2011 RightsWatch Conference, Calgary

Following two successful years in Toronto, the third annual conference took place in Calgary, Alberta on October 21-22, 2011.

The RightsWatch conference is designed to expose law students, lawyers, and those interested in civil liberties and human rights issues to the important public interest cases and issues that are constantly arising in our society and encourage them to think critically about these issues.

Prominent speakers from academic institutions, law firms, government and public interest organizations were invited to participate to get as wide a perspective on these issues as possible.

Lawyers, staff and members of civil liberties groups across the country were in attendance, and time was set aside for facilitated networking and discussion among these groups to find areas of shared concern and potential cooperation.

The conference attracted over 100 participants, including 37 law students from the CCLA/PBSC RightsWatch blog project, who flew in from all over the country to participate in the proceedings.

Some of the panelists who used PowerPoint presentations have made them available for your reference and information. You can either navigate to individual session pages or download them here:

• Public Order Policing Session – Barry Clark – Download the presentation
• Public Order Policing Session - Nathalie Des Rosiers – Download the presentation
• Temporary Foreign Workers Session – Catherine Dauvergne – Download the presentation
• Freedom of Expression and the University Campus Session – Charlotte Kingston – Download the presentation
• Lunch time key note address – Shirish Chotalia - Download the presentation
• Selected Topics in Personal Privacy and Access to Information Session – Graeme Norton – Download the presentation
• Mental Health Issues in Our Prison System – Dr. Ivan Zinger – Download the presentation

___

On the agenda

Justice Binnie - click for bio

• A cocktail reception featuring former Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie as keynote speaker will be held on Friday, October 21 at historic Lougheed House to welcome conference participants. Naheed Nenshi, the mayor of Calgary, will also be delivering a welcoming address at the reception.
  • To register for the Friday night cocktail reception only, please click here

• Substantive sessions focused on various aspects of key civil liberties issues will take place at the Faculty of Law, University of Calgary on Saturday, October 22. 
  • Public Order Policing: the Calgary G8, the Vancouver Olympics and the Toronto G20
  • Challenges and Issues in the Temporary Foreign Workers Program
  • Freedom of Expression and the University Campus
  • Selected Topics in Personal Privacy and Access to Information
  • Mental Health Issues in our Prison System

• Chair of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, Shirish Chotalia, will deliver a speech during the lunch session on Saturday, October 22.

• A session reserved for law student bloggers of the CCLA/PBSC RightsWatch blog will be held on Sunday, October 23.

To view the full conference program, please click here

The organizers thank the following sponsors for their generosity:

We also thank the Aurea Foundation and the Law Foundation of British Columbia for their support.