TORONTO, June 7, 2001 -- They have each left an indelible mark in their respective fields of endeavour -- Moses Znaimer revolutionized television; Mark Starowicz changed the face of radio and television current affairs programming; Alistair MacLeod showed that a great novel takes time to write; and Paul Volcker put the brakes on run-away inflation in the United States in the 1980s. Each will receive honorary doctorate degrees during York University's spring convocation ceremonies which run from June 9 to June 19.
The other distinguished recipients are: former dean of York’s Glendon College Henry S. Harris; molecular geneticist Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui; President and CEO of Brascan Corporation Jack Cockwell; Supreme Court of Canada Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé; distinguished artist and author James Houston; and English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching pioneer Mary Ashworth.
"Each of our honorary doctorate recipients has demonstrated a remarkable level of achievement," said York University President Dr. Lorna Marsden. "Their incredible vision, dedication and commitment serve as an inspiration to us all."
A description of each honorary degree recipient follows in order of ceremony.
Henry S. Harris: Among those who made major contributions to York University during its founding years is Henry Harris who arrived at York’s Glendon College in 1962 and served as its first Chair of philosophy. He served as dean and, by working closely with the principal and all relevant individuals and committees at Glendon and York, helped build southern Ontario’s only bilingual liberal arts college, offering undergraduate studies in both French and English. Harris, now a distinguished research professor emeritus, has personified York as an institution for learning at the highest level and was recently inducted into York’s Founders Honour Society in recognition of his contribution to York’s early development. Harris will receive his honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt) and will address convocation (Glendon College ceremony), Sat., June 9, at 2:30 p.m. at Glendon College, located at 2275 Bayview Ave.
Moses Znaimer: There is little doubt that Moses Znaimer is a Canadian television industry visionary who has revolutionized the medium with Toronto's radical and popular independent television station Citytv, and threatens to revolutionize TV worldwide. As Citytv’s co-founder, president and executive producer, Znaimer is also responsible for giving rise to numerous specialty channels including: MuchMusic; Bravo!; Space, the Imagination Station; CablePulse24 and Canadian Learning Television. Half a dozen local television stations also bear Znaimer’s unmistakable stamp including: The New VR (Barrie); The New PL (London); The New NX (Wingham); The New WI (Windsor); The New RO (Ottawa and the National Capital Region); and CIVI Victoria launching fall 2001. Znaimer also serves as Vice-President, Development of CHUM Limited and is responsible for spearheading joint ventures and affiliate agreements in the television, Internet and broadband world. CHUM's originally produced programming can now be seen in more than 130 countries, while its Citytv and MuchMusic formats have been adopted in the United States, Argentina, Finland, Colombia, Malaysia and Spain. Components of "ZnaimerVision" have achieved widespread recognition on their own. For instance, "Videography" has transformed the economics and aesthetics of television news gathering, and "Speakers Corner" has been heralded as the first effective electronic parallel to the letter to the editor. Znaimer will receive his honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt) and will address convocation (Winters College, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Faculty of Fine Arts ceremony), Mon., June 11, at 2:30 p.m.
Mark Starowicz: Recognized as one of the most respected Canadian broadcasters of the last quarter century, Mark Starowicz is the architect of many of the most innovative and defining programs in Canadian radio and television. He recently succeeded in persuading CBC and Radio-Canada to agree on an unprecedented national co-production – Canada: A People’s History, the largest documentary production in Canadian history. Starowicz heads CBC Television’s documentary programming, responsible for the flagship prime-time series Witness, Life & Times, and all network documentary series and specials. His career spans both radio and television. He created As It Happens and Sunday Morning, programs which redefined CBC Radio. In 1982, he was put in charge of a national CBC task force to revamp information programming. The result was the most successful television project of the time, The Journal, a nightly public affairs program with ten documentary units that roamed the news fronts of the world, and ushered the satellite age into Canada. He and his programs have won dozens of national and international awards. Although Starowicz has worked in television for almost 20 years, he has constantly warned in his writings and documentaries against the dangers of the medium and he’s been one of the most constant critics of television sensationalism. Starowicz will receive his honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt) and will address convocation (Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies ceremony), Mon., June 11, at 6:30 p.m.
Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui: One of Canada's pre-eminent molecular geneticists, Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui is credited with identifying the human gene responsible for cystic fibrosis in 1989. Thanks to Tsui's research, scientists now have a much better idea of how the disease works. Tsui is currently Senior Scientist and Sellers Chair of Cystic Fibrosis Research in the Department of Genetics at the Research Institute of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society of London, as well as an Officer of the Order of Canada. Tsui will receive his honorary Doctor of Science degree (DSc) and will address convocation (Bethune College, Faculty of Pure and Applied Science, Faculty of Environmental Studies ceremony), Wed., June 13, at 2:30 p.m.
Alistair MacLeod: Cape Breton author Alistair MacLeod is the winner of the prestigious IMPAC Dublin Literary Award -- the world’s richest book prize valued at $172,000 Cdn -- for his award-winning novel No Great Mischief (McClelland & Stewart,1999), a literary achievement nearly 13 years in the making. MacLeod was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 1936 and raised among an extended family in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He worked as a miner and logger to finance his education. After getting his PhD from the University of Notre Dame in 1968, he taught at Indiana University and then moved to the University of Windsor in 1969 where he was a Professor of English and Creative Writing until his recent retirement. He has also worked alongside Canadian author W.O. Mitchell at the Banff Centre, inspiring future generations of writers. MacLeod will receive his honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt) and will address convocation (Calumet College ceremony), Wed., June 13, at 6:30 p.m.
