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Newsletter - June 2023

June 14, 2023

Source: MIGS

Announcements

SAVE THE DATE: MIGS, with the support of the Canadian Department of Defence and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Canada, will host the Montreal International Security Summit on 11-12 October. This in-person conference will focus on the war in Ukraine and will feature leading experts and public figures from Europe, Canada and the United States. We have already gathered a group of esteemed experts and policymakers, including Ambassador Bob Rae (Global Affairs Canada), former Ambassador Jeremy Kinsman (Canadian International Council), Carlo Masala (Bundeswehr University Munich), Lt-Gen. Romeo Dallaire (MIGS), Nema Milaninia (U.S. Department of State), Laura-Julie Perreault (La Presse), Janine Di Giovanni (The Reckoning Project), Savita Pawnday (Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect), David Donat Cattin (New York University), Jessica Berlin (CoStruct), Azeem Ibrahim (Newsline Institute), Terry Martin (Deutsche Welle), Jennifer Welsh (McGill University), and Aphrodite Salas (Concordia University).

MIGS is mentioned in the Interim Report of the Special Committee on the Canada-People’s Republic of China Relationships. Kyle Matthews gave testimony about the Chinese consul general’s intimidation tactics and attempts to curtail academic freedom at the Institute.

As part of MIGS ongoing work on Ukraine, we released a series of new podcast episodes, including conversations with Ambassador Bob Rae, Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya, and war correspondent Tim Mak. You can listen to the episodes on Apple Podcast or Spotify.

MIGS is delighted to welcome a New Youth Fellow. Tayif Ahmed will work for the Institute over the course of the summer.

MIGS Executive Director Kyle Matthews was appointed to the Cross-Cutlural Roundtable on Security (CCRS) by the Minister of Public Safety Canada, The Honourable Marco E.L. Mendicino, and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, The Honourable David Lametti, to engage Canadians and the Government of Canada in a long-term dialogue in matters related to national security and public safety. The first meeting was held on June 3.

Advocacy

MIGS’ Executive Director Kyle Matthews, co-signed an open letter to the G7 on the Just Transition and Uyghur Forced Labor.

Kyle Matthews, Marie Lamensch and MIGS signed a public letter calling on Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau to bestow honorary citizenship on Russian pro-democracy leader Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Upcoming Events

June 8

MIGS is hosting a session at RightsCon in Costa Rica titled “Social Media Hate Machine: Can digital peace be achieved?”. MIGS’ Project Leader Lauren Salim will facilitate our session featuring Siena Anstis (Senior Legal Advisor, Citizen Lab), Gabriel Cajiga (Interim Executive Director, Ipandetec), and Branka Panic (Founder of AI for Peace), and Gema Jimenez (Project Officer, Digital Defenders).

June 12

MIGS will host a Twitter Space discussion on AI and open-source intelligence and its role depicting the Ukraine War. MIGS Fellow Liam Maloney will hold a discussion on AI versus OSINT: The case of Ukraine featuring Belkis Wille (Human Rights Watch) and Alexa Koenig (Human Rights Center, University of California). A recurrent issue that has been brought up, as social media platforms erase content providing war crime evidence, by considering it harmful or illegal.

June 21

MIGS will host the fifth and final roundtable as part of the Digital Peace Project Series. In honour of the International Day for Countering Hate Speech, this event will focus on online hate and incitement to violence directed at racial and ethnic minorities. Speakers include Fernand de Varennes, UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues. Additional speakers will be announced soon. Registration is now available here.

Recent Events

May 11

MIGS Executive Director Kyle Matthews participated in a panel discussion on foreign policy at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Canada Dialogue Forum 2023. The event was organized by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Canada.

John Lemieux Faculty Fellow Aphrodite Salas was a guest speaker at The Walrus’ Talk it’s Happening Now Conference in Ottawa.

May 19

MIGS Fellow Fannie Lafontaine was spoke at a conference organized by La Clinique and the Canadian Partnership for International Justice on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute.

May 24

MIGS’ Executive Director Kyle Matthews participated in a Global Affairs Canada-University of Ottawa workshop on Information Integrity.

