Articles
University of the West Indies (UWI) Toronto Gala a success
By
Latoya Grindley
 The University of the West Indies (UWI) Inaugural Toronto gala on Saturday, February 27 saw approximately 460 guests turning out to support the benefit event. Needless to say, the very first event of this nature to be held in Canada, was a huge success.
Staged at the Four Seasons Hotel, the black-tie affair saw guests coming out dressed to impress. Held for the past 12 years in New York under the patronage of Dr Harry Belafonte, the benefit gala has been a staple event for many Caribbean natives. And with the approximately half a million Caribbean nationals residing in sections of Toronto, and the number of UWI graduates living in Canada, the gala was very timely and warmly welcomed.
Held under the patronage of UWI honorary graduate, Raymond Chang, chair of CI Financial and chancellor of Ryerson University, nine prominent and high achievers were awarded at the function.
Receiving the Luminary Award were Mayann Francis and Dr Harry Belafonte. Among Francis' notable achievements that she is only the second woman to be named lieutenant governor in Nova Scotia in more than 100 years. Entertainer and human rights activist Belafonte has been giving back to the Caribbean and education as a dedicated supporter of the UWI scholarship programme. He is an honorary graduate of the institution.
Other awardees receiving the Vice-Chancellor Award were Jean Augustine, Professor Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, Maud Fuller, Dr Herbert Ho Ping Kong, Dr Robert Moore and David Rudder. This award was given based on recognition of their significant contributions to the UWI, and excelling or having achieved great successes in their respective fields.
Belafonte, who was regrettably absent, was obviously missed. In an attempt to make up for his absence, a pre-recorded video presentation was aired to guests. He expressed his gratitude and gave a special greeting. He also used the opportunity to express his sadness in the untimely passing of his friend, Vice Chancellor Emeritus Rex Nettleford, who was also scheduled to attend. He described Nettleford as a great man and said he had looked forward to celebrating with him in Toronto.
Funds raised through the gala will go towards the UWI scholarship programme as well as the Haitian earthquake recovery programme.
latoya.grindley@gleanerjm.com
UWI honours Canadian achievers at gala
By Ron Fanfair
 There can be little debate that the institution that has contributed the most to the intellectual, cultural, social and economic development of the English-speaking Caribbean in the latter half of the 20th Century is the University of the West Indies (UWI), says vice-chancellor Dr. Nigel Harris.
The university was established in 1948 as the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) in a special relationship with the University of London.
"If this university's more than 90,000 graduates were to stop working for a single day,
prime ministerial offices in at least seven Caribbean countries would close, half the cabinet and government offices in all 16 English-speaking contributing countries would cease operations, the leading banks, corporations and other business entities would come to a standstill, the judiciary and legal system, media houses, educational institutions at every level and even the clergy would all become muted," Harris said at the university's inaugural Toronto fundraising awards gala last Saturday night.
"Had this institution not been established, there would have been a deafening silence in one part of the world, a silence characterized by an absence of intellectual, social and economic life. There would be an absence of hope.
"With a history such as this, there may be a temptation to rest on the laurels of a praiseworthy past. But that cannot be an option for our university. We operate in countries at risk of subversion in a brutally competitive global marketplace.
"The rich diversity of our islands and Caribbean sea are hostage to the very industries so necessary for development. These can be obliterated in seconds by an earthquake or volcanic eruption and a hurricane can callously blast away several decades of development”.
To contend with the forces of doom, Harris said the university and its partners have implemented a five-year strategic plan to advance the economic, social, cultural and political development of the West Indies through teaching, research, innovation, advisory and community services and intellectual leadership.
"The goal of the plan is to seek to create graduates who are lifelong learners and analytical problems solvers," added Harris who was recently appointed vice-chair of the Association of Commonwealth Universities that represents 500 universities in 36 countries. "Our plan seeks to create a new generation of thinkers, innovators and leaders destined to transform our society. We see our role as educators and developers of new knowledge, reaching beyond the English-speaking Caribbean to encompass the Diaspora and, wherever possible, the world beyond.
