Journalist, educator and political activist Kenneth Deer was being celebrated for his many outstanding accomplishments in service to his Kahnawake community. A member of the Bear Clan, Deer is secretary of the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawake. In his 16 years as an educator, Deer co-founded the First Nations Education Council and helped establish the Kahnawake Survival School, which focuses on Indigenous culture and heritage.

He began working with the United Nations in 1987; among other projects, he participated in the Working Group on Indigenous Populations and the Working Group on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Travelling to Geneva for the first time to help enact change within the United Nations Centre for Human Rights. Representing the Iroquois confederacy-which includes the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora First Nations-he became an integral figure in the international battle for indigenous rights. Deer continued to visit the Swiss city multiple times a year until 2007, when the UN General Assembly finally passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Only four nations voted against the Declaration: the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

In 1978, he helped create the Kahnawà:ke Survival School to serve 300 Mohawk students who were mandated by Bill 101 to be taught in English and French. The school still stands today.

In 1992, having no journalistic background, he founded the Eastern Door, a newspaper created for the local Mohawk community of approximately 8,000 people.

The Eastern Door to this day is the Mohawk community's journal of record and reading.

"In our tradition, when we give thanks to creation, we also have to think about what is our role in creation," the newly honored doctor told an audience of Concordia graduates and their families in June. "What is your role in creation? That is a fundamental journey that you'll have to take for the rest of your life.", Kenneth Deer.