The Refugee Forum
About: Research and information on Canadian refugee law
The Refugee Forum is located at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre of the University of Ottawa. It is funded by the Maytree Foundation. The Forum enjoys a broad mandate to study and comment on Canada’s asylum system.
The Forum’s mandate:
- Research Canada’s asylum system
- Inform Canadians about refugee issues
- Propose improvements to Canada’s asylum system
The research is conducted by law students under the supervision of Peter Showler, the Director of the Refugee Forum.
B.A. (Carleton), LLB (Dalhousie), of the Bar of Ontario, Gordon F. Henderson Chair in Human Rights (2003-04).
Mr. Showler is the former chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (1999-2002). Previously Peter sat as a member of the IRB (1994-99) and practiced immigration and refugee law (1986-94) while serving as the Co-Director of Ottawa-Carleton Community Legal Services, a community legal clinic providing free legal services in traditional poverty law areas.
He teaches Immigration and Refugee Law and Advanced Refugee law at the University of Ottawa Law School. He is also the author of Refugee Sandwich: stories of exile and asylum, a work of both fiction and non-fiction that offers direct and intimate insights into the refugee claim process in Canada. Mr. Showler is the former Gordon Henderson Chair in Human Rights and is currently a Senior Associate of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre.
Emily Bates
Frances Shapiro Munn
Past Researcher Assistants:
Lisa Feinberg
Razmeen Joya
Valerie Kleinman
Predrag Tomic
Mieszko Wlodarczyk
Fadi Yachoua
Heather Neufeld
Anna Colombo
Erica See
Diane Hachem
Clarisa Waldman
Nina Modi
Clare Crummey
Nadine Edirmanasinghe
Laura Griffin
Antoinette Fekete
Camille Dumergue