"But while we may have the talent and the will to achieve our strategic goals, the financing of this has been a challenge, particularly as Caribbean governments struggle to sustain themselves at a time of global economic crisis. It is in this context that activities such as this gala will make a difference by helping build a regional endowment fund. "Proceeds from the gala will go to Haiti and the university's scholarship program. In the current academic year, the university has committed nearly $525,000 in scholarships and bursaries to fund students across the Caribbean. The cost of tuition for a full-time
undergraduate program averages almost $15,000 annually.
The UWI has provided approximately 4,500 scholarships since it opened 62 years ago with 23 male and 10 female students who began their academic journey in wooden huts in Jamaica that once housed war refugees from Gibraltar and Malta.
"It was the humblest of beginnings, but it represented one of the mightiest endeavours ever undertaken in the history of the Caribbean," said UWI chancellor Sir George Alleyne. "We were beginning to provide an education in the Caribbean for people of the Caribbean, marking the beginning of our true independence."
The university achieved independent status in 1962, the same year that Canada donated
two merchant ships - the Federal Palm and the Federal Maple - to the short-lived West Indies Federation that comprised 10 Caribbean islands. The ships visited the islands twice monthly. In thanking Canada for the gift, Sir George said the ships enabled UWI students to become familiar with the Caribbean islands, thus cementing their feeling of oneness and of being Caribbean citizens.
Sir George presented Chancellor awards to the Project for the Advancement of Childhood
Education (Canada) founded in 1987 by Dr. Mavis Burke to support Jamaican Basic schools, Scotiabank, which has over 200 branches in the Caribbean and the Royal Bank of Canada.
Two UWI graduates - Dr. Robert (Bobby) Moore and Maud Fuller - were among seven recipients of the vice-chancellor awards presented by Harris. "The UWI stole my heart," said Moore, a former Guyana High Commissioner to Canada, who taught Harris at Queen's College. A proud Mona campus graduate, Fuller founded the UWI Alumni Association Toronto chapter in 1987 and has raised thousands of dollars for the academic institution. Last year, the university attached her name to a regional endowment fund scholarship.
"This award means a lot," she said. "It's validation for the time I have put in with passion and great love to the university affairs. I passionately love the university and the fact that they are acknowledging my small contribution is deliciously pleasing." The other vice-chancellor award winners were City of Toronto poet laureate Dionne Brand, renowned author Austin Clarke, distinguished medical practitioner Dr. Herbert Ho Ping Kong, musician David Rudder and Jean Augustine who the UWI American Foundation honoured with a Luminary award in 2007.
"If I had stayed in the Caribbean, it's most likely that I would have gone to one of the UWI campuses," said Augustine who came to Canada in 1960 from Grenada and in 1993 became the first Black woman elected to the Canadian parliament. "I am tremendously honoured to be recognized by the university on two occasions."
Luminary awards were presented to Harry Belafonte, who celebrated his 83rd birthday last Monday and was unable to attend the event because of bad weather that stranded him in New York, and Nova Scotia's first Black Lieutenant Governor Mayann Francis.
"This award belongs to my parents," said Francis whose parents, George and Thelma, were born in Antigua and Cuba respectively. "Their blood runs through my veins and their faith and values are the flesh and bones of who I am...As a child of West Indian parents, you have honoured my mom and dad”.
Jamaican-born businessman, philanthropist and Ryerson University chancellor Raymond
Chang - the UWI conferred an honorary doctorate on him three years ago - was the event's patron. He estimates there are over 1,000 UWI graduates in the Greater Toronto Area and close to 250 medical alumni in Canada. "They have had a similar event in New York for the past 13 years and the decision was made to bring it to Toronto," said Chang who has donated $1 million to establish a chair in family medicine at the Mona campus. "Toronto is a natural fit because there are also almost 500,000 Caribbean people living here. The response has been phenomenal and we expect this event will take place here every year."
Ontario's Lieutenant Governor David Onley, Mayor David Miller, UWI vice-chancellor Emeritus Sir Shridath Ramphal, Professor Emeritus of English Edward Baugh and former
Jamaica governor-general and ex-Mona campus principal Sir Kenneth Hall also attended the sold-out gala.
