Honourable senators, earlier this week you heard me pay homage to the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, a proud St. Francis Xavier University, or StFX, alumnus. I rise today to pay tribute to another StFX leader, Ms. Jeannine Deveau — Auntie J, as her Antigonish county family, Jeannine and Bill Gunn and their daughters Lisa, Heather and Audrey, refer to her. Ms. Deveau was an accomplished academic, a successful investor and also a transformative philanthropist. I first met Bill — in whom Ms. Deveau entrusted her philanthropic endeavours — in New Delhi.

Jeannine Deveau grew up in Arichat on Cape Breton Island. After graduating from St. Francis Xavier in 1944, she obtained her Master’s in Nutrition at L’Université de Montréal, where she worked as a professor for 30 years.

Her nephew Bill describes her as an elegant, sophisticated, eminently adaptable woman, with a good sense of humour, who was devoted to her family. She did not live extravagantly.

Growing up in Arichat, Jeannine Deveau played with the local Indigenous and African Nova Scotian children. She didn’t understand why they didn’t attend school with her and didn’t have the same opportunities as she did.

Later in life, she was moved and saddened by the information coming out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and by the hard truths of what had gone on in the Dartmouth Home for Colored Children. She was aware of the related, broader societal issues and the inequities faced by people of African descent and Indigenous people in Canada.

The now late Jeannine Deveau — this daughter of Arichat — has given a total of $22.5 million to St. Francis Xavier University. Quite an investor she was. Her support includes the Jeannine Deveau Education Equity Endowment, which was established to remove barriers to post-secondary education for Indigenous and African Nova Scotian students. To date, 800 scholarships have been awarded, with wraparound services also provided.

Her funding also supports the Deveau Centre for Indigenous Governance and Social Justice; the Black Student Success Centre; Kiknu, the Indigenous student centre; the Elder-in-Residence; the Circle of Abundance at the Coady International Institute; X-Project; the John Jerome Paul Chair in Research for Equity in Mathematics Education; Mi’kmaq and African Nova Scotian nursing students; and the McKenna Centre’s Racial Justice Leadership Grants, among others.

When asked why she wanted to do this, she replied, “It’s the right thing to do.” The educational inequalities were not fair, and since she could do something about it, she would.

Colleagues, let’s take inspiration from this visionary woman, applaud her generosity and her wisdom and emulate her example. Wela’lioq, Jeannine Deveau. Thank you, Jeannine.