Experiencing Human Rights: How Inclusion in the Schools Educates a New Generation to a Human Rights Perspective
Delivered by: Dr. Gordon Porter, Director of Inclusive Education Canada
Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 7 pm
Ted Daigle Auditorium, Edmund Casey Hall
St. Thomas University
There will be a reception, following the lecture, in Sir James Dunn Hall Cafeteria
Programme Moderator: Dr. Amanda DiPaolo Director, Human Rights Program
Welcome: Dr. Michael Boudreau, Dean of Humanities
Introduction of Ms. Susan Butterfield, Guest Lecturer Chair, AHRC Executive Committee
Lecturer: Dr. Gordon Porter Director, Inclusion Education Canada
Concluding Remarks: Dr. Amanda DiPaolo Director, Human Rights Program
Dr. Gordon Porter
Director of Inclusive Education Canada
Gordon Porter is the director of Inclusive Education Canada, an initiative of the Canadian Association for Community Living. He is also a former chairperson of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission. He was director of Student Services for the schools in the Woodstock area, after serving as a teacher and principal in several New Brunswick schools. He finished his teaching career as a professor of Education at the University of Maine in Presque Isle.
Dr. Porter is an internationally known expert on inclusive education who has consulted, lectured, and conducted training in numerous countries around the world—most recently in Portugal, Peru, Columbia, Austria, and Panama. In March 2014, he made a presentation to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva. In August 2009, Dr. Porter received an Honorary Doctorate from the National Pedagogical University of Peru in recognition of his work on inclusive education. In recognition of his long career of distinguished service, he was awarded the Order of Canada in 2010 and the Order of New Brunswick in 2014.
Dr. Abdul Qaiyum Lodhi
1937 – 1991
Dr. Lodhi was a sterling champion of human rights and social justice. He was a distinguished teacher, scholar and mentor at St. Thomas University. In addition to teaching and research in which he created strong interests in his students, he earned distinction in being one of the main co-founders of the Atlantic Human Rights Centre as well as its first director, the designer of St. Thomas University’s certificate programme in Criminology and Social Justice and the recipient of the annual New Brunswick Human Rights Commission Human Rights Award in 1989. His vision of peace and understanding among peoples, underscoring the celebration of their similarities through respect and acceptance lives on.
The Dr. Abdul Q. Lodhi Memorial Lecture and workshop series seek to fulfill his vision of working towards racial tolerance and understanding. Distinguished speakers have included John Edwards, Commissioner of Corrections (1996), The Honorable Senator Erminie J. Cohen (1997), Moy Tam, Executive Director, Canadian Race Relations Foundation (2000), Errol Mendes, Director of the University of Ottawa Human Rigthts Centre (2004), Wayne MacKay, Professor of Law at Dalhousie University (2005), Senator Mobina Jaffer (2006), Lieutenant Governor Mayann Francis (2007), Dr. Ayman AI-Yassini (2008), and Mr. Art Miki (2010).
