Senator Donald Oliver

The Honourable Donald H. Oliver, Q.C.
Senator, the Senate of Canada

At the

11th Distinguished Canadian Annual Address

October 29, 2009
Bridgewater State College
Bridgewater, Massachusetts

 
Good afternoon.  I’m delighted to be here and deeply honoured that you asked me to provide your annual address today.   I know that over the past decade, students at Bridgewater State College have heard from several dynamic Canadians – all leaders in their field.  And I know they gave you some compelling food for thought.

Today, like them, I want to challenge you.  I want you to consider how the world and its peoples are changing with technological innovation and emerging demographic trends.  I hope to give you a fresh perspective on the dynamic interplay between these two forces.  And I want you to come away from my talk with a fuller appreciation of your role – and the essential role that all universities, including Bridgewater State – must play in shaping our world and in influencing the people who live on it.

That’s because I believe you can, should and must make a difference.  But it won’t be easy or simple. Your world is vastly different from the world that I grew up in.  When I was your age, for example, radio was the “must have” technology and television was the next big thing.  We didn’t have pocket calculators, let alone computers. Most telephones were black and all of them plugged into the wall.

That’s a far cry from the way it is today.  In less than a generation – just 15 years – the web, e-mail, and cell phones have come to dominate economies and to revolutionize the way we work and the way we live.  I can’t even imagine anymore what life was like before I had my Blackberry.

I also grew up in a sea of white faces.  My family was the only Black family in the small town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia – my home during childhood.  Yet today, when I walk down the streets of Toronto – Canada’s largest city – every fifth person I meet is a person of colour.  And in just a few years, people of colour will outnumber white people in Toronto.

I think diversity and digitalization are not only changing the way we live and work.  They are shaping the way we think and feel.  And as such, their impact will be more profound than we can ever imagine.  As leaders, both in today’s centres of learning and as leaders in the future, you cannot sit back and be content to watch events unfold.  You must get engaged.  You must become agents of change – agents of positive and lasting change.

To give you an idea of the extent of the global transformation underway, I will first touch on the changes underway in Canada from a demographic perspective.  That’s because in a very real way, Canada serves as a microcosm for what’s happening worldwide.

Second, I would like to share with you how technologies are shaping our information society.  Early on, just like Americans, Canadians pioneered many new information and communications technologies and this ingenuity continues to propel innovation.  But new crucibles of innovation and ingenuity are bubbling up throughout the world.  How will North Americans continue to play a key role in the future?

And third, I would like to outline the major challenges facing universities and our collective societies moving forward.  In that context, I will share with you what I think you can, should and must do.

Canada’s growing diversity
So first, let’s take a look at how the Canadian mosaic is changing.  Today, Canada is the most ethnically diverse country in the world.  Other countries, such as Australia, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, have more foreign born citizens.  But those countries do not have foreign populations that are as diversified as Canada’s. 

For instance, the results of Canada’s 2006 Census show that more than 200 different ethnic groups now call Canada home and more than 200 languages are spoken in Canada today.
The Census further reveals that 83.9 percent of the immigrants who arrived in Canada between 2001 and 2006 were born in regions other than Europe – a dramatic departure from the immigration patterns of just three decades ago.

 Even more telling, more than five million Canadians now make up Canada’s visible minority population, representing 16.2 percent of the total population in Canada.  And the rate of growth for the visible minority population between 2001 and 2006 was 27.2 percent – five times faster than the 5.4 percent increase for the population as a whole.

 Most Canadians appear to welcome our nation’s growing diversity.  For example, according to a wide-ranging Canadian Values Study conducted just a few years ago, diversity has emerged as “a bona fide, embraced Canadian value.”

In this nationwide survey, diversity was cited more than any factor as the characteristic that makes Canada unique – way ahead of other characteristics such universal health care, the weather and even hockey.

In other words, diversity has come to define Canada for many Canadians. And that likely helps immigrants to embrace Canada as their home faster.  Indeed, some Canadian researchers have observed that the “thinner” sense of Canadian culture “may actually have benefits in a multicultural era, making it easier for new Canadians to feel comfortable here.”

