Current Recipient

School Year: 2020

The Governor General’s Academic Medal was first awarded in 1873 by the Earl of Dufferin, and has since become one of the most prestigious awards that a student in a Canadian educational institution can receive. The governor general of Canada continues this tradition of encouraging scholarship across the nation and recognizing outstanding students.

The medals are known as the “Governor General’s Academic Medals” and are awarded only for academic excellence at four levels:

• Bronze at the secondary school level;
• Collegiate Bronze at the post-secondary diploma level;
• Silver at the undergraduate level;
• Gold at the graduate level.

To maintain a spirit of universality across the country, the Directives were designed to ensure that the medals are awarded on academic marks only, regardless of the more intangible qualities of students’ life, such as good citizenship, moral behaviour or popularity.

It is the responsibility of the educational institution to determine a clear winner every year based on these directives. Students cannot jointly be awarded one medal.

Canadian citizenship is not a prerequisite for the awarding of the medal.

Institutions participating in the Governor General’s Academic Medals program agree to abide by these directives.

For Secondary Schools, to be eligible, a school must follow the provincial/territorial syllabus and award the secondary school diploma. Currently, the final year of secondary school is secondary V in Quebec; completion of 30 credits resulting in an OSSD in Ontario; completion of 28 credits in Manitoba resulting in a secondary school diploma; and grade 12 in all other provinces and territories.

• A BRONZE medal is awarded to the student who achieves the highest average upon graduation from a secondary school;
• The average includes all grade 11 and grade 12 courses (secondary IV and V in Quebec) as listed on the student’s official Transcript of Grades issued by the ministry of education. The average cannot be anticipated; it must be calculated based on final results after provincial/territorial examinations, where the ministry of education requires final exams;
• Equitable access for the entire student population is an important aspect of the medal’s value. Regardless of the stream or the subjects chosen, all students are eligible for consideration upon graduation;
• Courses taken after graduation to upgrade marks are not to be included.

Past Recipients