Close to 40,000 students are enrolled at the university's four campuses - Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and the open campus
Nettleford remembered at UWI Toronto event
By Ron Fanfair
 He was expected to be front and centre at last Saturday night's University of the West Indies (UWI) inaugural gala to celebrate distinguished Canadians, charitable and corporate entities and raise funds for the university's regional endowment fund's scholarships and bursaries.But vice-chancellor emeritus Rex Nettleford, who had been the face of the university for decades, passed away a month ago while on a visit to Washington to garner much needed financial support for the Caribbean institution of higher learning he had been associated with for 58 years.
The Rhodes Scholar and eminent literary and creative prodigy was expected to pay tribute to Luminary award recipient Harry Belafonte who, because of bad weather in New York, was unable to fly out for the event. He was also being considered to read long-time friend Maud Fuller's citation. She was one of seven recipients of the UWI vice-chancellor's award.
"Rex's sphere was broad and extensive," said UWI vice-chancellor Dr. Nigel Harris. "He was really exceptional in the arts and he stood out as a cultural figure, scholar, historian, adviser to many government leaders and friend to everybody of every station. He was in every way the epitome of someone who walked with kings and never lost the common touch. He really made such a difference." As a lasting tribute to Nettleford's rich life and work, the UWI will establish the Rex Nettleford Foundation for Caribbean Cultural and Social Studies.
"The foundation will focus on many of the things he wanted to do which were to strengthen the academic base for cultural studies by providing scholarships, build a foundation for individuals who want to continue in the line of study that he pioneered and eventually to create a professorship in the studies in the work he pioneered," said chancellor Sir George Alleyne, who was the first Caribbean scholar to be appointed director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Sir George admitted that university faculty and students have not fully come to grips with Nettleford's sudden loss. "You never do,” he said. "He would however have wished that the UWI continues as a regional institution in perpetuity...If I had to synthesize what Rex meant to us, I would say dedication to excellence in different fields and a very strong and almost passionate conviction of the valued utility and a possibility of a UWI to which he gave most of his working life.”
Sir George, who is based in Washington as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, identified Nettleford's body after he was pronounced dead and accompanied the ashes to Jamaica for the official funeral. UWI chancellor emeritus and former Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal is among some of the leading Caribbean personalities who have lent their support to the foundation.
"I had known Rex for about 45 years”, Sir Shridath, who attended the gala, told Share. "I have referred to him as an incandescent eagle and that is because of the power and flight of his vision. We shall not see his like again. He was a wonderful man of the university, of Jamaica, of the Caribbean and of the world. "The best way he can be memorialized is by Caribbean people living the values in the public domain for which he stood."
Glitter and Glamour at UWI Benefit Gala
By Colin Rickards
 There was more than enough Caribbean-born talent in the elegant Regency Ballroom at the downtown Four Seasons Hotel last Saturday evening to run a major country -- or several -- and, indeed, some of those present have actually held significant political posts in Canada.
Professor E. Nigel Harris, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), though not using this theme, spoke of the institution having produced “eight Prime Ministers and two Nobel Laureates.”
In the audience was Sir Shridath -- Sonny – Ramphal, a former Minister of
Justice in Guyana, who later served three terms as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, and is also a former Chancellor of the UWI. Grenada-born Jean Augustine, who was present to receive an award, is a former Cabinet Minister in the Government of Canada. Mary Anne Chambers and Alvin Curling, who served as Cabinet Ministers in Ontario -- and Curling as Speaker of the House – and Margarett Best, the current Minister of Health Promotion, were also in the audience. All are Jamaicans. The occasion for this stellar gathering of talent was the very first University of the West Indies Benefit Gala to be held in Canada -- such fundraisers have been held in the United States for more than a decade -- to provide funds for the UWI Regional Endowment Fund, which awards scholarships and bursaries to deserving graduate and undergraduate students.
“Education is the great equalizer,” said Jamaica-born G. Raymond Chang, the Chair of C.I. Financial, Chancellor of Ryerson University, Patron of the Benefit Gala, and the recipient of an Honourary Doctorate from the UWI. “We want future generations at UWI to have the opportunities we had.”
