This year, the Simons Centre has launched a Speaker Series, bringing together local experts as well as internationally renowned scholars and professionals to engage the public in dialogue and raise awareness about various issues in the fields of arms control and non-proliferation, with a focus on the Simons Center’s five issue areas.

Previous lectures and speakers include:

o   Roundtable discussion with Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, lawyer, and human rights activist in Iran, March 2008.  Dr. Ebadi discussed the current state of democracy in Iran, and answered questions on topics including the international community’s role in Iran, human rights issues, and her work advocating for dissidents. 

o    “Japan’s Nuclear Policy” by Dr. Mitsuru Kurosawa, a leading Japanese scholar in the field of arms control and non-proliferation in East Asia, November 2007

o    “Iran, Regime Reform and Its Nuclear Ambitions” by Mr. Akbar Ganji, a renowned Iranian dissident, author, journalist, and human rights activist in support of democratization in Iran, November 2007.

o  “Turning point in nuclear relations? The effects of the 1974 Indian nuclear bomb test” by Dr. Robert Anderson, Director of Simon Fraser Universities School of Communication, November 2007.

o  “India's Debated Nuclear Status” by Dr. Karthika Sasikumar, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Simons Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Research, November 2007.

o    “Iran’s Generation Next: Snapshots of Life for Youth in Iran” by Ms. Deborah Campbell, an author, lecturer and journalist who has written on international affairs for the Guardian, Asia Times, Adbusters, The Walrus and Ms. Magazine, March 2007.

o  “Iran’s Nuclear Crisis in Context” Public Symposium, by Dr. Ali Nayeri, Dr. Houchang Hassan-Yari, Dr. Houshang Amirahmadi and Mr. James Devine, March 2007.

o    “Iran, Human Rights and the Nuclear Question: What are the Connections?”  by Dr. Payam Akhavan, Professor of International Law at McGill University and President and co-Founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre in New Haven, Connecticut who has also served as the Legal Advisor to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague (1994-2000) as well as Special Advisor to the United Nations in Cambodia, Guatemala, East Timor, and Rwanda, January 2007.

o  “Missle Defense: Round One” by Mr. Steven Staples, Founder and Director of the Rideau Institute and one of the key organizers of the opposition to missile defence in Canada, November 2006.

o  "Calculated Risks? Scientific Expertise and the Problem of Missile Defense, 1957-2005" by Dr. Rebecca Slayton, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Science Technology and Society Program at Stanford University, November 2006

o  "New Nuclear Cooperation with India" by Dr. Kanti P. Bajpai, Headmaster, Doon School, India formerly of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, November 2006.