Canadian Football Hall of Famer Michael Clemons one of notable leaders to receive honorary doctorate

Michael “Pinball” Clemons, a past player, coach and general manager of the Toronto Argonauts football team, is among nine extraordinary figures to receive honorary doctorates from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) this spring.

The degrees will be bestowed at in-person Convocation ceremonies running from June 13-24. 

TMU awards honorary degrees to those who have made extraordinary contributions to:

• Academia and/or society in Canada or internationally, particularly in fields of interest to TMU;
• The development of TMU;
• The betterment of culture, society or the local community.

Read below to learn more about the extraordinary achievements of this year’s honorary degree recipients.

For more information about spring convocation, please visit the convocation website.

Mohammad Al Zaibak

Doctor of Commerce
Honoris Causa

Mohammad Al Zaibak, a Syrian-born Arab Canadian, is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and community builder. He holds a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications and electro-physics engineering from Alexandria University in Egypt. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School and the Rotman’s Institute of Corporate Directors.

Al Zaibak is founder and chief executive officer of Canadian Development and Marketing Corporation. Throughout his career, he has co-founded and led several companies with diversified interests and primary focus on information technology services in Canada and abroad.

One of those firms, Teranet Inc., developed and continues to manage and operate the Ontario land registration information system and databases. He also served as CEO of Nautical Data International Inc., a Newfoundland-based company that digitized and commercialized Canada’s marine information for safe navigational use by government fleets, commercial shipping and fishing companies, and recreational boaters. 

Al Zaibak served on the Board of Governors of Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) for three terms from 2010 to 2019. He is the immediate past chair of the Canada Arab Business Council and a former trustee of the Royal Ontario Museum, a founding luminary and past director of Luminato Festival and a co-founder and President of Lifeline Syria. He also served on the boards of Waterfront Toronto, the Toronto Foundation and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Al Zaibak has been the grateful recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Silver and Golden Jubilee Medals and the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s Builder Award.

Avie Bennett

Doctor of Laws 
Honoris Causa
(posthumous)

Avie Bennett, who died in 2017 at age 89, began his career in shopping centre development, a business that his family had pioneered in Canada. 

In 1985, Bennett purchased the Canadian publishing house of McClelland & Stewart. During his tenure, the company published roughly 100 titles a year by major Canadian authors, including Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Robertson Davies, Mavis Gallant, Rohinton Mistry, W. O. Mitchell, Alice Munro and Michael Ondaatje. 

Bennett later purchased Hurtig Publishers and Tundra Books, and sold a quarter of McClelland & Stewart's publishing arm to Random House of Canada. The remaining 75 per cent was donated to the University of Toronto.

In 1998, Bennett was named chancellor of York University. After retiring from the role in 2004, he served as chancellor emeritus and established the Avie Bennett Historica Institute Chair to promote the study of Canadian history.

In 2000, Bennett and Ed Broadbent, former leader of the federal New Democratic Party, co-chaired the privately funded Canadian Democracy and Corporate Accountability Commission. Their resulting report recommended that corporations meet standards of behaviour related to human rights, the environment and consumer protection.

Bennett received many honours during his life. They included three honorary degrees, an Order of Ontario and an Order of Canada (he was ultimately promoted to companion, the highest rank).

Michael Clemons

Doctor of Laws
Honoris Causa

Michael “Pinball” Clemons joined the National Football League in 1987 and the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts in 1989. One year later, after setting the single-season record for all-purpose yards, he received the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award. 

Clemons won three Grey Cups with Toronto before playing his last game in 2000. That same year, he became head coach of the Toronto Argonauts, eventually leading the team to six consecutive East Division finals, including the 2004 championship. He concluded his coaching career with 68 wins, the second-highest record in Argonaut history.

After stepping down as head coach in 2007, Clemons was appointed chief executive officer of the Toronto Argonauts and then the club’s vice-chair. Finally, in 2019, he was named the team’s 20th general manager.

Clemons founded the Pinball Clemons Foundation in 2007. The foundation, which empowers youth through education, has built a hospital in Uganda, more than 200 schools in developing countries and two orphanages in Haiti. Locally, the foundation has awarded more than 200 scholarships. 

A member of the Order of Ontario, Clemons has received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Meritorious Service Cross. He has also been inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Ontario Sports Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Sherrill Tekatsi:tsia’kwa (Katsi) Cook 

Doctor of Laws
Honoris Causa

Sherrill Tekatsi:tsia’kwa (Katsi) Cook is a member of the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation at the Akwesasne. The territory is located along the St. Lawrence River. 

A midwife, environmental activist and women’s health advocate, Cook is a founding member of the National Aboriginal Council of Midwives. In 1991, she was part of the provincial team that put into practice the exemption for Aboriginal midwives and healers in Ontario’s Midwifery Act and Regulated Health Professions Act, respectively. 

The following year, Cook founded Tsi Non:we Ionnakeratstha Ona:grahsta', the Six Nations birthing centre in Ohsweken, Ont. In 2015, she joined the Elder’s Council, part of the Indigenous Justice Division (IJD) of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. The Elder’s Council works with the IJD to create a culturally relevant and responsive justice system.

