Cindy Blackstock To Receive Honorary Degree At Spring Convocation

• Main Author: Office of External Relations & Communications
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Osgoode Digital Commons 2017
• Subjects: Canada; First Nations
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ovations/219; https://perma.cc/SZZ9-TCCJ

Osgoode Dean Lorne Sossin has advised that Cindy Blackstock will be awarded an honorary degree at Osgoode Convocation on Friday, June 23. Blackstock, who will receive York University’s highest honour – a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa), is a Gitxsan activist for child welfare and Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. She is also a professor in the School of Social Work at McGill University and has made a significant contribution to the public good throughout her career as a social worker and advocate for child welfare and Indigenous children’s rights. “Dr. Blackstock plays a leadership role within the reconciliation movement, speaking out against systemic inequalities experienced by First Nations’ children, youth and families,” Sossin said. Blackstock recently participated in a major symposium, entitled “Re-Imagining Child Welfare Systems in Canada,” at Osgoode Hall Law School.