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Events

Harry Crowe Foundation Conference 2025

Details will be available closer to the time of the conference.


Harry Crowe Foundation Conference 2022

Academic Freedom and the Law // February 10-11, 2022 (by videoconference) 

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Academic freedom in Canada is the right of academic staff to teach and discuss, to research and publish, to participate in the academic governance of and to criticize their administration, and to exercise their civil liberties, including freedom of expression, without institutional censorship. The exercise of academic freedom is both facilitated by and constrained by the law. This conference will explore the legal foundations of academic freedom, as well as the legal limits placed on it with a view to strengthening the protections for academic freedom in Canada.

Speaker Presentations

Harry Crowe Conference Recording: February 10th, 2022

Harry Crowe Conference Recording: February 11th, 2022


Olivieri Lecture 2021

Navigating the Pandemic’s Most Difficult Decisions // Maxwell Smith, Western University // November 23, 2021 (by videoconference)

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Setting priorities for the allocation of COVID-19 vaccines; vaccination mandates and passports; school closures; lockdowns; travel restrictions. The COVID-19 pandemic has required policymakers to make profoundly difficult decisions that have had far-reaching impacts on the public’s health and well-being. This presentation will explore the crucial role of ethics in navigating the pandemic’s most difficult decisions, the role of the ethicist as an advisor to decision-makers in this context, and, finally, how thinking about ethics in a pandemic has in many cases required a shift from traditional approaches to ethics in medicine and health care.