Event Date: October 30, 2013 - 3:00 pm
Location: FSS4007, 120 University Private, , Ottawa
Presented by CIPS, GSPIA, and Amnesty International.
Free. In English. Registration is not required. Seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.
DR. PAIKIASOTHY SARAVANAMUTTU, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Sri Lanka.
HUGH SEGAL, Senator, Canada.
The civil war in Sri Lanka ended in 2009 with the defeat of the LTTE, yet the country is far from reaching an acceptable accommodation on minority rights and devolution of power. Moreover, the current government has failed to allow for full investigations into human rights abuses committed during the war, even as it has eroded the independence of the judiciary and freedoms of assembly and expression. Sri Lankan democracy is under international scrutiny, as the country will host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November – a meeting that Prime Minister Harper has said he will not attend. Is there any hope for reform? Is Canada right to boycott the CHOGM?
Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu is the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) in Sri Lanka and a Convenor of the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV). In 2010, he was awarded the inaugural Citizens Peace Award by the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka. He holds Bsc Econ Upper Second Class Hons degree and Ph.D in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Hugh Segal joined the Canadian Senate in 2005, and is a member and former Chair of its Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Canada’s Special Envoy for Commonwealth Renewal in 2011.