order of Canada. His firm, KPMB, has won 18 Governor General Awards, with Kuwabara himself the lead partner on 14 of the winning projects.

History-making politician and educator Zanana Akande receives U of T honorary degree

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 18:52:41 +0000

History-making politician and educator Zanana Akande receives U of T honorary degree Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 06/19/2024 - 14:52

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(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Topic

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

A passionate and determined advocate for social justice, Zanana Akande made history in Canada as the first Black woman to serve as a cabinet minister. As an educator and community-builder in Toronto, she has dedicated her career to the well-being of others, particularly those in marginalized communities.

Today, for her tireless leadership in public service and her fearless advocacy for equity and diversity, Akande will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the University of Toronto.

Born in downtown Toronto in 1937 to parents from St. Lucia and Barbados, Akande attended Harbord Collegiate Institute and then U of T, where she earned bachelor of arts and master of education degrees. In training to be an educator, she was following in the footsteps of her parents, who had worked as teachers in the Caribbean but were denied positions in Canada because of their backgrounds. Akande went on to teach in the Toronto District School Board, where she also served as a vice-principal and principal.

Akande says her parents stressed the importance of education and credits her father, in particular, for cultivating in her a sense of social justice and a desire for change. “Both of my parents were interested in politics,” she told the Financial Post in 2018, “but it was really my father who encouraged us from a very young age to watch the news and consider why certain decisions were being made.”

As a citizen, Akande identified with the platform of the New Democrat Party and helped with canvassing during elections. “I supported their platform because I thought it spoke to the issues that were most unfair and needed to be addressed,” she told The Kit in 2018.

(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

In 1990, just two weeks before the Ontario election, the NDP approached Akande about being a candidate. She accepted and ran in the Toronto riding of St. Andrew-St. Patrick – and won, becoming the first Black woman elected to the provincial legislature. When Premier Bob Rae named her Minister of Community and Social Services, she became Canada’s first Black woman ever appointed to a cabinet position.

Reflecting on her achievement many years later, Akande said being first was important because it opened the door for others. “It becomes more possible to elect another Black person, so that it seems not that exceptional,” she told The Kit.

But being first through the door isn’t easy. Akande made progress on issues such as employment equity and services for youth and the elderly, but later spoke about the challenges she faced as a Black woman in government.

“Change is not always welcomed,” she told The Kit. “The default position for many of the people in government is white male.”

After leaving politics in 1994, Akande continued to work for change. She told The Kit, “I felt I could do more on the outside, which I continued to do working for long-term care and integrated services for children.”

Akande returned to the school board as a principal. She served on numerous boards, including the YMCA and Centennial College. She was president of Harbourfront Centre, and a founding board member of Milestone Radio, the owner of Canada’s first urban music radio station. She also co-founded Tiger Lily, a magazine for women of colour. Until 2021, she served as the chair of the board of the Black Legal Action Centre.

In her speech to graduates of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education today, Akande urged them to get involved in their community and to act on behalf of others. “Take a stance about issues – not only those that affect you and yours directly, but also those that affect the learning, the inclusion, the direction and the rights and paths of others.”

Akande has received many awards recognizing her commitment to education and community-building. In 2018, she was selected one of the women of distinction by the YWCA Toronto, and presented the key to the City of Toronto by Mayor John Tory for her work in equity and social justice.

At the key-to-the-city ceremony, then-mayor Tory praised Akande’s “unwavering belief in the human spirit” and “how deeply she cares about other people.

“She has found ways to improve the lives of other people and to lift them up in many different ways,” he said.

A global educator who wants to transform leadership in Africa, Patrick Awuah receives U of T honorary degree

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:41:45 +0000

A global educator who wants to transform leadership in Africa, Patrick Awuah receives U of T honorary degree Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 06/18/2024 - 11:41

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(photo by Steve Frost)

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Global

Patrick Awuah was unimpressed by the education system in his home country of Ghana – so he decided to do something about it.

To help bring about an African renaissance facilitated by better guidance in all areas of society, Awuah established a new kind of university – or at least one that was uncommon in much of Africa at the time: a private institution teaching liberal arts, ethics and business and technology skills.

