Ray Hnatyshyn - Post Viceregal Career and Death

Post Viceregal Career and Death

After his departure from Government House, Hnatyshyn returned to practicing law at the firm of Gowling, Strathy & Henderson, where he had previously worked between 1989 and 1990. In 2002 he was installed as Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa, however, only months later, shortly before Christmas, Hnatyshyn died of pancreatitis. Per tradition, and with the consent of his family, Hnatyshyn lay in state for two days in the Senate chamber, and, though he was Ukrainian Orthodox, he was commemorated in his state funeral in a multi-faith ceremony on December 23, 2002 at Ottawa's Christ Church Cathedral. The service included the funeral rite of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church— officiated by Archbishop Yurij, Bishop of Toronto, and the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church— and a eulogy from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's chief correspondent, Peter Mansbridge, and Adrienne Clarkson, by that time the sitting governor general, paid tribute to one of her predecessors via video, as she and her husband were en route to spend Christmas with Canadian troops stationed in the Persian Gulf. Hnatyshyn was then buried at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa.

Various memorials followed Hnatyshyn's death: On March 16, 2004, Canada Post unveiled at a ceremony, attended by Hnatyshyn's widow, a $0.49 postage stamp designed by Vancouver graphic artist Susan Mavor, and bearing the formal portrait of Hnatyshyn taken by Canadian Press photographer Paul Chaisson on the day Hnatyshyn became governor general, along with a tone-on-tone rendering of part of Hnatyshyn's coat of arms. Two years later, a 48 minute documentary DVD examining the life of Hnatyshyn, A Man for all Canadians was released in Canada by IKOR Film.