Graduation Address

"Remarks by the Rt. Hon. Antonio Lamer P.C., Chief Justice of Canada, Ceremony B." (25 May 1995). (UA Case 67, Box 3)

Mr. Chancellor, Mr. President, Honoured Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

My graduation day from Law School in June of 1956 was a bright and sunny day. The Convocation Speech was given by a long winded—alas very long winded—person upon whom the Université de Montréal had decided to confer a well deserved honorary doctorate. Unfortunately it was decided that this would occur at my graduation. I resolved at a certain moment during the second half of the hour he spoke never to do that to graduates if ever placed in the same position. I shall, therefore, be brief.

I imagine that some of you think that the awarding of an honorary degree is quite unfair. After all, honorary degree recipients didn’t have to study, go to class or pass exams as you have been doing over the last three or four years. Of course, I cannot express any opinion on the strength of your case should you bring it to the Supreme Court—but I promise you I will keep an open mind!

At graduations, I think our minds usually move in three directions. First we are grateful to those who have helped us along our way. You will each have your own list and I expect they are generally long lists. Few of us, I am sure, would be here without the support of family, friends, and teachers. I know that you would want me to record our gratitude to them.

I hope you will permit me to add that I am particularly grateful to receive this degree from the University of New Brunswick. As many here will know, this University could have no prouder alumnus and New Brunswick could have no prouder native son than my colleague on the Supreme Court of Canada, Mr. Justice La Forest. I fully expect that my views will carry added weight in his eyes now that I, too, am a UNB graduate. Being Chief Justice of the country is one thing, but having a law degree from UNB will put in a whole new category!

We owe our thanks, not only to our family, friends and teachers, but also to those who have contributed to our institutions of higher learning. So we remember with gratitude those who have, in the broader sense, made this day possible.

In addition to feelings of gratitude, I am sure you have feelings of pride—justifiable pride, in what you have accomplished. No doubt you had moments when you doubted yourself. Now is the time to enjoy your achievement and to remember how much you can accomplish by hard work.

Finally, and I suggest most importantly, graduation is a time to think of the future and your place in it. Here I am not referring just to immediate thoughts of finding a job and so forth, but to the more fundamental questions such as where you fit and what you stand for.

These three elements of gratitude, pride and thinking of the future are captured by the word "Encaenia." As you know, Encaenia are festive ceremonies commemorating the founders and benefactors of the institution. But as the Greek root of the word suggests, the emphasis is not on the old but on what is new--the key element of the ceremony is renewal.

We honour the benefactors and founders, not simply for their deeds, but for their example. They contributed to the future of their society by providing new means of preserving, creating, and disseminating knowledge through this institution. They were builders, not only of structures, but of institutions. It can be said of them what is said of the great English architect, Christopher Wren: "Si monumentum requires, circumspice—if you seek his monument, look around you." So, while we look back to record our gratitude to them, we also celebrate their vision of the future and their enduring and ongoing contribution to its realization.

Originally, Encaenia were not associated with the awarding degrees. But nothing could be more appropriate than to combine this celebration of renewal with the conferral of degrees as occurs today. It is through the awarding of degrees that the university—and indeed the community of learning—renews itself. The conferral of the degree is not simply the handing out of a qualification. It symbolizes the handing on of knowledge from one generation to another. It is as if all of human knowledge and experience were somehow recorded on that piece of parchment that you are handed. The University consists of its faculty, its students and its alumni. Even though you leave the campus, you remain part of the University community for the rest of your lives. You now take on responsibility not only for preservation, but also for the dissemination of and addition to what you have received. You are trustees and stewards of what has been given to you. It is now your responsibility to add to what you have been given and, perhaps more importantly, to ensure opportunities for education and self-development are there for those who will follow you.

As you graduate today, I urge you to give place in your thoughts not only to gratitude and pride but also to reflection about how you can best contribute to the future of your communities, your country and your world. Resolve to be builders for the future as were the founders and benefactors we remember today. We honour them best by emulating their example. Challenges lie ahead of course, but also many and important opportunities. While you will face difficulties, every generation has had to do that. What is important is making your best contribution. I leave you with a few words of a great Canadian poet, a New Brunswicker and a graduate of this University—Bliss Carman:

When day puts out to sea
And night makes in for land
There is no lock for thee
Each door awaits thy hand.

To you, the new graduates, I offer my sincere congratulations and best wishes and to the University of New Brunswick my deepest appreciation. Thank you.