Retired MPP and Speaker of the House of Commons Dave Levac and multi-disciplinary artist Shelley Niro offered some words of wisdom to graduates on Tuesday after receiving honorary degrees from Wilfrid Laurier University at two separate convocations in Brantford.
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Levac, a former elementary school teacher and principal who served five terms, or 19 years, as MPP for Brant, the last two as Speaker, received an honorary Doctor of Laws from his alma mater. He was in Laurier’s Class of 1976.
“I want to thank Laurier for this fine honor,” he told university faculty and about 300 graduates gathered at the Sanderson Center for the afternoon ceremony.
“But I still want to wear my Hawaiian shirts,” said Levac as he pulled back his ceremonial robe to reveal the casual wear he’s been known to sport since leaving politics – this one adorned with picture of his grandchildren.
At the morning convocation, where about another 300 graduates received their degrees, Niro was given an honorary Doctor of Letters. A Bay of Quinte Mohawk and member of the Six Nations of the Grand River Turtle Clan, she is a “true multi-media artist, using painting, photography, sculpting, beadwork, film and video to craft images and stories to reach her audiences, ” said her quote.
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“I am truly honored,” said Niro, demonstrating her storytelling skills while describing for students the Brantford of her youth.
“Brantford, while I was growing up, was a city that had everything you could want in a downtown,” she said, citing major department stores, restaurants and movie theaters. “After the farm equipment factories left, the economy of Brantford nosedived,” she said, and the downtown deteriorated to the point that in 2006 the makers of the horror film Silent Hill thought it a suitable location for their shoot.
But, said Niro, in 1999, Laurier University came to Brantford and set up classrooms, that first year for just 39 students.
“Fast forward 25 years later,” she said. “This year there are (more than 3,500 graduating students from the Waterloo and Brantford campuses). The downtown core is returning to life. Please don’t leave. The campus of Wilfrid Laurier Brantford has contributed and continues to contribute to the city more than you would believe. We need to see young, fresh faces. We need new energy.”
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Levac, quoting the late Walter Gretzky’s greeting to those visiting Brantford, told graduates and their families ‘Welcome to the center of the universe.’”
“A dream you don’t fight for can haunt you for the rest of your life,” Levac told the grads. “Learn to be OK with what you ultimately can’t do because there is so much more you can do. The amazing strength one gets from family and friends can never be underestimated. Use that fact in your life. I have faith in you. I believe you are good. I believe you will do good. Go get ’em.”
Niro left the grads with words from some various sources: Jewish-American writer Isaac Beshavis Singer, Six Nations poet E. Pauline Johnson and hockey great Wayne Gretzky.
“Gretzky says, ‘The day I stop giving is the day I stop receiving. The day I stop learning is the day I stop growing.’”
In addition to the two in Brantford, 13 convocations are being held at the university’s main campus in Waterloo. Recipients of honorary degrees in Waterloo are Canadian music icon Bruce Cockburn, mystery author Louise Penny and former NHL star Mike Richter.
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