Jack Cockwell: Recognized as one of Canada’s most highly regarded and respected business leaders, Jack Cockwell is president and Chief Executive Officer of Brascan Corporation, a diversified natural resources, property, and energy company, which is also active in the capital markets providing financial services to its affiliates and other corporations. Recently appointed as Chair of the Royal Ontario Museum Board of Trustees, Cockwell sits on numerous boards and holds several corporate directorships including: Astral Communications Inc., the C.D. Howe Institute and Falconbridge Limited. He was educated at Selborne College and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Cockwell will receive his honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LLD) and will address convocation (Schulich School of Business ceremony), Fri., June 15, at 10 a.m.
Madame Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé: A longtime champion of family law before her appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1987, Madame Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé has provided an expertise in family law matters which is seldom evidenced in Canada’s highest court. Her decisions have poignantly captured the problems of economic insecurity for many women and children at family breakdown, and the need to interpret divorce legislation to provide compensation for women’s unpaid work in the home. She wrote passionately about the need for state-funded legal representation in family law proceedings involving child custody. And her dissenting judgment in Mossop (the case in which the complainant, a federal government employee, was denied bereavement leave to attend the funeral of the father of his male companion), and her willingness to engage with social science literature about family life, provided the catalyst for much of the Court’s recent jurisprudence on same-sex families. She has shown both compassion and insight in her understanding of equality and family relationships, and the fundamental links between them. L’Heureux-Dubé will receive her honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LLD) and will address convocation (Osgoode Hall Law School ceremony), Fri., June 15, at 2:30 p.m.
James Houston: Considered a prime force in the development of Inuit art, artist and author James Houston -- the only three-time winner of the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award – received his art training in Canada, France and Japan. He was enrolled in art classes at the Grange through the Art Gallery of Ontario at the age of ten when a visit from Group of Seven member Dr. Arthur Lismer inspired a life-long fascination with primitive art and culture. At the age of eighteen, he attended the Ontario College of Art (now called the Ontario College of Art & Design) for one year before going into the army. Houston traveled to the Arctic in 1948, and stayed there to live and work with the Inuit until 1962. Houston's appreciation of Inuit art led him to establish the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative to encourage the promotion and marketing of Inuit sculpture in the rest of Canada and around the world. He is the author and illustrator of more than sixteen award-winning books for children, including Tikta'liktak: An Eskimo Legend (1965). Houston will receive his honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt) and will address convocation (Founders College, McLaughlin College Ceremony), Mon., June 18, at 2:30 p.m.
Mary Ashworth: For more than 30 years, Mary Ashworth has had a profound influence on English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching and on language policy across Canada and the world. Known among her peers as the grande dame of ESL, she is an outspoken advocate for the language rights of immigrants and on Canadian language policy and pedagogy. The ideas contained in her Immigrant children and Canadian Schools (1975), was considered to be well ahead of public policy and practice at the time. Ashworth emigrated to Canada in 1949 following her service in the Women’s Air Corps in wartime Britain. As a professor at the University of British Columbia for more than 20 years, Ashworth has spent a career championing tolerance and diversity in Canada’s social and educational systems by shaping attitudes of future ESL teachers. Ashworth will receive her honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LLD) and will address convocation (Faculty of Education ceremony), Tues., June 19, at 10 a.m.
Paul Volcker: Credited with ending a period of high inflation in the early 1980s and restoring a base for sustained economic growth, Paul Volcker was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System from August 1979 to 1987. In the course of his 30-year career in federal government, Volcker served under five presidents – John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. In 1987 Volcker returned to private life and served as chairman of James D. Wolfensohn Inc., an investment banking services firm, until his retirement in 1996. Volcker currently serves as a consultant to several corporations and non-profit organizations. Volcker will receive his honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LLD) and will address convocation (Faculty of Education ceremony), Tues., June 19, at 2:30 p.m.
Approximately 6,500 graduate and undergraduate students will graduate during the spring convocation ceremonies, joining York's more than 158,000-strong alumni. The ceremonies will also confer a University Professorship to York Film and Television Studies professor Seth Feldman on Mon., June 11, at 2:30 p.m., and Distinguished Research Professorships to Canadian History professor H.V. Nelles on Wed., June 13, at 10 a.m., and Political Science professor Reg Whitaker on Mon., June 18, at 10 a.m.
Since its founding in 1959, York University has become nationally and internationally respected for its innovative research and award-winning teaching. The third-largest university in Canada, York offers its 40,000 students programs in 10 faculties and access to research flowing from the university's more than 20 research centres. With its combination of dedicated and talented faculty, opportunities for bright and ambitious students, dynamic curriculum and modern campuses in one of North America's most influential urban centres, York University is setting the contemporary standard in academic excellence.
Please note: All convocation ceremonies will be held on York's Keele Campus, Convocation Site, east of the Centre for Film and Theatre, Centre for Fine Arts, located at 4700 Keele Street, except for the Glendon College convocation ceremony.
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For more information, please contact:
Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
YU/054/01
