Presentation of the Massey Medal

Rideau Hall, Friday, November 6, 2009

Former prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King once said that “if some countries have too much history, we have too much geography.”

I remembered these words the day I committed the very common mistake—in front of a group of children—of assuming that the mountains we can see in Vancouver are the Rocky Mountains, when in fact they are the Coast Mountains. Former Olympic athlete Nancy Greene, whom we had invited to join us, loudly cleared this up for me.

Once again, I was humbled by this vast and boundless country of ours, a country whose wealth I have continued to discover since I was welcomed here at the age of ten.

I grew up on a Caribbean island that is shared by two separate countries, so I still—and will always—marvel at the size of the country where I have put down my roots, and at its extraordinary diversity.

Like the children who were there, I learned several things at that event; first, no one is infallible and so we are never too old to learn new lessons.

Second, I learned from the incredible pride that animated Nancy Greene when she spoke about her area of the country. We could see that the mountains she knew so well had shaped her into the person she was. That they had helped build her character and had inspired her with their majesty, giving her a desire to excel and to reach the highest summits.

Having a sense of belonging nourishes people’s identity and memory, and those of entire countries. We must never underestimate the strong ties we maintain with the physical place in which we put down roots, and where historical and cultural forces are at work.

And in a country as large as ours, we must acknowledge the need to develop an appreciation for geography, as the Royal Canadian Geographical Society has done since its creation in 1929. And I have the honour of being the Society’s patron.

We are now equipped with a variety of means of transportation and new technologies, but the great distances between our communities have a tremendous impact on our understanding of one another and on our ability to live together.

Very few of us have the opportunity and the means to visit Canada in its entirety, so it is essential that we create more ways to learn about our various realities and to better understand one another.

For example, think of how exploration of the Canadian Arctic has allowed us to better understand the challenges and realities of that region, as well as the link that exists between the Inuit, nature and the land from which the people draw their subsistence. I was able to witness this during my recent visit to nine communities in Nunavut and Nunavik last May.

And I believe that when my predecessor, the Right Honourable Vincent Massey, the first Canadian governor general, created this medal, he knew very well that developing knowledge about Canadian geography could help strengthen our ties.

It is also said that he himself was a tireless traveller and that if he could not get somewhere by boat or by airplane, he would use a canoe or a dog sled.

Of course, geography is as much about studying the land and its configurations as it is about how people live.

Geography used to change greatly over a long period of time but remain mostly unchanged in the course of one lifetime. Sadly, it is now changing more rapidly than ever before because of our increasing impact on the environment.

The laureate of the Massey Medal we are honouring today, fluvial geomorphologist Michael Church, will soon ride down the Fraser River, from Quesnel to Vancouver, to determine the environmental impact that gravel extraction may have on one of the world’s richest salmon habitats.

I am told, Dr. Church, that you have lent your expertise to numerous resource management debates. Canada’s abundant resources are a treasure, and it is our duty to protect them on behalf of all future generations.

It is with great joy and gratitude that we present you with this medal in honour of all of your research and efforts to raise awareness.

Your work makes us aware of the repercussions that our choices and actions can have on precious, irreplaceable ecosystems—the great waterways that wind their way across this land—and for that and all that you have accomplished, I thank you. Thank you very much.