Workshop: The Charter Rights of Canadian Citizens Abroad

What duties does the Canadian government owe to Canadian citizens when they are outside of the country? Is there such a thing as a legal duty to protect citizens from harm, or seek their repatriation when they have suffered harm? What are the rules, post Hape and Khadr, governing the extraterritorial application of the Charter, as well as the impact of international law on those rules? What are the implications of anti-terrorist measures that involve information sharing with governments that may engage in coercive practices on Canadian citizens abroad? This distinguished panel of practitioners and academics will address these complex issues and more.

Paul Champ is the founding partner of Ottawa law firm Champ & Associates. He is a litigation lawyer with a focus on human rights, employment, labour, and public interest law, and has developed a practice in national security law. Paul regularly acts as counsel to organizations such as Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, and his firm is a partner with the International Justice Network. Paul has defended the human rights of detainees in the custody of the Canadian military in Afghanistan, was involved in the Iacobucci Inquiry, and appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in Canada v. Khadr. He was co-counsel in Abdelrazik v. Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Prof. Audrey Macklin is a professor at the Faculty of Law. She holds law degrees from Yale and Toronto, and a bachelor of science degree from Alberta. She served as law clerk to Mme Justice Bertha Wilson at the Supreme Court of Canada. Prof. Macklin’s teaching areas include criminal law, administrative law, and immigration & refugee law. Her research and writing interests include transnational migration, citizenship, forced migration, feminist and cultural analysis, and human rights. She has published on these subjects in numerous journals and in collections of essays such as The Security of Freedom: Essays on Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Bill and Engendering Forced Migration. Prof. Macklin has been active in the Omar Khadr case and most recently acted as co-counsel for the Asper Centre in Prime Minister of Canada et al. v. Omar Khadr at the Supreme Court.

Prof. Ed Morgan is a professor at the Faculty of Law where he teaches in the fields of international law and constitutional law. He has a B.A. from Northwestern University, an LL.B. from the University of Toronto and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. He has written numerous law journal articles, case comments, and book chapters dealing with international and constitutional law issues. He is a regular contributor to national newspapers on issues of international and constitutional law. Professor Morgan has appeared at all levels of Canadian courts as well as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations, and has provided expert evidence on international law to numerous U.S. federal and state courts in jurisdictional disputes and conflict of laws cases. He has represented numerous public interest groups in constitutional, and public interest appeals, and has argued sovereign immunity cases in the Ontario courts, the U.S. federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of and in challenges to a number of national governments.

Lorne Waldman, LL.B., LL.M., graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1977. He was called to the bar in 1979 and since then he has been practicing exclusively in the area of immigration and refugee law. Mr. Waldman has appeared very frequently at all levels of courts in Canada, including the Federal Court where he has argued many of the leading cases in immigration and refugee law. He was counsel for the Senate of the Republic of Italy when it intervened before the Supreme Court in Burns and Rafay and was one of the senior counsels representing Maher Arar at the Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar. He recently represented the Canadian Bar Association in The Prime Minister of Canada et al v. Omar Khadr.

A light lunch will be served.

Event date: Tuesday, November 24, 2009, from 12:30 AM to 2:00 AM
Location: Room FLB, Flavelle House, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto