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Newsletter - July 2019

July 8, 2019

Source: MIGS

Announcements

On 18 June, MIGS had the honor of convening a meeting between Montreal’s business and human rights communities for an important discussion on Artificial Intelligence and human rights. MIGS’ Executive Director Kyle Matthews moderated a discussion between Michele Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Yoshua Bengio of MILA, and Jean-Francois Gagné, CEO of Element AI. MIGS staff were also invited to City Hall to attend a special ceremony where Michele Bachelet was made an honorary citizen of Montreal. Pictures of both events are available on our Facebook page.

On June 3, MIGS hosted its annual #RightsCity conference at Concordia University. This year’s event included esteemed speakers such as Adama Dieng (Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide), General-Lt. Roméo Dallaire, and Mile Abramowitz, amonst others. The event was livestreamed by CPAC and you can watch all the panel discussions here.

As part of #RightsCity, MIGS recorded a series of podcasts with some of the speakers, including with Lt-Gen. Roméo Dallaire, Jeremy Kinsman, Rebiyah Kadeer, and Adama Dieng. We will release two podcasts per week but three of them are already available on MIGS’ Soundcloud page.

Recent events

Recent Events

6-7 June

MIGS’ Executive Director Kyle Matthews participated in the conference “Confronting Atrocities in China: the Global Response to the Uyghur Crisis” held at the George Elliot School of International Affairs and organized by the World Uyghur Conference.

13 June

MIGS’ co-founder and director of research, Frank Chalk, spoke at an international conference in Ottawa. The event was organized by the Rwandan Embassy to Canada to mark the 25th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi.

17 June

In partnership with Global Affairs Canada, MIGS delivered a one-day training course on social media and public diplomacy for Canadian diplomats at the Canadian Foreign Service Institute.

20 June

MIGS sponsored, “An Image for Justice,” a global cartoon contest on the theme of Genocide, Truth, and Reconciliation. Original Cartoons from Canada, Syria, Brazil, China, Serbia, Austria and Iran were be showcased.

Digital Fellow Shannon Green participated in the launch of the Global Peace Index 2019. The event featured a conversation with Stephen Lennon (USAID), Jonathan Drimmer (Business for Social Responsibility), and Laurie Smolenski (Institute for Economics and Peace). A video of the event is available here.

25-26 June

Digital Fellow Alexandre Corbeil gave a presentation on Hezbollah’s use of Twitter at the Terrorism and Social Media conference at Swansea University.

Advocacy

25 June

MIGS supported an open letter to Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland signed by Canadian Senators and civil society leaders, calling on Canada to take immediate action on the ongoing genocide against the Rohingya in Myanmar.

In the media

1 June

MIGS Youth Fellow Zach Paikin contributed to an important new report published by the London School of Economics titled “Five Years After Maidan: Toward a Greater Eurasia?”

3 June

Ahead of the #RightsCity Conference, MIGS collaborated with OpenCanada.org and asked some of the speakers to weigh in on the most pressing human rights issues today.
Kyle Matthews gave an interview to CTV News Montreal about the importance of the #RightsCity Conference for human rights. Kyle also spoke to Breakfast Television Montreal about the event.
MIGS Fellow Fannie Lafontaine explained to the use of “genocide” in the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG Report) in an article in the National Post titled “Laval prof who wrote MMIW inquiry's legal analysis defends use of 'genocide' in report.”

4 June

Kyle Matthews is quoted in an editorial in La Presse titled “30e anniversaire du massacre de Tiananmen: le funeste heritage.”
MIGS’ co-founder Dr. Frank Chalk gave a number of interviews following the publication of the MMIWG Report, including on CPAC, CBC’s The Current, The Wall Street Journal, CBC News, and RCI Internet Radio.
Roméo Dallaire was quoted in La Presse and in Le Devoir regarding the Final MMIWG Report.

5 June

Fannie Lafontaine gave an interview to Radio Canada’s Midi Info on the use of the term genocide in the Final MMIWG Report.

10 June

MIGS’ Fellow Ewelina Ochab published an article in Forbes titled “We Are Not Equipped To Prevent Genocide.”

13 June

Kyle Matthews and Irwin Cotler, chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and former minister of justice of Canada, co-wrote an opinion piece in The Montreal Gazette titled “Canada should resist any urge to retreat from the world stage.”

14 June

Ewelina Ochab wrote an article in Forbes titled “Towards The Elimination Of Sexual Violence In Conflict.”

17 June

Phil Gurski wrote an article The Hill Times titled “We live in a world obsessed with terrorism, but Canada doesn’t have a terrorism problem.”

20 June

Ewelina U. Ochab published an article in Forbes titled “Asia Bibi Has Won Her Battle, But Many More Christian Minorities Struggle For Justice In Pakistan.”

26 June

Ewelina U. Ochab published an article in Forbes titled “The International Law Standards On Prohibition Of Torture Continue To Be Ignored.”