The architect of Canada’s free trade agreements is one of four distinguished scholars who will receive honorary doctor of laws degrees at U of T’s convocation next month.

Allan Gotlieb will receive his degree on Nov. 21. A former ambassador to the U.S., Gotlieb played a critical role in shaping the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was negotiated in 1989.

He is currently chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation, an organization that grants money to Canada-wide projects, and sits on the board of directors of several Canadian organizations.

“Allan Gotlieb is truly one of Canada’s renaissance men. He’s made outstanding contributions to his country in many areas including public policy, diplomacy, the arts, the academic world, and the preservation of our history. There is essentially no area that he has not been involved in,” said Helen McLean, executive director of the Donner Canadian Foundation.

“He was very vigorous and irregular in a rigid way,” said Professor Robert Bothwell, a professor of history and international relations at U of T.

As the undersecretary of state for External Affairs, Gotlieb “was a powerful person. People knew where he was,” noted Bothwell.

“He was quite uncharacteristic of most former secretaries. They don’t tend to have great public roles, not politically,” Bothwell said, adding that he was a major figure of intellectual life in Toronto.

“U of T should be lauded for acknowledging a Canadian visionary leader in foreign and economic policies, intimately connected with NAFTA. Although NAFTA is not working in practice, I consider it progressive,” said Rocco Kusi-Achampong, the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC) president.

“I wish him all the best,” Kusi-Achampong added.

The other scholars being honoured by the U of T include Lawrence Klein, a science economist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1980 for his work in creating macroeconometric models and applying them to real world problems. He will convocate with an honourary degree on Nov. 19.

Jack Goody, a prominent literary scholar and anthropologist, will receive an honorary doctor of laws on Nov. 18. He is known for his theories based on the history of writing research in a socio-cultural and historical context.

Patricia Benner, a renowned international researcher in nursing and lecturer on health, stress and coping, skill acquisitions and ethics issues, is to receive an honorary doctor of laws on Nov. 20. Her research has formed the basis U of T’s undergraduate nursing curriculum.