Meeting of International Commission of Jurists

The Canadian Section of the International Commission of Jurists is comprised of approximately 600 judges, lawyers, law professors, and law students from across Canada who support the Rule of Law, Human Rights, and Judicial Independence, internationally as well as nationally. It operates under the umbrella of the International Commission of Jurists based in Geneva. Justices Ian Binnie of the SCC and Michele Rivet of Quebec are Commissioners to the ICJ representing Canada.

The annual general meeting of ICJ Canada scheduled for Monday August 16, 2010 in Niagara Falls in conjunction with the AGM of the Canadian Bar Association, will include a panel on “National Security and the Rule of Law” that will feature two security specialists: Reid Morden, a former Director of CSIS and Norman Inkster, a former Commissioner of the RCMP. The recent Major Commission Report on Air India Flight 182 and on police/security activities at the recent G20 Summit in Toronto, are two key developments expected to be discussed by the panel.

A key part of the annual general meeting is the address by the recipient of this year’s Walter S. Tarnopolsky Award. The Award recognizes a resident of Canada who has made an outstanding contribution to domestic or international human rights. This year’s recipient is Jayne Stoyles, the first Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice. Jayne served for several years as the Program Director of the NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court in New York, a network of 2,000 NGOs worldwide that helped bring about the establishment of the Court and was twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.