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St. Laurent's Gray Lecture after 75 Years

  • Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History 6 Hoskin Avenue Toronto, ON, M5S1H8 (map)

Thursday, February 3rd, 2022

4-6 pm EST

Online via Zoom.

In January of 1947, Minister of External Affairs Louis St. Laurent gave a lecture at the U of T's Convocation Hall on The Foundations of Canadian Foreign Policy. Its relevance and prescriptions are still debated today. (You can read the lecture here.)

The Graham Centre is proud to sponsor a virtual symposium on St. Laurent’s Gray Lecture, featuring former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy and scholars Patrice Dutil and Jennifer Tunnicliffe of Ryerson University.

SPEAKERS

Lloyd Axworthy, PC, CC, OM, Ph.D. is a Canadian politician and academic. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. In the Foreign Affairs portfolio, Minister Axworthy became internationally known for his advancement of the human security concept, in particular, the Ottawa Treaty — a landmark global treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. Following his retirement from parliament, he served as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Winnipeg from 2004 to 2014 and as chancellor of St. Paul's University College (a constituent institution of the University of Waterloo). He is currently the Chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council and Co-Chair of the Americas Task Force on Migration. In 2004, Dr. Axworthy published Navigating a New World, an examination of how Canada used human security as a guiding framework for its role in global matters. Dr. Axworthy is the recipient of multiple honourary doctorates.

Patrice Dutil is Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University. Dutil joined Ryerson in 2006 following 19 years in various parts of the public service and non-profit sector. He is the author, co-author or editor of eight books and of dozens of scholarly articles in refereed publications. He is a frequent commentator on public affairs on radio and television in Toronto and in the national media. His opinion pieces have appeared in the Toronto Star, National Post, The Globe and Mail, CBC.ca, Inside Policy. In 2013-14 he was a visiting scholar at Massey College (University of Toronto) and visiting professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He will be visiting professor at Boston University in the fall of 2018. He holds a PhD from York University, an M ès Arts from the Université de Montréal, and a BA (Hon.) from York University.

Jennifer Tunnicliffe is a human rights historian at Ryerson University with a particular interest in how domestic and transnational activism shapes cultural attitudes and legislative approaches to rights and freedoms. Her current book project, Drawing the Line: Free Speech and the Regulation of Hate in Canadian History, examines the evolution of Canada’s hate speech laws through a human rights framework, situating Canadian policy in a global context. Prior to joining Ryerson, Dr. Tunnicliffe was an Assistant Professor at King’s University College at Western University, an L. R. Wilson Assistant Professor at the Wilson Institute for Canadian History, and she held a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo. She received her PhD in history from McMaster University.