The 2025 Conference
Liberal Democracy in the Rearview Mirror?
A Section 1 Conference in collaboration with with the Canadian International Council and Massey College. Leading experts address the crisis of democratic backsliding and the state of liberal constitutionalism at home and around the world.
Liberal Democracy in the Rearview Mirror?
Watch the conference right here:
Principal’s Welcome
Dr. James Orbinski
Peter L. Biro: From Liberal Democracy to Electoral Autocracy: On Decommissioning the Machinery of Accountability
First Morning Panel
Liberal democracy in decline around the world: what is really happening? (Moderated by Peter L. Biro)
- Sabine Anne Sparwasser, (former German Ambassador to Canada): A Diplomat’s Observations and Reflections
- Lucan Way, (U of T Political Science): Americas Transition to Competitive Authoritarianism
- Sanjay Ruparelia, (Jarislowsky Democracy Chair, Toronto Metropolitan University): Democratic Backsliding in the Global South
- Michael Bonner, (Historian, “In Defense of Civilization”): The Theological Origin of Liberalism
Second Morning Panel
Liberal constitutionalism in Canada: Democracy, civil liberties, and civic culture. (Moderated by Peter L. Biro)
- Nicolas Rouleau, (Constitutional litigator and CIC co- Chair): On the Basic Architecture of Liberal Constitutional Democracy
- Dennis Pilon, (Chair, Department of Politics, Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University): The State of ‘Actually Existing Democracy’ in Canada
- Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, (immediate past ED and General Counsel, CCLA): The Notwithstanding Clause as Window into the State of Civil Liberties
- John English, (Historian, scholar, former Member of Parliament): “On the decline of political parties at the constituency level”
Afternoon Keynote
Thomas Homer-Dixon: Defending Canada’s Democracy:
A Strategic Framework
Afternoon Panel
Rescuing, Deepening and Promoting Democracy (Moderated by Nicolas Rouleau)
- Sascha Priewe, (Director of Collections and Public Programs at the Aga Khan Museum): On Cultural Institutions and Civic Engagement
- Sabreena Delhon, (CEO, Samara Centre for Democracy): Online Toxicity and Abuse in the Election Context: the Bad News Along with the Silver Linings
- Seána Glennon, (University of Ottawa Faculty of Law): On Citizens’ Assemblies and Deliberative Democracy: Ireland’s Abortion Law Reform – a Case Study
- George Takach, (Lawyer, author of Cold War 2.0): On the Use and Role of AI: the Risks and the Opportunities
Thomas Homer-Dixon (PhD, M.I.T.) is Executive Director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University. Previously, he held a University Research Chair in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo and was the CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo. He was founding Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and prior to that the founding Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto, where he held the George Ignatieff Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies. His research focuses on threats to global security in the 21st century, including economic instability, climate change, energy scarcity,
ideological polarization, and mass violence. He is the author of, inter alia,
Commanding Hope: The Power We Have to Renew a World in Peril; The Upside of
Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization; and The Ingenuity
Gap.
“Defending Canadian Democracy: A strategic framework for revitalizing our society”.
Thomas Homer-Dixon's paper
Peter L. Biro (Founder and President, Section1 and Massey College Senior Fellow.) is a lawyer, NGO leader, and the Founder and President of democracy think-tank, Section 1. He is a Senior Fellow of Massey College and of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, a Centre Associate of the University of British Columbia Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies, and Chair Emeritus of the Jane Goodall Institute. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, where he teaches constitutional law in the GPLLM program. He is the Editor of Constitutional Democracy Under Stress: A Time For Heroic Citizenship, and The Notwithstanding Clause and the Canadian Charter: Rights, Reforms, and Controversies.
“From Liberal Democracy to Electoral Autocracy: On Decommissioning the Machinery of Accountability”.
- The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell (former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario)
- Lucan Way, (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is the Distinguished Professor of Democracy in the Department of Political Science at the University ofToronto and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His research focuses on globalpatterns of democracy and dictatorship. His most recent book (with StevenLevitsky), is Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of DurableAuthoritarianism. He also wrote Pluralism by Default: Weak Autocrats and the Riseof Competitive Politics. His first book (also with Steven Levitsky) was CompetitiveAuthoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War.
