Students in the Faculty of Social Sciences will be conferred their degrees today at
convocation ceremonies being held at Hamilton Place.

Graduands in geography, gerontology, health studies, psychology, behaviour &
neurosciences, social work and sociology will convoke today at 9:30 a.m., while those in
anthropology, economics, kinesiology, labour studies, political science and religious
studies will convoke at 2:30 p.m.

Nathan Shaw, the son of Captain Bob Shaw, a Hamilton firefighter who died of
esophageal cancer seven years after fighting the notorious Plastimet fire in 1997, is the
class valedictorian. The political science and communications graduate has become a
powerful advocate promoting the recognition of work-related cancers among
firefighters.

Former national president of the Canadian Auto Workers Basil (Buzz) Hargrove and Dr.
Harry Waisglass, the first director of McMaster's Labour Studies Program, will receive
honorary degrees at the morning ceremony, and Paul Martin, 21st prime minister of
Canada, will receive an honorary degree in the afternoon.