United Nations

Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

Africa

AIDS

Nursing

World Health Organization

Women's Health

The University of Toronto's Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing will mark National Nursing Week with a keynote address by Sheila Tlou, Botswana's former minister of health.

Over the past few decades, Tlou – a professor, nurse, HIV prevention advocate and artist – has merged her talents as a leader in health policy and community theatre to bring about lasting change in health outcomes in eastern and southern Africa.

“Nurses are a formidable and passionate force, and I say to all the young nurses out there, 'We can make an impact anywhere and everywhere we go,'” Tlou says.

Tlou will speak on May 9 at Innis College, sharing stories of her own experience as a changemaker in global health through her work with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS and the International Council of Nurses (ICN), where she has tackled issues around HIV transmission and prevention – particularly in women and children.

Of her many accomplishments, which have included being a member of parliament for the Republic of Botswana and director of a WHO nursing and midwifery initiative for anglophone Africa, Tlou says that she is most proud of her work saving the lives of children and their mothers by significantly lowering rates of HIV transmission in communities in Botswana.

When Tlou first became Botwana's minister of health in 2004, the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission was very high. To address this urgent issue, Tlou created a comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention strategy that included engaging with community members and leaders prior to rolling out an education and awareness campaign focused on HIV testing for pregnant women, as well as treatment with antiretrovirals.

By speaking with women and those supporting them in child-rearing – including partners and mothers-in-law – Tlou and her team of nurses, nurse practitioners and midwives were able to change the stigma around HIV and encourage early testing, shifting the community’s perspective and focus onto efforts that helped women birth healthy babies.

This community-engaged approach successfully reduced the rate of mother-to-child transmission of the disease from 30 per cent in 2003 to 8 per cent in 2008.

“This success was really saying to the world, 'Look at what can be achieved in a resource-limited area through the intervention of nurses,'” Tlou says. “Now the rate of transmission is less than 1 per cent, and the stigma is so low that many women continue to get tested. However the rates of infection of HIV among women remain very high, and that is still something that needs to be addressed.”

Tlou's advocacy has always been centered around issues of gender and empowering women to improve their health through education. Before she became a nurse, Tlou was passionate about theatre, originally planning to become an actor or interpreter for the United Nations because of her love of languages.

However, with only health sciences scholarships available to her as a young university student, Tlou entered the nursing program at Dillard University in New Orleans, opting to take public health and theatre as electives to foster her knack for engaging with people.

After completing her master’s degree in nursing education and instruction from Columbia University in New York City, Tlou returned to Botswana to teach community-health nursing and also co-directed a travelling theatre group that performed plays – some which imparted health-focused messages about family planning and spacing out pregnancies.

“Being able to take this practical public-health message out into the communities and villages was uplifting for the nursing students involved, because they could see the impact of community engagement from a nursing perspective,” Tlou says.

Though now retired, Tlou – who taught at the University of Botswana for decades – continues to work as a consultant on health promotion strategy for organizations such as the African Union, the United Nations and the WHO on efforts to reduce deaths from malaria, in addition to her work on HIV/AIDS.

During Nursing Week and beyond, Tlou wants nurses around the world to remember the importance not just of bedside care, but of community impact – and the ability of nurses to break down barriers that contribute to inequity in health care.

“My advice to current and future nurses is to look at the UN Sustainable Development Goals in your region, meet with nursing associations and find your niche,” Tlou says.

“As nurses, we need to make ourselves visible – and that includes in how we mentor the next generation."

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U of T students, researchers brainstorm ways to advance UN Sustainable Development Goals

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 21:41:17 +0000

U of T students, researchers brainstorm ways to advance UN Sustainable Development Goals

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 02/02/2021 - 16:41

Cutline

Sustainable development considerations have been incorporated into a wide array of U of T projects and initiatives, including the Landmark Project and an associated geoexchange field beneath Front Campus (photo by Daria Perevezentsev)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Sustainable Development

Until recently, the sweeping international framework of the United Nations’ sustainable development priorities didn’t occupy much of Travonne Edwards’s attention.

