Chartrand to receive honorary doctorate

David Chartrand is being honoured by the University of Winnipeg for his 22 years of service. Chartrand was elected president and chairman of the board of directors of the Manitoba Métis Federation in 1996, a position he still holds today. Since 1999, the MMF and the Louis Riel Institute has provided $1.5 million in bursaries to Métis students to attend to U of W, according to a university press release. A $100,000 gift from the MMF allowed the Audreen Hourie Graduate Fellowship to be created. Chartrand also established Louis Riel Day as an annual provincial holiday and in 1997, he re-instated the MMF land claims.

Wong elected to scientific body

Dr. Charles Wong has been elected to the North American Board of Directors of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), the University of Winnipeg has announced. Wong will begin his three-year term at the 33rd SETAC North American conference in Long Beach, Calif., this November. He has been involved with SETAC since 1997 and has received the Early Career Award for Applied Ecological Research (2003) and the Weston Environmental Solutions Award (2007). Wong, an expert in the detection, fate and effects of environmental contaminants, has aided in creating solutions to problems in North America and collaborates with researchers in other countries. He joined U of W in 2008, is the director of the Thomas Sill Analytical Laboratory for Water Research Technology (STALWART) and has raised $6 million for the research in improving our understanding of how to protect water resources.

U of W receives $500K for residential school research

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation has given the University of Winnipeg’s Oral History Centre a $500,000 grant to create a digital storytelling project to discusses the effects of residential schools on aboriginal men. The project, Children of Survivors: The Intergenerational Experiences of Residential Schools, will be conducted with the partnership of the university’s indigenous studies department, the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence, Ka Ni Kanichihk and Moon Voices. The storytelling project builds on the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence project entitled “Inter-generational Effects on Professional First Nations Women Whose Mothers are Residential School Survivors.” The research will take place from September 2012 to March 2014.

Published in Volume 67, Number 5 of The Uniter (October 3, 2012)