On Monday, August 21, 2000, the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Section of the International Commission of Jurists was held in Halifax, N.S. The special program that preceded the business meeting consisted of a joint presentation of the ICJ and the Canadian Judges' Forum. Entitled "Death by a Thousand Cuts: Are Attacks on Judges and Lawyers Endangering Our Legal System?" the program featured a panel discussion moderated by the Hon. François Rolland of the Quebec Superior Court. Panelists included the Hon. W. Ian Binnie and Hon. Claire L'Heureux-Dubé of the Supreme Court of Canada, Thomas G. Heintzman, O.C., Q.C., of McCarthy Tétrault, Toronto, and the Hon. Nasir Zahid, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The program, which was very well-attended, focused on the independence of the judiciary, and the presentations were followed by a lively and engaged discussion. The speeches of Madam Justice L'Heureux-Dubé and Thomas Heintzman are available on request from the Ottawa office. A summary of Mr. Justice Binnie's address is available. Unfortunately, there is no prepared text for Justice Zahid's speech.

The business meeting following the special meeting began with the presentation of the Hon. Walter Tarnopolsky Award to Joseph J. Arvay, Q.C. of Arvay Finlay, Victoria, B.C. Canadian Section President, the Hon. Michèle Rivet, presided over the meeting and delivered the President's report. A report on the ongoing Croatia Project was presented by Hon. F.B. William Kelly, Canadian Section Vice-President for the Atlantic Provinces. Details are included in the minutes of the meeting, which are appended to this newsletter, along with a copy of the President's report.

Hon. Walter S. Tarnopolsky Award
This year's winner of the Hon. Walter S. Tarnopolsky Award for an outstanding contribution to human rights was Joseph J. Arvay, Q.C. of Arvay Finlay, Victoria, B.C. Joe Arvay is one of Canada's most tireless human rights lawyers. His many and diverse public-interest cases, frequently undertaken on a pro bono basis, include the Little Sisters Bookstore freedom of expression case, the UBC students' action against the conduct of the federal government and police at the 1997 APEC conference, and the defense of constitutional challenges to the Nisga'a Treaty.

The award was presented by Canadian Section President Hon. Michèle Rivet. Mr. Arvay was thanked for his remarks by Senator Gerald-A. Beaudoin.

Regrettably, no text of Mr. Arvay's speech is available. A summary is included in the minutes.

2001 Annual Meeting - Saskatoon
Next year's annual meeting will be held at the Canadian Bar Association Annual Meeting from August 8-15 in Saskatoon. The ICJ's meeting is tentatively scheduled for Monday, August 13, at 3:30 p.m. Plans are underway to join again with the Canadian Judges' Forum in presenting a special program that will likely be held immediately before the ICJ meeting.

Resumption of Yugoslavia Project
As of December 12, 2000, CIDA has agreed to restart the Canadian Section's Yugoslavia Project, which was interrupted early in 1999 by the NATO bombing and events in Kosovo. The project will be expanded to explore the possible development of a regional project on judicial independence and impartiality with neighbouring countries, such as Albania and Bulgaria.

Canadian Visit of Hon. Nasir Zahid
The Canadian Section recently hosted the five-week visit of the Hon. Nasir Zahid, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and his wife. Mr. Zahid was dismissed from the Supreme Court of Pakistan after serving as a judge of the High Court and the Supreme Court for twenty years, as a result of his refusal to take an oath of loyalty to the military regime of General Musharraf.

Following his initial visit to Halifax, Justice Zahid toured Canada, stopping in several Canadian cities to meet with provincial Chief Justices and with representatives of the Canadian Section. Mr. Zahid's visit included stops in Toronto, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Montreal, and Ottawa. Madam Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, International President of the ICJ, traveled with the Zahids for a portion of their journey. Canadian Section members who organized local events were Chief Justice Roy McMurtry, Hon. Rosalie Abella and Scott Fairley in Toronto; Chief Justice Richard Scott and David Matas, Canadian Section Vice-President for the Prairies, in Winnipeg; Chief Justice E.D. Bayda and Hon. Georgina Jackson in Regina; Chief Justice Catherine Fraser and John Martland, Q.C. in Calgary; Hon. Kenneth M. Lysyk, Canadian Section Vice- President for British Columbia, in Vancouver; Hon. Michèle Rivet, Canadian Section President, and Dean Peter Leuprecht in Montreal; and Senator Gérald-A. Beaudoin, Hon. Alice Desjardins, Dean Louis Perret, and Brian A. Crane, Q.C., Canadian Section Vice-President for Ontario in Ottawa. The contribution of each of these members was greatly appreciated.

Canadian Section Web Site
The Canadian Section is currently working on establishing a web site, which will include a home page, basic information about the Canadian Section and membership, the current newsletter and those back numbers available in electronic form, and links to other sites.

The web site will be found at www.icjcanada.org. It is hoped that the site will be operative in the early months of 2001.

International Commission of Jurists - Triennial Meeting
The Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists has announced that the Triennial Meeting of the ICJ will be held in Geneva from September 10-14, 2001, in the International Conference Centre of Geneva. As details become available, they will be posted on the International Commission of Jurists web site, and will be printed in the newsletter as they are received.

International Commission of Jurists - New Secretary General
The International Commission of Jurists in Geneva has announced the appointment of a new Secretary General, Ms. Louise Doswald-Beck. Ms. Doswald-Beck is the first woman to be appointed Secretary General in the organization's almost 50-year history.

Ms. Doswald-Beck, who is a barrister at Inner Temple, London, has extensive experience in both human rights and humanitarian law. She represented the International Red Cross at the Conference on an International Criminal Court, playing a critical role in the establishment of the list and elements of war crimes contained in the Court's Statutes.

Ms. Doswald-Beck replaces Adama Dieng, who completed a ten-year mandate earlier this year.

News of Members
Hon. Michèle Rivet, President of the Canadian Section and President of the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal, participated in an international conference organized by the Croatian Institute of Human Rights and the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation. The conference was held in Zagreb from September 27-29, 2000. Judge Rivet's participation in the conference permitted her to strengthen ties with prominent Croatian judges, including Professor Smiljki Sokol, President of the Croatian Constitutional Court.

Judge Rivet's conference paper, "The Interpretative Role of the Court in Controlling the Constitutionality of Laws: Overview of the Canadian Experience," is available on request from the Ottawa office.

Publications
Copies of the following press releases are available on request from the Ottawa office:

• 2000-08-08 - ICJ Condemns Anwar Verdict
• 2000-08-11 - 412 Jurists Attacked in 49 Countries
• 2000-08-15 - Sierra Leone War Crimes Tribunal: Operational Concerns
• 2000-08-22 - UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights: ICJ Assessment
• 2000-08-30 - ICJ Expresses Concern at Australian Position on UN Treaty Bodies
• 2000-09-27 - ICJ Mourns the Passing Away of Tun Mohamed Suffian Hashim
• 2000-09-28 - The Death Penalty: Condemned

The following ICJ publications are available on loan from the Ottawa office:

• Attacks on Justice, 10th Edition
• The Death Penalty: Condemned