MacKay Lecture Series

 

2004-05 

Finding the Balance: Citizenship, Immigration and Security

 

Lecture One

"Reconfiguring Immigration Policy: the Domestic Implications of Global Change"

Meyer Burstein, International Consultant, Founder of the Metropolis Project and Former Director-General of Strategic Planning and Research, Citizenship and Immigration, Canada.

Thursday, March 3, 7:30 p.m.

In 1995, Meyer Burstein founded the Metropolis Project, a major international policy-research project focusing on migration and its societal impacts, now operating through five Centres of Excellence in Canada, as well as in numerous European countries, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. It is networked with international organizations such as the European Union and the United Nations. From 1995 until 2002, Mr. Burstein, served as Executive Head of the Metropolis Project, co-chairing both its international and domestic arms. Currently, he serves as Chair Emeritus of the international project.

In 2001, Mr. Burstein and his project team were the recipients of the Head of the Public Service Award for Excellence in Policy Development. Prior to heading the Metropolis Project, Mr. Burstein served as Director-General of Strategic Planning and Research, Citizenship and Immigration, Canada, as Director of the Administrative Review Program for Refugees, and as Director of the Analysis and Forecasts Division in Citizenship and Immigration, among other positions. As a consultant, Mr. Burstein has advised Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Human Resources Development Canada, Justice Canada, Canadian Heritage, the Privy Council Office, Oxford University, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations.

 

Lecture Two

“Maher Arar, National Security and Civil Liberties: Reflections post 9/11”

Monia Mazigh, Researcher, Human Rights Advocate, Wife of Maher Arar.  Tuesday, March 15, 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Monia Mazigh moved to Canada from Tunisia in 1991, first to Montreal, and then to Ottawa in 1997 with her husband, Maher Arar. She has a daughter and a son. She received a PhD in Finance from McGill University, and is fluent in French, English and Arabic. In the 2004 Federal Election, Dr. Mazigh ran in Ottawa South for the New Democratic Party. Dr. Mazigh became a passionate advocate for human rights in 2002 when Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was deported to Syria by US authorities. She mounted an extensive campaign to bring her husband home, and then successfully pressured the government to call a public inquiry into his deportation. Her unrelenting efforts brought widespread public attention not only to her own family’s struggle, but also to the dangerous impact of security legislation on the rights of all Canadian citizens. Her leadership and dedication garnered her nomination as The Globe and Mail’s 2003 “Nation-builder of the year.” In June, 2004, Dr. Mazigh was selected as one of the Canadian heroes of the year by Time Magazine.

Lecture Three

“Sovereignty in the Twenty-First Century: Security, Immigration and Refugees”

Howard Adelman, Founder of York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies, Visiting Professor, Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.

Tuesday March 22, 7:30 p.m.

Dr. Howard Adelman is a philosopher who (with Astri Suhrke) undertook the first major study of the role of the international community in relationship to the genocide in Rwanda. A contributor (and critic of the results) of the report on the Responsibility to Protect, he was also one of the principal architects of the early warning and response system for the Horn of Africa, CEWARN, as part of a regional effort to deal with violent conflicts. He recently completed two studies of protracted refugee situations in Kenyan refugee camps. For many years Howard Adelman taught at York University and was the founding director of its Centre of Refugee Studies and editor of Refuge.

Since leaving York, he has been at Princeton University, first at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and then as a Visiting Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School. He is now an Adjunct Professor at the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University in Brisbane. Howard Adelman has authored or edited over 20 books and over a hundred articles in edited collections and academic journals in addition to many reports for governments, NGOs and international agencies.