As a PhD student in the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work – researching racial disparities for Black families in Ontario’s child welfare system – Edwards’s academic concerns lay closer to home, and within the realms of social work and racial equity.

But that began to change after Edwards, on the advice of a professor, took part in a recent event that aimed to encourage graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and professors to find ways to incorporate the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals – better known as SDGs – into their academic activities.

The 17 Zoom Rooms @ U of T event, held in early December, saw Edwards and more than 120 other participants assigned to one of 17 virtual “rooms” where they were invited to generate ideas on how to advance the SDGs at the university and beyond.

Edwards says the workshops were an eye-opener.

“Often times, when I think about research, it’s often conducted within one’s own faculty or institution. This was one of the first times I’ve been introduced to such a variety of folks interested in the same things as me but bringing different research backgrounds, disciplines and discourses,” he says.

“The main takeaway for me was the importance of being open-minded and innovative and to continue to push myself to think beyond the social work realm and include other areas – like tech, science and nutrition –to address issues of inequality.”

The U of T event was inspired by the 17 Rooms Initiative launched by the Brookings Institution and the Rockefeller Foundation to stimulate innovative forms of collective action aimed at advancing the SDGs, which were adopted by UN member nations in 2015.

“This event aligns strongly with U of T’s ongoing commitment to community engagement, to addressing larger societal challenges and to fostering a global mindset among our students, staff and professoriate,” said U of T President Meric Gertler in a video message welcoming participants to the event.

“The Sustainable Development Goals are not only a set of commitments, but a powerful framework that explicitly acknowledges the interrelationship between all 17 goals. Indeed, to address poverty we must advance education and health, but also develop sustainable cities and communities, tackle climate change and maintain socially just institutions.”

President Gertler noted that U of T is already deeply engaged in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. This includes initiatives across the university, through the President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability, and leadership on the national level, such as the responsible investing charter adopted by many Canadian universities last year.

He added that sustainable development considerations have been incorporated into a vast array of university projects and initiatives, from the complex urban challenges examined by U of T’s School of Cities to the equity and inclusion work with Indigenous communities and campus revitalization efforts such as the Landmark Project.

“Our remarkable contributions to community and global health, our scholarship on clean energy and water and our expertise in education – to name but a few examples – all contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals,” President Gertler said.

Laura Chiavaroli, a post-doctoral researcher in the department of nutritional sciences in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine who participated in the 17 Zoom Rooms, traces her enthusiasm to participate in the event back to her involvement in an event last year that looked to encourage innovative ways to pursue the SDGs at U of T.

“It was such a great event. The organizers have such a passion and energy about them that you really feel happy to be a part of these events and the good and important work that U of T is doing in this area,” Chiavaroli said.

“So when I saw that this [17 Zoom Rooms] event was happening, I immediately wanted to partake.”

Chiavaroli was assigned to a room dedicated to exploring “Quality of Education,” which revolves around ensuring inclusive and equitable education for all.

She said a key theme that kept popping up in her room’s deliberations was the importance of fostering inter-disciplinary collaboration to help advance issues around equity in education, as well as matters pertinent to the 16 other sustainable development goals.

“What we learned is that there really is an energetic community of U of T people who are interested and want to be part of change,” Chiavaroli says. “The one thing that we concluded was that we need to work less in silos. There is collaboration happening, but the kind of interconnectedness that’s needed between the different disciplines to help address the SDGs is a leap that we have to undertake.”

Chiavaroli, whose post-doctoral work looks at the relationship between dietary patterns and health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, says her exposure to the UN’s sustainable development goals is also influencing the way she goes about her research.

“Our work is very focused on health, but what are the environmental implications of adopting a dietary pattern? We’re trying to get environmentalists involved in the work to learn from them. We’ve got some health economics people as well, because you want to be assessing the cost of diets and whether they can be adopted by people who have financial challenges or are food-insecure,” she says. “So, having these SDGs in mind really helps to think about your project on a global scale – where it’s going to have the biggest impact.”

