Irwin Cotler to Receive 2022 Award for Excellence

The Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy announced today that the Honourable Irwin Cotler will be the 39th recipient of the Society’s annual Award for Excellence in the Cause of Parliamentary Democracy.

“The Churchill Society is honoured to present Professor Cotler with this year’s ‘Award for Excellence’ as he shares Winston Churchill’s firm belief that fundamental rights are too often ‘menaced and precarious’ and that they must be vigilantly guarded from the forces of tyranny,” said society chair Cameron MacKay, “and Professor Cotler has long been a vocal and effective champion of human rights both in and out of parliament.”

Irwin Cotler served as the 47th Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 to 2006 in the government of Prime Minister Paul Martin.  Mr. Cotler was elected as the Member of Parliament for Mount Royal at a by-election in November 1999 (where he received 92% of the vote) and was re-elected in each of the next five general elections.  He did not run in the 2015 election.   

As Attorney General Irwin Cotler recommended the appointment of two Justices to the Supreme Court of Canada, Louise Charron and Rosalie Abella.  Professor Cotler was a professor of law at McGill University and director of its Human Rights Program until his election to the House of Commons.  He is Founder and International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, an Officer of the Order of Canada and of the National Order of Quebec.

Professor Cotler will receive the award in person at a dinner to be held at the Arcadian Court in Toronto on 30 November, 2022, where the keynote speaker will be John Fraser, former Master of Massey College.  Details on the award dinner are available here, and individual tickets may be purchased here.

A biography of Irwin Cotler is available here. 

Explore past recipients of the Churchill Society Award for Excellence here.