McGill’s flag has been lowered today, Tuesday, Dec. 10, to mark the passing of one of former South African President Nelson Mandela, who died yesterday at the age of 95.
In a statement to the McGill community by Principal Suzanne Fortier and Chancellor H. Arnorld Steinberg, Mandela was praised as “a great and moral individual whose sense of justice and fairness, whose courageous quest for peace and equality, serve to enlighten people in every part of the world.”
Fortier and Steinberg went on to say “Mr. Mandela understood fully how the sharing of knowledge is a force for progress. ‘Education,’ he said in 2003, ‘is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’… McGill University salutes his memory. May his beacon continue to light the long way toward tolerance and mutual understanding.”