Joseph Wong, U of T’s interim vice-president, international and a professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, says the 17 Zoom Rooms event exemplified the U of T community’s collective commitment to fostering conversations, innovations and actions aimed at having a global impact.

“What today represents is a conversation-starter,” Wong said during the event. “All of you are colleagues who work in or teach about – in some way – the Sustainable Development Goals. All of you represent precisely the spirit we’re trying to capture here and to start a conversation that I know will continue to endure.

“The Office of the Vice-President, International is very committed to this both in terms of our local as well as global engagement. One of the things that we hope to come out of this are opportunities for us to continue to build and engage our global partners.”

Wong added that the university would closely examine the suggestions and ideas that arose from the 17 Zoom Rooms event, and that they will inform the next steps in developing a broader institutional strategic initiative focussed on SDGs.

In the meantime, Edwards, whose room tackled “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions,” says the discussions have been vital in helping him build bridges between his Ontario-based research and the global challenges that the SDGs set out to solve.

He says the sessions have inspired him to “think strategically and align my research to aim to mitigate or eliminate these global issues – particularly regarding peace, justice and strong institutions – and really [think] about how my research in Ontario can connect the dots to support global initiatives in equity.”

Students and faculty who are interested in contributing to the development of an institutional strategic initiative focussed on the SDGs are encouraged to apply to sit on one of two committees – a steering committee and a student advisory committee – that will be developing a framework over the coming months.

Digital generation: U of T researchers work with UN to support children's rights online

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 17:24:47 +0000

Digital generation: U of T researchers work with UN to support children's rights online

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 07/15/2019 - 13:24

Cutline

Faculty of Information researchers Sara Grimes and Leslie Shade are hosting workshops at U of T to collect information on children's digital lives that will be shared with the United Nations (photo by Alex Potemkin via Getty Images)

Topic

Faculty of Information

Knowledge Media Design Institute

internet

Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information are holding a series of workshops with children to better understand how they use digital technology – information that will be shared with the United Nations as it looks to update its Convention on the Rights of the Child for a digital world.

The workshops, held tomorrow and Wednesday at the Faculty of Information, will see participants aged 10 to 18 sharing their thoughts and engaging in interactive activities like drawing pictures, voting in polls and filling out surveys. Directed by Associate Professor Sara Grimes and Professor Leslie Shade, the consultation is focused on issues like online privacy, identity, freedom of expression and equality.

Grimes says she’s particularly concerned with the practice of banning children from online spaces to “protect” them – children have to be at least 13 before they can create a Facebook account or start a YouTube channel – rather than finding better ways to support their rights and presence in the digital realm.

“Not only do many kids ignore these age restrictions, their parents will often allow them to do it because they think the bans are silly or unnecessary,” says Grimes, who is the director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI).

The problem? When kids ignore the rules, they have no legal rights.

“Kids' content can be removed, their accounts suspended and their complaints ignored because they are not officially allowed to be there,” says Grimes, who sees a growing gap between regulatory policies and user practices. “Rules like not allowing kids to upload content to YouTube, or turning off the comment function on videos featuring kids, results in a big loss in opportunity for kids to engage and to achieve.

“After all, uploading a copyright-infringing cover of a Ne-Yo song to YouTube is how Justin Bieber became Justin Bieber.”

Grimes and Shade (left) boast considerable experience and expertise in the field of children’s digital rights and cultural participation. Their research includes studies on how young people develop strategies to protect their own privacy online as well as on explorations of children’s “folk understandings” of the complex legal concepts and relationships they encounter when they make and share digital content.

Grimes says children and their parents are bombarded with contradictory messages about the online world. On one hand, they’re told iPads are crucial tools for children learning to read and that educational apps can teach kids to code. On the other, there are ubiquitous warnings about how technology is turning kids into sedentary screen “addicts,” ruining their lives and their brains.

