You are now in the main content area

Canada’s Place on the World Stage

Date
April 28, 2022
Time
4:30 PM EDT - 6:30 PM EDT
Contact
Rekha Sadasivan; rekha@ryerson.ca

Canada once enjoyed a global reputation as a highly-respected peace mediator. Today, the rapidly evolving conflict in Ukraine is pushing us to reconsider our place on the world stage.

On April 28th, we brought together prominent leaders and legal experts to explore key questions:

  • What immediate steps can Canada take to help resolve the conflict & humanitarian crisis in Ukraine?
  • What kind of role should we play in other ongoing conflicts such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Yemen?
  • How can we ensure UN member compliance with international laws and the rule of law in general?
  • Can we serve as a voice of conscience in global affairs? What are the potential costs of trying to lead?

Together, we explored the opportunities and risks for Canada to play a leadership role in addressing ongoing conflicts and humanitarian crises around the world.

Panelists

Kim Campbell

The Right Honourable Kim Campbell is Canada's first and only female Prime Minister who has spent much of her life breaking barriers for women. She served at all three levels of government in Canada. After leaving politics she served as the Canadian Consul General in Los Angeles, then taught at the Harvard Kennedy School, after which she became an international leader of leaders with organizations such as the International Women's Forum and the Club de Madrid. Drawing on her extraordinary experience as an academic and a leader, she served as the Founding Principal of the Peter Lougheed Leadership College at the University of Alberta from 2014–2018.

Ms. Campbell speaks widely on issues related to leadership, international politics, democratization, climate change, gender, and Canadian/American relations addressing audiences in places such as Kyiv, Dubai, Cordoba, Toronto, Berlin, Ulaanbaata, Prague, Brussels, Paris, Vancouver, London, Beijing, Seoul, Washington, DC, and Ottawa.

Chile Eboe-Osuji

Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji is a Distinguished International Jurist at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law and a Special Advisor to the President’s Office at Ryerson University. The Nigerian-born Judge Eboe-Osuji recently completed his term as President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. He was also concurrently serving as a senior judge in the Appeals Division of the ICC from March 2018 to March 2021.  

Prior to joining the ICC, Judge Eboe-Osuji served as the Legal Advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva where he anchored the High Commissioner’s interventions in cases involving human rights questions. Earlier in his career he held several posts at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Before joining the international public service, Judge Eboe-Osuji practiced law as a courtroom advocate before the courts in both Canada and Nigeria.

Judge Eboe-Osuji is a visiting professor at Stanford University Law School and a senior fellow at Cambridge University. He has also taught international criminal law as adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa.

Beverley McLachlin

The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin is a Canadian jurist who was the 17th chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada (2000–17) and the first woman to hold the post. McLachlin was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1988, and one year later she became a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, and in 2000 she was named chief justice. McLachlin brought to the bench skills as an able administrator as well as a fluency in both English and French, and she was praised by her fellow justices for her ability to blend theoretical principles of the law with practical applications for Canadians. In December 2017 McLachlin retired, having become the country’s longest-serving chief justice.

Ms. McLachlin is currently serving a second three-year term as a non-permanent judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.

Bob Rae

The Honourable Bob Rae currently serves as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations (UN) in New York.  

Mr. Rae’s passion for social justice dates back to his early days in student politics and community service. Between 1978 and 2013, he was elected 11 times to federal and provincial parliaments, and served as the Premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995. Mr. Rae stepped down as a Member of Parliament in 2013 to return to legal practice and, in particular, to work with Indigenous communities and continue his work in education, governance, and human rights.  

In October 2017, Mr. Rae was appointed as Canada’s Special Envoy to Myanmar. In this role, he engaged in diplomatic efforts to address the crisis in the country’s Rakhine State and wrote the report Tell Them We’re Human in 2018. In March 2020, he was named Canada’s Special Envoy on Humanitarian and Refugee Issues to continue the important work he started as Special Envoy to Myanmar, while also addressing other pressing humanitarian and refugee issues around the world.

Bob Rae is a Privy Councillor, a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario, and has numerous awards and honorary degrees from institutions in Canada and around the world.

Moderator

Jennifer Orange

Jennifer Orange is an assistant professor in the Lincoln Alexander School of Law. Prior to that, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Bill Graham Institute for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto, a member of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and a litigator at Torys LLP.

Her interdisciplinary research investigates the ways that cultural institutions support the dissemination and evolution of human rights norms. Her work explains how human rights communities of practice that include both state and non-state actors can promote a human rights culture. Orange is also conducting research on the return of cultural artefacts to Indigenous communities.

Orange has written in the areas of international law, constitutional law, human rights, truth and reconciliation, and museology, including publications in Human Rights Quarterly, the UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs, and the Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship. She has held a number of fellowships, including a Jackman Humanities Institute-Mellon Fellowship.

As of April 2021, Jennifer has been appointed as a part-time member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for a 5 year term.