Ceremony #3
Mr. Chancellor.
Graduands.
Family.
Friends.
Faculty and staff.
Distinguished guests.
Seated on this stage is an exceptional group of people.
They are the people who will educate, and heal the minds and bodies of others using their individual skills and strengths.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
While I suspect you have already been doing so since these ceremonies began, I invite you to take another long look at these graduands.
They will never be the same after today. Because of them, our world will never be the same — It will be better.
Graduands.
Each of you has worked so very hard for this day.
You are, quite literally, mere steps from a watershed moment in your life.
You will hear your name, you will shake the hand of our Chancellor, and then you will take hold of your hard earned University degree.
It is the proud end to an exceptional chapter of your life's story.
Your most recent years have been spent seeking knowledge, obtaining knowledge, questioning knowledge, and gaining wisdom.
You have challenged, you have struggled, and you have overcome.
While helping to prepare you for your future, our University has also achieved so much in this past year.
In 2015, Lakehead University was ranked Canada's #1 research university in its category — that distinction affirms that we are providing our students the education and tools they need to be at the forefront of innovation and discovery.
that distinction of being number one also affirms that we are nurturing our faculty with what they need to generate knowledge, and disseminate it to our students and the world.
This year, Lakehead established an Industrial Research Chair in Green Chemicals and Processes to take the lead into research on how pulp and paper and mineral processing industries can reduce their environmental impact.
We also created two new Canada Research Chairs in the areas of Freshwater Ecology and Fisheries, and Human Origins.
Lakehead now has 9 Canada Research Chairs dedicated to improving Canadians' depth of knowledge and quality of life.
Lakehead is taking the lead in providing the most exceptional level of post-secondary education available, and offering that transformational experience to all our students.
From Nicole Beardy Meekis and Aimee Forgues, who each persevered through immense personal challenges to complete their programs and graduate, today;
To Mary McPherson, who won the 2015 Governor General's History Award for furthering the understanding of Canadian history and heritage; from students like Doe O'Brien Teengs and Melissa Twance, who each won awards for their outstanding research projects and community contributions; to the faculty and staff who worked with 55 young Aboriginal students considering post-secondary education and new career choices through the First Nations Natural Resources Youth Employment Program.
Our University is filled will too many examples of transformation, and stories of success, to share with you, today.
Our students succeed because they are exposed to a variety of aspects of their respective disciplines.
Throughout these accomplishments, faculty, staff and students at Lakehead have sought knowledge, obtained knowledge, questioned knowledge, and gained wisdom throughout the process.
These most recent years of Canada's history have also been about seeking knowledge, obtaining knowledge, questioning knowledge, and gaining wisdom.
Earlier, I took a moment to acknowledge the traditional Aboriginal lands upon which this auditorium, our University, and the great city of Thunder Bay, reside.
I would like to take this moment to acknowledge that certain other exceptional individuals could have walked across this stage, as well, however, they were never given the chance.
Their stories came to an end in residential schools far from their families, and far from hope.
Those marked by this period in our history continue to face challenges, and continue to struggle.
Thanks to the commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission —
The Honourable Mr. Justice Murray Sinclair, now Senator Sinclair; Dr. Marie Wilson; and Chief Wilton Littlechild — we now have an historic Report filled with many of those lost stories.
those stories are of survivors who were, and are, challenged; of survivors who did, and continue to, struggle; and of survivors who have, and have yet to, overcome.
Indeed, the publication of that Report marked a watershed moment in our country's life.
During Senator Sinclair's remarks about the Report, he said, "We owe it to each other to build a Canada based on our shared future — a future of healing and trust."
I cannot think of a better group of people to entrust our shared future to than the men and women we are celebrating today.
Lakehead University is proud to be an inclusive, safe place that welcomes and nurtures each and every student within our rich and diverse university community.
From Aboriginal to International, from Northwestern Ontario to the rest of our province and country, our students have learned to work together with an equally diverse faculty and staff.
That invaluable experience has made them ready to be leaders in a world rich with diversity.
Graduands, you are about to show everyone in this auditorium, and everyone in this world, not only what you are capable of, but what all of you, and all of us, can achieve together.
We and the world are far from ideal, but we continue to try.
Six months ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued 94 calls for action in its Report.
Even before the release of that milestone Report, we had taken steps towards reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples.
We did so by becoming the first post-secondary institution in Canada to require that all undergraduate programmes include the equivalent of 18 hours of Aboriginal content.
We did this, not only because 11% of our students self-identify as Aboriginal, but because we all benefit from having a deeper understanding and respect for our diverse fellow citizens.
Our graduates — who count themselves among our almost 60,000 alumni around the world — have proven that they have various exceptional abilities:
- to be the impetus for change in the world of tomorrow,
- to be the impetus for challenging and seeking truths,
- and to be the impetus for reconciliation between all peoples.
As we move from the Truth to the Reconciliation process with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit, we as a community, and we as a university, must also move from:
- Seeking knowledge to challenging knowledge;
- From gaining knowledge to exercising wisdom; and
- From learning the Truth to practicing Reconciliation.
The wisdom we must all gain will be to never repeat the mistakes of the past, and contribute to reconciliation and justice in the future.
Graduands, I am joined by a great number of people who are very proud of you, today.
On behalf of all of them, congratulations to each and every one of you.
Because of you, our world will never be the same — It will only be better.
Thank you.