StFX graduated over 300 students and bestowed an honorary degree upon one of its own, acclaimed author and journalist Linden MacIntyre, from the Class of 1964, when it celebrated Fall Convocation on December 4, 2021, in the Keating Centre, returning to a full in-person ceremony.
StFX conferred undergraduate and graduate degrees, diplomas, and certificates from across its four faculties during the ceremony.
Several major honours were also presented. These included the University Outreach Award to Dr. Leslie Jane McMillan, Anthropology; the Outstanding Staff Teaching Award to David Maillet, Modern Languages; and the Community Partner Recognition Award to Nexos Comunitarios.
“I’m very happy to be here to share this important day,” Dr. MacIntyre, a journalist, author, and social critic, recognized for his outstanding career in investigative journalism and the distinctive contributions he has made to Canadian society, told Convocation.
“It’s big day, for graduates and for the families.”
It’s a great day, but perhaps in ways that aren’t yet obvious, Dr. MacIntyre said. The real significance of graduation comes into focus gradually as time goes by, he said, telling those gathered that the significance of his own graduation from StFX in 1964 really only kicked in later in his life.
In an address that ended in a standing ovation, Dr. MacIntyre recalled scenes from that day in 1964 with his parents, who he said believed his university education was a big deal, a passport to a world they could only dream about.
“Many times, since then I thought we were all delusional. What did I really have? What did I really have that would be useful in the real world?”
Every day after presented the potential for progress, but the greater likelihood for setbacks, he said. But with the challenges came opportunity for improvement and growth, aided by the solid education he had acquired.
Dr. MacIntyre said it took awhile, but something sank in at a deeper, self-conscious level.
“It isn’t quite what we learn,” he said.
“It’s deeper than that. It’s learning how to learn, how to accept the necessity of learning constantly from everyone we meet, from every encounter.”
Learning is an endless process, and a well-lived life is all about learning endlessly, he said.
SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE
“You made it!” StFX President Dr. Andy Hakin said in opening his address, noting this is the first in-person StFX Convocation since December 2019. “How does that feel?” he asked to applause from those gathered.
“Your graduation is a very significant milestone in your life, and I congratulate each of you on the strength and resilience you have demonstrated.”
When thinking about the culture of StFX, Dr. Hakin says he looks to the strength of today’s graduating class who demonstrate the true meaning of a StFX education.
“The strength and resiliency of our university is our people, and this obviously includes our students. Today, as we celebrate our graduates, I would like to acknowledge how they have grown, adapted, and demonstrated great resiliency.
“Our society’s need for a better future has never been so great and as a university, we are helping to answer this need. Graduates of our programs are helping to set priorities and embrace their collective strength for the benefit of all.”
Dr. Hakin said StFX is a university that’s united through its efforts to build a diverse and inclusive campus community that champions equity. “This is fundamental to our progress as an institution.” This year, he said StFX established the President’s Action Committee on Anti-Racism (PACAR). As well, StFX recently signed the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black inclusion in Canadian higher education.
In concluding his remarks, Dr. Hakin challenged all graduates to keep up the good work.
“I wish you the very best in all that you choose to do. Your university, StFX, will be here for you. Congratulations. Go and make a difference to all around you. Make yourself, your family, and your university proud.”
DESERVE THIS HONOUR
“It’s wonderful to be able to stand here in person and greet you, the graduating class. For the first time in two years, we are actually able to gather together and have an in-person graduation,” StFX Chancellor John Peacock said.
“You deserve this honour because you worked for it.”
He thanked students for all they have done to keep us all safe during these past number of months, and said he hoped graduates derive a sense of confidence in their own ability to face unknown challenges in the future. Use the knowledge you have gained at StFX for the betterment of those around you, he said. Care about the communities you embrace and work every day to make them and yourselves better.
TAKE PRIDE, HAVE FAITH
“My fellow graduates, take pride in how far you have come and have faith in how far you will go,” Master of Education graduate Mary Denny of Eskasoni First Nation said in remarks on behalf of the graduating class. Ms. Denny, a vice principal at a school in a northern community in Manitoba, couldn’t be at the ceremony and pre-recorded her address.
“I truly believe pursuing education is one of the most sacred experiences we can take on our journey through life. It opens endless possibilities and gives us the knowledge to make all our dreams come true.”
As the first member of her family to graduate from StFX, she says she doesn’t take one bit of it for granted. “I thank everyone who has made this university what it is and everyone who has supported my fellow graduates and me.”
She also gave thanks to the Tramble Rooms for their guidance and in helping her gain the confidence to continue her education.
Each graduate has overcome adversity to reach this point, this major milestone, she said. “I admire you all. Wela’lioq. Thank you.”
Alumni Association president Marc Rodrigue welcomed the new graduates into Canada’s strongest alumni network.
University Chaplain Father Donald MacGillivray offered the invocation and Bishop Wayne Kirkpatrick, Vicar of the Founder of StFX, gave the benediction.
Master of ceremonies was Dr. Derrick Lee, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Health Program.