Canada is not a “melting pot” for new immigrants as is often the case in the US.  Immigrants to Canada, throughout the decades, seem to hold on to their original heritage.  We have English-Canadians, French-Canadians, Chinese-Canadians and so on.   “A Canadian is a hyphen,” as novelist Joy Kogawa puts it.

Canada never had the race riots of the 1960s and 70s that the US experienced either.  We’re perceived as exceptionally polite people.  As Public Radio’s Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion fame, once said:  “I look at Canadians and think:  These are the people my mother always wanted me to hang out with in high school.”

This view of Canadians as clean-cut, nice people means that most people also see us as very tolerant.  But that’s not the reality. Racism and discrimination remain problems in Canada.

For instance, the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Canada reveals that:  “Overall, a third of racial minorities report having experienced discrimination, a rate that varies from 28 percent of South Asians to 45 percent of Blacks.

“More troubling is the evidence that the sense of discrimination is higher among immigrants who have been in the country longer and among the children of immigrants.”  I wonder if the same is true of young immigrants studying at Canadian universities and colleges.  I suspect it is.

What is more, we have a very serious problem in Canada with the economic integration of minorities.  A recent study shows that only 40 percent of skilled immigrants are working in the occupation or profession for which they are trained.  In fact, many immigrants with university degrees are working in jobs that typically require high school or less.

 It’s no wonder, as a 2006 Statistics Canada study found, one in six young, highly educated male immigrants leaves Canada within a year.  That’s indicative of latent racism.  Many immigrants leave because their qualifications are not recognized or are largely undervalued in the Canadian job market.  That’s not right, nor is it fair.

As a Canadian, I know we have to turn this around.  To create a truly inclusive society, we must ensure that all people – especially young ones – have the same chance for personal and professional growth.  We must recognize that systemic racism continues to impede the progress of visible minorities. And we must find solutions to bring about positive and enduring change.

This is especially critical for universities as the seeds of future thought and action.  Universities must recognize the business case for diversity.  They must embrace the fact that diversity stimulates knowledge creation, invigorates innovation and attracts talent.

I personally believe that every university must become vibrantly diverse – with at least 50 percent of their faculty and administrative staff from a broad range of races and cultures. 

That’s because the thrust toward diversity will continue unabated, even more so with advances in digital technology.  As Thomas L. Friedman writes in his book:  The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, dramatic advancements in information, networking and communications technologies have reverberated across the globe.

As a result, the playing field is being levelled.  The world is becoming flat – all because we can communicate and collaborate as never before. We must leverage that new capability to the fullest extent possible.  We must use it to create new and lasting bonds with other people in other parts of the world.

This brings me to the second part of my talk today – the amazing impact of the ongoing digital transformation.  I have to tell you.  I’m continually astounded at what technology can do.

Technology is not just making it easier for people to communicate and connect.  Now, with the advent of ever smarter and smaller chips, trillions of things are also being connected – everything from cars, roads, homes, and appliances to health data and pacemakers.

And these intelligent chips are rapidly imbuing ordinary things with extraordinary capabilities.  There are sensors that can remotely control lighting systems, turning lights on and off according to the time of day or whether someone comes in or leaves a room.

There are diagnostic sensors that can remotely monitor plant operations, detect when a part may break, and repair the damage before it has a chance to occur.  And there are global positioning systems being used to locate new mineral deposits, to map tracts of forests and to help locate Alzheimer patients.

In short, an innovation in one industry can now be transferred to a number of other industries in a matter of months.  Consequently, every industry is fast becoming a knowledge-based industry.

That’s why it is so critical that universities get on the digital bandwagon.  Every field of study – from the arts, music and film to the pure and applied sciences, such as physics, chemistry and engineering – is also being dramatically transformed by digitalization.

Our universities have to become smarter.  Professors and students must be adept at understanding and leveraging all the advantages posed by digitalization.  Universities must be wired – end to end in all faculties – not just computer sciences.  Their curriculums must acknowledge the advance of technology in how students are taught and what they are taught.

Because what we are seeing today may well be just the beginning.  Here are five examples of the trends to watch in the future.

