This year’s McLaughlin College Annual Public Policy Lecture will welcome Stephen J. Toope, vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, on Wednesday, March 9 from 12:30 to 2 p.m., to discuss “Our Age of Anxiety and the Rule of Law.”
In 2017, Toope became the 346th vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, becoming the first non-British national to hold this title. His virtual discussion hosted by McLaughlin College will highlight how a major contributor to society’s unease and anxiety is a widely perceived deficit of political legitimacy that has made it easier for populist nationalists to undermine liberal democracies. Toope will explain how to address these anxieties by restoring belief in the collective ability to build healthier societies by drawing on the world’s shared history of making progress and embracing an action-oriented pragmatist ethos to seek and restore the rule of law.
“We are absolutely delighted that Vice-Chancellor Toope will be our 2022 McLaughlin College Annual Public Policy lecturer and has chosen this topic for his lecture to all our students, faculty, alumni, college Fellows, and special guests,” says James C. Simeon, associate professor and head of McLaughlin College. “As a leading international law scholar and highly influential thought leader it will be our great honour to host him as this year’s McLaughlin College Annual Public Policy Lecture.”
Toope’s former roles include director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, president and vice-chancellor of the University of British Columbia, and dean of the Faculty of Law at McGill University. Toope was also Chair of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances and served as president of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. His academic interests are international law, human rights, international legal theory and international development.
Previous McLaughlin College Annual Public Policy Lecture guests include: Deborah E. Anker, a clinical professor of law and the founder of the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program; Dr. David Naylor, a physician and professor of medicine and president emeritus at the University of Toronto; and Justice Beverley McLachlin, the first female and longest-serving chief justice in the history of the Supreme Court of Canada.
McLaughlin College’s Annual Public Policy Lecture is a highlight event of the academic year.
“Our McLaughlin College Annual Public Policy Lecture is co-sponsored with the School of Public Policy and Administration’s Master of Public Policy, Administration, and Law program. Together we have offered our students and the rest of the York University community some of the leading authorities in their respective fields, all in an effort to ensure that our students have an opportunity to hear and interact with some of the world’s most interesting and outstanding individuals within their respective areas of expertise and experience,” says Simeon.
For more information and to register for this upcoming lecture, click here. A full list of events, presentations and workshops hosted by McLaughlin College can be viewed here.