While Grimes acknowledges there are dangers online that understandably provoke emotional reactions, she says the “fears are greatly exaggerated and the risks for encountering the types of dangers sensationalized by certain news media are quite small.”

She believes that restrictions need to be balanced with children’s right to freedom of expression, and that the job of keeping kids safe online is being “put on the backs” of children, parents and teachers instead of on media and internet companies, which could invest more, for example, on moderation and tracking down people engaging in abusive behaviour. She describes current practices as a form of “labour exploitation” of platform and app users, who are asked to invest significant time trying to navigate “blackboxed business processes that gird children’s lives in the digital realm.”

Many of KMDI’s research initiatives are focused on supporting children’s rights as participants and cultural producers in digital contexts. Its work expands on the Kids DIY Media Partnership, a recently completed multi-year, Canada-U.S. research collaboration on the same topic.

Kids DIY brought together academics, child advocacy groups, platform developers, media companies and public broadcasters to discuss key issues relating to children’s digital media making and to collaborate on a series of related research projects.

Among its many recommendations: Terms of service contracts and privacy policies on children’s platforms must not be tilted in favour of business interests, nor infringe upon or omit children’s rights; that children have the same copyrights over their creations as adults; that concerns about safety and risk must be balanced with proper consideration of children’s rights and autonomy; and that age restrictions should only be applied if there is a real justification for excluding children.

The workshops Grimes and Shade are overseeing are similar to others being conducted in 24 countries in partnership with the RErights project, a collaboration between 5rights, Western Sydney University and the London School of Economics. Grimes says RErights was instrumental in convincing the UN of the need for this “general comment,” as the guidelines for interpretation of various treaties are known, and that its workshops are well designed and thought out. She will focus on facilitating the participation of the study’s younger study participants while Shade will focus on teenagers.

Participants’ written answers and ideas will be sent back to the RErights project team, which will analyze and compare them with results gathered from the other global workshops. The findings of this cross-cultural analysis will ultimately be compiled into a report to be used by the UN committee to write its general comment later this year.

U of T Faculty of Information students make trip to Geneva to study intellectual property and copyright

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 15 May 2019 04:00:00 +0000

U of T Faculty of Information students make trip to Geneva to study intellectual property and copyright

noreen.rasbach Wed, 05/15/2019 - 00:00

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Faculty of Information students Weronika Waszewski (left) and Joanna Grodecki attend a World Intellectual Property Organization subcommittee meeting in Geneva (photo by Victoria Owen)

Ann Brocklehurst

Topic

Faculty of Information

Graduate Students

For non-experts, copyright can be a daunting concept. Questions abound: Can I use that photograph for my presentation, copy this article for my class, or stream my favourite TV show from that site? For libraries, archives and museums, or LAMs as they’re known, the situation can be even more complex.

As Joy Ramlogan sees it, the lack of clarity leads to very different outcomes. “On the one hand, people are so afraid of litigation, they err on the side of not using [copyrighted materials],” says the lawyer and Faculty of Information master’s student. “On the other hand, you also see the attitude of act first, ask later.”

Ramlogan was one of a group of 12 Faculty of Information students who travelled to Geneva, Switzerland in the spring to sit in on discussions about how LAMs should be treated under international copyright treaties. The students were attending the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) 38^thsession of the standing committee on copyright and related rights, which is looking at possible limitations and exceptions for LAMs. WIPO is a specialized agency of the United Nations.

“The opportunity to go to a UN conference was unexpected and thrilling, something that my young self would have been extremely excited about,” says Ramlogan, who returned to school after decades in the workforce. She praised the three faculty members who organized the trip, which included meetings with “basically the entire secretariat and the chair of the standing committee – a much-coveted meeting.”

Many doors were opened by the Faculty of Information’s Scholar-Practitioner Victoria Owen, who is a leading national and international expert on copyright and information policy, chair of the copyright committee of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) and a board member of WIPO’s Accessible Book Consortium. Associate Professor Nadia Caidi played a key role in preparing students for the trip and securing some of the funding, although she could not attend herself.

