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CONFERENCE

Dr. J. Patrick Boyer, QC

Patrick Boyer is a distinguished Canadian university professor, lawyer, political scientist, author, journalist and former Member of Parliament. Author of more than a dozen books, and almost 400 columns and articles for various Canadian publications, he has spent much of his academic and political life seeking to strengthen democratic accountability and democratic structures and public policy procedures in Canada and around the world.

Nine of his 13 published books deal with the principles and details of Canadian democracy. He is also author of the definitive Canadian legal texts on election law, a series of six books covering all aspects of national, provincial and municipal voting.

In his latest book, “Just Trust Us”: The Erosion of Accountability in Canada, published in February 2003, Dr. Boyer draws together new patterns that help to explain why Canadians who care deeply about their country feel perplexed and angered by the absence of accountability in Canadian government.

For a decade-and-a-half, Patrick Boyer participated directly in democratic institutions. In 1983 he was appointed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as executive director of the Government of Canada’s Task Force on Conflict of Interest, and largely authored its 1984 report Ethical Conduct in the Public Sector that subsequently became a central source for Canadian policy in this area.

From 1984 to 1993 as an elected Member of Parliament, he chaired committees on election law reform, equality rights and the status of disabled persons. Recommendations resulted in important changes in Canadian law and policy. For many years his interest in strengthening democracy has extended far beyond Canada’s borders and Dr. Boyer was directly involved with efforts to establish and strengthen democracy in central and eastern Europe.

In 1993, Patrick Boyer ran for the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, emphasizing the need to change the conduct of government and the character of the party by replacing the “top-down approach.”

In the mid-1990s, he began teaching a new course at the University of Toronto, offered in both the Faculty of Law and the Department of Political Science, titled “The Law of Canadian Democracy.”

In 1999 and 2000 he taught two courses in Canadian Constitutional Law at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. He is also a member of the Faculty of the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph, Ontario, where he teaches courses on politics, accountability, democracy and ethics.

A member of the Nobel Prize-winning Canadian Pugwash Group, Patrick Boyer is chairman of Pugwash Thinkers’ Lodge in Nova Scotia and a past president of the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs.

Patrick Boyer holds an Honours B.A. degree in Economics and Political Science from Carleton University in Ottawa, a Master’s degree in History from the University of Toronto, and a Doctor of Law degree, also from the University of Toronto. He has studied international law at the Academy of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, The Netherlands and was awarded an honourary doctorate by the University of Ottawa in June 1998 in recognition of his work in the fields of democracy and women’s health.