NOSM University names Cindy Blackstock as its first chancellor

Cindy Blackstock was named NOSM University's first chancellor on Thursday.

Blackstock, an internationally recognized First Nations scholar and child welfare expert, was named the northern Ontario medical school's inaugural chancellor, after NOSM became a standalone university in June 2021.

NOSM, which was established as the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in 2002, was affiliated with Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, and Laurentian University, in Sudbury, with a presence on both campuses.

After Laurentian filed for insolvency in February 2021 NOSM took steps to become Canada's first independent medical university.

The university's mandate is to train physicians who can serve communities across northern Ontario.

As of June 2022, NOSM University has graduated 838 medical doctors, including 65 Indigenous and 171 francophone physicians.

The university has said more than half of them have stayed in northern Ontario.

"It is an honour to have Dr. Cindy Blackstock serve as NOSM University's first chancellor," said Dr. Sarita Verma, NOSM's president, dean and CEO in a press release.

"Dr. Blackstock embodies the values of social justice, respect, and integrity. As chancellor of NOSM University, her tenacious, inspirational leadership and steadfast moral courage will set the tone for us as Canada's first independent medical university, and the only such institution in the country established with an explicit social accountability mandate."  

Blackstock said it was "a privilege and very humbling" to work closely with NOSM and be named its first chancellor.

"It's also an opportunity for me to give back to a doctor who inspired me, Dr. Peter Henderson Bryce, who was the first chief medical health officer of Ontario, who had a lot of moral courage, and blew the whistle on the unnecessary deaths of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children in residential schools," she said in a short speech on Thursday.

Blackstock said she wants to ensure NOSM students and graduates can continue Bryce's work.

"Ensure that the work does get done for Dr. Bryce," she said.

"That no person living in a northern, remote or rural community, or within the cities, is left behind by a universal healthcare system. That people receive the loving and respectful health care that honours their diverse experiences, their diverse identities and their rights as a person and their Indigenous rights."

Blackstock will be officially installed as NOSM's chancellor, for a four-year term, during a convocation ceremony on May 26, 2023.