She\u2019s a visionary; a focused leader who has made waves in the Canadian business world.<\/p>\n
Maureen Sabia, Chairman of the Board for Canadian Tire Corporation, will receive an honorary degree from Brock University and give the convocation address during the afternoon Goodman School of Business ceremony on Thursday, June 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is especially poignant for me as I grew up in St. Catharines,\u201d Sabia said. \u201cI vividly remember discussions about the concept of starting Brock University at the Sabia dinner table when it was still just an idea.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Maureen-Sabia-300x225.jpg\")
Maureen Sabia<\/p><\/div>\n
Sabia is the daughter of high-profile social activist Laura Sabia (who received her own honorary degree from Brock in 1979). Laura instilled in her daughter a belief that women could do anything men could do, and when Maureen Sabia attended law school at the University of Toronto in 1965, she was one of only three women in the class.<\/p>\n
Sabia has gone on to break new ground for women in business on many fronts. After initially working for the Ontario Securities Commission and then as an assistant counsel to the Ontario Law Reform Commission, she started her lengthy career in the private sector, first with Canadian Pacific Limited and then Redpath Industries.<\/p>\n
She has served on the audit committees and boards of directors for numerous corporations across multiple sectors. Sabia also served as Vice-Chairman of the Public Accountants Council for the Province of Ontario, as well as Chairman for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.<\/p>\n
In the post-secondary sector, Sabia has served on the boards or advisory councils at Brock University, University of Guelph, University of Toronto, Dalhousie University, the Perimeter Institute and the Montreal Economic Institute. She was the founder and first chairman of the Women in Management Research Project at the University of Western Ontario.<\/p>\n
But Sabia is best known for her work with the board of Canadian Tire Corporation, where she has served for more than three decades.<\/p>\n
As chairman, a title she prefers over the more common female options of \u2018chairwoman\u2019 or \u2018chair\u2019, she has been a vocal and hands-on leader, guiding the company through expansion, competition and the rise of e-commerce.<\/p>\n
Her career achievements have been recognized nationally. In 2009 Sabia was named one of Canada\u2019s 100 Most Powerful Women, in 2011 she was named an officer of the Order of Canada and a year later she was awarded the Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Medal.<\/p>\n
Sabia said her message to students will focus on what it takes to be successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour judgment and your attitude towards work will be critical to your success,\u201d she said. \u201cBe curious, courageous, relentlessly determined and never be afraid to ask \u2018why.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brock to honour indigenous language pioneer David <\/strong>Kanatawakhon-Maracle<\/strong> with doctorate (Ceremony Friday, June 9, 10 a.m.)<\/strong><\/p>\n Untold numbers of youth and adults who have learned the Mohawk language have David Kanatawakhon-Maracle to thank.<\/p>\n Kanatawakhon is a Mohawk from the Tyendinaga First Nation near Belleville, and after high school and a job with the Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa, he returned home to teach the Mohawk language to elementary school students. With no curriculum or study materials readily available, Kanatawakhon set about creating his own.<\/p>\n \u201cYears ago I realized that without our language we have no culture,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen our language is gone we don\u2019t have anything. We basically just have a bunch of museum pieces.<\/p>\n David Kanatawakhon-Maracle<\/p><\/div>\n In 1983, after arguing why he deserved to be there, Kanatawakhon went to the University of Western Ontario, where he earned a BA focusing on linguistic specialization. He went on to teach Mohawk language in the school\u2019s Department of Anthropology, where once again he faced the prospect of creating his own teaching materials.<\/p>\n During his time at Western, as well as 12 years spent teaching Mohawk language and other courses for the Aboriginal Studies program at Brock, Kanatawakhon wrote numerous dictionaries, textbooks and other teaching materials in both the Mohawk and Oneida languages.<\/p>\n Kanatawakhon\u2019s texts \u2014 which now include five dictionaries \u2014 have become the foundational tools for those learning indigenous languages. He has been credited with playing a significant role in\u00a0saving the Mohawk language. It\u2019s a remarkable feat that few individuals have ever achieved, but he\u2019s humble in recognizing his own role.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of Mohawk people who are working hard to keep the language alive,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not the only person out there. I\u2019m just one spoke in a wheel. I may or may not be remembered for it, but I don\u2019t care. The material is important. Getting the language out there is all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of Canada\u2019s most powerful female business leaders and a man who has made it his life\u2019s work to teach the Mohawk language will receive honorary degrees next month at Brock University\u2019s Spring Convocation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":44835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,39,40,7,3319,4052,55,37,6833,41,1,4,38],"tags":[5354,4772,4157,5353,1759],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44832"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52312,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44832\/revisions\/52312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/David-Kanatawkhon-300x225.jpg\")