About Us
The Centre for Law and Democracy believes that democracy can flourish only when certain civil and political rights are respected. As such, the Centre works to promote, protect and develop the foundational rights to freedom expression, to vote and participate in governance, to access information and to freedom of assembly and association.
CLD works collaboratively with NGOs around the world, on a consultancy or small project basis, to carry out projects aimed at boosting respect for key human rights. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you have a project which you feel might benefit from our specialised legal and policy expertise.
The Centre for Law and Democracy is a Company Limited by Guarantee (non-profit corporation) established under the Nova Scotia Companies Act and governed by a Board of directors. The directors bear legal responsibility for overseeing the organisation, while the day-to-day work is done by our staff, consultants and interns. Short bios, along with pictures, of the directors and staff are listed under Who We Are.
Vision
The Centre for Law and Democracy believes in a world in which robust respect for all human rights underpins strong participatory democracy at all levels of governance – local, national, regional and international – leading to social justice and equality.
Mission
The Centre for Law and Democracy works to promote, protect and develop those human rights which serve as the foundation for or underpin democracy, including the rights to freedom of expression, to vote and participate in governance, to access information and to freedom of assembly and association.
Goals and Strategies:
We achieve our mission through:
- Conducting trainings of and awareness raising with members of civil society, the legal profession, journalists, decision-makers and the general public on foundational rights for democracy.
- Conducting research and drafting exercises to contribute to the development and implementation of foundational rights for democracy.
- Preparing analyses of laws and draft laws to assist civil society and decision-makers with advocacy and law reform initiatives.
- Preparing submissions and technical assistance to governmental, legislative and international bodies.
- Providing support for litigation through amicus curiae briefs or third-party interventions.
- Undertaking other efforts, in collaboration with civil society and others, to promote greater respect for foundational rights.
Our Team
Toby Mendel
Executive Director
Prior to founding the Centre for Law and Democracy in January 2010, Toby Mendel was for over 12 years Senior Director for Law at ARTICLE 19, a human rights NGO focusing on freedom of expression and the right to information. He has provided expertise on these rights to a wide range of actors including the World Bank, various UN and other intergovernmental bodies, and numerous governments and NGOs in countries all over the world. In these various roles, he has often played a leading role in drafting legislation in the areas of the right to information and media regulation. Before joining ARTICLE 19, he worked as a senior human rights consultant with Oxfam Canada and as a human rights policy analyst at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
He has published extensively on a range of freedom of expression, right to information, communication rights and refugee issues, including comparative legal and analytical studies on public service broadcasting, the right to information and broadcast policy. Toby has an Honours B.A. in mathematics from McGill University and an L.L.B. from Dalhousie University.
Alex Neve
Board Member
Alex Neve believes in a world in which the human rights of all people are protected. He is presently an adjunct professor in international human rights law at the University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University, and a Senior Fellow with the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He served as Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English Branch from 2000 – 2020. In that role he led and took part in over forty human rights research and advocacy delegations throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, Guantánamo Bay and, closer to home, First Nations communities in Canada.
Alex is a lawyer, with an LLB from Dalhousie University and a Master’s Degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. He has served as a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board, taught at Osgoode Hall Law School, been affiliated with York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies, and worked as a refugee lawyer in private practice and in a community legal aid clinic. He is also a Fellow with the Atlantic Human Rights Centre. Alex has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Trudeau Foundation Mentor. He is a recipient of a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He has received honorary Doctorate of Laws degrees from St. Thomas University, the University of Waterloo and the University of New Brunswick.
Catherine Anite
Board Member
Catherine Anite is a human rights advocate and freedom of expression expert. She is currently a member of the International High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, whose remit is to provide legal advice and recommendations to States, the Media Freedom Coalition and its partners, including international organisations, for the purposes of promoting and protecting a vibrant, free, and independent media. She leads the UPRoar Project, championing digital rights through the UN and locally across 30+ countries in Africa, the MENA region and Central Asia. She also sits on the Boards of Media Defence- UK and the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law in Washington D.C. She’s an expert for the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Trial Watch Initiative and Columbia University’s Freedom of Expression project, where she co-authored the book, Regardless of Frontiers: Global Freedom of Expression in a Troubled World. Catherine also founded the Freedom of Expression Hub in Uganda. She holds an LLM (magna cum laude) from the University of Notre Dame, US.
Dr Shannonbrooke Murphy
Board Member
Dr Shannonbrooke Murphy is the Endowed Chair in Human Rights and an Associate Professor at the Human Rights Department of St Thomas University in New Brunswick, where she is also Director of the Atlantic Human Rights Centre, and a former member of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.
Previously, she served for over a decade as a legislative, policy, and political advisor to Irish elected representatives at all levels on matters of justice, equality, human rights, international affairs, and constitutional change. In this role she developed a comprehensive economic and social policy program for human rights-based governance in Ireland, advocated for full implementation of the human rights and equality provisions of the Good Friday Agreement (the 1998 Irish Peace Agreement), was appointed a member of the Northern Ireland Bill of Rights Forum Legal-Technical Committee, and later directed a party delegation to the first Irish Constitutional Convention.
Dr Murphy holds a BA Hons in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto, an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Galway, and a PhD from Middlesex University.
Raphael Vagliano
Senior Legal Officer
Raphael Vagliano is a senior legal officer at the Centre for Law and Democracy. He holds dual degrees in common and civil law from McGill University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University.
After completing his law studies, he worked for a year as a Law Foundation of Ontario Public Interest Articling Fellow at Amnesty International Canada, where he helped advocate for Canadian compliance with international human rights norms on a wide range of issues, including the rights of Indigenous peoples, national security, the rights of women and corporate accountability. He then practiced as a refugee lawyer at Jared Will & Associates in Toronto for four and a half years. During this time, he appeared before the Federal Court of Canada and the Immigration and Refugee Board in connection with a variety of immigration and refugee law matters. In between his undergraduate and law studies, Raphael lived in Syria and Egypt and speaks Arabic, English, French and conversational Spanish.
