Minnie Grey, centre, along with Alicia Aragootak, left, and Dolly Mesher, right, pose for a photo at their convocation at McGill University last week. While Grey received an honorary doctorate, the two other women received certificates in health management. (Photo courtesy of Minnie Grey)
Longtime civil servant Minnie Grey receives 2nd honorary doctorate
McGill is 2nd university to honour Grey for nearly 40 years of work in Nunavik’s public sector
After working nearly 40 years in Nunavik’s public sector, Minnie Grey has received her second honorary doctorate — this time, being named a doctor of laws by McGill University in Montreal.
“When McGill called me a couple of months ago to ask me, it came as a surprise,” Grey said Tuesday in a video interview from her cottage north of Montreal.
She attended the university’s convocation on June 4 where she received the honorary doctorate.
“I did not do all these years of work for recognition,” she said, “but it is nice to be acknowledged.”
Grey’s career has focused on the health and well-being of Inuit.
She was executive director of the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services for nearly a decade and director of the Ungava Hospital from 1991 to 2000.
She was also the main negotiator for the region in talks with the provincial and federal governments that led to the creation of regional government in Nunavik in 2007.
Grey retired in July 2023, but remains busy doing consulting and translation work.
“I am not sitting around twiddling my thumbs,” she said, laughing.
She was awarded her first honorary doctorate in 2022, by the University of Montreal’s faculty of arts and sciences.
These doctorates are also “a way of acknowledging the rest of the people I have worked with throughout my life,” she said.
“It is not just about me, it is about all the others who have helped me do my work.”
Grey said that in recent years, universities have increased their efforts to promote the history and the achievements of Indigenous people to the public.
“Universities have always been a privileged place,” she said, and more and more “they have taken on a role of wanting to be a messenger for the rest of the general public in educating them about Indigenous people, and how they have survived colonization.”
She added: “It is their way of acknowledging that we have a place in their education.”
In her own schooling, Grey did not go past high school but said “my years of experience in the political world has taught me a lot.
“I like to say sometimes that I am more educated than university graduates.”
Asked what advice she would pass on to young people, she said, “I want youth to be involved. I got involved in many things at a very young age, and after a while you just get into it.”
Grey said that for her, being involved means working with others to make life better.
Giving an honorary degree to a popular public figure is a marketing ploy by universities. That inspirational lift might generate 80K to 240K of Government funded in the bank money to future generations. Don’t get me wrong, Minnie you Rock🤙🏽 But call it what it is🤑
You have done such wonderful work and caring for all of the more than 50 years since I first met you through my involvement in the co-ops world with Elijah, Pitallluk and so many others. A richly deserved acknowledgement! Warm congratulations and best wishes.
Congratulations to the women Alicia, Dolly, and Minnie well done!