Thanks to Owen, students attended the Geneva conference as affiliates of CFLA since they couldn’t register simply as students. She and the students crafted and submitted a general statement for CFLA, and master’s student Joanna Grodecki posed a question to one of WIPO’s guest presenters during the formal session.

Four students also took part in a side event on copyright for libraries and education where, according to Owen, they “witnessed the pushback my comments triggered from both international publishers and a Canadian publisher from the Canadian Copyright Alliance.”

When it comes to intellectual property and copyright, the interests of libraries and publishers can diverge dramatically, leading to heated debates. Many publishers feel that academic libraries want too many exceptions to copyright laws while many libraries argue that with so-called “fair dealing,” exceptions have long been legally sanctioned and are not being violated. All this is further complicated by the shift to digital books and journals – uncharted territory.

“The hot area is digital rights. That’s what is playing out right now and in the news,” says Ramlogan. “There’s a huge issue with academic libraries and digital publishing.”

Faculty of Information students in Geneva: Twelve students travelled to sit in on discussions about how libraries, archives and museums should be treated under international copyright treaties (photo courtesy of Victoria Owen)

For example, academic libraries increasingly license the rights to use materials contained in publishers’ databases. At the same time, many publishers have raised prices steeply, causing libraries to balk and even to cancel. Earlier this year, for example, the University of California’s libraries cancelled their subscriptions to Elsevier, one of the world’s biggest academic publishers. The libraries’ previous five-year contract with Elsevier had cost some US$50 million.

Among other things, the university was concerned that Elsevier’s proposal required it to forgo what’s known as “perpetual access” to a significant number of Elsevier journals. This would mean the library would lose access to journal contents for which it had paid for a digital subscription, which would be similar to having old paper copies removed from your possession after a subscription lapsed.

“The public interest is not the private interest so when you speak on behalf of the public interest, limited as it is, the private interests don’t like it,” says Owen.

Second-year Archives and Records management student Rebecca Ritchie first became interested in issues like intellectual property and copyright when she wrote an undergraduate paper on how the estate of author Samuel Beckett refused to allow women to perform in his play, Waiting for Godot, by claiming moral rights. At the Faculty of Information, she learned about the concept of “fair dealing” – or fair use as it’s known in the U.S.

Then, after meeting Jean Dryden, a Faculty of Information lecturer and expert in the impact of law on archival practice, Ritchie signed up for Dryden’s Copyright for Information Professionals course. She has also worked at archives, where she had learned that trying to figure out who might hold a copyright on so-called “orphan works,” where the author is unknown, can divert a lot of resources.

Ritchie was thrilled to attend the Geneva conference as a student, something most archivists don’t get the opportunity to do until they are well into their careers.

“It was both career- and life-changing,” she said. “We were taken seriously by experts with more experience and credentials. It gave you a really good perspective on what’s going on.”

Ritchie learned this week that the trip may have been even more career-changing than she thought. She is one of three candidates chosen for a fellowship with the Accessible Books Consortium Secretariat, which operates as part of WIPO.

She will spend a year in Geneva assisting the consortium as it seeks to increase the number of books in accessible formats, such as braille, audio, e-text and large print.

UN missed chance to demonstrate gender equality commitment, says U of T student Mieka Buckley-Pearson

lavende4 — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 16:11:56 +0000

UN missed chance to demonstrate gender equality commitment, says U of T student Mieka Buckley-Pearson

lavende4 Thu, 10/20/2016 - 12:11

Cutline

Mieka Buckley-Pearson speaking at the United Nations Association in Canada (Photo courtesy of United Nations Association in Canada)

Terry Lavender

Author legacy

Terry Lavender

Topic

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Rotman School of Management

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

International

Graduate Students

The hopes of many people that the United Nations would choose a woman to replace Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were dashed last week when former Portuguese president Antonio Guterres was named his successor. One of the most vocal proponents of choosing a woman has been Mieka Buckley-Pearson, a joint Master of Global Affairs/ Master of Business Administration student at the University of Toronto and a former secretary-general of the Canadian International Model UN.

