Events of the Past Year:
Unfortunately, ICJ Canada lost a dear colleague and friend when Justice Ken Lysyk of the B.C. Supreme Court passed away three weeks ago. He was a great supporter of ICJ Canada, served as Regional Vice-President for B.C. for many years, and was an active participant in our international projects. He was a law professor, a deputy attorney general, and a judge, and he excelled in every role. He was a kind and generous person and we will miss him very much.

Last year saw the retirement of Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé from the Supreme Court of Canada and the end of her term as the President of the International Commission of Jurists. Her contributions to both of those bodies were outstanding. Prior to her retirement, ICJ Canada held a small dinner for her in Ottawa, and you have all received the Tribute to her which went out with our December Newsletter. ICJ Canada is proud of her contribution to the goals of the ICJ and to the national and international recognition she continues to receive in her so-called “retirement.”

Two other longstanding members of ICJ Canada were also recognized internationally this year. Retired Justice Bertha Wilson and Justice Rosalie Abella jointly received the prestigious Gruber Foundation Award for “breaking barriers limiting the participation of women in the legal system.” Our hearty congratulations to these wonderful jurists and people.

You will also know from the last Newsletter that Justice Ian Binnie has been appointed as a Commissioner of the ICJ. Again, Ian has been generous in giving his time and energy to ICJ Canada and will make a great contribution to the work of the ICJ through Geneva. You will see him in operation again this afternoon as he presents the Walter Tarnopolsky Award with his usual humour and brilliance. Congratulations.

Chief Justice Chaskalson of the Constitutional Court of South Africa has replaced Claire as President of the ICJ. However, there is another position that is not as high in profile but is extremely influential in the operation of the ICJ. That is the Chairperson of the Executive Committee, who is Justice John Dowd of the Australian Supreme Court. We invited Justice Dowd to visit Canada, and he showed up in Ottawa for three days in May, together with his wife, Jill. Although his visit was short, he was able to lunch at the Supreme Court and address a small dinner where he observed that Canada had one of the most active and effective national sections of the ICJ in the world. We also discussed the possibility of a second Commissioner being appointed from Canada, and I believe he will support such an appointment. I might add that we also managed to take in an Ottawa Senators play-off game, and his most lasting impression of Canada is likely to be of 18,500 fans standing and waving white towels while screaming their lungs out.

Another highly successful event was the address given by Justice Louise Arbour on the International Criminal Court. This was taped by CPAC and is available from our office if any members wish to borrow it for viewing. The talk attracted over 50 judges, lawyers, and law students in Ottawa and was followed by a discussion and a generous reception hosted by Eugene Meehan and the Lang, Michener, Supreme Court Group.

Finally a unique and extremely welcome event was the donation to ICJ Canada of a substantial sum of cash from the Paul A. Fournier Foundation. This contribution, at the initiative of Justice Pierre-Claude Fournier of the Superior Court of Quebec, is the largest private donation ever received by us. We are very grateful to Justice Fournier and to the Foundation for its support of the Rule of Law, Judicial Independence, and Human Rights.

Institutional Developments:
When I became President of ICJ Canada, I did not have an agenda and was simply willing to help out by filling a vacancy that needed filling. As I recall, I was recruited a couple of months before the 2001 Annual Meeting in Saskatoon, and one of the persuasive arguments was that there wasn’t too much to do because the organization sort of “runs by itself.” It soon became apparent that it could operate that way, but with a very heavy administrative burden on the then Executive Secretary Pat Whiting and with most of the responsibility being undertaken by a relatively unchanging small group of people based in Ottawa and Montreal. They were generous with their time, and all of them were devoted to ICJ Canada. However, the concentration of responsibility in that small number of people with other professional responsibilities greatly limited what the organization could accomplish.

At the same time, our members in other cities were more than willing to contribute whenever asked. This was apparent in the national visits by Justice Zahid of Pakistan and Chief Justice Gubbay of Zimbabwe. It is also apparent in the involvement of the judges from across Canada in the International Projects under the leadership of Michèle Rivet. Our 600 members in every province of Canada include some of this country’s most distinguished judges, lawyers, and academics. We are members of ICJ Canada because we care about the Rule of Law, Judicial Independence, and International Human Rights. We want to stay in touch with developments in these areas in various parts of the world, and we want to do whatever we can to support our colleagues in other countries who are persecuted simply because they want to act properly in fulfilling their responsibilities as judges and lawyers.

Three objectives emerged for my second term as President:

1. To carve out specific programs at the national level and create positions with specific responsibilities to carry out those programs. These positions are: The Director of International Projects; Law School Liaison Representative; External Affairs Representative; Correspondent; and Webmaster. I hasten to add that the Director of International Affairs simply involved designating a position for what Michèle Rivet had already been doing for many years. However, the other four positions are new.

2. The second objective is to strengthen our administrative support. Out extremely low administration costs are due to the co-operation of the Canadian Bar Association, which provides us with office space and other services at a very modest cost. However, our increased activity simply required more staff time.

3. The third objective is to encourage greater initiatives at the regional levels to generate activities in which our members can participate. There is a significant role for the Regional Vice-Presidents but also a tie-in with the law schools initiative.

The underlying approach is simply to define and delegate specific responsibilities to our national representatives, our administrative support staff, and our regional vice-presidents with a view to providing greater service and involvement for our members. Let me briefly run over some of these specific areas.