First, there’s cloud computing, whereby even small organizations and businesses can have big business capabilities with minimal up-front costs and the ability to scale up quickly.  Cloud computing enables a large number of dispersed computer systems to share an IT infrastructure.  In other words, they can operate “in the cloud” – free of the limitations that once may have held them back when their computer systems operated in isolation.

Second, there’s virtualization.  Essentially, it enables one computer to do to the job of several computers because virtual servers and desktops can host multiple operating systems and applications locally and in remote locations.  In other words, the limitations of geography are gone.

Third, we are seeing an astonishing uptake in notebook sales.  In fact, the sale of these small, relatively inexpensive yet powerful computers, are now outpacing the sale of desktop computers. So the power of digitalization is within the grasp of many, many more people.

A fourth important trend is the rise of open source software.  Open source eliminates licensing and upgrade costs, not to mention the cost of the initial software.  Even running a supported version of the software is cheaper.  Again, this means that technological intelligence is becoming more and more affordable for more and more people.

And fifth, consider social networking.  How many of you are “linked in”?  Ever watch YouTube?  Are you on Facebook?  How about MySpace?  Do you “blog” or “twitter”?  I’m sure you’ve ventured online to use at least one of these services.

 There are more than 200 million active users of Facebook and 110 million active users of MySpace in the world today.  More than 3 million tweets are sent every day.  YouTube receives 123 million views in a day.

 In their time, steam power, the railroad and electricity transformed virtually everything – from what we produce to how it’s produced, from how we organize to where we live and work.  Since the mid-1990s, IT and the Internet have been these transformational engines of change.  And that change will continue.

Moore’s law has not slowed down.  Processing power continues to double in mere months. As a result, computing power is almost free.  For example, if we were to use 1975 technology today, it would cost about $100 million per user.  1995 technology would cost $5,500.  But five years ago, this same technology cost about $2.

Possibilities that were once just fanciful dreams are becoming reality.  In the pursuit of less invasive surgical techniques, for example, Canadian researchers created a touchy-feely robot earlier this year.  It can detect tougher tumour tissue in half the time, and with 40 percent more accuracy than a human.

Our technologies, of course, are also changing how we play.  At Aerial’s Thrill Laboratory in Britain, for instance, researchers are looking at physiological data to see how people react to different rides in an amusement park.  They want to see how they can customize a ride so that it matches the thrill level for each rider.

Who knows how this data might be used next.  Conceivably it would make it possible to check if a rider is healthy and fit enough to take the ride.  You could even combine it with sensor networks so park visitors could check on the line-ups for rides or find out where their friends and family are in the park.

Right now, the iPhone is the fastest growing mobile device.  And no wonder.  It’s really cool.  But imagine what else it could do.  You could potentially make into a projector to show images onto a wall.  Or build health diagnostics into it. You could equip it with a sensor to measure your pulse and blood pressure.

Overall, information and communications technologies have had an astounding social impact, as Thomas Friedman underscores in his books and columns in the New York Times.  These innovations have enabled companies, groups and individuals, regardless of location, to work together as never before.  And, consequently, people can come together in an instant – mobilizing to protest or applaud – to influence and to effect change.

This brings me to the third topic I want to discuss with you today.  How can you as individuals and universities as a whole influence the impact of this technological revolution and its amazing ability to bring people of all places and all races together?

Thomas Friedman believes that several types of talented people will prosper in this complex and ever-changing environment.  One type will be the great explainers – people who can help others to understand today’s complexity and what it means for all of us as human beings.

A second type will be the great adapters – people who are able to stay one step ahead of the forces of our exploding technological innovation and its impact on societies – people who can see the new opportunities on the horizon and take advantage of them.  And a third type of people will be the great collaborators – people with the ability to work with others of different cultures and backgrounds.

In other words, the only way to become a successful person – today and tomorrow – is to continually learn, to actively seek out new knowledge and to reach out to other people.  That’s not an easy task, I know.  It requires that you be very demanding of yourself.  It means that you must set personal goals and objectives.  It compels you to work hard.  As Michael Jordan maintains, "You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them."

