A. D. Dunton Alumni Award of Distinction Acceptance Remarks
Date: 2011-11-01
A. D. Dunton Alumni Award of Distinction
Acceptance Remarks
Carleton University Alumni Association reception
Toronto Hilton, Toronto
November 1, 2011
1 I want to sincerely thank the Alumni Association and the A. D. Dunton Awards committee for this prestigious honour. It is truly humbling to be recognized by the alumni of a university that has played such an important role in my life and in my hometown of Ottawa.
2 I have to admit, though, that I have some mixed feelings about you announcing to the world that my Carleton days actually ended with my graduation in 1985. Nineteen eighty-five? Really? I think there must be some mistake. I’m sure it was just a few years ago.
3 It is truly a privilege, though, to have the chance to thank Carleton University today, for giving me something even more precious than this award. What Carleton gave me, all those years ago, was a chance. A chance to access higher learning at a very young age and to get a head start in life.
4 As you know, I graduated with a B.A. and moved on to complete two law degrees. I credit Carleton for giving me the confidence that I could achieve these things, through its emphasis on accessible education.
5 I know that I was far from alone. Carleton, of course, was founded on the principle of accessible education, when it first opened its doors to men and women who had served the Second World War effort in the 1940s. It has built on that legacy, welcoming and benefiting thousands of students like me over the years. Today, Carleton is also a world leader in accessible education for students of all types of physical abilities. And we have all benefited from this progressive thinking, not just in Ottawa, but across Canada and internationally. And how fitting that Carleton’s home city of Ottawa announced last week that it is investing $8 million this year, which, according to the Mayor, is “to make ensure that all of our buildings are accessible for each and every one of our citizens.” The goal is for Ottawa to become the most accessible capital city in the world.
6 As I see it, Carleton was always ahead of its time. Today's society is all about accessibility and opportunity. Access to justice is one of the biggest preoccupations of the legal world. Access to health care is one of the biggest issues on the minds of citizens and public policy experts alike. And in recent weeks, the various “Occupy” movements around the world have galvanized people with the basic principle that there is something wrong when too much wealth is concentrated in the hands of far too few.
7 Looking back at my years at Carleton, I realized that this emphasis on accessibility and fairness not only stuck with me, it set me on the path for my career as ombudsman. I’d like to share some of the steps on that path with you tonight.
8 In my years as a political science student, I was fortunate enough to have a remarkable teacher named Donald Rowat. As I’m sure many of you know, Professor Rowat taught at Carleton for more than 40 years. He retired in 1992, but still kept up his academic writing until he passed away in 2008 at 87.
9 What you might not know is that Professor Rowat was one of the foremost authorities in the world on this bizarre, exotic-sounding thing we call an “ombudsman.”
10 He wrote books and papers about the institution of the parliamentary ombudsman, which was first established more than 200 years ago in Sweden. He was instrumental in the setup of Canada’s first provincial ombudsman offices, which started popping up across the country in the 1970s. He also campaigned tirelessly for a national Ombudsman for Canada – and almost succeeded, until politics intervened – but that’s a story for another day. Suffice it to say that Professor Rowat was an ombudsman scholar, and his studies had convinced him that having an independent and powerful overseer of the government who could investigate public complaints was an elegant, efficient and essential part of Canadian democracy.
11 I remember very clearly when Professor Rowat invited one of Canada’s first and best-known ombudsmen – who happened to be a woman – to speak to our class. Her name was Inger Hansen. She had been a lawyer and worked in the Justice department, and in her career she served as Canada’s first prisons ombudsman, our first Privacy Commissioner and our first Information Commissioner.
12 Ms. Hansen talked to us about how, as an ombudsman, she oversaw the citizen’s access to government. Again, this was in the early 1980s, when provincial ombudsmen and federal officers of Parliament like Ms. Hansen were just getting started. The whole area was still in its infancy. I remember being very excited to hear about the powers and potential for this new kind of office. Now, I’m not trying to tell you that young André Marin sat there and said, “Wow, I’m going to be an ombudsman someday!” But I can honestly say that it made an impression on me – this idea of an institution that was outside the government but overseeing the government, to help people access the corridors of power. Both Ms. Hansen and Professor Rowat were passionate about the need for ombudsmen to hold government authorities to account. They were even using phrases like “open government” back then – before we even had the Internet!
