Henry Friesen
Dr Henry FriesenConvocation Address
University of Alberta, June 6, 2001
Eminent Chancellor, President Fraser, Chair of the Board of Governors, graduates, families and friends, and distinguished platform guests, ladies and gentlemen.
First, let me thank the University of Alberta for the outstanding honour it has bestowed on me this afternoon. And to the graduates, thank you. Thank you so much for allowing me to share in your day of celebration, your very special day. And congratulations as well to the proud families and friends whose support and encouragement has helped bring you to this very happy day this afternoon.
For most of you, I have no doubt that it will be but one of many distinctions throughout your lifetime. The completion of your degree is really a beginning — not an end.
Your education has provided you with a set of tools, and those tools will be as effective as the people and the individuals who wield them.
But, as a result of the educational process, you have been equipped to literally change the world. But in my experience, I recognize one thing above all. It is people. It is individuals who make the difference.
No matter how well the planning process, no matter how extensive the consultation, if there aren't energetic, enthusiastic, committed individuals behind them, those plans will never be implemented.
I recognize that in this great province and this outstanding University, you have been inculcated with the pioneering spirit of this region. And so I hold up for you examples of prior graduates who have made a difference, who continue to make a difference, just as I am confident you will.
And we're privileged today to have with us one of those outstanding individuals whose creative mind has changed our understanding of the smallest matter: Nobel laureate, Richard Taylor. There are others who have preceded me on this podium: Dr Joseph Martin, providing leadership, outstanding leadership to Harvard Medical School — people making a powerful difference in this country. And so will you.
Let me talk just for a moment about science and science policy in this country.
It is important for you to know that the opportunity for the pursuit of a scientific career has never been more propitious than it is today. The world, governments, corporations, are now recognizing that the driver of innovation and the knowledge economy is quite naturally knowledge. And as a result, governments have begun to invest on a scale unprecedented in Canadian history. It has reached a priority in the thinking of governments — national and provincial. And the levels of investments that have been extended have, in my judgment, just begun.
Truly as your slogan says so accurately but so rightly: research does make sense. This reality offers for you a bright future as graduates. That knowledge economy has a number of expressions, and the one I would simply reference because it is one which is immersed and engaged is the field of genomics, the knowledge of the smallest matters that infer the life instructions on the cell and on all of us.
Two thousand years ago, a great Chinese philosopher said, "Each leaf is a tree," and since then, modern science has confirmed the truth of this ancient wisdom — not only as an allegory but as fact. We know that in the cell of each leaf, there is indeed the genetic pattern of an entire forest. And now, with the mapping of the human genome, we have been, quite literally, given the language of life itself.
While we today celebrate the individual and individuality, you should know that genetic analysis tells us that 99.99 percent of that language of construction, that $3-billion molecular code, embedded in 40,000 genes, is imbedded in all of us. There is a common language for humanity.
And yet, we celebrate the special qualities of the individual. That means that one letter of a thousand confers that special quality on each of you. It's like, for example, recognizing that Tie Domi and Albert Einstein differ by only that small degree! It makes you want to recognize and respect Tie more, doesn't it?
My dream has always been to see Canada fulfill its potential as a leader in its contribution to the world's knowledge economy. Whether your area is forestry or economics or science, you're all capable of making a contribution. And remember: in the end, you will be recognized not by how much you have gained but how much you have given.
Those who have come before you have given a great deal to make this day and this opportunity possible. They have dedicated their lives so that the brilliance of your star can shine ever more brightly into the future.
So I ask you to ask yourself: "What is my dream? What is my dream for this country, for my life?"
Society needs those dreams because without that, there is no vision, and without vision, there will be no change. And to achieve the impossible really does precisely demand that we're prepared to think the unthinkable.
If no one had ever imagined soaring like a bird, I have no doubt I could not get back in an airplane this evening to Winnipeg. And if no one like Banting had ever dreamed of curing diabetes, we would never have had insulin. And in contemporary terms in Edmonton, there would be no Edmonton Protocol. There would be no islet transplantation program that eliminates the need for insulin injections. And I'm sure diabetics can only hope that knowledge will be disseminated and applied throughout the world without those people dreaming. Like Lorne Tyrrell, who imagined there should be molecules that would eliminate the hepatitis virus as a threat and a burden, there would be no molecules for the treatment of hepatitis today.
Truly, Canada has a phenomenal amount of talent, and you, in my judgment, are just waiting to contribute to that opportunity, that amazing potential.
And I urge you to be fearless in challenging the status quo, in dreaming of new solutions to old problems. Implore you as Emerson said: "Do not go down the path wherever it may lead. Instead, carve out a new path and leave a trail behind."
We are, as the great social philosopher Yogi Berra said, a fork in the road, and I urge you to take it. As we look towards the new century, I see a new era, a new century full of promise, moulded by science, shaped by technology, and powered by knowledge.
And with that last bit of wisdom imparted, I invite you: pursue your dreams with passion and enjoyment, but always faithful. Always faithful to the University's motto, pursuing only those things that are true.