Ottawa: Mangalorean Mohan Prabhu Conferred Doctorate at 81
Daijiworld Media Network - Ottawa
Ottawa, Nov 5: When it comes to education, it's never too late, as epitomised by Mohan Prabhu, a Mangalorean native who has achieved the stupendous feat of being conferred his doctorate at the age of 81.
He successfully defended his doctoral theses at the age of 80 at the University of Ottawa. On Sunday October 30, the Chancellor of the University, Huguette Labelle, formally conferred on him the Doctorate of Law (LLD) in the presence of the president of the University, Allan Rock, and members of the Senate.
The title of his thesis is "Efficacy of Administrative Monetary Penalties in Compelling Compliance with Federal Agri-food Statutes". The thesis is a follow-up to the work Prabhu did at the Department of Justice in Ottawa where he was instrumental in developing legislation for establishing administratively-imposed monetary penalties as a fair and effective alternative to criminal prosecution and as a supplement to existing measures for enforcing regulatory statutes. The statute, known as Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act was passed by the Canadian Parliament in 1995 and came into operation in 2000, shortly after he retired from Justice.
On the occasion, the dean of the Faculty of Gradute and Postgraduate Studies, announced that this was a unique feat for an 81-year-old person to earn a doctoral degree. He said that he wanted to do this in order to send a message to graduates and their families that age was no barrier to highest academic pursuit.
After the Convocation ceremony president Rock recalled his association with Mohan Prabhu back in the 1990s when he was an attorney in the Department of Justice and he was the Minister of Justice, and when Prabhu was part of his delegation to the United Nations Conference on Crime Prevention held in Cairo in 1995, and so forth. President Rock was also the Minister during whose term the legislation, which was developed by Prabhu and which became the subject of his thesis, was presented to the Canadian Parliament and was duly adopted.
It is his first degree in Canada and comes 51 years after his first degree in Bombay (LLB) and 47 years after his higher degree in London, UK (LLM). It is also his fifth academic degree, the two earliest ones being in Economics (BA) and Sociology (MA) from the University of Bombay. In addition to academic degrees, Mohan has been called to the Bars in three countries, India (Maharashtra state), UK (Lincoln’s Inn, London) and Canada (Saskatchewan and Ontario). Twenty-one years ago Prabhu was appointed Queen’s Counsel of Canada.
Clareen, Prabhu’s wife, is a science graduate from Mangalore, and holds a B Ed from the Madras University. She earned a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Ottawa, the second of her M Ed the first being from the University of Bombay. She taught high school for a couple of years in Byculla, Bombay, and primary grades in the Ottawa Catholic School Board schools for 30 years before retiring in 2004.
The couple has a daughter Fiona and two sons, Leighton and Clifton. All three are professionals and two of them live in the United States while Leighton is in Moscow, Russia.