“Red Notice” author Bill Browder joins Irwin Cotler for a discussion on human rights April 29
A key figure in the fight against corruption in Russia will speak alongside former Justice Minister Hon. Irwin Cotler on issues of human rights and the worldwide promotion of the Magnitsky Act next month in Montreal.
Bill Browder, an American-born investor now based in London who authored the international bestseller “Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice,” is widely described in the international press as one of the Russian government’s principle adversaries. He was once head of the largest foreign investment firm in Russia before its assets were seized. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who then denounced government tax fraud, was imprisoned and died awaiting trial in custody.
Canada’s Magnitsky law – the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act – is designed to prevent human rights abusers from profiting from their crimes in Canada. Cotler was instrumental in sensitizing Canadians to Magnitsky’s cause, and the Act was passed unanimously by Parliament in October 2017.
Journalist and author Jonathan Kay will host the event while former Mount Royal MP Cotler will join Browder for a discussion.
“I look forward to being with my hero, Professor Cotler,” Browder said. “He is the man who made the Canadian Magnitsky Act possible and a tireless defender of human rights. For corrupt Russian officials, nothing is more important than the money they killed for in Russia and through the Magnitsky Act, we’ve found a way to take away that money in the West.”
A long-time champion of human rights in Canada and abroad, the revered ex-Justice Minister and Attorney General currently serves as chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights; an organization he founded to unite international parliamentarians, scholars, jurists and various defenders of human rights.
“Bill Browder is a human rights hero who is principally responsible for the adoption of Global Justice for Sergei Magnitsky legislation,” Cotler said. “The enactment of such legislation by Canada is a historic milestone in the combating of the culture of criminality and corruption, and the impunity that underpins them. The legislation will ensure that major human rights violators are held accountable while protecting Canadian security and the Canadian people.”
Browder recently told the BBC that “I don’t spend my life living in fear because if I did, they would succeed.”
An excerpt from the New York Times review of Red Notice:
The grandson of the head of the American Communist Party commits the ultimate act of rebellion: He gets a business degree from Stanford. From there, he goes on to build the biggest hedge fund in Russia. After exposing widespread government corruption, he gets expelled from the country. While he’s gone, the Kremlin raids his fund and perpetrates an elaborate financial fraud. The lawyer investigating the crime is tortured and dies in prison. He avenges his lawyer’s death, exposing a cover-up at the highest levels of the Putin regime.
Here’s the craziest part: It’s all true…
Tickets are available to the general public in advance online or by calling 514-937-8927 ext.101.
WHAT: An Evening with Bill Browder featuring Hon. Irwin Cotler and host Jonathan Kay
WHEN: April 29, 2017 – VIP cocktails at 5:30pm, lecture and discussion at 7:15pm
WHERE: Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue, Westmount (Montreal), Quebec
About Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (CABGU) was formed on July 27th, 1973. Since then it has played a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion’s vision of creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University’s expertise locally and around the globe.
