This year’s Howard Adelman Lecture, Tuesday, will examine the state of exclusions in Canadian refugee law today.
The keynote speaker for the event is University of British Columbia law Professor Catherine Dauvergne, recipient of a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship. She will present “One Step Forward Two Steps Back: Ezokola and the State of Exclusions in Canadian Refugee Law”.
The event will take place Nov. 19, from 5 to 8pm, with the reception at 5pm and the lecture beginning at 6pm, at 280N 
York Lanes, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend. Donations for a refugee student bursary will be collected.
Catherine Dauvergne
Dauvergne worked as legal counsel on behalf of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers and the Canadian Council for Refugees on the Ezokola case at the Supreme Court of Canada. She works in the area of immigration and refugee law in Canada and around the world. She has published several books including, Making People Illegal: What Globalization Means for Migration and Law (Cambridge University Press, 2008) and Humanitarianism, Identity and Nation: Migration Laws of Australia and Canada in 2005.
The Ezokoa case involved Ottawa cracking down on suspected war criminals and in particular trying to stop Rachidi Ekanza Ezokola’s refugee claim. Ezokosa was the Democratic Republic of Congo’s former top UN diplomat and was suspected of committing war crimes against humanity. He arrived in Canada with his wife and eight children.
The Supreme Court of Canada decided the case earlier this year resulting in more stringent rules around who can be considered excluded based on war crimes.
The Annual Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) Howard Adelman Lectures were inaugurated in 2008 and are one of the major highlights of the centre’s academic year. This lecture series is intended to honour founding director Howard Adelman, one of the pioneers of the field of refugee and forced migration studies and one of its foremost authorities. In addition they are to provide an opportunity for outstanding and accomplished scholars/practitioners/advocates in the field to address a significant issue and concern that impacts directly on refugees and other forced migrants, affecting their human rights and human dignity as people.
For more information, contact mmillard@yorku.ca.