What does Nan Goldin’s Artwork have to do with GIVING VOICE to the Less Powerful of Harvard, StFX, and Palestine?
Follow the Money. A commitment to truth and justice marks the resistance of the less powerful against the exercise of
What a difference a century makes!
Meet the two men at the centre of the two photos illustrating support for innovation in health:
William S. Archibald, the official photographer for the 1924 Antigonish Highland Games fundraiser for St. Martha’s Hospital, which raised $8000 – alumnus of St. Francis Xavier University, engineer, star figure skater, yachtsman in Antigonish Harbour, hockey referee, known as the Dean of Antigonish sportsmen.
Victor Phillip Dahdaleh the billionaire donor of $15,000,000 toward the Institute for Innovation in Health at St. Francis Xavier University, and the named international middleman in the corruption scheme that forced Alcoa to plead guilty to paying millions of dollars in bribes through Victor Dahdaleh in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Which of these two men exemplifies the StFX motto: Whatsoever things are true – Quaecumque sunt vera?
Read on for more of the back story to these two photos and an analysis of the sea change in the ethics of fundraising in just one hundred years.
The restored panorama photo of the1924 Highland Games held on the campus of St. Francis Xavier University (StFX)as a fundraiser to build St. Martha’s Hospital, became the masthead for the Imagine Antigonish travelling exhibit of 14 banners illustrating the social determinants of health. The restored black and white photographs drawn from institutional and family archives present a 150-year visual history of innovation for health equity in Antigonish. Imagine Antigonish was released in July 2014 in the Big Tent at the Antigonish Highland Games and for the virtual gallery (www.imagineantigonish.ca).
Ten years on in 2024 and a century later, as we were finalizing Imagine Antigonish THE BOOK for our Antigonish-based publishing house HARP The People’s Press (www.tryhealingarts.ca), the groundbreaking ceremony for the Victor Dahdaleh Institute for Innovation in Health was taking place on the StFX campus on the former site of Lane Hall, a student residence of Mount Saint Bernard College and later for StFX.
Imagine Antigonish presents a visual tour of the many essential conditions for our community’s wellbeing and sustainability—a model of healthy community that can help educate local, regional and national populations, organizations, and businesses. It makes the case that the cooperative arts underpin all the social determinants of health. Attendees at the 2014 Highland Games visited the banners in the Big Tent. The Big Tent, both physical and metaphorical, also affirmed social inclusion as an underpinning social determinant of health equity. The Imagine Antigonish flyer given to everyone as they entered the Big Tent included an invitation to reflect on our history and ask if we’ve left any cultural community outside in the rain. “Do we have a history of taking away civic and decision-making rights? How can we make room for communities underrepresented in the visual history of Imagine Antigonish?”
Social inclusion was the focus of our initial response to the two photos a century apart. The story of innovation in health in 1924 exemplifies social inclusion and social cohesion: the Antigonish Highland Society (AHS), St. Francis Xavier University, the Sisters of St. Martha and the hospital trustees TOGETHER developed a plan to stage the Highland Games as a fundraiser for the building of a new hospital — the hospital we know today as St. Martha’s Hospital.
On record in the AHS minutes for May 1924 is an agreement with the hospital trustees to stage the Highland Games as a fundraiser for the building of a new hospital. For the sum of $250 for five years, the University agreed to free use of all the athletic grounds and to assist in building a grandstand with seating for no less than 800.
The track stretched from Confusion Square to the site of present-day Bauer Theatre. Field events were held in Memorial Field. The collective of 800 gathered at the 1924 Games, representing university, town and county, health care professionals and hospital trustees, Sisters of St. Martha, religious leaders, which raised $8,000 towards the construction of the hospital.
Compare with the 2024 photo, which celebrates the Canadian billionaire donor Victor Dahdaleh — $15 million, the largest single private donation in StFX history — and the associated provincial and federal pledges toward the Institute for Innovation in Health housed in the Victor Dahdaleh Hall. The event was pitched as a celebration of this collaboration. Nowhere to be seen are key collaborators from town and county or Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation among those chosen to wield shovels in the groundbreaking ceremony on the unceded and unsurrendered land of the Mi’kmaq. Where is StFX’s knowedge keeper in residence? In an earlier HARP blog responding to this 2024 photo, we raised questions about the new Institute’s research and teaching priorities and their commitment to social determinants of health equity.
We asked: will innovations in decolonizing health research feature the 94 Calls to Action for Truth and Reconciliation?
There was no representative of the arts. Most notably, the Dean of Arts was not breaking the ground alongside the Dean of Science. Will the arts and humanities receive equal emphasis to science in developing innovations in health?
The Canada Research Chair in Health Equity and Social Justice was also absent. Will social justice issues figure in the Institute’s priorities for innovation in health?
The Town and County of Antigonish, neither the Mayor or the Warden or their substitutes, were represented in the actual groundbreaking ceremony, complete with shovels. Will collaboration with the wider community of Antigonish figure in the Institute’s priorities for innovation in health?
There was no representative from persons actually working in institutional health care or public health. No one from St. Martha’s Hospital or StFX’s School of Nursing. Will collaboration with people with lived experience of innovations in health figure in the Institute’s priorities?
The StFX Extension and the Coady Institute, which embodies the Antigonish Movement’s historic values of collaboration and social inclusion, were not represented. Will these social justice principles and values figure in the Institute’s priorities for innovation in health?
The StFX Students’ Union VP for Finance and Operations was in the line-up. But where were students and teachers? In the 1924 photo, the whole community was involved.