13 Something about that class obviously stuck with me, because, after law school and a few years as a Crown attorney, I decided to get out of the courts and into government oversight, starting with the Special Investigations Unit. And not long after that, I found myself – much like Ms. Hansen before me – setting up a brand-new Ombudsman’s office, for the Deparment of National Defence and Canadian Forces.
14 When I set up that office, I sat down on a regular basis with my old Carleton prof., Don Rowat. We would have lunch, near his home in Ottawa, and I would pick his brain and tell him about the challenges of setting up an office that was supposed to oversee the military, by definition one of the most rigid and authoritarian institutions in existence – and one not exactly open to an independent overseer. Professor Rowat bolstered me in my battles to create a military watchdog that actually had teeth, that would function as a true ombudsman even though it reported to the Minister of Defence and not to Parliament directly, and that had strong powers of investigation to get to the bottom of the serious complaints that were flooding in from the troops. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to establish an office that functioned as a credible, robust ombudsman – not just a complaints warehouse for DND. We broke important ground in our investigations – the treatment of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, for instance – and we did it in a very public, open and transparent way, so Canadian citizens could see the problems in our military and what was being done to resolve them. Professor Rowat was an inspiration in every step of the way.
15 Fast-forward to my present job, to which I was first appointed in 2005. As Ombudsman of Ontario, I occupy the seat of a true classical ombudsman, in the Swedish tradition – an independent officer of the legislature. Finally, the job I first heard about in Professor Rowat’s class all those years ago! My powers are set out in a wonderful piece of legislation called the Ombudsman Act, written in 1975. The Act gives me authority to investigate almost anything involving the Ontario government or its agencies that I think is unfair, unjust, unreasonable, discriminatory or just plain wrong.
16 I’ve always been guided by Professor Rowat’s view of how important the Ombudsman can be, both as a watchdog and promoter of good governance. In his words, “an ombudsman is one of the indispensable pillars of a democratic society.”
17 Despite this recognition of the role of the Ombudsman, we must always remain vigilant and mindful of the need to demonstrate our value. These jobs are not sinecures. Though the Ombudsman possesses robust investigative powers, he has no executive ability to order the implementation of findings and recommendations. To be effective in our task requires hard work and may on one day call on the exercise of diplomacy at the highest levels of a government organization while the next, public reporting may be in order. The object is to leverage moral suasion to stamp out maladministration and help out the aggrieved citizen.
18 Sweeping change has taken place at the office of the Ontario Ombudsman in the last few years. We restructured the office to concentrate on major, systemic investigations affecting large numbers of people. And, as you may have heard, we helped bring about some important changes.
19 Perhaps we are seeing a renaissance of the Ombudsman institution across the country and around the world right now – in part because citizens today understand the importance of accessibility of government, just as Carleton has always understood the importance of accessibility of education. The Ombudsman makes government – and, often, justice – accessible to the ordinary citizen, free from the costs of the courts, the partisanship of politics and the corporate interests of the media. The Ombudsman helps improve governance by working behind the scenes to resolve simple problems for individuals – and by unearthing major systemic problems and proposing solutions that benefit millions. The Ombudsman promotes open government by promoting transparency in government operations and reporting publicly on complaints and investigations.
20 We in the Ontario Ombudsman’s office have been honoured to help with this renaissance by being invited to train other ombudsmen across Canada and around the world in how to conduct investigations that have public impact. We have trained representatives from hundreds of agencies from five continents. I’m very proud of the fact that, even though Canada still doesn’t have the national ombudsman that Professor Rowat dreamed of and fought for, we have done our part in furthering the Ombudsman institution and making it more effective all over the planet.
21 In closing, again, I want to thank Carleton for this honour, and for setting me on the path to where I am today. You gave me the hope that fuelled my ambition. If I could ask one thing of you, or give you one piece of advice, it would be to never abandon the principle of educational accessibility. You were on the right track from the start, long before others realized the soundness of going there. The achievements of the university and its graduates are a testament to that.
22 A special word of thanks for family, friends, co-workers, colleagues from the public service and even a boss who showed up this evening. My parents made a special trip from Ottawa to be here. I am very touched by your love and friendship.