About Our Speakers

Click on the button below each image to read more about each of our Annual Meeting speakers. Presented in alphabetical order.

More speaker announcements coming soon!

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Karen Bartlett
London, England

Journalist

Author of Escape from Kabul -The Afghan Women Judges Who Fled the Taliban and Those They Left Behind

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Sheila Block, Fellow
Toronto, ON

Samuel E. Gates Award Recipient

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Jonathan De Souza, Ph.D.
London, ON

Associate Professor, Don Wright Faculty of Music and Associate Member, Western Centre for Brain and Mind 

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Kathryn L. Howe, MD PhD FRCSC
Toronto, ON

Vascular Surgeon-Scientist, University Health Network, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre

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Maria M. Mitousis, Esq.
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Beverley McLachlin Access to Justice Award Recipient

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DeMaurice Smith, Fellow
Bethesda, MD

Author of Turf Wars and former executive director of the National Football League Players Association.

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Matthew Teitelbaum
Toronto, ON/Boston, MA

Canadian Art Historian and former director of the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Panel Presentation: The Darryl Boyd and John Walker Cases - Redress for the Wrongfully Convicted

Panelists Include the three pro bono lawyers who banded together to represent wrongfully convicted Darryl Boyd, who spent 27 years in prison, ultimately securing the largest wrongful conviction jury verdict awarded to a single person in U.S. history for him and his family.

 

Panel Presentation: How Judges Across the World Banded Together to Rescue Women Judges from Afghanistan, moderated by Karen Bartlett, UK journalist and author of “Escape From Kabul”

Moderated by:

Panelists Include:

  • Judge Vanessa Ruiz, District Columbia Court of Appeals, a US member of the International Associated of Women Judges, who was involved in the escape and resettlement
  • Justice Mona Lynch, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia; Canadian member of the International Associated of Women Judges who was involved in the escape and resettlement
  • Tayeba Parsa, formerly a Judge in the Commercial Court in Afghanistan.
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