Sally Armstrong           
Sally Armstrong is a Canadian journalist, documentary filmmaker, author, teacher and human rights activist. Her work focuses on what she calls “human rights and human wrongs.” She travels the world, befriends women and children in need, and works to change the deplorable conditions under which some of them live by making their situations public. She has covered stories about conflict all over the globe, including in Israel, Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda and Afghanistan. She is also the author of Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan. In 2002, UNICEF appointed Armstrong as a special representative to Afghanistan. She has earned numerous accolades for her journalism and for her human rights advocacy, including being named a member of the Order of Canada. She is currently editor-at-large for Chatelaine magazine and a contributing editor at Maclean’s.

Lloyd Axworthy
Lloyd Axworthy is president and vice-chancellor of the University of Winnipeg. A 27-year politician, he served as Canada’s foreign minister from 1995 to 2000. He became internationally known for the Ottawa Treaty — a landmark global treaty banning anti-personnel land mines that earned him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. He also established the International Criminal Court and the protocol on child soldiers, which earned him the North-South Institute’s Peace Award. In 2001, he received the CARE International Humanitarian Award. The author of Navigating the New World — Canada’s Global Future, he has received numerous prestigious awards and honours, including being named to the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, and being elected an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Louise Fréchette
Louise Fréchette was the first deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, a position that was created, in part, to elevate the organization’s profile and leadership in the economic and social spheres. Before joining the UN, she served as Canada’s assistant deputy minister for economic policy and trade competitiveness, ambassador to the UN, ambassador to Argentina, associate deputy minister of finance, deputy minister of national defence, and assistant deputy minister for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, where she is studying the political and economic issues arising from increased nuclear energy use. She was named one of the 100 most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine in 2005 and is an officer of the Order of Canada.

Craig Kielburger
Craig Kielburger founded Free the Children, the largest network of children helping children in the world, when he was just 12. The organization’s high-profile advocacy campaigns have led Canada, Mexico and Italy to pass legislation to better protect children. Free the Children has also built more than 450 primary schools, serving some 40,000 children, and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three time. Kielburger has shared the speaker’s podium with Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. president Bill Clinton. He has received many awards, including the Nelson Mandela Human Rights Award, the Human Rights Award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations and the Children’s Nobel Prize. He is also the author of Free the Children and co-author of Take Action — A Guide to Active Citizenship for Youth, and is co-founder of Leaders Today, the world’s top youth leadership training organization.

Peter Hannam
Peter Hannam has been a pivotal leader in Canadian agriculture for more than 25 years. He was central to the proliferation of soybeans in Ontario, where they are now the largest crop. A U of G graduate and former president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Hannam founded First Line Seeds Ltd. in Guelph in 1982. Recently, he has turned his attention to the global role Canada can play in helping other nations improve their food production, processing and handling systems. His contributions to the agricultural industry have earned him numerous honours, including a Queen’s Jubilee Medal and being named a Fellow of the Agricultural Institute of Canada. In 2001, he and his family established the $1-million Hannam Soybean Utilization Fund at the University of Guelph to promote innovative medical, industrial and nutritive uses for soybeans. In 1990, he helped develop Project SOY, a contest to encourage U of G students to develop new uses for soybeans.

Paul Rusesabagina
Paul Rusesabagina has been internationally honoured for saving the lives of more than 1,000 people during the Rwandan genocide. He used his connections and influence as the assistant manager of the Mille Collines Hotel in Kilgali to shelter more than 1,200 refugees. His story was brought to life in the Academy Award-nominated film Hotel Rwanda. In 2005, he set up the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation to help children and women affected by genocide in Rwanda and sub-Saharan African nations. He has received many international honours and awards, including the Immortal Chaplains Prize for Humanity; the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award; the Enduring Spirit Recognition from Amnesty International; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

Pamela Wallin
Pamela Wallin is one of Canada’s most accomplished and esteemed journalists, diplomats and entrepreneurs. She will be installed as the next chancellor of the University of Guelph June 13. Her career has spanned more than 30 years and several continents, including numerous positions at CBC and CTV. She is currently senior adviser to the president of the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas in New York. She recently completed a four-year term as consul general of Canada in New York and serves on the boards of many Canadian corporations, including CTVglobemedia. Wallin has received 13 honorary degrees, including one from the University of Guelph in 2006. She has also written three books, including a bestselling memoir called Since You Asked.