Emmett M. Hall, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to D. Bruce Sealey at spring Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium.

Bio/Historical Note: Donald Bruce Sealey was born at Pine Creek, Manitoba in 1927, Bruce Sealey received his high school education in Arden, where he subsequently worked as a dog-team freighter, fisherman and farmer. He taught for the Federal Department of Indian Affairs in the late 1940s in various remote Native communities, aided by his fluency in Cree and his Metis heritage. Over the next two decades Sealey was a vice-principal, principal, then consultant, while concurrently completing his BA and BEd degrees at the University of Manitoba. A one-year term at the University of Minnesota in Native American Studies augmented his work experience. In 1970 he was appointed Associate Professor of Education at his alma mater where he developed and implemented a Cross-Cultural Studies program for teachers. He completed his MEd degree and defended his theses - "... the Effects of Oral English Language on School Achievement of Indian and Metis High School Students." He worked with the Manitoba Metis Federation as Chairman of the Education Committee, Consultant, and as the Director. Sealey was recognized by the Metis people for his work by the award of the Order of the Sash. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police retained Sealey as an instructor on cross-cultural education of the Police College in Ottawa and the RCMP regional posts in Winnipeg and Regina. Sealey published over two dozen scholarly articles, published almost twice this number of books and/or chapters of books, and has edited numerous journals He was chairman of the Board of Directors of Pemmican Publishers and of the Manitoba Metis Federation Economic Development Training Program. Sealey died in Winnipeg in 2005.

Dr. Sylvia Fedoruk, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Literature degree to Tom Paulin at Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium.

Bio/Historical Note: Thomas Neilson Paulin (b. 1949) was raised in Belfast in Northern Ireland where his father was the headmaster of a grammar school, and his mother was a doctor. He was educated at Hull University and Lincoln College, Oxford. Paulin lectured in English at the University of Nottingham from 1972-1989, and was Reader in Poetry from 1989-1994. He was a director of Field Day Theatre Company in Derry, Northern Ireland. Much of his early poetry reflects the political situation in Northern Ireland and the sectarian violence which has beset the province since the late 1960s. Paulin’s collections include A State of Justice (1977), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; The Strange Museum (1980), which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize; Liberty Tree (1983) and the acclaimed Fivemiletown (1987), which explores Northern Irish Protestant culture and identities. Later collections include Walking a Line (1994) and The Wind Dog (1999), which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. The Invasion Handbook (2002) is the first instalment of an epic poem about the Second World War. His non-fiction includes Ireland and the English Crisis (1984), Minotaur: Poetry and the Nation State (1992), The Day-Star of Liberty: William Hazlitt's Radical Style (1998), a critical study of the nineteenth-century essayist and radical, and (with Amit Chaudhuri), D. H. Lawrence and "Difference": The Poetry of the Present (2003), a study exploring Lawrence's position as a 'foreigner' in the English canon.Tom Paulin is editor of The Faber Book of Political Verse (1986) and The Faber Book of Vernacular Poetry (1990). His plays include The Riot Act: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone, which toured Ireland in 1984, and All the Way to the Empire Room that was broadcast by the BBC in 1994. His latest books are The Secret Life of Poems (2007) and a translation of Euripedes' Medea.

Dr. Sylvia Fedoruk, University Chancellor, making presentation of an honourary Doctor of Laws degree to Dr. Peter Larkin at Convocation held in Centennial Auditorium. Iain MacLean, University Secretary, prepares to hood the recipient.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. Peter Anthony Larkin was born on 11 Dec 1924 in Auckland, New Zealand. He was educated at the University of Saskatchewan and at Oxford (where he was a Rhodes Scholar, earning his DPhil at the age of 24). Dr. Larkin moved to Canada as the Chief Fisheries Biologist of British Columbia, in a joint appointment between the provincial government and UBC. At UBC, he later served as the Head of the Department of Zoology (1972–1975), as the Dean of Graduate Studies (1975–1984), and as the Vice President Research (1986–1988). Dr. Larkin authored some 160 scientific papers. He was also an admired teacher who won UBC's Master Teacher Award in 1971. Outside UBC, he served as the Director of the Pacific Biological Station at Nanaimo (1963–1966). Dr. Larkin was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1965. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, the Fry Medal of the Canadian Society of Zoologists in 1978, and the American Fisheries Society Award of Excellence in 1984. He also received the Order of Canada in 1995, and became a Member of the Order of British Columbia in June 1996. Dr. Larkin died on 10 July 1996.

