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Press Release

Monday, May 17, 2021

Université de Moncton to bestow three honorary degrees at graduation ceremonies


From left: Professors Michel Doucet, Nha Nguyen and Donald Poirier


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During May’s graduation ceremonies, which will be held virtually this year, Université de Moncton will confer the emeritus status to three of its former professors who have distinguished themselves throughout their exceptional career: Michel Doucet, Nha Nguyen and Donald Poirier.

Michel Doucet
Professor Emeritus of Law
Moncton campus

Language rights are central to the many facets of Professor Michel Doucet’s brilliant career. His professional and social dedication and engagement have made him one of the best-known ambassadors for the Faculty of Law and the Université de Moncton throughout the world.

From 1983 to 2017, Professor Doucet taught numerous aspects of law at the Université de Moncton: language rights, legislative law, contractual obligations, civil procedure, unjust enrichment, real estate collateral and recourse and comparative law. He was Dean of the Faculty from 1995 to 2000.

His practice and many research projects have made him a respected law professor who showed his students a perspective fed by both his theoretical sensitivity and his comprehension of the practice of law.

Professor Doucet defended, or participated in the defence of, many very important language cases, including some before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Professor Doucet is an ardent and untiring defender of language rights, in his writings, before the courts and in the public sphere. He has made a major contribution to Acadia and Canada’s Francophone community.

He holds a Bachelor of Political Science from the Université de Moncton, a Bachelor of Law (LL.B.) from the Université d’Ottawa and a Master of Law from the prestigious University of Cambridge.

In 1989, he founded the Centre international de la common law en français at the Université de Moncton, and he was its first director. He also founded, in 2010, the Observatoire international des droits linguistiques, which he directed until 2017.

He authored, coauthored or directed the preparation of around ten books and research works, including Les droits linguistiques au Canada (2014) and Les droits linguistiques au Nouveau-Brunswick: À la recherche de l’égalité réelle (2017).

 

Nha Nguyen
Professor Emeritus of Business Administration
Moncton campus

Nha Nguyen’s career in teaching and administration at the Université de Moncton spans 50 years. From 1974 to 2017, he showed excellence in instruction, contributing to the development and management of research activities and programs in the Faculty of Administration.

He taught Quantitative Methods and Operational Management and was Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Administration and director of MBA programs.

Professor Nguyen was known for his passion for operations management and quality improvement measures, his ability to advise and supervise students and his interest in their success.

Professor Nguyen has a degree in Applied Sciences from the Polytechnique de Montréal. He also holds an MBA from the Université de Moncton and a Doctorate in Management Sciences from the Université de Montpellier.

At the Université de Moncton, he was a key player in the development of the Master of Management Sciences, in modernizing the MBA program and in setting up articulated programs with the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick.

Professor Nguyen also extended the Université de Moncton’s influence elsewhere in the country, in particular in his role as an external assessor for the planned MBA in Applied Management program at the Université du Québec en Outaouais.

His contribution has also been felt outside of Canada: assistant director of a training and knowledge transfer project with teaching staff at the National University of Economy in Hanoi; responsible for academic management of the off-site MBA program in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; drafter of several exchange agreements with post-secondary teaching establishments in France; lead on the project to prepare an interinstitutional agreement and implement an off-site MBA program in Agadir, Morocco.

 

Donald Poirier
Professor Emeritus of Law
Moncton campus

Professor Donald Poirier’s career in the Faculty of Law at the Université de Moncton extended from 1978 to 2007. His work and social commitments have shown him to be a jurist who is sensitive to inequities and to vulnerable persons, with particular interest in the status of women, children, those who are ill, seniors and homosexuals. Throughout his career Professor Poirier has contributed to public debates, no matter how controversial.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Université de Montréal, a Master of Arts in Psychology from the Université de Moncton, a Bachelor of Law from the University of New Brunswick, a Master of Law from McGill University and a Doctorate of Law from the Université de Montréal.

Professor Poirier is the author of Introduction générale à la common law and coauthor of the dictionary La common law de A à Z, two very influential titles that are considered to be essential works in the field. He has also written or cowritten works on family law and seniors and was the author or coauthor of 21 books and 75 articles in professional journals. Professor Poirier is widely considered to be the Father of Common Law in French.

He taught a broad range of subjects in the Faculty of Law: torts, family law, law and poverty, real estate, philosophy and sociology of law, introduction to law and legal research, law and ethics, conflict resolution methods and social law as it applies to seniors.

Professor Poirier’s social engagement is inestimable. He has directed the Centre d’études du vieillissement at the Université de Moncton, chaired the family law section of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers and been president of the Association des bibliothécaires, professeures et professeurs de l’Université de Moncton.




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