The Honourable Charles Caccia, former Minister of Labour and Minister of Environment under Prime Ministers Pierre Elliott Trudeau and John Turner respectively, and chair of the federal Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development for more than two decades, died on May 2 at the age of 78.
After retiring from active political life, Mr. Caccia was appointed a senior fellow at the University’s Institute of the Environment, where he, a committed environmentalist, continued to make his mark. According to the Institute’s director, C. Scott Findlay, “A large measure of the Caccia essence is captured in the remark by Winston Churchill that 'Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.’”
Mr. Caccia worked on a number of environmental and social justice issues at the Institute of the Environment including nuclear waste disposal, environmental toxicants, sustainable forestry and biodiversity conservation. He was also the major architect of the Institute’s annual lecture series, which in 2007-2008 celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Brundtland Commission’s report, Our Common Future.