In the Regency Room were many who have -- or do -- wield influence or power in almost every field of human endeavour. Not all had attended UWI, but alumni from almost every major Canadian university, and many British and U.S. ones, were represented. More or less the first thing one saw on entering was a huge picture of legendary entertainer Harry Belafonte on a screen, and he was on the cover of the Souvenir Program and the dinner ticket, too. He has lent his support to the UWI Benefit Galas in New York for several years, but was unable to attend the one in Toronto, apparently affected by cancelled flights and snowed-in conditions at Kennedy Airport in New York. Sir Kenneth O. Hall, UWI’s Pro Vice Chancellor prior to becoming Jamaica’s Governor-General in 2006, outlined the institution’s history since it began as the University College of the West Indies in 1948, an event which marked “the beginning of our Independence, our true Manumission.” The UWI now provides tertiary education for students from 15 Caribbean countries, and has four campuses: Mona, in Jamaica; St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago; Cave Hill in Barbados; and the Open Campus.
Only three of the seven people slated to receive Vice Chancellor’s Awards had actually attended the UWI, but all were extraordinary Caribbean-born people who have made their marks in Canada.
Of the UWI Alumni, educator Maud Fuller, originally from Jamaica, founded the Toronto Branch of the UWI Alumni Association in 1987, and headed it up for more than two decades; Dr. Herbert Ho Ping Kong, also Jamaican, is one of the world’s leading cardiologists, a practicing professional, as well as a Professor at the University of Toronto; and Guyana-born university professor Robert Moore was once Guyana’s High Commissioner to Canada and subsequently a senior Canadian policy-maker.
The non-Alumni were Jean Augustine, who, after her career in elected politics, is now Ontario’s Fairness Commissioner. Writer and poet Dionne Brand is currently the City of Toronto’s Poet Laureate; multiple award winning author Austin Clarke, is originally from Barbados; and singer and writer David Rudder, is from Trinidad.
While Clarke managed to get to the microphone to offer a half stanza from Belafonte’s signature “Day O” classic, it was Moore who formally responded on behalf of all the Vice Chancellor’s awardees.
The Chancellor’s Awards, presented by Chancellor Sir George Alleyne, went to organizations rather than individuals: The Scotiabank Group; the Project for Advancement of Childhood Education (Canada), known as PACE; and the Royal Bank of Canada.
Earlier, Rob Pitfield, Head of International Banking for the Scotiabank Group, delivering the Dinner Chair Address, called the UWI “a very special university.”
He paid tribute to the bank’s Caribbean business -- they had a branch in Jamaica a decade before opening one in Toronto -- which he said had been crucial to its development. “The Caribbean gave us the strength, the courage, to try to be international,” he said. “To the Caribbean we owe a lot. The University of the West Indies has been our partner through so much of that.” PACE was founded n 1987 by Jamaica-born Dr. Mavis Burke. The Royal Bank of Canada, which is active in 53 countries -- Scotiabank is active in 46 -- began life as the Merchants Bank of Halifax, with a branch in Trinidad and heavily engaged in the Maritimes-Caribbean trade.
The two Luminary Award recipients were to be Belafonte and Mayann E.
Francis, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, both of Caribbean heritage.
A special video from South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu -- who appeared on stage with Belafonte at Massey Hall in an Artists Against Apartheid event in 1986 – should have greeted the entertainer’s appearance. However, in the singer/actor/activist’s absence, Professor Edward Baugh, UWI’s Public Orator Emeritus, instead got to introduce a video message from the artiste in New York, and his Award was received on his behalf by Gala Patron Chang.
UWI’s Pro Vice Chancellor, Hazel Simmons-McDonald, who is also Principal of the Open Campus, presented the Luminary Award to Nova Scotia’s Vice Regal personage. Jermaine Nairne, a UWI Honour Student, provided a brief overview of the UWI Regional Endowment Fund, and its importance to students. It is hoped that the UWI Benefit Gala will become an annual event in Toronto.
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