About this Event
Join us for a conversation with Bob Rae, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations, and Professor Jennifer Welsh about the future of global governance and our collective ability to address some of the world’s most complex and difficult challenges. From the invasion of Ukraine, to the crisis in Haiti, to working with China, and tackling climate change, how have global challenges evolved and what type of leadership is needed to address them?
Bob Rae is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York.
Mr. Rae served as Premier of Ontario from 1990-1995, and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011-2013. He was elected to federal and provincial parliaments 11 times between 1978 and 2013.
Mr. Rae received his Honours B.A. in Modern History from the University of Toronto, an M.Phil in Politics as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1977. He was named a Queen’s Counsel in 1984.
As a lawyer in private practice, Mr. Rae led the restructuring of the Canadian Red Cross, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and chaired the board of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He also wrote “Lessons to be Learned” on the Air India bombing, and “Ontario a Leader in Learning” - a study of the Ontario higher education system. He was also named to the Security and Intelligence Review Committee by then Prime Minister Chrétien.
Mr. Rae’s return to Parliament for the constituency of Toronto Centre in 2008 led to his appointment as Foreign Affairs spokesman for his party, and to his election as interim Leader in 2011. Between 2013 and 2020 he taught law and public policy at the University of Toronto, and was a partner and senior counsel to the law firm OKT LLP, specializing in indigenous law and constitutional issues.
In 1997, Mr. Rae became a founding board member of the Forum of Federations. He went on to serve as Chairman and President of the Forum, and advised many governments and groups on issues of constitutional change, the rule of law, federalism and devolution. He remains a Senior Fellow of the Forum.
Mr. Rae is also a Senior Fellow at Massey College, and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He served as the Chief Negotiator for the 9 First Nations that are members of the Matawa Tribal Council in Northern Ontario between 2013 and 2018.
In October 2017, Mr. Rae was appointed as Canada’s Special Envoy to Myanmar. In this role, he engaged in diplomatic efforts to address the crisis in the country’s Rakhine State and wrote the report “Tell Them We’re Human” in 2018. In March 2020, he was named by Prime Minister Trudeau to be Canada’s Special Envoy on Humanitarian and Refugee Issues. This led to his report “A Global Pandemic Requires a Global Response”, which was made public shortly before his appointment as Ambassador to the UN.
Bob Rae is a Privy Councillor, a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario, and has numerous awards and honorary degrees from institutions in Canada and around the world. In addition to several government reports, he is the author of five books. Along with music, reading, and writing, he loves tennis, golf, and fishing. He is married to Arlene Perly Rae, writer and public advocate on issues affecting women and children. They have three daughters and six grandchildren.
Jennifer M. Welsh is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University and Director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies.
She was previously Chair in International Relations at the European University Institute and Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where she co-founded the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. From 2013-2016, she served as the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, on the Responsibility to Protect. She has published several books and articles on the ethics and politics of armed conflict, the ‘responsibility to protect’, humanitarian action and civilian protection, the UN Security Council, and Canadian foreign policy. Her most recent book, The Return of History: Conflict, Geopolitics and Migration in the 21st Century (2016), was based on her CBC Massey Lectures.
Prof. Welsh is a member of the Internally Displaced Persons Protection Expert Group, established by UNHCR and the Global Protection Cluster, and sits on the Advisory Boards of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. In 2021, she was elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2022 became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Principal’s Lecture
The Principal’s Lecture is an initiative of the McCall MacBain Scholarships at McGill, Canada’s first leadership-driven scholarship program for master’s and professional degree studies. The program brings together students who strive to engage in positive change by taking on meaningful leadership roles. More information about the scholarships can be found at www.mccallmacbainscholars.org.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
McGill Faculty Club and Conference Centre, 3450 Rue McTavish, Montréal, Canada
CAD 0.00
