Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Romeo Saganash to receive honorary doctorates from Laval

Former Nunavik MP Romeo Saganash and Inuit environmental activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier are both set to receive honorary doctorates from Laval University in Quebec City.

Due to the “exceptional situation” caused by the pandemic, the dates for the presentation of these honorary degrees have not yet been decided, Laval said in a June 8 news release. Laval is awarding a total of 11 honorary doctorates this year to recipients it considers “remarkable.”

Watt-Cloutier, a former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is “an ardent defender of the environment, culture and human rights,” who “advocates for the protection of the Arctic and Inuit culture,” Laval said in its backgrounder on Watt-Cloutier.

Watt-Cloutier was, among other things, instrumental in raising awareness of climate change in the Arctic by launching the world’s first international legal action on climate change.

Her 2005 petition, heard by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleged that the United States was violating the human rights of Inuit by refusing to limit its greenhouse gas emissions.

At the time, it was the first global legal action of its kind.

In 2019, she published The Right to Be Cold, in which she explains why climate change must be recognized as a human rights issue.

“Recipient of several awards and distinctions, such as the United Nations Environment Programme Champions of the Earth award, Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a great source of inspiration and pride,” Laval said. “She embodies with great courage and sensitivity the mission and objectives of Université Laval, and this, by highlighting the connections between sustainable development, the Arctic, education and recognition of Indigenous people.”

Romeo Saganash, described in the news release as a Cree leader and defender of the rights of Indigenous people, will receive an honorary doctorate in law.

“Lawyer, negotiator and politician, Romeo Saganash has defended human rights, especially those of the First Nations, throughout his career,” Laval said.

Until 2019, he also served as MP for Abitibi–James Bay–Nunavik–Eeyou.

Saganash, a Cree lawyer from Waswanipi, was first elected as the riding’s MP in 2011, and, while in Parliament, twice introduced private members’ bills to enshrine the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into Canadian law.

Saganash was also the first Indigenous MP elected in the province of Quebec.