Graduation Address

"His Excellency the Right Honourable Roméo LeBlanc, Governor General of Canada: Speech on the Occasion of the Presentation of an Honorary Degree from the University of New Brunswick, Ceremony B." (20 May 1999). (UA Case 67, Box 3)

I deeply appreciate the honour you have conferred upon me. The University of New Brunswick is a cornerstone of our province and the oldest university in our country. But it is also a source of constant renewal.

Permettez-moi de remercier l’Université de Nouveau Brunswick qui me fait l’honneur d’être compté dorénavant comme l’un de vos diplômés. Mon fils, Dominic, est un peu jaloux puisqu’il a dû travailler pendant trois ans pour atteindre le baccalauréat en droit de cette université, alors qu’il me voit promu en quelques jours au grade de docteur.

Canada’s reputation for generosity, tolerance, and compassion shines around the world. And Madame Louise Arbour, also honoured today, exemplifies our international reputation for fairness and justice. But the Canadian character now faces a test here at home. And you – young, educated, and full of spirit – can help to overcome it.

We talk with pride of the new Canadians whom we welcome to our country. In the last half-century, Ontario alone has absorbed more than three million immigrants. But somehow we have been tempted to forget the oldest Canadians, those who have been here ten thousands years and more. Those who gave my Acadian ancestors the medicines which saved them from scurvy. Those who taught the Europeans to use canoes and snowshoes, and guided them to the Pacific.

When the Europeans arrived, this was already a generous country. Aboriginal people not only welcomed the rest of us, they defended our borders against American invasion. Because of them, we are better off.

But our diseases decimated them, our settlements dislocated them, our system largely left them out. Today, a young Native person does not have an even chance with most of you. Yes, some beat the odds, do well, and become high achievers. But thousands more languish on reserves or wander lost on city streets, unskilled and often unwanted.

Obviously there is no simple solution to Aboriginal problems. And some would say: "What can you do? They have their ways, the rest of us have ours, so live and let die."

But that is not the attitude that shaped our country. Time and against we have solved the insoluble. We overcame the challenges of war, and of the Great Depression. We built an open, tolerant society amidst the snow and ice. And we can make a better place for those who were here first.

This very province has shown how to solve problems. New Brunswick could have been the theatre of permanent conflicts of race, of religion, of rich versus poor. Yet people came to realize that our problems had less to do with language than with rural deprivation. Whether you belonged to a French or an English village, you were still left behind.

People of good will allied across language lines. That alliance gave us all better schools, better services, and better opportunity. That alliance has held, no matter what government was in power.

And yes, there has been progress for the Aboriginal peoples. This very university has welcomed Native citizens. Recently in this province, a court decision said that Aboriginal people should have more access to crown lands for logging; this led to legal disputes and a new ruling. Meanwhile, money and jobs were at stake. The rest of the country watched closely. They had seen such conflicts here before. But the legislators, the media, and the public of this province refused to define the issue only in legalistic terms. People tried to reach accommodation. And I am proud that once again, New Brunswickers worked together for progress.

That being said, it may not feel like progress, if you live on an island reserve, where your parents are out of work, and your future looks no better than your past. I have heard some Aboriginal leaders use a particular phrase about the dislocation they suffered since the rest of us arrive. They called it "the big hurt." And it is still there.

Here and across the country, we still face a test. We still need to welcome those who welcomed us, not only in economic times, but in respect for their culture and treaty rights.

I am not advocating new programs, or new bureaucracies. But I am advocating that ordinary citizens look for opportunities to reach out to the Aboriginal community. I encourage church groups, Scout groups, clubs, schools, employers, and individuals to find ways to make contact. It will take work. People will meet frustrations. But with good will, they will succeed.

We have done great things as a country. And many of our highest achievements have been intertwined with generosity and openness. Now it is up to your generation to open your doors, your minds, and your hearts to the First Nations people. And may we finally bring the first Canadians in from the cold.

Thank you. Merci.


"Louise Arbour, Prosecutor ICTY/ICTR: Notes for 170th Encaenia at the University of New Brunswick, Ceremony B." (20 May 1999). (UA Case 67, Box 3)

I am obviously extremely pleased and honoured to be with you today, although I am somewhat ambivalent about accepting recognition for work for which so many share the credit. I feel better, however, when I consider that many of you who are graduating today must also be conscious of the debt of gratitude that you have already incurred towards your parents, your friends, your mentors and all of those whose intellectual guidance has shaped your view of the world.

I also would like to assure you at the outset of my remarks that I am vain enough to want to cultivate if not your instant affection at least your everlasting approval. In that spirit, I have abandoned my earlier speech on the condensed history of the Balkans, in favour of something less edifying but considerably shorter.

I would like to say a few things to you about courage and bravery. In part because these are concepts often associated with war, particularly by those who tend to have a very romantic conception of war and warfare, and also because it is sometimes suggested to me that I did something very brave and courageous, in circumstances where I did not feel that way at all. It takes courage to act in the face of adversity. But acting in the face of adversity does not only mean confronting your pre-defined opponents. It means, in a much more challenging way, disagreeing with your friends, creating, in a sense, a new arena for conflict, and working at preserving relationships while standing apart, in a place where the comfort of conformity is withdrawn. It takes a lot more courage to be temporarily unpopular in the eyes of those you respect, and care about, than to obtain their cheers for taking on the predictable common foe.

It also takes a lot of courage to act in the face of uncertainty. To act when the luxury of being proven demonstrably right may be forever withheld, or, worse possibly, when right or wrong will be reduced to winning or losing, with no credit for the quality of the a priori moral judgement.

It takes courage to yield, not to win; to compromise, so that the solution is not perfect, but good; to hesitate, when the personal rewards are so great that they may blur the harm to the common good. It also takes courage to overcome the fear of ridicule, to denounce the evil far away, to be the voice that nags indifference.

And it takes courage to leave home. Home is not the same thing for every one. It is that comfortable place where things unsaid are understood, and belonging is extended, not earned. It is a country, a village, a relationship, a language, or several.

Dans un entrevue accordée récemment par Gilles Vigneault au Salon du Livre à Paris, il s’est exprimé sur l’importance de la langue et du langage. Ses propos ont eu une resonnance particulière pour moi, surtout quand il a dit : "La violence, c’est un manque de vocabulaire." J’ajouterai que l’éducation, c’est une capacité accrue de s’exprimer sans violence. Au seuil de vos aspirations professionnelles, armés des instruments pacifistes de la langue et de l’éducation, il ne vous reste qu’à acquérir le courage et la bravoure de vous comporter tous les jour à la mesure de vos ambitions. Vous avez le privilège de vivre dans un société qui valorise le débat et qui tolère la dissidence. Ne croyez surtout pas que cet environnement vous privera d’occasions de faire preuve de bravoure et de courage. N’attendez pas les grands défis. Le quotidien vous offre des occasions d’héroïsme insoupçonnés.

Your skills and trades will offer challenges and provide rewards. But your professional accomplishments will never be the true measure of your worth. I go back to The Hague tonight. I feel very privileged to be working with courageous people who stand for something. And I also feel very privileged to be standing before you today. Together with your parents, your friends and your mentors, I look forward to your many accomplishments in the years to come, and to the many brave and courageous deeds that are unlikely to bring you either fame or fortune, if they are truly brave and courageous.