Event Date: November 11, 2024 - 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Location: FSS 4007, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa

Presented by CIPS, the International Commission of Jurists – Canada, the Canadian Bar Association, the Professional Development Institute at the University of Ottawa, and the International Law Group of the Law Faculty at the University of Ottawa

You are invited to come hear from Lloyd Axworthy as he discusses his new book “Lloyd Axworthy: My Life in Politics“.

Book description:

In this stirring and beautifully written memoir, Lloyd Axworthy tells the unlikely story of a Canadian prairie boy raised in the Social Gospel tradition becoming a prominent force in both national and international politics. After studying politics at Princeton at the height of John F. Kennedy’s Camelot, and marching for civil rights in Alabama, he returned to Canada and embarked on an illustrious political career at the height of Trudeaumania.

Axworthy served as MLA in the Manitoba legislature for six years followed by twenty-one years in the House of Commons, more than half of those in the cabinets of Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, and Jean Chretien. With extraordinary candour and introspection, he invites readers inside his roles in some of the most important political stories of the last half century, including the enactment of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the great debate over the Canada-US free trade agreement, and the global fights to ban landmines and establish the International Criminal Court.

He illuminates such monumental events as the turnover of Hong Kong and Princess Diana’s funeral (at which he was Canada’s official representative), and offers unforgettable vignettes of encounters with a range of high-profile international figures from Fidel Castro to the Māori Queen. He also writes frankly about the disappointments of political life and the challenges of staying true to progressive ideals while dealing with the often brutal requirements of political power. In an open, personal manner he tells of how the contributions of his wife and the support of a network of family, colleagues, and friends helped him stay the course.

Read a review of the book by Jeremy Kinsman here.

Speaker:

Lloyd Axworthy is a Canadian politician, elder statesman and academic. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

The common thread that runs through Lloyd Axworthy’s lengthy career in politics, international affairs and academia, is his commitment to defending the rights of marginalized individuals, children, indigenous peoples, and those who inhabit war-torn countries. He graduated in 1961 with a BA from United College and received an MA and PhD from Princeton University. In 2004, he returned to the University of Winnipeg to serve as President and Vice-Chancellor for ten years, working to make post-secondary education more accessible to inner-city, Aboriginal, new immigrant and refugee students. He also significantly expanded the University’s outreach in the areas of Indigenous education, environmental studies, and human rights.

He began his 27-year political career in the Manitoba legislature before moving on to the House of Commons in 1979. His exemplary dedication to his constituents and to fellow Canadians resulted in several Cabinet appointments, most notably as Minister of Foreign Affairs. After leaving Canadian politics, he extended this ethic of service worldwide, from East Africa, where UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed him as Special Envoy to help implement a peace agreement, to Peru, where the Organization of American States appointed him to lead the OAS observers who monitored the 2006 general election in that country. His international leadership culminated in initiating the Ottawa Treaty to ban anti-personnel landmines, for which he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and extended to his work to create the International Criminal Court and the Protocol on child soldiers, for which he was awarded the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe, one of many prestigious awards he has received.

Lloyd Axworthy has been awarded the Madison Medal from Princeton University for his record of outstanding public service, and the CARE International Humanitarian Award. He has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received honorary doctorates from 14 universities. In 2016, Lloyd Axworthy was named Companion of the Order of Canada – a promotion within the Order. The citation stated: “Lloyd Axworthy remains a trusted voice whose call for global citizenship is heard in Canada and abroad.” He now chairs the World Refugee and Migration Council and lives with his wife Denise, in Ottawa.

Chair:

Errol Mendes is a lawyer, author, professor and has been an advisor to governments, corporations, civil society groups and the United Nations. He has acted as a human rights Tribunal and Boards of Inquiry adjudicator in Canada under the Ontario Human Rights Code and as a member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. In 2005-2006, he served as a Senior Advisor in the Privy Council Office of the Government of Canada. He also served as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court in 2009. He was appointed as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School in 2013 and a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University in 2020-2021.

His areas of expertise include private and public sector governance law and policy, international business and trade law, public international law, constitutional law and human rights law. He has taught in these areas at law schools across Canada and is presently a full professor of Law at the University of Ottawa in the nation’s capital He was a Commissioner on the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 2009-2019 and National President of the International Commission of Jurists, Canadian Sections since 2014. He is the author, co-author or editor of eleven books in his area of expertise. He was invested into the Order of Ontario on January 20, 2016. On May 25, 2016, he was awarded one of the highest honors of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Law Society Medal. In November 2019, he was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Discussants:

Stephen Baranyi is a Professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development, where he teaches and conducts research at the intersection of development and justice — particularly on the activism of persons with (dis)abilities; gender (in)equality; justice and security sector reform; as well as Canada’s engagement in fragile and conflict-affected societies. Since 2005, he has been focusing on Haiti, while maintaining a comparative perspective. He has edited several books and published numerous articles in journals such as Aequitas; Conflict, Security and Development; the Revue internationale d’étude du développement international; Recherches féministes; Third World Quarterly. Before coming to uOttawa, he was a practitioner with NGOs and governmental agencies in Canada, Central America and Europe.

Erin Hunt is the Executive Director of Mines Action Canada. She has been doing public education on the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines since 2003 and working in humanitarian disarmament in various capacities since 2006. Erin’s areas of expertise include the humanitarian impact of indiscriminate weapons, victim assistance, gender in disarmament and Canadian disarmament policy. She contributes to the work of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the Cluster Munition Coalition, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and Stop Killer Robots. Erin contributes to the Women, Peace and Security Network – Canada and to national and international working groups on feminist and gender sensitive approaches to foreign policy and mine action. She also spent two years as a senior researcher on casualties and victim assistance for the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor. Erin was a member of the civil society negotiating team during the 2017 process to negotiate the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons with the Nobel Peace Laureate International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Prior to joining Mines Action Canada, Erin worked on victim assistance programs for landmine survivors in Uganda, implemented sport-based peacebuilding programs for youth in a post-conflict setting and worked in child welfare. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Victoria and a Masters Degree in Human Security and Peacebuilding from Royal Roads University.

Margaret Jenkins is Co-Director of the University of Ottawa’s Gender, Peace and Security Collaboratory, as well as a Senior Fellow and Professional in Residence at the School of International Development and Global Studies. She advises governments on women, peace and security policy and is currently working with UN Women in Southeast Asia. Margaret is also working in the Caribbean on gender issues related to gang violence. She has published research on how local women’s organizations effectively monitor ceasefires with military deployments, and on foreign policy challenges due to rising political polarization. Margaret holds a PhD from the University of Toronto.