Media Releases

U of T roundtable discussion on Canadian foreign policy and Responsibility to Protect

October 21, 2015

TORONTO, ON- In light of the deci­sive Lib­er­al vic­to­ry in the Cana­di­an fed­er­al elec­tions, the Cana­di­an Cen­tre for the Respon­si­bil­i­ty to Pro­tect at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to will be host­ing an infor­mal round­table on Thurs, Oct 22nd to dis­cuss the future of Cana­di­an for­eign pol­i­cy and the Respon­si­bil­i­ty to Pro­tect (R2P) prin­ci­ple. This round­table dis­cus­sion aims to bring togeth­er a pan­el of experts in order to gen­er­ate a prac­ti­cal dis­cus­sion on how Cana­da can re-assert its influ­ence on the glob­al stage in light of on-going crises in Syr­ia, Yemen, South Sudan and North Korea.

Con­firmed speak­ers include: Dr. Jen­nifer Welsh (Unit­ed Nations Secretary-General’s Spe­cial Advi­sor on the Respon­si­bil­i­ty to Pro­tect), Dr. Stephen Toope (Direc­tor of the Munk School of Glob­al Affairs), the Hon. Hugh Segal (Mas­ter of Massey Col­lege) and Ambas­sador Mar­ius Grinius (for­mer Cana­di­an Ambas­sador to South Korea & North Korea) for a can­did dia­logue.

Fol­low­ing pre­sen­ta­tions, there will be an oppor­tu­ni­ty for Q&A with the audi­ence. Light lunch will be served. This event is co-spon­sored by the Cana­di­an Stud­ies Pro­gram at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege, the Inter­na­tion­al Rela­tions Pro­gram at Trin­i­ty Col­lege, the Bill Gra­ham Cen­tre for Con­tem­po­rary Inter­na­tion­al His­to­ry, the Cen­tre for the Study of Korea at Asian Insti­tute, Munk School and the Inter­na­tion­al Rela­tions Soci­ety.

WHEN: Thurs­day, Oct 22, 2015 (12–2pm)

WHERE: Room 108N, Munk School of Glob­al Affairs, 1 Devon­shire Place, Toron­to.

TO REGISTER: http://www.eventbrite.ca/e/round-table-discussion-canadian-foreign-policy-mainstreaming-r2p-tickets-18766053772.

ABOUT RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT

The Respon­si­bil­i­ty to Pro­tect, also referred to as RtoP or R2P, is an inter­na­tion­al prin­ci­ple coined in 2001 under the lead­er­ship of the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment and lat­er adopt­ed at the 2005 World Sum­mit by 150 heads of gov­ern­ment. R2P states that when sov­er­eign states are unable or unwill­ing to ful­fill their respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect their own pop­u­la­tions from mass atroc­i­ties such as geno­cide, eth­nic cleans­ing, crimes against human­i­ty and war crimes, the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty has the respon­si­bil­i­ty to do so.

ABOUT THE HOST:

The Cana­di­an Cen­tre for R2P, based at Munk School of Glob­al Affairs, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, is a lead­ing Cana­di­an, non-par­ti­san and non-prof­it research orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to schol­ar­ly engage­ment and polit­i­cal imple­men­ta­tion of the R2P prin­ci­ple. The CCR2P is run­ning a cam­paign this year on “R2P at Cross­roads: Ten Years since the 2005 World Sum­mit.” (www.ccr2p.org)

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dr. Jen­nifer Welsh was appoint­ed in July 2013 by Unit­ed Nations Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Ban Ki-moon as his Spe­cial Advis­er at the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al lev­el on the Respon­si­bil­i­ty to Pro­tect. Ms. Welsh works under the over­all guid­ance of Adama Dieng, the Secretary-General’s Spe­cial Advis­er on the Pre­ven­tion of Geno­cide, to fur­ther the con­cep­tu­al, polit­i­cal, insti­tu­tion­al and oper­a­tional devel­op­ment of the respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect con­cept. Cur­rent­ly, a Pro­fes­sor and Chair in Inter­na­tion­al Rela­tions at the Euro­pean Uni­ver­si­ty Insti­tute in Flo­rence, Ms. Welsh’s research projects include the evo­lu­tion of the “respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect” in inter­na­tion­al soci­ety, the ethics of post-con­flict recon­struc­tion, the author­i­ty of the Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil and the notion of sov­er­eign­ty.