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS: We will receive a report on this from Michèle, but let me just say that she represents an outstanding example of what one person can achieve. She has accomplished so much because she has set high goals, she has provided leadership, and she has involved our members from across Canada.

LAW SCHOOL LIAISON: We will also have a separate report on this initiative, and there was an article on it in the last Newsletter. However, briefly, Professor Daniel Gervais is identifying one law professor in each of Canada’s law schools to act as an ICJ Canada representative there. They will inform law students about our organization and encourage them to join. They will also be a resource for the regional vice-presidents in identifying speakers related to current issues for local programs.

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS REPRESENTATIVE: Allan McChesney has assumed the responsibility of keeping the Executive advised on developments in the NGO human rights community, as well as developments at the Department of Foreign Affairs and CIDA. He also contributes occasional articles to our Newsletter in these areas.

CORRESPONDENT: David Aaron of Vancouver drafts letters to express our concerns about the persecution of judges and lawyers in other countries. The last Newsletter relates that he received from the Chief Justice of Kenya an indignant denial of any impropriety whatsoever, only to resign two months later. ICJ Canada was only one voice among many criticizing judicial corruption in Kenya; however, the corollary to being one of many is that our speaking out was instrumental in bringing about actual results that no one voice could have effected by itself.

Another success story is the case of Justice Fergus Blackie of Zimbabwe, who had been charged with obstruction of justice. Just a few weeks ago, all charges against him were withdrawn. Justice Blackie has a cousin who practices law in Regina, and both she and her mother wrote separately to tell us first-hand how important it is for victims of persecution and their families to know that an organization such as ICJ Canada is supporting them. This lawyer first learned of us through our involvement in this case and has since become a member.

David’s goal is to have at least one letter go out from ICJ Canada every two months. Our most recent letter was just sent to the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran.

WEBMASTER: At last year’s meeting, I reported that our web site had been established, but that it was “content-challenged.” Our Webmaster, Professor Ken Norman of Saskatoon has now more than remedied that situation. We have an excellent site with timely information about international developments. The letters by our Correspondent and the replies are all posted there. In addition, our Documents section provides access to important speeches not readily available elsewhere, such as the one given by Chief Justice Richard on the Panel at last year’s meeting and an address delivered by Chief Justice Robert to the last Albert Mayrand Conference.

In the coming year, we plan to put the names of all our Council Members on the site, with a brief description of their professional roles. We also plan to create a separate listing for Council Members Emeritus. As Council Members are replaced, their names will be transferred to the Emeritus list, where they will remain in perpetuity. So, you see, our Council can set you on a path to Immortality!

ADMINISTRATION: I would like to thank the CBA for its continued co-operation in providing access to its services at a modest cost. We are also pleased that CBA President Simon Potter and Robin Sully and Clare da Silva of the CBA International Development Section have attended our functions. Dr. Pat Whiting continues to be the backbone of our administration in spite of the limited time available to her. We have recently added a second staff person, which doubles our capacity from one to two days a week. This will allow greater support for the representatives and vice-presidents and will also give Pat more time to spend on the Newsletter and co-ordination of news stories between the web site and the Newsletter. Our practice now is to publish a story on the web site as soon as it is available and then reproduce it in the next issue of the Newsletter. It then comes off the News category on the web site but is permanently available there through our archive of past Newsletters. Pat has made a tremendous contribution to ICJ Canada over the years, with very little visibility or recognition. We are very grateful to her.

REGIONAL VICE-PRESIDENTS: The proposed By-Law amendments create the position of National Vice-President, which really is the role that Brian Crane has undertaken over the years. The Nominating Committee will be recommending that he fill that new position and that Ron Atkey be named Vice-President for Ontario. We have a large membership in Toronto, and it makes sense for our Ontario V-P to be located there. Ron, of course, has had a distinguished career as a professor, lawyer, and federal Cabinet Minister. He did a great job organizing the seminar conducted by Justice Bob Sharpe in relation to the Judiciary in Kenya. It will also be proposed that Bob Richards of Regina replace David Matas as the Prairie V-P. Bob was active in arranging the visit of Justice Zahid of Pakistan to Saskatchewan in 2000 and in arranging for our meeting in Saskatoon the following year. In spite of his thriving practice, he has welcomed the opportunity to take on this role.

In this context, I would like to pay tribute to the contribution made by David Matas as Regional Vice-President for the Prairies over the past eight years. He has an outstanding reputation in the field of human rights and particularly in the area of Refugee Law. His extensive involvement with NGOs in the past has reinforced his view that it is healthy for such organizations to have turnover in their executives. He will continue to play an active role for us in Manitoba and will be joined by John Martland in Alberta, who has also offered to provide strong support in that province.

With these appointments, the turnover in Regional Vice-Presidents will be 80% over the past two years, i.e., two this year and two in 2001. This clearly responds to the call of the Nominating Committee for continuous renewal of the Executive.

The more active role envisioned for the Regional Vice-Presidents might include establishing informal regional committees to take initiatives for local activities and to expand membership. I plan to consult directly with them on matters such as appointments to the Council and requests for participation in international missions. They might also occasionally act as local spokespersons on issues such as judicial independence and human rights.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, I report that I am pleased by the positive response these initiatives have received. We have made a great deal of progress over the past two years. It has been a pleasure working with all of you and a great honour to serve as your President.