In a column published in newspapers throughout Canada, she said a female secretary-general would inspire the world. U of T News spoke to Buckley-Pearson about the importance of having women in top roles at the United Nations and elsewhere.

How did you feel about the acclamation of Guterres as secretary-general?

While I have no doubt that Antonio Guterres is well qualified and will be a capable UN secretary-general, I am disappointed that the Security Council did not elect a woman [the secretary-general is formally appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council]. There were several highly qualified female candidates to choose from, but this is a political process where qualifications are not the only consideration. Electing the first female UN secretary-general would have had a profound effect; it would have been a demonstration of the UN’s commitment to gender equality and the centrality of female empowerment in the international community’s development agenda.

Undoubtedly, a woman will at some point be elected as UN secretary-general, perhaps in 10 years, perhaps in 20. In the meantime, there are countless leadership positions around the world that will need to be filled. Why not start by promoting more women to these critical positions, such as the permanent representatives, foreign ministers, and state leaders who are represented on the UN Security Council and influence the election of the Secretary-General? A gender tally of the current group shows the drastic imbalance between men and women in these key political positions.

Why is it important for women to be global leaders?

Female leadership in both the public and private sectors is important for two key reasons: women’s inclusion is critical to global sustainable development and economic prosperity; and female leadership will lead to the greater empowerment of women.

When women are in positions of leadership and decision-making, they can demand accountability and action on issues that disproportionately affect women, such as environmental degradation and poverty. The advancement of women in society can only benefit the world. Last year the McKinsey Global Institute noted that, if women participated in the economy identically to men, an additional $28 trillion would be added to global GDP by 2025.

This isn’t to say that male leaders cannot have a positive influence on female empowerment and inclusion. There are many male champions and their efforts are also critical to achieving gender equality. It is also not to say that all women are inherently better qualified than men to advance women’s empowerment. However, we cannot ignore the importance of symbolism – how seeing women in global leadership positions inspires and gives voice to other women, and the men that support them.

Would the US electing Hillary Clinton make a difference?

Electing the first female president of the United States, similarly to electing the first female UN Secretary-General, would have a significant impact on the world, primarily for the reasons already mentioned.

You yourself have served as secretary-general at the Canadian International Model UN. What was that experience like?

Model UN is an incredible learning experience. It challenges participants to see the world’s most pressing issues through the lens of another country, through the lens of a leader and a diplomat. It develops critical-thinking and problem-solving capabilities, as well as debate and negotiation skills. Having the opportunity to lead a Model UN as secretary-general is a deeply enriching experience, because you have the privilege and responsibility to shape and contribute to the personal development and experiences of the participants.

In my role as programme manager, education & youth, at the United Nations Association in Canada, I was privileged to develop and implement several educational programs including the Model UN. The richest part of the experience was always witnessing the transformational change of many participants, from shy and nervous delegates to those who had found their voice and confidently collaborated with others to develop innovative solutions to pressing global challenges.

It was always critical for us as an organization to deliver a Model UN experience that was as realistic as possible, except for in one aspect: we had equal participation from both women and men. While you may not see this in the UN General Assembly in New York, our conference rooms in Ottawa had women and men working collaboratively on the world’s most complex problems.

Tell us a little about your background.

I grew up in both Ottawa and Vancouver, ultimately pursuing my undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia.

As an undergraduate I spent two months as a community development intern in Swaziland, where I was confronted with the devastating impact of poor public leadership. As the king builds another palace for another wife, nearly 70 per cent of his citizens live below the poverty line. The majority of these citizens are children under the age of 14. I was struck by the lack of leadership and solution-seeking from not only national policy-makers, but also from the private and non-profit sectors.

My experience in Swaziland drove me to pursue opportunities for advancing my leadership ability in developing bold solutions to complex problems, ultimately bringing me to the University of Toronto.

