EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

Deepening Canada-ASEAN Economic Relations
in the Context of ASEAN-Canada Strategic Partnership

October 11, 2023 @ 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. ET
The Bayview Yards, RBC Foundry
7 Bayview Station Road, Ottawa

This event will discuss ways to enhance Canada-ASEAN economic cooperation in the context of the ASEAN-Canada Strategic Partnership toward the shared goals of peace, security and stronger economies. Given recent geopolitical developments in Asia and the world, and the need for Canadian businesses to diversify and seek economic opportunities within the ASEAN market, the discussion will focus on Canada’s deepening economic engagement with ASEAN in its Indo-Pacific Strategy.

The event brings together participants from the academic, business and government sectors to discuss issues of importance to Canada-ASEAN relations.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
· Representatives of companies and business associations who wish to know more about the ASEAN market.
· Students, instructors and representatives of high schools, colleges or universities who want to learn more about ASEAN or arrange study tours of ASEAN countries.
· Government officials at all levels who wish to be updated on the latest development and seek to better understand the dynamics of Canada-ASEAN relationship.

SPEAKERS AND DISCUSSANTS: 

Her Excellency Anizan Siti Hajjar Adnin, High Commissioner of Malaysia to Canada; Current Chair of ASEAN Committee in Ottawa
His Excellency Daniel Tumpal Sumurung Simanjuntak, Ambassador of Indonesia to Canada
Alan Bowman, Director General, Southeast Asia Bureau, Global Affairs Canada
Jay Allen, Director General, Trade Negotiations, Global Affairs Canada
Trevor Kennedy, Vice President, Trade and International Policy, Business Council of Canada
Wilson Pearce, Senior Director, Global Business Development Operations, Canadian Commercial Corporation
Dr. Quynh Tran, Head, Vietnam Trade Office

Co-organized by the ASEAN Committee in Ottawa
With support from the York Centre for Asian Research, York University and Invest Ottawa.
This event is part of the Canada, ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific speaker series.

PLEASE REGISTER BELOW.

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PAST EVENTS

Canada-Malaysia Business: Capitalizing on the CPTPP

May 16, 2023 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET
Ontario Investment and Trade Centre, 250 Yonge St., Toronto

Are you keen to learn how the Comprehensive and Progressive Transpacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) can benefit Canadian companies interested in doing business in Malaysia? Malaysia’s ratification of the CPTPP and Canada’s recent announcement of its Indo-Pacific Strategy underline the value of deepening Canada’s economic engagement and facilitating trade with Southeast Asia.

The High Commissioner for Malaysia to Canada Her Excellency Anizan Siti Hajjar Adnin, former High Commissioner for Canada to Malaysia Ms. Julia Bentley and speakers will highlight how capitalizing on the CPTPP can unlock opportunities for Canadian business in Malaysia. This event will also be of interest to academic and government experts who follow economic relations, trade policy, Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and Canada’s engagement with ASEAN.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Organized by the Canada-ASEAN Initiatives and the Malaysia Canada Business Council.
Sponsored by Invest Selangor and Sun Life.

Saturday, 11 February 2023 | 14:00 EST | Virtually via Zoom

Ho Chi Minh wrote numerous essays throughout the 1920s about racial injustices against Black populations. Among his famous works of literature was La Race Noire (The Black Race) in 1925, a collection of 13 French essays on the topic. In 1924, Ho Chi Minh wrote “Class Solidarity,” a true story about the trial of José Léandro da Silva, a Black sailor in Brazil who was arrested during a labour strike in Rio de Janeiro and faced 30 years of imprisonment. First published in the French newspaper L’Humanité, “Class Solidarity” was printed almost two months later in Portuguese for the Brazilian newspaper O Paíz.

Join Luis Silva, the editor of the 2021 book, The Black Race by Ho Chi Minh and Selected Works on Systemic Racism, for a webinar on “Class Solidarity” and Ho Chi Minh’s other essays about the racial oppression of Black populations.

The event is moderated by Joe Pateman, Teaching Associate at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, UK, and introduced by Dai Trang Nguyen, York University, who compiled the 2021 book above. Register for this event at this link.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Luis Silva holds a bachelor in political science from York University, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Western Ontario. He is a college professor in Toronto.

Joe Pateman is a Teaching Associate at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, UK. He holds a PhD from the University of Nottingham. His main research interests are Marxism-Leninism, democratic theory, and black liberation ideologies. His recent publications include Public Libraries and Marxism (Routledge 2021).

Regional Connectivity Building in Southeast Asia

April 5, 2022 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm ET

This panel brings together three eminent commentators offering a Southeast Asian perspective on regional connectivity, smaller state external policy and elite legitimation. It highlights why the region matters in relation to Chinese foreign policy and Asian security. It also touches on the geopolitics of Southeast Asia’s quest for infrastructure and investment, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, economic, political and security implications of regional connectivity and engagement with partners outside ASEAN.

Co-presented by Canada-ASEAN Initiatives, YCAR, York University; Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto; and Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, University of Victoria.

For more information, please visit contact: info@canada-asean.org.

