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Science and technology can play a powerful role in uniting cultures, even ones that may otherwise be at war, Canada’s top scientist told graduating Western University students at a Wednesday convocation ceremony.
Mona Nemer, Canada’s chief science advisor, addressed a crowd of hundreds of undergraduate science graduates and their families at Alumni Hall, part of a two-week series of ceremonies on a campus where the Israel-Hamas war has sparked an encampment and enflamed tensions.
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“Science can help us find mutual goals and aspirations even amid seemingly insurmountable differences,” Nemer said, referencing the shared particle accelerator that was a collaborative effort between countries including Egypt, Iran, Israel and Palestine.
She also reflected on her personal experiences to discuss the toll war can take on young people. She described attending university in Lebanon until she had to flee to North America due to violence, her campus being shelled on a daily basis.
“I spent more time in a shelter than a classroom,” she said.
She said it was these bleak prospects amid conflict that pushed her to leave Beirut for Canada.
“What we’re currently seeing on our media feed, the violence in the Middle East and in other parts of the world, is only a fraction of the devastation that will linger long after peace returns for so many surviving young people,” she said.
“Very few will have the chance to realize their aspirations somewhere else in the world.”
Nemer’s comments echo ones made after a graduation ceremony earlier this week, when a student crossed the stage wearing a keffiyeh – a symbol of solidarity, she said, “on behalf of Palestinian students” who were killed or have been forced from school.
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Nemer was appointed Canada’s chief science advisor in 2017. She advises the government on matters of science relevant to policy decisions. She was named to the Order of Canada in 2014.
As commencement speaker to the faculty of science convocation on Wednesday afternoon, she received an honorary doctor of science degree from Western.
Wednesday marked Day 3 of the two-week stint of spring graduation ceremonies at Western University, where there had been concerns a pro-Palestine encampment on campus may lead to conflicts or disruptions. There have apparently been none so far, and protesters previously told The Free Press they plan to be “respectful” of the ceremonies.
nbrennan@postmedia.com
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