“The question of transformation in Africa really is a question of leadership,” said the founder and president of Ashesi University in Ghana during a 2007 TED Talk.

Today, for his outstanding commitment to global education and deeply rooted desire to do good in the world, Awuah will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the University of Toronto.

Born in 1965, Awuah grew up in Ghana’s capital Accra. In 1985, he moved to Pennsylvania to attend Swarthmore College (where he was accepted on a full scholarship). He earned bachelor’s degrees in engineering and economics, and after graduation, worked for several years at Microsoft as a software engineer and program manager. There, he met his future wife, Rebecca, a software testing engineer.

The couple had initially planned to stay in the U.S., but parenthood prompted them to reconsider. “I was going through what I call my ‘pre-mid-life crisis,’” Awuah said in his TED Talk. “Africa was a mess. Somalia had disintegrated into anarchy. Rwanda was in the throes of this genocidal war … I couldn’t just stay in Seattle and raise my kids in an upper-middle class neighborhood and feel good about it.”

Awuah had been struck by the quality of the education he received at Swarthmore, and wished more students in Ghana could experience something like it. “It was a breath of fresh air,” he said during his TED Talk. “The faculty there didn’t want us to memorize information… They wanted us to think critically.”

(photo by Steve Frost)

He saw an opportunity to do something good: he would establish an Ivy League-like university back home. In 1997, to advance his dream, he enrolled at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and the following year travelled to Ghana to do a feasibility study. His MBA thesis became the institution’s business plan.

Situated in a leafy suburb of Accra, Ashesi University opened its doors in 2002 with 30 students. (Its name means “new beginning” in the Fante dialect of the Akan language family.) More than two decades later, it offers four-year bachelor’s programs in business administration, management information systems, computer science and engineering, and boasts more than 1,500 students – slightly more than half of whom attend on a scholarship.

Awuah believes having a diverse mix of students is crucial. “The most important question that we ask our students is what is a good society and how do you organize it?” he told the Swarthmore College Bulletin in 2010. “That conversation is not interesting if you only have students from affluent families in your classroom … We wanted diversity, and we needed to put some financial resources toward achieving that diversity.”

Awuah also believed it was important for Ashesi’s students to gain a foundation in the humanities and social sciences before focusing on their more business-oriented majors. The four-year curriculum emphasizes critical thinking and communication, ethics and integrity. The school also boasts an African Studies program, with offerings in music, archeology and philosophy.

“I am really concerned about the human spirit,” Awuah said in the Bulletin interview. “About character and ethos, about something deeper within people. Those kinds of things really speak to me. That really is the essence of leadership.”

Reflecting on the early days of Ashesi, Awuah said during his TED Talk that there were times when the whole project seemed like Mission: Impossible. But one morning, about a month after the school opened, he received an email from one of the students; it was very brief: “I am thinking now. Thank you.”

“It’s such a simple statement,” recalled Awuah. “But I was moved almost to tears because I understood what was happening to this young man.”

For his commitment to innovation in education and leadership, Awuah has won many international awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the “Genius Grant”) and the McNulty Prize (which celebrates leaders who tackle the world’s toughest problems). He is a member of the Order of the Volta – one of Ghana’s highest awards (given to individuals who exemplify the ideal of service to the country) and holds four other honorary doctorates.

One of Canada’s most eminent filmmakers, Sarah Polley receives U of T honorary degree

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 20:35:44 +0000

One of Canada’s most eminent filmmakers, Sarah Polley receives U of T honorary degree Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 06/17/2024 - 16:35

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(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

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A celebrated actor, director, author and Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Sarah Polley has earned a reputation as one of Canada’s most thoughtful and influential filmmakers. She explores themes of intimacy and memory, loss and resilience, and uses her platform to speak up against injustice.

Today, for her prodigious talent in the arts and her steadfast commitment to equity and fairness, Polley will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the University of Toronto.