- Michael Bonner (In Defense of Civilization) is a veteran of Canadian federal and provincial politics and ahistorian of ancient Iran. He has published several monographs and articles onIranian history. His most recent book is In Defense of Civilization: How Our Past CanRenew Our Present is a diagnosis of our present social and political malaise.
- Sanjay Ruparelia, (Jarislowsky Democracy Chair, Toronto Metropolitan University) is an Associate Professor of Politics at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he holds the Jarislowsky Democracy Chair, and a Senior Fellow ofthe Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. His books include Divided We Govern:coalition politics in modern India, The Indian Ideology, and Understanding India’sNew Political Economy. He co-hosts On the Frontlines of Democracy, a monthlypodcast and lecture series, and regularly contributes to the media in NorthAmerica and Asia.
- Sabine Anne Sparwasser (former German Ambassador to Canada) retired in 2024 as Germany’s Ambassador to Canada. She hassince become Dean of the Mercator Leadership College and continues to workoccasionally for the German Foreign Office as special envoy. In the forty years ofher career in the German Foreign Service, Sabine Sparwasser served in Brussels EU,London, Costa Rica, Ottawa and Toronto. She was Deputy spokesperson of theForeign Office, and Head of the Middle East Division. She led recruitment andtraining in the Foreign Service Academy and was Political Director for the SouthernHemisphere.
- Dennis Pilon (Chair, Department of Politics, Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University) is Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics at York University. He is author of Wrestling with Democracy: Voting Systems as Politics in the Twentieth Century West and The Politics of Voting: Reforming Canada’s Electoral System as well as over 25 published academic papers focusing on Canadian and comparative democratization.
- George Takach (Lawyer, author of Cold War 2.0) is a former tech lawyer who is now a Senior Fellow at the BillGraham Centre for Contemporary History at the University of Toronto. TheChinese-language version of his 2024 book, Cold War 2.0: Artificial Intelligence inthe New Battle Between China, Russia and America, was recently released byCommonwealth Publishing in Taiwan.
- Nicholas Rouleau (Constitutional litigator and CIC co-Chair) is an appellate and constitutional lawyer and the co-chair of theCanadian International Council. In addition to his legal practice, he consults onissues of law, democracy, and international development and has taught onconstitutional law, legal, and political philosophy at law schools in Canada andIndia. He is also the President of Ontario’s Provincial Advisory Committee onFrancophone Affairs and a Member of Massey College.
- Mendelsohn Aviv (immediate past ED and General Counsel, CCLA) has been advocating for rights, justice, freedom anddemocracy for over 25 years, and is the former Executive Director and GeneralCounsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Her policy and advocacy workinclude submissions to legislators and public bodies, stewarding litigation beforethe Supreme Court of Canada, and engaging the public through the media,teaching, and writing.
- Sascha Priewe, (Director of Collections and Public Programs at the Aga Khan Museum) is the Aga Khan Museum’s Director of Collections & PublicPrograms. He is also the President of ICOM Canada and a co-founder of the NorthAmerican Cultural Diplomacy Initiative. He holds professorial appointments at theUniversity of Toronto and Queen’s University and is a Senior Fellow of MasseyCollege.
- Sabreena Delhon, (Executive Director, Samara Centre for Democracy)
is the CEO of the Samara Centre for Democracy, a non-partisanregistered charity with a mission to realize a resilient democracy with an engagedpublic and responsive institutions. She is also a Senior Fellow at Massey College.
- Seána Glennon, (University of Ottawa Faculty of Law) is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa Public Law Centre funded by the Unwritten Constitutional Norms and Principles project, which examines unwritten constitutionalism in the UK, Canada and Germany. Her doctoral research focused on the role of citizen deliberation in constitutional and legislative reform processes, and the novel institutional innovations, such as citizens’ assemblies, that can facilitate this. Her postdoctoral research project is examining how these bodies can be institutionalized within the broader system of representative government in Canada. Seána holds law degrees from Trinity College Dublin and the University of Toronto. She completed her PhD at University College Dublin. Seána previously practised as a lawyer in an international law firm in Dublin, specialising in public and administrative law.
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John English is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo and a Senior Fellow of Massey College. He has served as a Member of Parliament and has written biographies of three Canadian prime ministers. He is co-chair of the Canadian International Council.