James Jude Orbinski,
OCThe Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
,
OOntThe Order of Ontario is the most prestigious official honour in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier David Peterson, the civilian order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to...
,
MSCThe Meritorious Service Cross is a decoration that is, within the Canadian system of honours, one of the two Meritorious Service Decorations gifted by the Canadian monarch, generally through his or her viceroy-in-Council...
(born 1960 in England) is a Canadian physician, writer, and humanitarian activist. He is an associate professor of Medicine at the
University of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and a Fellow at the
Munk School of Global AffairsThe Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto is an interdisciplinary academic centre on global issues that integrates research with teaching and public education...
. In January 2011, he also assumed the Chair of Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. He was President of the International Council of
Médecins Sans Frontières' , or Doctors Without Borders, is a secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland...
(
MSFMSF may refer to:* Mail Summary File , file extension used by Earthlink, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Netscape mail clients to store folder data in Mork.* Marvel Super Heroes vs...
, aka Doctors Without Borders) at the time the organization received the 1999
Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
. James Orbinski also is the co-founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of
Dignitas InternationalDignitas International is a medical humanitarian organization which works with communities to increase access to life-saving HIV/AIDS-related treatment and prevention in resource-limited settings...
, a medical humanitarian organization working with communities to increase access to life-saving treatment and prevention in areas overwhelmed by HIV/AIDS. He is a strong advocate for increasing the availability of anti-retroviral drugs to combat
AIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in poor countries.
He is closely associated with the University of Toronto's
Massey CollegeMassey College is a postgraduate residential college at the University of Toronto, established in 1963 with an endowment by the Massey Foundation. Similar to All Souls College, Oxford, members of Massey College are nominated from the university community, and are elected by and as fellows of the...
where he is a Senior Fellow and was the founding
Saul RaeSaul Forbes Rae was a Canadian diplomat during the Pearsonian era of Canadian foreign policy.Rae's father was born Goodman Cohen in Palanga, Lithuania. The Cohen family had moved to Scotland in the pogrom of the 1890s, and there Goodman met Helen McRae, the daughter of a draughtsman in the...
Fellow. He is considered a brilliant orator. In 1998, Orbinski received the Governor General's
Meritorious Service CrossThe Meritorious Service Cross is a decoration that is, within the Canadian system of honours, one of the two Meritorious Service Decorations gifted by the Canadian monarch, generally through his or her viceroy-in-Council...
for his work as the MSF Head of Mission in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. In 2009, Orbinski became an Officer of the Order of Canada and in the citation was recognized by the Governor General as an advocate for those who have been silenced by war, genocide and mass starvation.
President of MSF
Orbinski was president of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International Council from 1998 to 2001. He worked with MSF since 1992 in a number of settings – including Goma, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) in the fall of 1996 during the Rwandan refugee crisis; Kigali, Rwanda during the 1994 genocide; and Baidoa, Somalia during the civil war and famine of 1992-93.
His book
An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action for the 21st Century talks about his experiences as a physician working for MSF in Rwanda during the genocide'.
An Imperfect Offering won the
Writers' Trust of CanadaThe Writers' Trust of Canada is a non-profit organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers.Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, David Young and Margaret Laurence, the Writers' Trust of Canada was registered as a non-profit organization in 1976...
's 2008
Shaughnessy Cohen AwardThe Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to the best non-fiction book on Canadian political and social issues. It was presented for the first time in 2000....
.
He is the subject of the award-winning 2005 CBC documentary
Evil Revisited, which documented Orbinski's visit to Rwanda on the tenth anniversary of the genocide, his first such visit since the violence' He is also the subject of the 2007 documentary
Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma, which follows Orbinski's return to Somalia, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Activism
He was a founder of the McMaster University Health Reach Program that investigates and promotes the health of children in war zones, and he was a founding member of MSF Canada in 1990. He was President of the Médecins Sans Frontières International Council from 1998 to 2001. Currently, Mr. Orbinski serves on the advisory boards of Engineers Without Borders/Ingénieurs sans frontières Canada and Incentives for Global Health, the NGO formed to develop the
Health Impact FundThe Health Impact Fund is a proposed mechanism that would provide a market-based solution to problems concerning the development and distribution of medicines. It would incentivize the research and development of new pharmaceutical products that make substantial reductions in the global burden of...
proposal.
Education and honours
Orbinski received a
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Psychology from
Trent UniversityTrent University is a liberal arts and science-oriented institution located along the Otonabee River in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.The enabling legislation is the Trent University Act, 1962-63. The University was founded through the efforts of a citizens' committee interested in creating a...
in 1984, an MD from
McMaster UniversityMcMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...
in 1990, and a master’s degree in International Relations from the
University of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in 1998.
In 2001, Orbinski was awarded the honorary degree, Doctor of Laws, from Trent University. He was awarded a second honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the
University of WindsorThe University of Windsor is a public comprehensive and research university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's southernmost university. It has a student population of approximately 15,000 full-time and part-time undergraduate students and over 1000 graduate students...
in 2006. In 2007, he received a Doctor of Laws from
Queen's UniversityQueen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
and in 2009, was awarded an additional two honorary degrees from the
University of CalgaryThe University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
and
Laurentian UniversityLaurentian University , was incorporated on March 28, 1960, is a mid-sized bilingual university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada....
, at the
Northern Ontario School of MedicineThe Northern Ontario School of Medicine is a medical school in the Canadian province of Ontario, created through a partnership between Laurentian University in Sudbury and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay...
's charter class graduation.
In 1997, he was awarded a
Meritorious Service CrossThe Meritorious Service Cross is a decoration that is, within the Canadian system of honours, one of the two Meritorious Service Decorations gifted by the Canadian monarch, generally through his or her viceroy-in-Council...
(civil division). In 2009, he was made an Officer of the
Order of CanadaThe Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
"for his contributions as a physician who has worked to improve health care access and delivery in developing countries, and as an advocate for those who have been silenced by war, genocide and mass starvation". In 2010 he was appointed to the
Order of OntarioThe Order of Ontario is the most prestigious official honour in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier David Peterson, the civilian order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to...
.
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