R.W. Begg, University President, presents a degree to an unidentified graduate at Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium. Peter Nikiforuk, Dean of Engineering, seated behind Begg, along with unidentified female dignitary.

Elevated view of audience, orchestra pit, dais and graduands proceeding to receive degrees at Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium.

Dr. Leo F. Kristjanson, University President, delivering address at podium during Convocation held in Centennial Auditorium.

Dr. Leo F. Kristjanson, University President, standing at podium during Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium.

Tom Paulin, honourary Doctor of Literature degree recipient, giving a poetry reading at Convocation held at Centennial Auditorium.

Bio/Historical Note: Thomas Neilson Paulin (b. 1949) was raised in Belfast in Northern Ireland where his father was the headmaster of a grammar school, and his mother was a doctor. He was educated at Hull University and Lincoln College, Oxford. Paulin lectured in English at the University of Nottingham from 1972-1989, and was Reader in Poetry from 1989-1994. He was a director of Field Day Theatre Company in Derry, Northern Ireland. Much of his early poetry reflects the political situation in Northern Ireland and the sectarian violence which has beset the province since the late 1960s. Paulin’s collections include A State of Justice (1977), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; The Strange Museum (1980), which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize; Liberty Tree (1983) and the acclaimed Fivemiletown (1987), which explores Northern Irish Protestant culture and identities. Later collections include Walking a Line (1994) and The Wind Dog (1999), which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. The Invasion Handbook (2002) is the first instalment of an epic poem about the Second World War. His non-fiction includes Ireland and the English Crisis (1984), Minotaur: Poetry and the Nation State (1992), The Day-Star of Liberty: William Hazlitt's Radical Style (1998), a critical study of the nineteenth-century essayist and radical, and (with Amit Chaudhuri), D. H. Lawrence and "Difference": The Poetry of the Present (2003), a study exploring Lawrence's position as a 'foreigner' in the English canon.Tom Paulin is editor of The Faber Book of Political Verse (1986) and The Faber Book of Vernacular Poetry (1990). His plays include The Riot Act: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone, which toured Ireland in 1984, and All the Way to the Empire Room that was broadcast by the BBC in 1994. His latest books are The Secret Life of Poems (2007) and a translation of Euripedes' Medea.

Stephen Lewis, honourary Doctor of Laws degree recipient, speaks from podium and Convocation.

Bio/Historical Note: Stephen Henry Lewis was born in 1937 in Ottawa. When his family moved to Toronto in 1950, he attended secondary school first at Toronto's Oakwood Collegiate Institute, and then his final three years of high school at Harbord Collegiate Institute. In 1956, Lewis entered the University of Toronto (U of T) where he became a member of the Hart House debating committee, and on 14 November 1957, debated the senator and future American president, John F. Kennedy, on the question, "Has the United States failed in its responsibilities as a world leader?” After teaching English in Africa, Lewis worked as director of organization for the federal New Democratic Party (1961-62). He was a member of the Ontario legislature for Scarborough West from 1963-1978 and became leader of the Ontario NDP in 1970. Lewis was active in demanding the 1972 disbandment of the Waffle, a left-wing NDP faction. As leader, his greatest electoral success occurred in 1975 when the NDP became the Official Opposition. A year after the NDP's electoral setback in 1977, Lewis resigned as leader and became a media commentator, lecturer, and labour arbitrator. In 1984 he was appointed by Brian Mulroney’s government as Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, a post he held until 1988. Lewis was also appointed special advisor to the UN's Secretary-General regarding African affairs until 1991. In the wake of street disturbances in Toronto in 1992, Bob Rae’s Ontario NDP government hired him to prepare a report on race relations in the city. Lewis returned to the UN as the deputy executive director of UNICEF from 1995-1999. In 1997 Lewis was appointed by the Organization of African Unity to a panel to investigate and issue a report (2000) on the Rwandan genocide. Lewis served as a special envoy to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan regarding HIV/AIDs in Africa. In addition to being a passionate and articulate spokesperson for the plight of Africans suffering from the AIDS pandemic, Lewis established the Stephen Lewis Foundation to assist the victims of this disease. In 2005, Lewis presented the CBC Massey lectures and these, in turn, were transcribed into the best-selling book Race Against Time. Lewis was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada (2002) and was awarded the Pearson Peace medal (2004) by the UN Association in Canada. Among his current roles, he is a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health and a senior advisor to Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.