Concordia University will grant eight honorary doctorates during the spring convocation ceremonies to be held from June 18 to 20. The distinguished recipients will join 5,046 students, from across Concordia’s four Faculties and the School of Graduate Studies, who are eligible to graduate this spring. Monday, June 18, at 10 a.m. - Faculty of Arts and Science
Craig and Marc Kielburger, founders of Free The Children and Me to We, are being honoured for their tireless campaigning against child exploitation, their youth leadership and their social entrepreneurship.
Craig Kielburger
In 1995, at only 12 years of age, Craig Kielburger was inspired by the plight of a child slave his age who was murdered for speaking out about his own treatment. Kielburger rallied his classmates, founded Free The Children, and soon his mission caught fire. Today, more than one million youth worldwide are involved in Free the Children’s program, an international charity that empowers youth to become agents of change.
Kielburger remains a passionate full-time volunteer for the organization. He is also the co-founder, with older brother Marc, of Me to We, a social enterprise that “transforms consumer into world changers.”
Each year, Craig and Marc Kielburger organize Free The Children’s We Day, the organization’s signature domestic event, which reaches 90,000 students from 3,000 schools in person and more than 5.4 million through televised broadcasts.
He is a New York Times bestselling author, who has written nine books. He has a degree in peace and conflict studies from the University of Toronto and is the youngest-ever graduate of the Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA program. He has received 10 honorary doctorates and degrees, the Roosevelt Freedom Medal, the World Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child (often called the Children’s Nobel Prize), and is one of the youngest recipients of the Order of Canada.
Marc Kielburger
Marc Kielburger co-founded Free The Children and Me to We, with his younger brother Craig. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, completing a degree in international relations. He won a coveted Rhodes Scholarship and went on to complete a law degree at Oxford University.
Kielburger has also received six honorary doctorates and degrees for his work in the field of education and human rights. He is also a member of the Order of Canada.
Monday, June 18, at 3 p.m. - Faculty of Arts and Science
Jane Doe
Jane Doe has had an important impact on both academic and civil reflections and actions regarding the effect of sexual assault on women’s equality in Canada and internationally.
Her story, contributions and brave struggle for justice are key and very much present in the study of law, women’s studies, sociology and criminology. The role of her work in these areas is so influential that it is virtually impossible to talk about women and resistance, sexual assault, police practice, and feminist law without reference to the case of Jane Doe v. Toronto Police Force. This case forever changed the ways in which women engage with the law as well as the ways in which women are positioned in relation to the law, society, and gendered constructions of sexuality and sexual assault.
Author, teacher, activist, Jane Doe inspires her audience, interrogating and analyzing the social and political framework around sexual assault. Her contributions to feminist thought span beyond the historic trial that changed case law, resulting in new research on the crime, including her work on the publication ban that prohibits revealing her identity or that of women who are sexually assaulted. Her community outreach and activism and teaching experience in university classrooms, seminars and conferences have ensured a continued and necessary reflection on the nature of sexual assault against women, all with a positive impact for both men and women.
Monday, June 18, at 7:30 p.m. – Faculty of Arts and Science
George Springate
George Springate, the English voice of the Montreal Police Department, appearing daily on Montreal radio and television, is being honoured for his civic engagement. During his time as a police officer, Springate also earned a Bachelors of Arts (BA) in psychology from Sir George Williams University and two law degrees from McGill University.
Springate went on to become an elected member of the Quebec National Assembly, serving three terms. At the same time, he played football with the Montreal Alouettes and played on the winning Grey Cup team in 1970.
In 1973, he co-founded the Police Technology Department at John Abbott College. He taught criminal law and criminal evidence for 33 years. In 1981, he left politics but continued to teach. He also returned to television, hosting a daily 25-minute interview show (Midday), and doing late-night sports on CBC-TV. He is serving his seventh mandate as a Canadian citizenship judge and was named Canada’s senior citizenship judge in 2008.
Tuesday, June 19, at 10 a.m. – John Molson School of Business
Graham Fraser
Graham Fraser was appointed Commissioner of Official Languages in October 2006, with the mandate to promote Canada’s two official languages and protect the language rights of official language communities. He is being recognized for eloquently upholding the value of bilingualism and for his ongoing defence of minority language rights.
During his long and distinguished career as a journalist, Fraser wrote in both official languages on issues affecting Canada and Canadians, including cultural and foreign policy; constitutional debates and negotiations; and provincial, national and international politics. Mr. Fraser has held important positions with The Toronto Star, Maclean’s, Montreal’s The Gazette, The Globe and Mail and Le Devoir, and was a regular commentator on public affairs programs.