Born in Toronto in 1979, Polley began her career in entertainment as a child actor. At age eight, she was cast as a lead character in Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. But the experience – which she says involved working 18-hour days and at times left her frightened and in tears – influenced her acting journey: it soured her on big Hollywood productions and led her to focus on smaller, often Canadian projects. “Baron Munchausen really defined me in terms of never really wanting to be on huge films ever,” she told the New York Times in 2007.

Polley came to widespread attention in 1990, starring as the lead in the CBC series Road to Avonlea, for which she was nominated for three Gemini Awards. Simultaneous with the success, though, came profound loss: shortly after the show’s debut – and just two days after she turned 11 – her mother, Diane Polley (also an actor), died of cancer. A few months later, Polley developed scoliosis, leaving her wearing a brace and undergoing an operation.

After a lengthy recovery, she continued acting but was uncommitted to it as a career. (She once called it a “frivolous thing to do with your life.”) By age 17, she dropped out of high school and left the entertainment industry to devote herself to political causes. Already involved with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, she became a member of the Ontario NDP.

(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Within months, she felt her singular focus on activism was making her, as she said in the New York Times interview, “boring, dogmatic, narrow,” so when director Atom Egoyan offered her the lead role in The Sweet Hereafter, she accepted, thinking it would provide a short break from her advocacy.

But the film was a critical success – and Hollywood came calling. She took roles in Go and Guinevere, then dropped out of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous during rehearsals, feeling like she had taken the part by mistake. “Every day, it felt less and less like something I could pull off,” she told the New York Times.

She took some time to consider her next move and then, in 2001, at age 22, enrolled at the Canadian Film Centre, where she directed two shorts. The experience set in motion a transition from acting to writing and directing.

Polley’s debut feature, Away from Her (2006), adapted from an Alice Munro short story, tells the affecting story of an elderly couple whose marriage comes under strain as the wife develops Alzheimer’s disease. It earned Polley an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay and established her as a force in filmmaking.

Her next two films, Take This Waltz (2011) and the documentary Stories We Tell (2012) cemented her reputation as a director with a deep empathy for her subjects. Stories We Tell delves into Polley’s own family history, using interviews and re-enactments to reveal a long-held family secret.

In 2019, Polley was approached to adapt and direct a film version of the novel Women Talking, by Miriam Toews, inspired by a true story about the horrific sexual abuse of women and girls in a Mennonite colony. She said in a New Yorker interview that the hardest part of the Women Talking shoot came during a scene when one of the characters talks about how men in the community got the women to doubt themselves. “That came from the experience of talking to so many women, and that feeling of being made to seem, or feel, crazy.”

In 2023, the film won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay and was nominated for best picture.

Polley continues to support causes that are meaningful to her. She has used her platform to speak up about income inequality and sexual abuse in the entertainment industry, and to argue for filmmaking that is informed by feminist principles. In her Oscar acceptance speech, she alluded to the need for change in the male-dominated film world: “I just want to thank the Academy for not being mortally offended by the words ‘women’ and ‘talking’ put so close together like that.”

At today’s convocation for the Faculty of Music and Innis College, Polley told graduates about her experience recovering from a severe concussion and shared the life-changing advice she had received from a doctor to “run towards the danger.”

She encouraged graduates to face their fears as a way to move past them. “Have a beautiful life and don’t always avoid the edges,” she said. “Ask for help. Admit your terrors to someone you can trust. Don’t assume you aren’t equal to what you want. It’s okay to be scared, and to feel like a fraud – most of us do. Go try to do it all anyway. And if your anxiety tells you that you can’t? Thank it for trying to protect you, and tell it that it’s allowed to come along for the thrilling ride – it’s just not allowed to block the driveway.”

Over her nearly four-decade career in entertainment, Polley has received numerous high-profile honours for acting, writing and directing. She is also an Officer of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the National Arts Centre Award.

Business leader and philanthropist Blake Goldring receives U of T honorary degree

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 20:24:22 +0000

Business leader and philanthropist Blake Goldring receives U of T honorary degree Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 06/17/2024 - 16:24

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(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Topic

Goldring Centre

Victoria College

An accomplished business leader who has made an indelible contribution to the University of Toronto as a volunteer and donor, Blake Goldring has taken to heart a lesson instilled in him at a young age by his father: that society’s most fortunate have a duty to give back.

