Honorary degree recipients

An Honorary Doctor of Laws will be conferred upon Akile Ch'oh, Grand Chief Edward John during ceremony #2 on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at 10:00 a.m.

Grand Chief Edward John, through his commitment to social and economic justice, has dedicated himself to improving the lives of Indigenous people.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree (with distinction) in Sociology from the University of Victoria in 1974 and completed his law degree at UBC. He then returned to northern BC to establish a law practice in Prince George where he led social assistance and education programs for members of the Tl’azt’en Nation. He was founding president of Tanizul Timber, securing the first and only tree farm licence awarded to a BC First Nation.

As Tribal Chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, he negotiated and signed the first child services agreement between the Carrier and Sekani First Nations and the BC government. He was the BC representative to the Assembly of First Nations Constitutional Working Group, and he co-authored the 1991 BC Claims Task Force Report, the blueprint for treaty negotiations in BC.

He was appointed Grand Chief of the Tl’azt’en Nation in 1992.

Internationally, he represented the Assembly of First Nations in efforts to have the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the UN 61st General Assembly. He attended 2009 sessions with Pope Benedict XVI on the role of the Catholic Church in Indian Residential Schools.

Grand Chief John’s involvement with UVic includes his service on the committee to form the Aboriginal/Indigenous Studies programs in the School of Public Administration and he served on the UVic Co-op program committee.

An Honorary Doctor of Laws will be conferred upon Henry Shimizu during ceremony #6 on Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 10:00 a.m.

Dr. Henry Shimizu was among the first Japanese Canadians to practise medicine, enjoying a distinguished career as a clinical professor and plastic surgeon. In retirement he has provided outstanding voluntary service to a number of organizations, including the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation, which he chaired from 1989 to 2001. Dr. Shimizu is also a gifted artist whose work has been exhibited across Canada.

Born in Prince Rupert, he and his family were taken from their home in 1942 and interned in New Denver. Their family business, the Dominion Hotel, was confiscated by the Canadian government and sold to cover the costs of keeping the family in a 16’ by 28’ cabin they shared with another family for four years.

After their release, determined to be successful Canadians, the family moved to Edmonton where Dr. Shimizu earned his medical degree at the University of Alberta and began a 30-year career. In 1978, he was part of the first medical team in North American to perform a successful limb re-plantation.

He had completed a plastic surgery residency in the 1960s and it was there that he discovered his talent for art. In 1999, after a gathering with friends who had also been interned at New Denver, he decided to capture his impressions and memories on canvas. He produced 27 oil paintings which were shown at the Edmonton Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in 2002 – 60 years after the Shimizu family left Prince Rupert.

Now a Victoria resident, Dr. Shimizu is the author and illustrator of Images of Internment: A Bitter-Sweet Memoir in Words and Images.

An Honorary Doctor of Letters will be conferred upon Anne Wheelerduring ceremony #7 on Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 2:30 p.m.

For more than 30 years, Anne Wheeler has produced authentic, highly acclaimed films that effectively portray female strength of character. Her work is also known for its ability to combine Canadian historical events and powerful storytelling.

Wheeler began her career at the University of Alberta as part of Filmwest Associates, an independent production cooperative and ad-hoc film school. The group – including Wheeler and nine male colleagues – gained attention for its documentary work from the CBC and others. “Great Grand Mother” – a 30-minute docu-drama won the American Film Festival Blue Ribbon in New York in 1977. Wheeler left the collective in the late 1970s to join the National Film Board.

In 1981 she wrote, directed and produced what would be one of her most influential works. “A War Story” chronicled the experiences of her father, a medical officer with the British garrison in Singapore who was taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942. The film included excerpts from Dr. Ben Wheeler’s diary read by the actor Donald Sutherland.

Her dramatic film debut came with 1983’s “A Change of Heart” and was followed in 1985 by “Loyalties.” Other successes included “Bye Bye Blues, “ “Cowboys Don’t Cry,” and “Better than Chocolate.”

