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Distinguished Canadian voices for human rights and against racism Prof. Irwin Cotler and Dr. Karen Mock addressed the ongoing international challenge of antisemitism for an AIJAC Live Online event on 6 October 2021.

Prof. Irwin Cotler is the International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, an Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and longtime Member of Parliament, and an international human rights lawyer. A constitutional and comparative law scholar, Professor Cotler is the author of numerous publications and seminal legal articles and has written upon and intervened in landmark Charter of Rights cases in the areas of free speech, freedom of religion, minority rights, peace law and war crimes justice.

A leading Parliamentarian on the global stage, Prof. Cotler has been Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Group for Human Rights in Iran; Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Group of Justice for Sergei Magnitsky; Chair of the All-Party Save Darfur Parliamentary Coalition; Chair, Canadian section, of the Parliamentarians for Global Action and Member of its international council.

Dr. Karen Mock is an educational psychologist, teacher educator and equity/diversity facilitator. She is former Executive Director of the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada and of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Considered a pioneer in the field, she developed and taught the first course in Canada on Multicultural/Anti-Racist Teacher Education. She has been qualified by the Canadian courts and tribunals as an expert on human rights, discrimination, racism, antisemitism, hate crime and hate group activity.

Dr. Mock is currently President of JSpaceCanada, raising the progressive Jewish voice. Well known for her interfaith and intercultural work, she remains an active founding member of the Anti-racism Multicultural Education Network of Ontario, the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims, the Canadian Arab Jewish Leadership Dialogue and the Enhancing Social Justice Education project. She was the founder and co-chair of the International Jewish Caucus for the lead-up to and participation in the UN World Conference Against Racism, and was on the official Canadian delegation in Durban, South Africa in 2001.