Securing Canada-Caribbean Futures: Repositioning Traditional and Emerging Challenges
The Canada-Caribbean Institute (CCI) held the 4th Annual CCI Research Symposium (CCI-RS), at the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) in Trinidad and Tobago.
This year the focus was the many security challenges, which are increasingly interconnected and often transcend borders. The Symposium asked the question:
How can the Canada-Caribbean region be better positioned to respond to both traditional and emerging security challenges affecting states, societies, and individuals?
The symposium brought together researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and stakeholders across disciplines to exchange ideas, share insights, and explore innovative solutions to the wide range of issue that can be said to impinge “security”.
The Program and a collection of the submitted abstracts from panelists is available for download below.
For some of the media overage of the Symposium see Media coverage of CCI Research Symposium
Note: The videos that follow focus on the plenary sessions…Opening Ceremonies and Keynote Presentations. Videos from the various Panel discussions will be posted as they become available.
Day 1 – Opening Ceremonies
The Opening Ceremonies featured welcome from Dr. Talia Esnard, The UWI, St. Augustine and Chair of the CCI Research and Scholarship Committee and Prof. Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal, The UWI, St. Augustine.
Remarks were delivered from CCI Leadership (Prof. Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor, The UWI; Dr Rhonda McEwen, President and Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University U of T; Prof. Erica Sturridge for Prof. Lincoln Edwards, President Northern Caribbean University; and Dr. Gervan Fearon, President, George Brown Polytechnic)
Hon. Senator Dr. Natialie Chaitan-Maharaj, Government of Trinidad and Tobago; and Mr. Michael Callan, High Commissioner of Canada to Trinidad and Tobago also provided remarks.
The vote of thanks was from Sandrea Maynard, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Affairs, The UWI.
The video of the Opening Ceremonies can be found below.
Day 1 – Keynote Presentation
The Hon. Bob Rae, Canada’s former Ambassador to the United Nations shares wide-ranging views on Canada-Caribbean relations, the shared colonial history of the Caribbean and Canada, reparations, security challenges in Haiti and the importance of international cooperation in the future.
The Keynote Presentation is available on the CCI YouTube channel. Amb. Rae has posted the prepared text of his remarks on his Substack Channel. See The Caribbean Matters to Us All.
Youth Forum
One of the areas of focus for the Symposium was to seek to centre experiences and perspectives of young people across Canada and the Caribbean, while creating opportunities for collective dialogue, exchange and action. This was framed as a strategic initiative to drive regional and international collaboration and to co-produce youth lead recommendations to drive gender-responsive educational reforms.
The Youth Forum was chaired by Dr. Colwick Wilson, President of University of the Southern Caribbean, with presentations by Dr. Beverly Jean Daniel (Toronto Metropolitan University), Prof. Carl James (York University) and Dr. Lisa Edwards (University of Guyana).
The video of this forum is below.
In addition to the Youth Forum, the CCI partnered with UNICEF and the U-Report platform to engage Caribbean and Canadian you on some of the issues raised.
Day 2 – Keynote Presentations
The Keynote Presentations continued on Day 2.
Prof. Andy Knight (University of Alberta) discusses the changing international environment and the challenges facing small states. “Understanding the Interregnum: Challenges to the Existing World Order”.
Prof. Knight’s slides
Mr. Callixtus Joseph (CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security IMPACS) presents “Securing Caribbean Futures: Regional Security Cooperation in an Age of Competition, Geopolitical Fragmentation, and Converging Threats”.
Mr. Joseph’s slides
The video of the presentations can be found below.
Call for Papers
The Call for Papers is below…
Final Program
The Final Program is available below…
Background on some of the security challenges facing the region
See our page Caribbean/Canada security issues