This event is part of the Canada, ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific speaker series.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Cheng-Chwee Kuik (National University of Malaysia) will address the geopolitics of regional connectivity building in Southeast Asia. He will cover: why connectivity cooperation is not only about big-power pushes, but also small-state pulls; how the connectivity-building process is reflective of the features of the “multiplex world”; and to what extent host-country agency is a function of internal resilience and external alternatives.

Lynette Ong (University of Toronto) will provide a political economy analysis of infrastructure development in authoritarian contexts, with a focus on how elite contestation and mass resentment surrounding China-backed projects played out in Malaysia’s historic 2018 election.

Amitav Acharya (American University, formerly of York University) will draw on his long-standing work on regionalism in Southeast Asia. He will discuss the political and security implications of regional connectivity projects with particular focus on their impact on ASEAN.

The webinar will be moderated by Julia Bentley, York Centre for Asian Research.

The Evolving Economic Geopolitical Landscape in the Indo-Pacific:
CPTPP, RCEP and Beyond

February 23, 2022 @ 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. ET

This event is presented by the Centre for Asian Studies, Institute of Malaysian and International Studies at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) and the Canada-ASEAN Initiatives, York Centre for Asian Research at York University.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Sufian Jusoh, National University of Malaysia
Juita Mohamad, IDEAS
Paul Evans, University of British Columbia

Chair: Julia Bentley, York Centre for Asian Research

For more information, please contact: info@canada-asean.org.

This event is part of the Canada, ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific speaker series.

Click HERE to watch the recording.

The panel discusses the contents of the book: “The Black Race by Ho Chi Minh and Selected Works on Systemic Racism,” compiled by Dai Trang Nguyen and edited by Luis Silva. The publication is a collection of 20 essays that were written in the 1920s and 1960s by the Vietnamese revolutionary leader that trace the roots of institutional racism within the United States to the European enslavement of Africans through colonial imperialism. His essays delved into such topics as lynching, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow and racial injustice, and the panel will examine how his past work is still relevant today within the social context of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Register for the talk here: https://yorku.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2Z1hC0OSTFO20BfZFEFkCg

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Joe Pateman, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England, United Kingdom
Under Imperialism, “Black Lives Don’t Matter”

Luis Silva (editor), Centennial College, Toronto, Ontario
Ho Chi Minh’s Captivating True Stories: Decoding Literary References of “The Black Race”

Dai Trang Nguyen (author), York University, Toronto, Ontario
Ho Chi Minh and America: More Connections Than We Thought

For more information, please contact: ycar@yorku.ca.

Canada and ASEAN:
Trade Diversification in the Indo-Pacific

November 26, 2021
Ontario Investment and Trade Centre, 250 Yonge St., Toronto

Event Recording

This seminar focuses on the need for Canada, and Ontario in particular, to diversify trade with Southeast Asian countries, many of whom have growing middle-class populations and a shared interest in ensuring free trade flows in the Indo-Pacific region.

For more information, please contact: info@canada-asean.org.

This event is part of the Canada, ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific speaker series.

Virtual Discussion on Canada’s 44th Parliament
and Asia Policy

October 29, 2021, 9:00 – 10:30 am ET

In collaboration with the Vietnam-Canada Friendship Association,
Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO)

For more information, please click here.

Photo by Jason Hafso on Unsplash

Webinar Recording

Opening remarks by The Honourable Victor Oh, Senator

Presentation by Sophia Leong, Canada-ASEAN Initiatives
Watch recording here. Download PDF here.

Presentation by The Honourable Bryon Wilfert, Former Member of Parliament. Watch recording here. Download PDF here.

Download PDF of presentation by Dr. Binh Lai, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam here.

Speakers include:

  1. The Honourable Victor Oh, Senator, Senate of Canada | Opening Remarks
  2. The Honourable Bryon Wilfert, Former Member of Parliament, Canada | Presentation: Canada’s 44th Election: Back to Square One
  3. Sophia Leong, Advisory Board Member, Canada-ASEAN Initiatives | Why Vietnam Matters to Canada
  4. Dr. Binh Lai, Deputy Director-General of the East Sea Institute, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam | Canada and the South China Sea from a Vietnamese Perspective
  5. Luis Silva, Former School Trustee, Toronto | Canada’s Diaspora Policy and the Vietnamese Canadian Community
  6. Dr. Pham Quang Minh, Vice-President, Vietnam-Canada Friendship Association | Concluding Remarks

Canada-ASEAN Connect:
Bringing Together Government, Business and Education Sectors

July 29, 2021
3:00 – 4:00 pm ET

This webinar features speakers and guests from the government, education, and business sectors. Participants will gain a fuller picture of the Canada-ASEAN relationship in business and education, and learn more about ASEAN opportunities and how to promote stronger relations in the future. 

For more information, please click here.

Webinar Recording

SPEAKERS

Trade Commissioner Service contact: Eve.Rotstein@international.gc.ca, Toronto Regional Office
Canada-ASEAN Business Council website: https://www.canasean.com/

VIDEO CLIPS

Centre for Southeast Asia Research, University of British Columbia webpage: https://csear.iar.ubc.ca/
Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Toronto webpage: https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/cseas/
Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada website: https://www.asiapacific.ca/
Trade Facilitation Office website: www.tfocanada.ca