Convocation address.

• Author: Bastarache, Michel
• Position: Legal education - Canada

I am very pleased to have been awarded an honorary degree by the University of New Brunswick and to have been invited to say a few words at this Convocation. I feel specially privileged because this recognition comes from my home province and one of its main institutions--an old and well respected institution--an institution that is vitally important to the people of New Brunswick and to making sure that the people of this province are full partners in the Canadian federation and Canadian society in general. In fact, since I have been living in Ontario, I have noticed on many occasions that graduates from UNB and other Maritime universities are well represented in national institutions, public and private, and act as true ambassadors for their alma mater. They are proud to be graduates of this University in particular and members of its alumni.

It is with a head full of ideas and a heart full of ambition that the graduates before me have come to the end of their first, second or third academic program. It is certainly a time for rejoicing; it is also a time of anxiety for many because of the uncertainty facing anyone entering into a new career, or even the challenge of another academic program. I want to add my voice to that of your faculty and say to the graduates: you come to this new stage in your lives well prepared and have every reason to be confident in the future.

It will come as no surprise to you that I will be giving a brief message representing foremost the opinion of a jurist. In fact, I am quite at ease with this approach because I have become more and more convinced over the years that today, more than at any other moment in history, law, and especially justice are not the exclusive domain of jurists. Graduates in biology, philosophy, history, and sociology, to name a few disciplines, have a keen interest in legal issues. The reason for this is quite simple; the legal issues that are reported on and debated every day in the news media deal with the fundamental values of our society, whether they be reproductive techniques, freedom of opinion, freedom of religion, the definition of the family, the conditions for the secession of a province or for reforming the Canadian Senate. There is no need for legal expertise to express a view on these issues. I would therefore be inclined to say that the knowledge required to be a person of some culture encompasses more than ever some legal values and principles. One fine example of this...