Convocation is an occasion to recognize the outstanding achievements of deserving individuals, by conferring Doctorates in Civil Law (D.C.L.) upon Honorands! Wondering who the 2023 Honorands are? Look no further!
MARGOT HEYERHOFF
Margot served on the BCS Association Board of Directors from 2003 to 2009. In 2004 she became President of the North Hatley Library Association, a position she still holds today. A painter herself and an avid collector of contemporary Canadian art, Margot converted a dilapidated barn on her farm into a non-profit art gallery and cultural space, the Gillygooly Gallery. She has over the years invited contemporary professional artists from across Canada to exhibit and sell their work.
In 2011, Margot became one of the Founding Trustees and the first Chair of the Fondation Massawippi Foundation (FMF) and is currently its President as well as a Trustee of its sister organization, the Massawippi Conservation Trust (MCT). Her contribution to the success of FMF and MCT, over the past 12 years led to an invitation for her to speak at the UN Biodiversity Conference: COP15 in Montreal in December 2022 to share the FMF/MCT story and to inspire others by showing how much can be accomplished at the local level to help Quebec and all of Canada reach 30% protected land by 2030.
She was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Bishop’s University’s new program in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems and the creation of our Educational Farm.
GRAHAM FRASER, O.C.
Graham Fraser is a contributing editor to the Literary Review of Canada, a member of the board of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. His latest book is The Fate of Canada: F. R. Scott’s Journal of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (2021).
From 2006-2016, he was Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages, and the first chair of the International Association of Language Commissioners. A journalist and author between 1968 and 2006, he worked in Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Washington and Ottawa for The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, The Montreal Gazette and the Toronto Star.
He is the author of five books, has an Honours B.A. and an M.A. in History from the University of Toronto, and five honorary degrees. He has taught at McGill University, and given guest lectures at many other prominent universities. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada an Officier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade, a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal, and the first recipient of the Hyman Solomon Award for Public Policy Journalism. His book on the Parti Québécois was nominated for a Governor-General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 1984.
THE HONOURABLE MICHELLE O’BONSAWIN
The Honourable Michelle O’Bonsawin is a widely respected member of Canada’s legal community with a distinguished career spanning over 20 years.
Justice O’Bonsawin was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa in 2017. Prior to her appointment, she was General Counsel for the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group for eight years. In this role, she developed a thorough understanding of legal issues related to mental health and performed significant research regarding the use of Gladue principles in the forensic mental health system, appearing before various administrative tribunals and levels of courts. She began her legal career with the legal services at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was then Counsel with Canada Post, specializing in labour and employment law, human rights, and privacy law.
Justice O’Bonsawin has taught Indigenous law at the University of Ottawa’s Common Law Program and was previously responsible for the Indigenous Relations Program at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group.
Justice O’Bonsawin holds a Bachelor of Arts from Laurentian University, a Bachelor of Law from the University of Ottawa, a Master of Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, and a Doctorate in Law from the University of Ottawa.
Born in Hanmer, Ontario, a small Francophone town near Sudbury, she now resides in Ottawa with her family. A fluently bilingual Franco-Ontarian, Justice O’Bonsawin is an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation.
She was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on September 1, 2022.
PATRICK PICHETTE
Patrick Pichette is a seasoned financial and operational expert with over 30 years of experience. He has led world-class companies such as Google, Twitter, McKinsey, Sprint Canada and Bell Canada to break through the complexities of hyper-growth and digital transformations
As CFO of Google from 2008 to 2015, Patrick played a key role in driving the company’s growth strategy and supported the creation of the Alphabet structure. He was part of Google’s executive committee, overseeing the company’s extensive corporate mergers and acquisitions agenda, which included nearly 150 acquisitions, such as Nest and Motorola. Patrick sat on the board of Twitter between 2017 and 2022, served as Chair of the Board in 2020-2021 and co-led the company’s sale to Elon Musk for $44B in October 2022.
Currently, Patrick sits on the board of Lightspeed POS Inc as Lead Independent Director and serves as an independent investor, advisor, and board member to many startups and innovation networks around the world, including Neo4j (Sweden), Zwift (US/UK), Hopper and Wealthsimple (Canada), and Creative Destruction Labs.
A dedicated environmentalist, Patrick actively supports the Kenauk Project (Kenauk.com and institutkenauk.org). The Nature Conservancy and the Kenauk Institute have partnered to protect the world’s largest temperate forest located between Gatineau and Montreal. He holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford, where he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, and a BBA from UQAM.