Developing these successful people also compels universities to re-examine their goals and objectives.  Diversity and digitalization must become their mantra. Universities must take an active part in explaining the changes underway and in teaching people how to explain the changes. As centers of research and nurturers of innovation, universities must take centre stage in nurturing the great adapters of the future. And to help develop the great collaborators who will thrive in the future, universities must put their students into contact with a wide range of diverse peoples every day.

Moreover, both students and the universities that welcome them – must consider their place in the world today – not just in their own city or their own country – but in the world.  North America has long been the hub of innovation for the world.  Other peoples watched us to see what was new and exciting.  But that could change.  For example, today’s technologies have spawned outsourcing and off-shoring, which have lifted India and China, once two of the poorest nations on earth, into global economic powerhouses.

Together, these two nations account for one-third of the planet's population.  Over the past two decades, China’s economy has grown at an astounding 9.5 percent a year and India’s by 6 percent.

Some experts believe that India will surpass Germany to become the world's third-biggest economy within three decades. By mid-century, China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy. By then, China and India could account for half of global output.  What is more, China and India are fast becoming hubs of technological innovation – in manufacturing, software and a host of other areas.

Just twenty years ago, this situation was unimaginable.  Back then, East Asia was the poorest region in the world.  Now, it is a leader in poverty reduction according to the World Bank.  Astounding economic growth in the region has pulled more than 500 million people out of poverty and the GDP per capita has tripled.

Consequently, almost a billion new consumers will enter the global marketplace in the next decade.  And by the year 2015, consumer spending power in these emerging markets is expected to reach more than $9 trillion – more than double the spending power they have today.

Meanwhile, a massive problem is looming for most advanced societies – the growing scarcity of well-trained, knowledge workers. With the greying of the baby boomers and a declining birth rate, Canada is increasingly dependent on immigration to grow its workforce.  So are other developed countries.  Immigrants now account for two-thirds of the population growth in the 30 member countries of the OECD.

 I realize the United States doesn’t face this same problem.  Your population continues to grow because the birth rate has not abated.  Nevertheless, I also know that the US continues to welcome new immigrants to its shores.  Your country remains the great melting pot, with a rich diversity of cultures and races.

But, like Canada, the United States continues to struggle with systemic racism.  Consider the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for instance.  Hundreds of thousands of people – largely Black, poor and elderly – were left behind.  It underscored that a great racial chasm still exists.  It brought home the fact that this divide can have life or death consequences.

Allow me to sum up.  As I’ve discussed, the twin forces of diversity and digitalization are rocking our world.    In the face of global talent crunch, the demographic profile of many other western countries is rapidly changing.  Diversity has truly become part and parcel of Canada’s magnificent mosaic and America’s glorious melting pot.  And it is demanding that we create a more inclusive culture.

Meanwhile, technological change continues to revolutionize the way we live and work in previously unimaginable ways. And together diversity and digitalization are shifting the tides of world trade and prosperity.  Consequently the traditional centers of power, wealth and influence are no longer focused solely in our part of the world. 

As Robert D. Putnam, a professor at Harvard and the University of Manchester in Britain believes:  “One of the most important challenges facing modern societies, and at the same time one of our most significant opportunities, is the increase in ethnic and social heterogeneity in virtually all advanced countries.”

And as he further maintains, “The most certain prediction that we can make about almost any modern society is that it will be more diverse a generation from now than it is today.”

To achieve success in this continually mutating environment – with all its unexpected risks and in all its glorious opportunity – universities and the people who learn there must gain a world view.   They must be technologically savvy, not only knowing how to use technology, but knowing what technology can do … how it can connect people and things in new ways, how it can change what we do and how we do it everyday.

And, above all, students and universities must embrace inclusiveness – an openness and receptivity to the views, beliefs and ambitions of others, especially those from different cultures and backgrounds.  Our world, our country and the cities we live in are now dynamically pluralistic.  Consequently, an understanding of and the ability to relate to a diversity of peoples have become essential.

Nelson Mandela once observed that “A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”  Make that combination your combination.  Make a difference.  Improve the world.  Thank you.