He is the author of five books, including Sorry, I Don’t Speak French, published in March 2006, which helped stimulate renewed public discussion of language policy in Canada, and PQ: René Lévesque and the Parti Québecois in Power, which was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction in 1984.
Mr. Fraser was the first recipient of the Public Policy Forum’s Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism, and in 2008 was awarded honorary doctorates by the Université Sainte-Anne and the University of Ottawa.
Tuesday, June 19, at 3 p.m. – John Molson School of Business
Darren Entwistle
Concordia alumnus Darren Entwistle is being honoured for his visionary leadership in the telecommunications industry, and his diverse philanthropic contributions. He joined TELUS as president and chief executive officer in 2000, bringing extensive and diverse leadership experience in global telecommunications operations.
The following year, Entwistle initiated the $6.6 billion purchase of Clearnet, one of the largest acquisitions in Canadian telecommunications history. In the years since Entwistle joined the company, TELUS has nearly doubled in size from $5.7 billion in revenue to $9.6 billion.
In 2009, when most companies were tightening their belts, Entwistle began investing $2.1 billion in new technologies, including high-speed internet and a new wireless network.
Under Entwistle’s leadership the telecommunications giant has also begun investing heavily in digital information communications technology, aimed at making Canada’s health care system more efficient.
Prior to joining TELUS, Entwistle spent seven years on the senior leadership team at Cable & Wireless in the United Kingdom, culminating with his appointment as president of Cable & Wireless (United Kingdom and Ireland) in 1999.
Entwistle holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Economics from Concordia University, an MBA (Finance) from McGill University, and a Diploma in Network Engineering from the University of Toronto. He sits on the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and McGill University’s Board of Governors, and is an honorary fellow of the Royal Conservatory.
Tuesday June 19, at 7:30 p.m.
Convocation Ceremonies for the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
No honorary degree to be awarded
Wednesday June 20, at 10 a.m. – Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
General John de Chastelain (Retired)
John de Chastelain is a retired Canadian military officer and former ambassador to the United States who is being recognized for his contributions to international conflict resolution, most notably in Northern Ireland.
General John de Chastelain (Retired)
His regimental career has included tours as a company commander in Germany and Cyprus. In 1989, he was promoted to the rank of general and was appointed chief of the defence staff, a position he held during the end of the Cold War, the First Gulf War and the events at Oka Quebec. In 1993, de Chastelain transferred to the Supplementary Reserve and was appointed Canada’s 18th Ambassador to the United States.
In 1997, he was chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning – charged with overseeing the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons in Northern Ireland – a role that ended in 2011.
De Chastelain is an officer of the Order of Canada, a commander of the Order of Military Merit, a Companion of Honour (U.K.), a commander of the Order of St. John, a commander of the Legion of Merit (U.S.), and holds the Medal of Merit and Honour of Greece.
In 1992, he received the Conference of Defence Association’s Vimy Award. He has received honorary doctorates from seven Canadian Universities, and is an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall College, Oxford.
Wednesday, June 20, at 3 p.m. - Faculty of Fine Arts
Gaston J-M Kaboré
Gaston Kaboré is being honoured for his work promoting filmmaking on the African continent and beyond, and for his dedication to transmitting an appreciation of film, video and multimedia creation to young artists through his teaching.
He began his studies in history at Ouagadougou University, Burkina Faso and the Sorbonne in Paris. While researching the portrayal of Africans in contemporary documentaries for his master’s thesis, Kaboré became interested in studying film. He eventually completed a diploma in directing at the École Supérieure d’Etudes Cinématographiques.
His filmography includes more than 20 films and television productions, including four feature-length films that have attracted considerable local and international attention. His first full-length feature film, Wend Kuuni (God’s Gift, 1982), received numerous awards including a César for best francophone film. In 1977, his most recent full-length feature film, Buud Yam (1997), received the top prize, Grand Prix of Yennenga at the Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) and was honoured the same year at Cannes.
Kaboré has been a member of the jury at several international film festivals: Locarno (1989), Venice (1994), Cannes (1995), Berlin (2009) and FESPACO (2009). In February 2003, Kaboré founded Imagine, a training institute aimed at upgrading the skills of African professional working in the fields of cinema and television. More than 700 professional have been trained at Imagine.
Kaboré has co-written the scripts of several fiction films and animated movies. In 2008, he completed his first novel, Il principe della citta di sabbia.
What: Concordia’s Spring Convocation Ceremonies
When: Monday, June 18 to Wednesday, June 20, 2012 – various times
Where: Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts (175 Ste-Catherine St. W.)
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