Mas­ter Hugh Segal is the fifth Mas­ter of Massey Col­lege at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. While in the Sen­ate of Cana­da (Con­ser­v­a­tive, Ontario) he chaired both the com­mit­tees on For­eign Affairs and Anti-Ter­ror­ism. A grad­u­ate in his­to­ry from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ottawa, he is a for­mer Pres­i­dent of the Insti­tute for Research on Pub­lic Pol­i­cy in Mon­tre­al and Senior Fel­low at both the Queen’s School of Pol­i­cy Stud­ies and School of Busi­ness. He is the Hon­ourary Chair of the Navy League of Cana­da and a Senior Fel­low of the Cana­di­an Defence and For­eign Affairs Insti­tute in Cal­gary. An hon­orary Cap­tain in the Roy­al Cana­di­an Navy, Hugh holds hon­orary doc­tor­ates from the Roy­al Mil­i­tary Col­lege and his Alma Mater. He was made a mem­ber of the Order of Cana­da in 2003.

Ambas­sador Mar­ius Grinius joined the Cana­di­an For­eign Ser­vice in 1979 after serv­ing in the Cana­di­an Army for 12 years. His ear­ly over­seas post­ings includ­ed Bangkok, NATO/Brussels and Hanoi. Assign­ments back in Ottawa includ­ed desk offi­cer for nuclear arms con­trol, Direc­tor for Asia Pacif­ic South and then Direc­tor for South East Asia. In 1997 he was post­ed back to Viet­nam as Ambas­sador. Mar­ius spent 1999 to 2004 in Ottawa where he worked in the Privy Coun­cil Office in Social Pol­i­cy, West­ern Eco­nom­ic Diver­si­fi­ca­tion and then again in the Privy Coun­cil Office as Direc­tor of Oper­a­tions in the Secu­ri­ty and Intel­li­gence Sec­re­tari­at. In 2004 he was named Ambas­sador to South Korea and added cross-accred­i­ta­tion to North Korea in 2005. In 2007 Mar­ius was post­ed to Gene­va as Ambas­sador and Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the Unit­ed Nations and the Con­fer­ence on Dis­ar­ma­ment. He returned to Ottawa in 2011 for a sec­ond­ment to the Depart­ment of Nation­al Defence as Direc­tor Gen­er­al Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy. Mar­ius retired in 2012 after 45 years of ser­vice to Cana­da.

Dr. Stephen J. Toope is the new Direc­tor of the Munk School of Glob­al Affairs effec­tive Jan­u­ary 1, 2015. Before join­ing the Munk School, Pro­fes­sor Toope was Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia from 2006 to 2014. He rep­re­sent­ed West­ern Europe and North Amer­i­ca on the UN Work­ing Group on Enforced or Invol­un­tary Dis­ap­pear­ances from 2002–2007. He con­tin­ues to con­duct research on many aspects of inter­na­tion­al law and is cur­rent­ly work­ing on issues of con­ti­nu­ity and change in inter­na­tion­al law, and the ori­gins of inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tion in inter­na­tion­al soci­ety. His most recent book, with Jut­ta Brun­née, is Legit­i­ma­cy and Legal­i­ty in Inter­na­tion­al Law: An Inter­ac­tion­al Account, which won the Amer­i­can Soci­ety of Inter­na­tion­al Law’s 2011 Cer­tifi­cate of Mer­it for Cre­ative Schol­ar­ship. Pri­or to join­ing UBC, Toope was Pres­i­dent of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foun­da­tion, a posi­tion he held since 2002. From 1994 to 1999, he served as the dean of McGill University’s Fac­ul­ty of Law. Pre­vi­ous­ly, he served as Law Clerk to the Rt. Hon. Chief Jus­tice Dick­son of the Supreme Court of Cana­da from 1986 to 1987.

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For any ques­tions about this event, please con­tact:

Ms. Tina J. Park, Co-Founder & Exec­u­tive Direc­tor
Cana­di­an Cen­tre for the Respon­si­bil­i­ty to Pro­tect
www.ccr2p.org | 1–416-828‑2361| executive.director@ccr2p.org