Our healing arts publishing house, HARP the People’s Press (www.tryhealingarts.ca), headquartered in Antigonish, boasts several publications that speak truth to history and reinforce HARP’s guiding principle:
A healthy community knows its history
The Personal History of Two Supporters of Innovation in Health in Antigonish
William Archibald and Victor Dahdaleh
The history of StFX rests on the values of its Motto – Whatsover Things are True — Quaecumque sunt vera.
The personal story of William Archibald, the engineer with the Public Works Department, who took the photos of the 1924 fundraiser for St. Martha’s Hospital, is in keeping with the StFX motto.
The personal story of the making of Canadian billionaire Victor Dahdaleh and his $15 million toward the Institute for Innovation in Health is not.
Victor Phillip Dahdaleh
The lauded Canadian Billionaire donor Victor Dahdaleh is the named middleman in the corruption scheme that forced Alcoa, one of the world’s largest aluminum companies, to plead guilty in 2014 to U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charges that it paid “millions of dollars in bribes through an international middleman” in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Toronto Star/CBC investigation revealed the evidence from U.S. officials that Dahdaleh “enriched himself” with $400 million (US) in mark-ups and paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes to Bahraini officials. Alcoa settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and was slammed with one of the largest anti-corruption fines ever — $384 million (US). Dahdaleh was charged and posted bail for 10 million pounds but was not convicted.
The investigative journalists name StFX among the “trio of Canadian universities” — York and McGill are the others — who have honoured the Canadian billionaire donor.
David Robinson, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents 68,000 university professors and academic staff in Canada, had this to say.
“If there’s any concerns about violation of ethical standards or any other legal issues, donations should be rejected. I think it sullies the name of a university or college if it’s associated with an unsavoury business or character.”
William S. Archibald (1873-1960)
William S. Archibald (1873-1960), a key collaborator associated with the 1924 fundraiser for St. Martha’s Hospital, embodies the STFX values of Quaecumque sunt vera and true collaboration between the university and the wider community. William Archibald (1873-1960) took the two photographs of the 1924 Highland Games, which were restored by Joe Muir for Aldine Fine Arts (www.aldinefinearts.com) to create the illusion of a panoramic view.
Will Archibald was employed as an engineer with the Department of Public Works, and in this capacity took photographs in every corner of Nova Scotia. He retired in 1936.
The obituary for W. S. Archibald in The Casket, September 1960, is a tribute to the importance of the arts for individual and community health and illustrates the Social Determinants of Health.
Will Archibald died August 26 in St. Martha’s Hospital at the age of 87. He was recognized during funeral services at St. James United Church as “the town’s oldest native-born resident.”
Will Archibald was educated in the town schools and at StFX. In early life he was associated with his father when they operated a condensed milk and cheese manufacturing plant.
He was widely known as a figure skater and for many years he gave annual exhibitions. In 1941 when he was 71, he gave an exhibition of figure skating at the opening of the new artificial ice plant at StFX’s Memorial Rink.
Mr. Archibald also had the distinction of refereeing the first known hockey match in Antigonish. He was also a keen yachtsman and sailed regularly in the waters of Antigonish harbour and St. George’s Bay. He was regarded by many as the Dean of Antigonish sportsmen.
The stark contrast between Victor Dahdaleh and William Archibald is a reminder that health is a political choice. Ilona Kickbusch, Director of the Global Health Program in Geneva and advisor to WHO on health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the preeminent scholar on the political determinants of health. We too hold that political action on local and global health inequalities, which are tied to human rights and citizenship, can only be tackled in sectors other than health. Educational institutions and civil society organizations are stepping up as is HARP, our small independent social enterprise publishing house in Antigonish.
I am a proud alum of St. Francis Xavier University (MAdEd ’81) and was privileged to serve at StFX as Operations Manager for Residences and Food Service (1975-1995) and on Adult Education faculty (1997-2007).
Understandable but unacceptable to many of us StFX loyalists, the underfunding of health care and higher education has created an environment where honorary degrees have become bargaining chips to court billionaire donors. Regardless of the known legal and moral claims against the recipient. Regardless of the indignation of alumni. Regardless of the risk to the reputation of the university.
Honorary degrees, the Order of Canada and other honours can be rescinded when the recipient is implicated in hate crimes, sexual abuse, Indigenous or other identity theft, fraud, or any criminal acts.
These examples make the reverse practice of universities seeking out donors that are known associates in the criminal world all the more unacceptable to many of us in the university community. In 2017, Wafic Said, a Syrian-Saudi billionaire and former arms broker, and Victor Dahdaleh, the billionaire middleman who enabled bribes to Bahraini officials on behalf of Alcoa, both received honorary degrees from StFX within months of donating millions to the Mulroney Institute of Government. This prompted StFX history professor Peter McInnis to urge greater scrutiny of the possible strings attached to donations. Appearances matter and the appearance of a quid pro quo arrangement is at odds with the social justice roots of StFX, known internationally as the Antigonish Movement.
StFX has bestowed honorary degrees on people who have been major influences in my life, Dr. Teresa MacNeil, faculty advisor for my MADEd ’81, and Tom Langley, longtime Vice-President Administration, who I reported to when I was managing residences and food services operation. Tom Langley and Mi’kmaw Elder Sister Dorothy Moore, a Sister of St. Martha, received honorary degrees in May 2024. They all live the values of Whatsover Things Are True. The honorary degree is diminished when the same honour is bestowed on people who do not live these values.
My retirement chapter as writer and co-publisher of HARP The People’s Press draws heavily on my lived StFX experience of learning and working cooperatively. The lived experience of the Antigonish Movement. I can glow with pride, knowing the back story to the 1924 photo and the raising of $8000 for St. Martha’s Hospital. I cannot say the same for the source of $15 million.
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