Convocation ceremonies at Dalhousie provide students with a chance to celebrate their years of hard work and achievements with friends, family and fellow students on campus. They also mark their transition from students to alumni, plus, they offer an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of others through the bestowing of honorary degrees.

The tradition of awarding honorary degrees stretches back 131 years at Dalhousie. Honorary degrees are awarded to individuals across a wide range of disciplines and achievements. They recognize people who have shown inspirational leadership, have made outstanding contributions to a field or discipline of study or a non‐academic area of achievement, and/or who have made outstanding achievements at or contributions to Dalhousie. Candidates are reviewed and recommended by the Senate Honorary Degrees Committee and approved by the university Senate.

The 2023 spring honorary degree cohort consists of two people: Dr. Edward Cain (MD’78) who is already an alum, and Brad Barton who is soon to become an alum (as all honorary degree recipients officially join our alumni community if they’re not a member already). The Dal alumni community is grateful for the many ways they enrich our community.

Creating the Paramedic Act

Dr. Cain began his medical career in 1977 after graduating from the University of Ottawa and performing his residency at Dalhousie University. He dedicated his practice to working in emergency medicine, and consequently changed the lives of countless Nova Scotians in need of acute care through his medical practice, research and advocacy work.

Among Dr. Cain’s numerous achievements are his contribution to the creation of the Paramedic Act, a piece of legislation that provided the groundwork and legal authority for paramedicine to become a self-regulating profession. His research into community paramedicine enabled paramedics to expand their scope of service to include primary health needs, and his research into how best to administer life-saving medicine to heart attack patients “in the field” has helped save lives. He was also instrumental in the development of protocols that guide paramedical clinical practise in line with the latest evidence and research.

Teaching at Dal

Dr. Cain was an emergency medicine physician at the QEII Health Sciences Centre for many years. He was an associate professor in Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine, has held roles in emergency health services for the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick governments, and has acted as a consultant for the paramedic program at the Justice Institute in British Columbia. He has been honoured with the Dr. Ron Stewart Award by the National Association of EMS Physicians and the Health Promotion Award by Doctors Nova Scotia.

Spring 2023 Convocation ceremonies will be celebrated from May 29 to June 7 at the Alumni Theatre, Cumming Hall for the Faculty of Agriculture and at the Dalhousie Arts Centre for all other Faculties. Dr. Cain’s degree will be presented at the Tuesday, May 30 ceremony, which begins at 9 a.m. (Livestream the Faculty of Medicine ceremony that day)