2012 Symons Medallist:

Dr. David Suzuki

 

Award-winning Canadian broadcaster, environmentalist, author and icon, Dr. David Suzuki, was chosen to receive the  2012 Symons Medal and give the 10th National Symons Lecture on the State of Canadian Confederation. Dr. Suzuki’s lecture is entitled Humankind as a Geological Force and took place on Friday, November 16, 2012  in Confederation Centre’s Homburg Theatre.

Dr. Suzuki, Co-Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, is renowned for his more than 30 years of work in broadcasting and is recognized as a world leader in sustainable ecology. He is Companion to the Order of Canada and a recipient of UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for science, the United Nations Environment Program medal, the 2009 Right Livelihood Award, and numerous other awards and accolades.

Dr. Suzuki is very familiar to audiences as host of the long-running CBC TV program The Nature of Things, and as the original host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, as well as the acclaimed series It’s a Matter of Survival and From Naked Ape to Superspecies. Dr. Suzuki’s written work also includes more than 52 books, 19 of them for children.

“It is a true honour to have Dr. Suzuki present the 10th annual Symons Lecture and share with us his experience and wisdom on the topics of human development and sustainability,” says Mr. H. Wayne Hambly, Chairman of the Fathers of Confederation Buildings Trust. “He is an internationally celebrated Canadian and his insights will be of great interest to our lecture audience.”

The Symons Medal and Lecture provides a national platform for a distinguished Canadian to discuss the current state and future prospects of Confederation. It provides all Canadians an opportunity to reflect upon their country and its future. The Medal Ceremony and Lecture, which is intended to be broadcast and published, is held each year to mark the 1864 meetings of the Fathers of Confederation in Charlottetown.

It is the mandate of Confederation Centre of the Arts, Canada’s national memorial to the founding of Confederation, to inspire Canadians to celebrate, through heritage and the arts, the founding and evolution of Canadian Confederation.

 

Photo Credit: Kent Kallberg photo