25th Osler Lecturer: John Ralston Saul on 'Health care as a human right'
"The individuals rights are guaranteed by law only to the extent that they are protected by the citizenrys exercise of their obligation to participate in society. Rights are a protection from society. But only by fulfilling their obligations to society can the individual give meaning to that protection."
John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization
Novelist and essayist John Ralston Saul will deliver the 25th Osler Lecture of the McGill Faculty of Medicine. Entitled "Health Care as a Human Right," Dr Sauls lecture will be held Wednesday, November 7, at 6 pm in the H. Noël Fieldhouse Auditorium, Room 132 of the Stephen Leacock Building (corner of McTavish and Dr Penfield Street).
ADMISSION IS FREE
His Excellency John Ralston Saul, C.C.
Essayist and novelist John Ralston Saul was born in Ottawa in 1947 to an officer in the Canadian army and his English war bride. He was educated in the public school systems of Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario before receiving an Honours BA at McGill University and a PhD on the modernization of France at Kings College, University of London. Dr Saul is fluently bilingual.
Dr Sauls growing impact on political and economic thought in many countries was firmly established with his 1995 Massey Lectures. The resulting book, The Unconscious Civilization, won the 1996 Governor Generals Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the Gordon Montador Award for the Best Canadian Non-Fiction Book on Social Issues (1996). It was the concluding book of a major philosophical trilogy, the first two volumes being Voltaires Bastards - The Dictatorship of Reason in the West and The Doubters Companion - A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense.
His five novels are The Birds of Prey (1977) and De si bons Américains (1994), both published first in French, and The Field Trilogy, which deals with the crisis of modern power and its clash with the individual.
Dr Saul launched a national debate with his reinterpretation of the nature of Canada in Reflections of a Siamese Twin (1997), for which he again won the Gordon Montador Award (1998).
After creating and managing a European investment firm (1973-1976), Dr Saul worked as Special Assistant and Policy Advisor to the founding chair of Petro-Canada from 1976 to 1979. Active in the cause of freedom of speech, he served as secretary, vice-president and president of the Canadian Centre of International PEN between 1987 and 1992. He is now its Patron.
He is Founder and Honorary Chair of Le Français pour lAvenir/French for the Future and Chair of the Advisory Board of the La Fontaine-Baldwin Symposium. Dr Saul also serves on several other boards, including that of the Harold Innis Research Foundation and the Comité dHonneur, Rencontre Québécoise Internationale des Écrivains.
A Companion of the Order of Canada (1999), Dr Saul is also Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France (1996). He holds honorary doctorates from McGill, Victoria, Western Ontario and Simon Fraser Universities.