Today, for his exemplary civic and community service, and for his outstanding commitment to higher education, Goldring will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from U of T.

Born in Toronto in 1958, the second of five children, Goldring attended Victoria College at U of T, earning a bachelor’s degree in economics. He got his first taste of volunteering as an undergraduate, serving as the vice-president of AIESEC, an international youth-run non-profit. He went on to study at INSEAD, a top-ranked business school in France, where he completed his MBA in 1982.

Goldring’s career in finance began at Bank of Montreal, where he worked in international and corporate banking. He left in 1987 – not long before the October market crash – for a position at AGF Management, a Canadian investment company co-founded by his father, Warren Goldring (also a U of T alum).

At AGF, the younger Goldring started as an analyst for the company’s Japanese investments, worked his way up through sales and marketing, and within a decade had been named president and chief operating officer. In 2000, he became chief executive officer, and in 2006, added chairman to his title. He stepped away from day-to-day management of the company in 2018, assuming the role of executive chairman.

President of Victoria University, Rhonda McEwen (L) with Blake Goldring (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Having started at AGF during a tumultuous time in the stock market, Goldring says he quickly learned to keep calm and take the long view. “So often people get caught up in the heat of the moment,” he told the Globe and Mail in 2008. “It’s a bit like the Rudyard Kipling poem: ‘If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...’”

Under Goldring, AGF acquired other wealth management firms and diversified its client base to include more institutional and high-net-worth investors. He also initiated a program to give employees paid time off for volunteering.

The initiative reflected Goldring’s own commitment to community service. Throughout his career, he served on several boards, including the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Canadian Film Centre.

In the 2008 Globe interview, he said that volunteering helped him see a wider set of perspectives and expand his worldview. “There is a short-termism that is endemic to [the investment] industry,” he observed. “It is good to see things in a longer-term way, to see that the world isn’t all about the stock market.”

Goldring has been particularly interested in forging connections between the military and civilians. Inspired by Canadian soldiers who, in the wake of 9/11, joined international forces in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, Goldring launched Canada Company – an organization that awards scholarships to the children of fallen soldiers to assist with their post-secondary education. The company has also helped veterans find meaningful employment in the civilian workforce. In recognition of his efforts, Goldring was appointed the first-ever honorary colonel of the Canadian Army. “Some of my proudest moments in life have been pinning the medals on returning regiment soldiers,” Goldring told the Globe in 2007.

Goldring is also highly active in the U of T alumni community, and has financially supported numerous programs and facilities, including Soldiers’ Tower, the Norman Jewison stream in the Vic One program at Victora College, as well as those that bear his family’s name – the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport and the Goldring Student Centre at Victoria College. He currently serves on the steering committee of the university’s Defy Gravity campaign.

The Goldring family’s association with U of T spans four generations – from Blake’s grandfather to his father, Warren, him and his sister, Judy, to his two daughters. Blake says his – and his family’s – support for U of T stems from a deeply held belief that education provides the foundation for a prosperous and inclusive society. “Education, particularly a strong liberal arts foundation, allows people to engage in debate and critical analysis,” he said. “It fosters an environment of research and discovery, and, frankly, I believe that higher education helps to address prejudices.”

In his convocation address to graduates of Victoria College, Goldring encouraged them to be innovators, quoting Albert Szent-Györgyi, a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who, in 1937, said, “Innovation is seeing what everyone else sees, and thinking what no one else has thought.” So, Goldring continued, “Challenge the status quo, think differently, and act boldly.”

He also urged graduates to lead with empathy and to find a way to give back to society. “Make a living, yes. But also make your mark – with purpose and passion. And let your legacy be defined by the lives you touch and the positive change you create.”

A member of the Order of Canada, Goldring holds two other honorary degrees, and has received numerous honours in recognition of his personal and professional achievements.

A champion of human rights and international law, Harold Hongju Koh receives U of T honorary degree

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 20:27:30 +0000

A champion of human rights and international law, Harold Hongju Koh receives U of T honorary degree Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/14/2024 - 16:27

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(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

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Faculty of Law

Global

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

As a legal scholar, Harold Hongju Koh’s contributions in international and human rights law have helped transform the conduct of international relations.