Throughout my life I have sought to make a global impact. I have become convinced that innovative, sustainable solutions require an inclusive and collaborative approach integrating the strategies of government, industry and civil society. With that in mind, I have spent the past two years studying at the Munk and Rotman Schools to develop the skills and knowledge required to lead in the development of integrative solutions and bold policy action, particularly in the field of sustainable energy.

What are your plans for the future?

Since beginning the MGA/ MBA program in September 2014, I have become focused on advancing access to sustainable and affordable energy at home and abroad. As a graduate student at the University of Toronto, I have had the opportunity to work with teams from both the MaRS Advanced Energy Centre and KPMG’s Global Infrastructure Advisory. Upon graduation I intend to continue my career at KPMG, where I will have the opportunity to pursue my passion for renewable energy through advising clients, both investors and organizations, as they seek to invest in alternative energy infrastructure worldwide. I am passionate about advancing the adoption of renewable energy technologies into global markets, and delivering affordable access to energy for all. In the long-term it is my intention to return to the public sector, and perhaps politics, to continue delivering both social and economic benefits to society and business.

“It’s a seat at the table”: U of T's Robert Bothwell on Canada's Security Council ambitions

lavende4 — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 16:25:52 +0000

“It’s a seat at the table”: U of T's Robert Bothwell on Canada's Security Council ambitions

lavende4 Fri, 09/16/2016 - 12:25

Cutline

A meeting of the United Nations Security Council (Photo by Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Terry Lavender

Author legacy

Terry Lavender

Topic

Political Science

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the United Nations General Assembly next week, one of his goals, analysts say, is to position Canada as worthy of a seat on the 15-member UN Security Council.

Only five countries – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the the United States – are permanent members of the council. The other 10 countries are elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. Ireland and Norway are Canada's competitors in a three-way battle for two seats in the 2020 elections.

U of T News spoke to international relations and history professor Robert Bothwell about the significance of Canada’s bid for a Security Council seat.

Why is it important for Canada to be elected to the Security Council?
Internally, it’s a sign of the country’s standing internationally. Externally, it does place Canada at the centre of a significant diplomatic forum. It’s a seat at the table, security council votes can matter, and thus one is in a position to make Canadian views known, and to bargain with the other members. Of course, it also depends on having something to say, and respected representatives to say it. Those commodities were in short supply from 2006 to 2015.

Canada has been elected to the Security Council six times already. Is this experience an asset or a drawback in Trudeau’s bid for a seventh term?
I don’t think the successful elections matter much, except that they demonstrate that Canada is historically a notable member of the UN. What matters of course is the overwhelming defeat Canada suffered when Harper campaigned for a seat in 2010 and lost. So Justin is trying to recoup the damage Harper did to our reputation, which helped to account for our embarrassing defeat on his watch.

Does the Security Council have the same prestige and authority as it did during Canada’s previous terms on the Council?
It flits back and forth. We’re looking back to the 1940s here. It is still the central decision-making body of the UN, and it deals with very important issues. So is it important now, yes. Think North Korea.

Some people criticize the council for being unrepresentative and undemocratic and reflecting an outmoded, First World view of the world. Is there any validity to this criticism?
You are referring to the permanent members, the P5. There’s some truth to that.It reflects the world of 1945 and yes, that world no longer exists, but the Security Council in its frozen form is all we’ve got. I know Brazil, with its magnificent political record, wants on. Germany and Japan qualify in terms of the size of their economies. Nobody can figure out how to do it.

“A dream come true”: U of T students participate in UN dialogue on Responsibility to Protect

lavende4 — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 20:48:52 +0000

“A dream come true”: U of T students participate in UN dialogue on Responsibility to Protect

lavende4 Thu, 09/15/2016 - 16:48

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Tina Park: freedom from fear and freedom from want are critical for a more secure and peaceful future

Terry Lavender

Author legacy

Terry Lavender

Topic

CCR2P

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

International Relations