Honorary degree and award-winners bios
Linden MacIntyre, Doctor of Laws honoris causa
Acclaimed author and journalist Linden MacIntyre was born in Newfoundland, and raised in Cape Breton, the son of an itinerant hard-rock miner and a schoolteacher, both with deep Cape Breton roots. He attended a two-room village school until Grade 10, followed by a regional rural high school. He graduated from StFX in 1964 and went on to studies at Saint Mary’s University and Kings (Journalism). Later that year, he became parliamentary correspondent in Ottawa for The Halifax Chronicle Herald and The Mail Star. After two years on Parliament Hill, he returned to Halifax, then in 1967 returned to Ottawa as correspondent for The Financial Times of Canada. Two years later, he came back to Nova Scotia to work for The Chronicle Herald as correspondent, based in Sydney, NS. In 1976, he joined CBC Television as a current affairs producer/reporter based in Halifax. A year later, he launched a regional current affairs program, The MacIntyre File. In 1979, he initiated a legal action to confirm public access to affidavits supporting search warrants, the Attorney General of Nova Scotia, respondent. The issue reached the Supreme Court of Canada and in 1982 resulted in a majority decision affirming that affidavits relating to executed search warrants are public documents and available for public and media scrutiny. The decision since became a major asset in investigative journalism. In 1980, he moved to CBC network programming in Toronto. In 1981, he produced and hosted a television special on Acid Rain. That year, he joined the start-up team at The Journal, a CBC network current affairs segment broadcast nightly as companion to CBC’s The National.
In late 1986, he moved to CBC Radio as host and national editor of Sunday Morning. Two years later, he returned to The Journal, for general assignments throughout North America, also in the Middle East, Latin America, the USSR, and other conflict areas. He began co-hosting the fifth estate on CBC TV in 1990, remaining 24 years. In 1999, he published the first of three novels loosely described as the Cape Breton trilogy: The Long Stretch (Stoddart), The Bishop’s Man (Random House, 2009), which won various literary awards including the Scotiabank Giller Prize for fiction; Why Men Lie (Random House 2012). In 2000, he published a non-fiction book, Who Killed Ty Conn (Penguin), with Theresa Burke, and in 2007, a memoir, Causeway; A Passage From Innocence (Harper Collins Canada), winner of the Edna Staebler Award for creative non-fiction. Two more novels came in 2014, Punishment (Random House), and in 2017, The Only Café. In 2019, he published The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami (Harper Collins Canada), followed in 2021 with The Winter Wives. He’s currently researching a non-fiction book. He’s won multiple awards including 1978 ACTRA’s Gordon Sinclair Award; 10 Gemini awards for work on the fifth estate; an International Emmy for work by the fifth estate; and various U.S. awards for work on co-productions with the PBS program Frontline.
Dr. Leslie Jane McMillan, Outreach Award
Dr. Leslie Jane McMillan has been a member of the StFX faculty since 2006, when she joined the Anthropology Department as a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Communities and Sustainable Societies. Dr. McMillan’s life work has been to accompany the Mikmaw peoples in the goals they have set for themselves. While the StFX Outreach Award typically recognizes someone who has contributed to an outside, nonacademic community, Dr. McMillan is being recognized for mobilizing her connections among the Mi’kmaw peoples to create opportunities for them to share their knowledge, history, and perspectives with settler Nova Scotians and especially with the StFX settler community. The popular Learning Lodges that she has been integral in organizing, such as the one this past September, on the anniversary of the Marshall Decision, are only one example of this relationship. Dr. McMillan has worked tirelessly to educate settlers about the treaties with the Mi’kmaw peoples, and to urge all to think about how we can respectfully and productively coexist with them on their unceded territory. She does not speak for the Mi’kmaw peoples; rather, she builds bridges so they can speak to us for themselves. This cannot help but advance reconciliation between Canada’s Indigenous peoples and settlers.
David Maillet, Outstanding Staff Teaching Award
David Maillet, Coordinator and Senior Lab Instructor, Multimedia Language Centre, arrived at StFX in 2005 as a lab instructor for the Department of Modern Languages. Sixteen years later, he continues to coordinate the Multimedia Language Centre, where he is involved in the daily operations of its language laboratories, where French, Spanish, German, Mi’kmaq, and Gaelic are taught. He is also a Senior Lab Instructor for the university, specializing in the acquisition of the French language through computer assisted learning and lecturing through dozens of labs each semester. He’s taught French courses at all levels from beginner to community-based and adult learning and literacy as well as to college and university students for the past three decades. He brings the best out of his students and cares about their understanding of the French language and culture. He values the importance of education and promotes the learning of languages as a way of gaining knowledge and acceptance of others.
Nexos Comunitarios, Community Partner Award Recognition
Nexos Comunitarios is a Peruvian non-profit organization that seeks to promote freedom and the exercise of human rights with populations living in poverty and social exclusion. As the executive director of Nexos Comunitarios, Maricarmen Valdivieso has played an integral role as an experiential learning facilitator in Peru for StFX’s Immersion Service Learning (ISL) Program. Her organization works to reduce poverty in isolated communities within Peru and to promote a better understanding and true respect between different societies and cultures both nationally and internationally. She collaborates with these partner communities to provide student experiences that complement Nexos’ active work, supporting on-site projects that address community identified needs. Through this ISL partnership, StFX students have the opportunity to acquire experience working with diverse communities and to learn about and reflect on global development and social justice issues from a cross-cultural context. In addition, Maricarmen has shared her expertise and perspective with StFX students through virtual in-class presentations and discussions in various StFX programs, as a panelist on the multidisciplinary Global Issues Forum, and as a facilitator for a virtual immersion experience with a community in Peru as part of a winter three-credit course. Despite current student mobility restrictions, Nexos Comunitarios remains committed to StFX student learning and the continued fostering of partnerships between the university and the communities served in Peru.