As a practising lawyer, he has both served under four presidents in the U.S. government – and litigated against it. And as a professor at Yale University, he draws on his knowledge and experience to teach and mentor the next generation of lawyers.

Today, for his deep commitment to the public interest and his vigorous advocacy for the rule of law and human rights, Koh will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the University of Toronto.

Born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1954 to Korean parents, one of six children, Koh attended Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in government in 1975. He studied at the University of Oxford, then returned to Harvard for law school, completing his degree in 1980.

During the first Reagan administration, he worked as an attorney adviser to the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. (He would later serve in various roles under presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden). In 1985, he joined the faculty at Yale Law School, and almost two decades later became its dean.

In the classroom, Koh is known for his energetic and passionate presence. A journalist who had taken one of his classes described him in a 2009 Forbes profile as “a giant of a teacher,” while a group of Yale law students once called him “one of the brightest legal minds of his generation.”

Dr. J. Robert S. Prichard hoods Harold Hongju Koh (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

As a legal adviser to government, Koh has not been shy to speak his mind. A paper he wrote in 1990 challenged the contention, held by the President George H.W. Bush, that as commander-in-chief, he could lead the U.S. into the Gulf War on his own authority. Koh argued that the U.S. Constitution required the president to consult with Congress beforehand.

Described as a rare scholar-practitioner, Koh has been especially active in human rights. In the early 1990s he led a group of Yale students in a successful suit against the U.S. government to free Haitian refugees who had qualified for political asylum in the U.S. but had been detained indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In a speech in Chicago in 2008, he called the U.S.’s diminished reputation as a global human rights leader “one of the most serious problems we as Americans face today,” citing as the cause a “series of unnecessary, self-inflicted wounds,” such as the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and permitting the torture of detainees. “In just a few short years we seem to have gone from what was a zero-tolerance policy toward torture to what now seems to be a zero-accountability policy,” he said.

As a solution, he recommended that the government recommit to telling the truth and to ending any human rights violated caused or supported by the U.S.. He also urged greater support for the UN and international law, including the International Criminal Court. He concluded by asking audience members to join him in working to “make America America again.”

On the National Public Radio program This I Believe, Koh credited his parents for spurring his interest in human rights, noting that they had grown up in Korea under Japanese rule, forbidden to speak Korean or even use their Korean names. Koh’s father had been a diplomat, and after South Korea’s 1961 military coup, was granted asylum in the U.S., where he took a teaching position at Yale.

“My father savoured freedom like he savoured fresh air,” Koh said. During his own career, Koh traveled to many different countries. “Everywhere I went,” he said, “Haiti, Indonesia, China, Sierre Leone, Kosovo – I saw in the eyes of thousands the same fire for freedom I had first seen in my father’s eyes.”

In his address today at Convocation Hall, which included graduating students from the Faculty of Law and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, he called on them to “understand the difference between a government of laws and a government of individuals,” and urged them to stand for something. “If you find the principle that you will sacrifice for –that you are ready to fight and die for – it will become your calling, and why people remember you.”

Koh has received more than 30 awards for his human rights work. He has been a visiting professor at many universities, including twice at U of T’s Faculty of Law. He has argued frequently before U.S. and international tribunals, including most recently as Counsel for Ukraine against Russia before the International Court of Justice. For his work, Koh has received lifetime achievement awards from Columbia and Duke Law Schools and the ABA International Law Section. The recipient of 18 honorary degrees, he is also the author of nine books and more than 200 articles.

Author and historian Rosemary Sadlier, who led the adoption of Black History Month across Canada, receives U of T honorary degree

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 20:58:50 +0000

Author and historian Rosemary Sadlier, who led the adoption of Black History Month across Canada, receives U of T honorary degree Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/07/2024 - 16:58

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(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Topic

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

School of Graduate Studies

Rosemary Sadlier has recalled, as a child, being asked where her father had come from – a question that arose because of the colour of his skin and suggested, “You don’t belong here.”