In 1991, her television adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners won three Gemini Awards and her work is influencing a new generation of women directors in Canada, including Deepa Mehta, Sara Polley and Kari Skogland.

An Honorary Doctor of Laws will be conferred upon Jody Paterson during ceremony #9 on Friday, June 15, 2012 at 2:30 p.m.

Jody Paterson’s journalism and social activism have linked individuals and communities for a more just, involved and caring society.

In more than 20 years as a reporter, editor, columnist and freelance writer with the Victoria Times-Colonist, Paterson consistently drew public attention to difficult issues of social justice, such as homelessness, drug addiction and prostitution. Her analysis, noted for its compassion and incisiveness, would invariably offer solutions or new ways of thinking about problems.

While her written words are powerful, her actions demonstrate a personal commitment to social justice, whether it’s letting a woman in need tent in her yard, co-signing car loans, supervising parental visits, or buying art supplies, she is always a friend to someone who badly needs one.

She organized Project Connects, recruiting a large team of volunteers and service agencies. The effort delivered food, backpacks and supplies for the homeless or at-risk and it gave a cross-section of service providers the rare chance to meet and talk.

She became a tireless advocate for the decriminalization of sex work and the creation of safe work places. For three years, she served as Executive Director of PEERS (Prostitutes Empowerment Education and Resource Society), bringing the organization an entirely new level of visibility.

At UVic, she has served on advisory committees for the Centre for Addiction Research, the Office of Community-Based Research, and the Centre for Youth and Society. In 2008 she was named Southam Fellow and Lecturer in Journalism and Non-Fiction.

An Honorary Doctor of Laws will be conferred upon Dennis Tupman during ceremony #1 on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.

Dennis Tupman is regarded as Canada's greatest ambassador and advocate for music education. Born in Victoria, he attended the Provincial Normal School (for student teachers) before going to the University of British Columbia for his Bachelor and Master of Education degrees. He taught music, English and Math in Kitimat from 1957-71 before accepting the role of district principal for the performing arts at the Vancouver School Board.

Mr. Tupman has been a role model for teachers, administrators and communities through his eloquent defense of the value of arts in the community. His tireless advocacy led him, at various times, to be president of the B.C. Music Educators Association, the Canadian Music Educators Association, and the B.C. Choral Federation. He has adjudicated numerous music festivals throughout the province.

His past honours include the Governor General's Award for Lifetime Arts Leadership, a crowning achievement on a career that was defined by his belief in all of the arts – not only music – as integral to a well-rounded education.

In retirement, Mr. Tupman continues to be a regular contributor to Canadian Music Educator magazine and he plays alto saxophone in his hometown "100 Mile House Community Band."

View Dennis Tupman receiving his honorary degree.

An Honorary Doctor of Engineering will be conferred upon Calvin Gotlieb during ceremony #4 on Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 2:30 p.m.

Known as the “Father of Computing in Canada,” Dr. Kelly Gotlieb joined the faculty of the University of Toronto in 1945 to develop what is now known as computer science. He taught Canada’s first graduate computer science course and two years later, in 1952, he co-founded the first computer centre in the country.

Dr. Gotlieb was a pioneer, beginning his work when well-established file systems, data structures, databases, and computing methods, algorithms and processes had yet to be developed. Co-authoring High-Speed Data Processing, he introduced basic computer terminology such as “loop” and “in-line.”

When the U of T acquired the first electronic computer in Canada, Dr. Gotlieb led the decision to select the “FERUT” system, a parallel machine with parallel stores, which he correctly considered state-of-the-art compared to the first computer, the UNIVAC, used by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Later in his career, he became the founding chair of the U of T’s Department of Computer Science, which at the time was home to the only computer science doctoral program in Canada. Among other recognition for his accomplishments, Dr. Gotlieb has been inducted into the Canadian Information Productivity Awards Hall of Fame alongside such luminaries as Alexander Graham Bell.