His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada.Photo by: Sgt Serge Gouin, Rideau Hall
© Her Majesty The Queen in Right of Canada represented by the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General (2010)
We are pleased to announce that His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, has accepted the invitation to become the Patron of CNIS.
Mr. Johnston, the 28th governor general since Confederation, began his professional career at Queens University in 1966, moving to the Law Faculty at the University of Toronto in 1966. He became dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario in 1974, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University in 1979, and returned to the McGill Faculty of Law in 1994. In 1999, he became the fifth president of the University of Waterloo.
Mr. Johnston has served on many provincial and federal task forces. He was president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and of the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec, the founding chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, and served as the first non-American chair of the Board of Overseers at Harvard University. Mr. Johnston is author/co-author of two-dozen books, holds honorary doctorates from a dozen universities, and has been awarded the Order of Canada. He holds an LL.B. from Queen’s University (1966), an LL.B. from the University of Cambridge (1965), and an AB from Harvard University (1963).
Mr. Johnston is the fourth Governor General to accept the post of Patron of the Canadian Network for International Surgery.
Previous Governors General who were CNIS Patrons were Michaëlle Jean, Roméo LeBlanc and Ramon John Hnatyshyn.
In his installation speech, Governor General Johnston referred to Contemplare Meliora – ‘to envision a better world.’
CNIS believes in sharing knowledge, expertise and experience to promote lasting and sustainable improvements in health and safety in the developing world.