Canadian Tamil Congress successfully organized the S.J.V. Chelvanayakam Memorial Lecture at the University of Toronto
The S.J.V. Chelvanayakam Memorial Lecture, in recognition of his 125th Birth Anniversary was organized by the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) with the support of University of Toronto on Thursday April 13th 2023: 6:30 PM at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC).
Main speakers for the memorial lecture included Prof. David Cameron, University of Toronto Scarborough and Prof. Ashwini Vasanthakumar, Queen’s Law School.
CTC President Sivan Ilangko, Parliamentary Secretary for Minister of Justice and Member of Parliament Gary Anandasangaree and Mr. Velupillai Thangavelu also spoke at the event. Malliha Wilson, Former Assistant Deputy Attorney General of the Government of Ontario moderated the Q & A session and Lisa Lemon, Executive Director, Development and Alumni Relations for University of Toronto Scarborough emceed the event.
Profiles of the Main Speakers for the S.J.V. Chelvanayakam Memorial Lecture
Prof. David Cameron, University of Toronto Scarborough
David Cameron, a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, did his BA at UBC and his MSc and PhD at LSE. His career has been divided between government service and academic life, with a focus in both professional areas on federalism and intergovernmental relations, and on Canadian constitutional and national-unity issues. He has also worked with international agencies on ethno-cultural relations and constitution-making in post-conflict societies, such as Sri Lanka, Iraq and Somalia. He was a member of an international team working on governance arrangements for the Old City of Jerusalem. He is the author of Nationalism, Self-Determination and the Quebec Question; The Social Thought of Rousseau and Burke: A Comparative Study; Taking Stock: Canadian Studies in the 90’s; The Referendum Papers: Essays on Secession and National Unity (ed.); and Cycling into Saigon: The Conservative Transition in Ontario (with Graham White); and The Daily Plebiscite: Federalism, Nationalism and Canada (with Robert Vipond). He is a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, where, from 2013-2019, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science. He is currently Special Advisor to the President of the University.
Prof. Ashwini Vasanthakumar, Queen’s Law School
Ashwini Vasanthakumar is an Associate Professor and Queen’s National Scholar in Legal & Political Philosophy at Queen’s Law School in Canada. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard, her law degree from Yale Law School, and PhD from Oxford, where she studied as a Canadian Rhodes Scholar. Her first book, The Ethics of Exile, was published by Oxford University Press in 2021. Her research currently focuses on oppression and resistance, transitional justice, and the ethics of migration.