The query also suggested an ignorance of Black Canadian history, which stuck with Sadlier and played a role in shaping her career as an acclaimed author, historian, educator and social justice advocate who led a campaign to declare February Black History Month in Canada.

Today, for her advocacy and leadership in advancing Black history and heritage, and in promoting anti-racism, Sadlier will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the University of Toronto.

Growing up in Toronto, Sadlier earned a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Glendon College at York University. She worked for a few years before enrolling at the University of Toronto, earning a master’s degree in social work in 1982. She returned to U of T several years later for a Bachelor of Education, then went on to complete her coursework for a doctorate.

Although she recalls being one of only a handful of Black students in U of T’s Faculty of Social Work (now the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work), which sometimes presented challenges, she also remembered some “incredible profs.”

Finding a job in the field wasn’t easy. Sadlier told Speak Truth to Power Canada, a human rights resource for teachers, that one potential employer told her they had thought she was white. “There was a sense that the people who are supposed to be doing the helping are supposed to be white, and the people who are supposed to be helped are supposed to be everybody else,” she said. “There I was showing up to be this person to help, and it was just jarring for them.”

(Photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Having no luck finding paid work, Sadlier sought volunteer experience in an area that was meaningful to her: she took a role with the Ontario Black History Society, and after a few years became its president. She soon launched a bid to bring Black History Month to a wider audience.

A week-long observance of Black history and culture had originated in the United States in the 1920s. Three decades later, the event came to Canada, where it was celebrated primarily in the Black community and later expanded to the entire month of February. Sadlier pushed for the event to be honoured more widely – seeking permanent recognition first from the City of Toronto, then from the province and finally from the federal government.

Her effort culminated in 1995, when Jean Augustine, a fellow U of T grad and the first Black woman ever elected to Parliament in Canada, agreed to put Sadlier’s idea before the House of Commons. It passed unanimously, and the inaugural, nationwide Black History Month took place in February 1996.

Reflecting on her effort, Sadlier told Glendon College that her initial motivation had been personal: she didn’t want her children to face the same challenges she had. But she also knew that highlighting the contributions of Black Canadians was important in bigger ways. “It created a touchstone to focus on the presence, contribution, and experience of Canadians of African descent – lives that had been overlooked or not included in the national script.”

With the 30th anniversary of national Black History Month approaching, Sadlier says she’d like the subject to gain a higher profile during the rest of the year, too. To that end, she has written seven books about Black history. A new title – The Kids Book of Black History in Canada – is to be published in June.

Similar to her campaign for Black History Month, Sadlier also championed the formal recognition of August 1 as Emancipation Day at the local, provincial and national levels. Her goal: to mark the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1834 and generate “more discussion about slavery and the legacy of slavery.”

Ultimately, Sadlier aims to raise awareness about the Black experience in Canada, and the importance of contributions from the Black community, in the hope of achieving a more inclusive future. “I think with knowledge comes the opportunity for a real expression and a real appreciation of what inclusion means,” she said in the interview with Speak Truth to Power Canada.

In her message today to graduates of the Ontario Insitute for Studies in Education and the School of Graduate Studies, Sadlier encouraged them to consider how to turn their hopes into reality. “This chapter of your life is about marrying your bold and beautiful ideas with practical action,” she said. “It’s about anchoring your dreams in the physical and transforming sparks of inspiration into tangible success. It’s about planting the seeds of change in the collective consciousness and leaving behind a legacy that will inspire your descendants and your community.”

For her advocacy, Sadlier has received numerous honours, including the Order of Ontario, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award, the William Peyton Hubbard Race Relations Awards, the Harry Jerome Award, and the Lifetime Achiever Award from the International Women’s Achievers’ Awards. She also holds an honorary doctorate from OCAD University.

A lifelong advocate for Indigenous Peoples, Wilton Littlechild receives U of T honorary degree

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 20:04:17 +0000

A lifelong advocate for Indigenous Peoples, Wilton Littlechild receives U of T honorary degree Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 06/06/2024 - 16:04

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(photo by Steve Frost)

Topic

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Faculty of Information