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¶¡Ïã³ÉÈËÉçÇø will be honouring journalist Harry Forestell, community patrons Harrison McCain and Marion McNair McCain, advocate Ken Pike, and graphic novelist Kate Beaton at its Spring and Summer Convocations.

“We award honorary degrees ‘honoris causa’ to recognize exceptional merit and achievement. Each of the individuals we are honouring this year have distinguished themselves in both their achievements and in service to society, and they have enriched our world,” said Dr. M. Nauman Farooqi, President and Vice-Chancellor.

“In so many ways, their excellence, leadership, and impact will be inspirational for our graduating students in arts, education, and social work.”

“We are looking forward to celebrating Harry Forestell and Harrison McCain and Marion McNair McCain at our Spring Convocation on May 20, and Ken Pike and Kate Beaton at Summer Convocation on July 3.”

Harry Forestell

Harry Forestell is a journalist whose professional achievements have been noteworthy and whose public service advocacy has been inspirational. An alumnus of STU, Forestell has had a front-row seat to the news and newsmakers in Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Following work as a CBC producer, he accepted assignments in the UK for the BBC World Service and National Public Radio. After serving as CBC-TV's business correspondent for Europe, he returned to Canada in 1999 as a correspondent for The National and host of the CBC News Morning Show. He was named anchor of CBC News for New Brunswick in 2010, and the program was subsequently recognized twice as the top evening news broadcast in the region.

 

Over his career, he regularly volunteered for community and social organizations, and in 2015, following his own diagnosis, he became a supporter of Parkinson's Canada. In 2024 he was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for his interview with actor and Parkinson’s advocate Michael J. Fox. His sharing and openness in living with Parkinson’s has been courageous—as a result, many individuals and families better understand the condition and see greater hope in their circumstance.

 

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H. Harrison McCain CC, ONB and Marion McNair McCain (Posthumous)

Both Harrison McCain and Marion (Billie) McNair McCain believed strongly in supporting community projects and programs in their beloved New Brunswick and throughout the Atlantic Provinces. Since 1997, the Harrison McCain Foundation has been a champion of initiatives supporting education, arts, science, health, and the environment. Marion McCain believed that the artists of the region had exceptional talent and should be recognized more widely, and she sponsored a series of art exhibitions beginning in the late 1980s. Today, the Marion McCain Atlantic Art Exhibitions and the publication “BILLIE” continue to highlight her dedication to promoting artists, and the Marion McCain Institute of Atlantic Art at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery ensures that her commitment to the arts continues.

 

At ¶¡Ïã³ÉÈËÉçÇø, support from the Harrison McCain Foundation has been instrumental in supporting the programs and services delivered by the Wabanaki Centre, and STU now has the second highest percentage of Indigenous students in the country. In addition, over the last two decades the Harrison McCain Foundation Bursaries have meant that countless STU students have received funding to pursue their education, and Harrison McCain Research Grants have supported the scholarly activities of faculty. These transformative gifts have benefitted STU, as well as our province, in countless ways—a living legacy to two proud New Brunswickers.

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Ken Pike

Ken Pike is a community advocate and social policy innovator. As a social-policy lawyer and advocate for inclusion and disability rights, Pike has dedicated his life to supporting the full inclusion of individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. For 35 years, he was the Director of Social Policy for the Fundy Region ACL and later Inclusion NB, as well as a policy advisor for the New Brunswick Disability Executives’ Network.

 

He has played a leading role in many social policy innovations in the province. To name just a few examples, he was an advisor to the Economic and Social Inclusion Corporation on social assistance reform, co-chaired the committee to establish the Disability Support Program, and he contributed to important social policy legislation such as New Brunswick’s first accessibility legislation, new legislation that expanded autonomy rights and supported decision-making, and improved employment standards. He has received the NB Human Rights Award and was appointed to the Order of New Brunswick. He regularly shares his perspectives on social policy issues in forums across the country, and has authored books, discussion papers, and policy briefs on disability issues.

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Kate Beaton

Kate Beaton is a graphic novelist and ethnographer. Beaton launched her career by publishing the comic strip Hark! A Vagrant online. It subsequently gained a following of 500,000 monthly visitors and eventually became a bestselling book and won the Harvey Award for Best Online Comics Work and Best Cartoonist and the Doug Wright Award for Best Book. A collection of her work, Step Aside Pops, won the Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication, the highest achievement in US comic arts. Her children’s book, The Princess and The Pony, won the CBC Children’s Choice Book Award, and was developed as an animated series for AppleTV. 

 

Her graphic novel Ducks, an ethnography of Canada’s tar sands won the CBC’s Canada Reads in 2023 and was on Barack Obama's list of favourite books of the year. The story about the experiences of young Canadians whose lives are transformed through work in the tar sands is taught in many university classes on subjects related to labour, community, and culture.