Past Presidents

Hon. Warren Allmand, P.C., O.C., Q.C.

1997-2002

Warren Allmand was appointed President of Rights & Democracy in February 1997 following a 33-year career as a Liberal Member of Parliament for the Montreal riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. A lawyer, admitted to the Québec Bar in 1958, he holds degrees from St. Francis Xavier University (Antigonish, N.S.); McGill University (Montreal) and a certificate of Comparative Law from Université de Paris and the Institute of Comparative Law. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in January 1977 and was named a member of the Order of Canada in July 2000.

Mr. Allmand has held a number of cabinet posts, Solicitor General (1972-76) Minister of Indians Affairs and Northern Affairs (1976-78) and Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs (1978-79). Throughout his parliamentary career he has worked against apartheid in South Africa and for the abolition of the death penalty, tougher gun control legislation, arms control and disarmament and the protection of human rights of disabled persons, native Canadians, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, prison inmates, and minority groups.

He was International President of Parliamentarians for Global Action, a member of Parliamentarians for East Timor, Parliamentary Friends of Tibet and a member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. He remains active in a number of local community-based organizations in Montreal.

Mr. Allmand has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law - St. Thomas University, Fredericton, N.B. (1998), an Honorary Doctorate of Law - St. Francis Xavier University (1996) and has won the World Peace Award, World Federalists of Canada (1990).

The Hon. Ed Broadbent, P.C, C.C.

1990-1996

Ed Broadbent was appointed President of the newly created International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development in1990, a position he held until 1996. Mr. Broadbent is currently the New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre.

Mr. Broadbent  was leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada from 1975 to 1989 when he represented the riding of Oshawa. In his final speech in Parliament, in December 1989, he moved a motion, unanimously adopted, which committed the government of Canada to end child poverty in the country by the year 2000.

Mr. Broadbent obtained an M.A. in philosophy at the University of Toronto, in 1959 and his doctorate in political science from the University of Toronto in 1965. He taught at York University for three years before being elected to parliament in 1968.  In 1996, he was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University. This was followed by a visiting fellowship at the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs, Carleton University and a visiting professorship in the department of Political Science at McGill University in Montreal. He is currently a fellow at the School of Policy Studies, Queen's University.