Cook is founding director of Spirit Aligned Leadership, which facilitates cultural knowledge sharing between older and younger Indigenous women. The organization, which is led by elder Indigenous women, is the only one of its kind in Canada and the United States. Cook serves as an ambassador for Spirit Aligned Leadership, working with Indigenous women’s leadership circles throughout Turtle Island. 

Avvy Yao-Yao Go

Doctor of Laws
Honoris Causa

Avvy Yao-Yao Go received her bachelor of arts from the University of Waterloo, her bachelor of laws from the University of Toronto and her master of laws from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. She was called to the Ontario bar in 1991. 

Last year, Go was appointed a Federal Court judge, the first Chinese-Canadian to hold the position. Before joining the court, she devoted most of her legal career to breaking down barriers for marginalized groups. 

For 29 years, Go was the clinic director of the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic in Toronto. She appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, helping low-income, racialized clients to fight unjust laws and to challenge systemic racism within the legal system. 

Go served as a bencher of the Law Society of Ontario for 14 years and has been a part-time member of several administrative tribunals in Ontario. She co-founded the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) and helped to launch Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change, the racial justice education and advocacy network of Ontario.

In 2014, Go was inducted into the Order of Ontario. She has also received the FACL Lawyer of Distinction Award and the President’s Award from the Women’s Law Association of Ontario.

Gabrielle Sagalov

Doctor of Laws
Honoris Causa

Gabrielle Sagalov (née Scrimshaw) is a member of the Hatchet Lake Denesuline Nation in northern Saskatchewan. Raised in a single-parent household, she was the first person in her family to graduate from university, earning a bachelor’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan. 

Sagalov went on to complete a master of business administration at Stanford University and a master of public administration at Harvard University. Through Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, Sagalov was awarded a Gleitsman Fellowship during her graduate studies. The fellowship program was established to support emerging social activists and innovators. 

In 2011, Sagalov co-founded the Indigenous Professional Association of Canada, which  works to advance Indigenous leadership in the private, public and social sectors. As a consultant, she has collaborated with Indigenous communities across North America on economic development, leadership and policy issues. 

Sagalov has travelled extensively around the world, advocating for Indigenous inclusion and sovereignty. Today, she and her husband,Yuri, live in San Francisco.

Edward Sonshine

Doctor of Laws
Honoris Causa

Edward Sonshine was born in 1947 to Holocaust survivors in the Bergen-Belsen refugee camp in Germany. He immigrated to Canada with his family in 1949 and went on to graduate from the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. 

Sonshine practised law for nearly 15 years and was awarded the honorary title of Queen's Counsel by the province of Ontario. He later went into real estate and reorganized a small mutual fund into one of Canada's first real estate investment trusts. 

Today, RioCan is among the county's largest real estate investment trusts, with more than $14 billion in assets. Sonshine, who stepped down as chief executive officer in 2021, is now the company’s non-executive chairman. 

Additionally, Sonshine is chairman of Chesswood Group Limited and a director of Sinai Health. He previously served on the boards of Cineplex Inc. and the Royal Bank of Canada.

A member of the Order of Ontario, Sonshine was named Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year in 2013. This fall, he will receive a Canadian Business Leader Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. 

Sonshine has always been involved in community work and has held leadership positions in several organizations. They include the United Jewish Appeal, the United Way and the Real Property Association of Canada.

George Strathy

Doctor of Laws
Honoris Causa

George Strathy completed his undergraduate studies at McGill University before earning a master of arts and then an LL.B. at the University of Toronto. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1976.

In his law practice, Strathy specialized in civil litigation, with an emphasis on maritime and transportation law. He was active in many professional organizations, including the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Maritime Law Association and the Association of Maritime Arbitrators of Canada. 

In 2007, Strathy was appointed a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Commencing in 2013, he served as a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and was appointed chief justice of Ontario and president of the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 2014.

Chief Justice Strathy has been a proponent of increasing diversity in the legal profession and the judiciary, modernizing courts and de-stigmatizing mental illness. He has also supported innovation in the delivery of justice services and in legal education. 

The author of two books and numerous articles, Strathy has strong ties to Toronto Metropolitan University. In particular, he has worked on several educational initiatives with the Lincoln Alexander School of Law and its Law Practice Program.

Anju Virmani

Doctor of Engineering
Honoris Causa

Anju Virmani holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Delhi in India and a master of business administration from the City University of New York. After immigrating to Canada in 1975, she built a highly successful career as an advisor, entrepreneur and consultant in the information technology industry in North America. 

Last year, Virmani was named to the Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada in the C-Suite Executives category. Now retired from her role as chief information officer of Cargojet Airways Inc., she also once served on Canada’s Advisory Council for National Security and the Cross-Cultural Roundtable on National Security. 

Virmani was among the first graduating class at McMaster University’s chartered director program. Today, she is director of Ontario Power Generation and Ontario Health, and is a past board member of the Toronto Transit Commission and the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network. 

Virmani is passionate about helping to improve the community. Her charitable foundation provides scholarships to support the education of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs, as well as diverse health-care leaders and LGBTQ2S+ students. 

Convocation will also be taking place in person at the Mattamy Athletic Centre for the first time since 2019. This is an important milestone for students to celebrate successful years of study and dedication. Check out this year’s ceremony schedule, graduate checklist and FAQ on the Convocation website. 

Faculty and staff can also visit the website to learn more about academic procession, family presentations and volunteering.