MIGS Fellow Ewelina Ochab was a guest speaker at the 5th meeting in series on genocide prevention hosted by the British Groupe Inter-Parliamentary Union with IBA’s Human Rights Institute and the Coalition for Genocide Response.

May 25

Kyle Matthews interviewed H.E. Ahmed Obaid, founder of the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, UAE, at the event titled “Bridging Communities From Coexistance to Harmony” organized by the Foundation for Genocide Education.

May 28

MIGS Co-Founder Frank Chalk gave a keynote address at the Canadian Hellenic Congress’s Annual Genocide Awareness Conference on “Turkey’s Refusal to Admit to the Crime of Genocide Against its Christian Minorities”.

May 29

As part of MIGS’ Digital Peace Project supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage, MIGS interviewed Aimee Tymkin, a Canadian delegate to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, about young people’s experience with cyber hatred and tech-facilitated gender-based violence. The podcast episode is available on Apple podcast and Spotify.

Marie Lamensch completed her mentorship programme with the Centre d'études et de recherches internationales during which she shared her experience and advice with a young student.

May 30

Kyle Matthews was a guest speaker at an event titled “Deep Dive: Atrocity Prevention Strategy - The Why, The What, and The How”. The discussion was hosted by the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance’s Working Group on Atrocity Prevention.

Marie Lamensch gave a class on genocide prevention to students of the Bishop Strachan School.

Kyle Matthews attended a webinar titled “Legal Strategies for Responding to Hate Speech and Online Harassment Targeting Armenians” hosted by Armenophobia.

May 31

MIGS hosted its fourth roundtable of its Digital Peace Project, in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage. Titled “Online Hate Against religious Minorities”, the discussion featured Wendy Via (Co-Founder & President, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism), Emmanuelle Amar (Director of Policy & Research Quebec, CIJA), Jennifer Tridgell (Senior Legal Advisor, Freedom of Religion or Belief and Equality Project at the University of Essex) and Amira Elghawaby (Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia), and was moderated by Akaash Maharaj (Ambassador-at-Large for the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption). You can watch the discussion here.

June 1

Project Leader Lauren Salim attended the Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes’ consultation meeting in advance of the next global meeting. The meeting was an opportunity for the network’s members to provide feedback into the content and design of the upcoming fifth global meeting.

MIGS Digital Fellow Zach Devereaux participated to a CENTECH Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Issues.

In the Media

May 17

Ewelina Ochab published an article in Forbes titled “United Nations Human Rights Council Must Establish An International Investigation in Sudan”.

May 19

MIGS Fellow Professor Dr. Ekkehard Strauss is mentioned in the “Report of the Consultative Group to the President of the Human Rights Council relating to the vacancies of mandate holders to be appointed at the fifty-third session of the Human Rights Council”.

May 22

Ewelina Ochab published an article in Forbes titled “Iran Executes Protesters After Bogus Trials”.

May 23

MIGS Fellow Phil Gurski released a new episode of his podcast “Canadian Intelligence, Eh!” titled “A Plea For Consistency in Applying the Terrorism Label”.

May 25

Ewelina Ochab published an article in Forbes titled “DRC Courts Secures The First Ever Domestic Conviction For The Crime Of Forced Pregnancy”.

May 28

MIGS Fellow Fannie Lafontaine was quoted in an article in La Presse titled “Poutine, Son Veto, et la Crédibilité de l’ONU”.

May 29

MIGS Fellow Mark Kersten published an article on his blog Justice in Conflict titled “New Article Alert: ‘Global South’ Voices Are Muted in Debates over the Crime of Aggression: What Three Books on Illegal War Tell Us About Why”

May 30

Phil Gurski released a new episode of his podcast “Canadian Intelligence, Eh!” titled “Is Al Shabaab Really on the Way Out?”

June 2

Ewelina Ochab wrote two articles for Forbes titled “Children In Ukraine Not Spared Even On International Children’s Day” and “The Use Of Starvation As A Weapon Of War By Russian Forces”.