Published by Communications and Public Affairs (519) 824-4120, Ext. 56982 or 53338
News Release
March 07, 2005
Former Environment Minister to Speak at Hammond Lectures
A former federal environment minister will visit the University of Guelph March 11 as the keynote speaker for this year’s Kenneth Hammond Lectures on Environment, Energy and Resources.
Charles Caccia will speak on “Politics and the Elusive Goal of Sustainable Development: Links to Environment and Health” at 7 p.m. in Room 104 of Rozanski Hall. He will discuss sustainable development, particularly in fisheries and forests. He will also talk about economic and political aspects of environmental issues, including the Kyoto climate change agreement.
Now a senior fellow with the Institute of the Environment at the University of Ottawa, Caccia was an MP from 1968 to 2004. He was environment minister in 1983 and 1984 in the former Trudeau government, then became Liberal opposition critic on environmental issues.
The annual Hammond Lecture Series began in 2000 and is intended to acknowledge Kenneth Hammond’s contributions over the past 40 years. A former member of the university’s Board of Governors, Hammond is well-known for his work locally as a founder of Hammond Manufacturing and for his advocacy of environmental and resource issues and for his concern for environmental education.
The 2004/05 series is called “Environmental Science and the Health of Terrestrial Environments.” In addition to Caccia’s lecture, there will be a day-long symposium March 12 featuring speakers and a panel discussion on environmental issues from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Trophy Room of the Cutten Club. Both the lecture and the symposium are free and open to the public.
“What we’re trying to do is make the connection between the environment and health,” said Josef Ackerman, associate dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences (FES), an interdisciplinary teaching and research unit that involves five colleges on campus, and the University.
The symposium starts at 10 a.m. with a talk by retired land resource science professor Ward Chesworth on “Ill Fares the Land.” At 11 a.m., Murray McBride, a crop and soil scientist at Cornell University, will discuss “Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Environment: The Soil-Health Link” at 11 a.m.
The afternoon session begins at 1 p.m. with David MacLean of the University of New Brunswick presenting “The Health of Forests and Insect Outbreaks.” Dominique Charron, senior epidemiologist with the food-borne, water-borne and zoonotic infections division of the Public Health Agency of Canada, will speak on “Ecosystems and Health” at 2 p.m. The panel discussion begins at 3:30 p.m.
For media questions, contact Communications and Public Affairs: Lori Bona Hunt (519) 824-4120, Ext. 53338, or Rebecca Kendall, Ext. 56982.
