The Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs (CIPA) is Canada's oldest organization devoted to studying and publicizing current issues affecting Canada and public policy. Founded in 1932, it holds an annual conference every August on the shores of Lake Couchiching

Lake Couchiching

Lake Couchiching, from the Ojibwe gojijiing meaning "inlet", is a small lake in Central Ontario separated from Lake Simcoe by a narrow channel. The Trent-Severn Waterway enters Lake Simcoe by the Talbot River and exits this lake by the Severn River which empties into Georgian Bay...

 and smaller events during the year, in Toronto and other major cities.

Mission

The mission of the CIPA is to increase the awareness and understanding of domestic and international issues amongst people in Canada, through open and inclusive discussion, without advocacy or partisanship.

History

Over the years, the issues examined at the Couchiching conference have reflected the changing concerns of Canadian society and the world. During the Great Depression, topics focused on social reform, the state of the economy and the growing threat of war in Europe. In the late 1940s and 1950s, participants discussed issues such as rebuilding the post-war world, the Cold War and the challenges of world peace. More recently, conference topics have turned to such issues as technology, the environment, the problem of illiteracy, the economic challenges facing today’s youth and globalization in various contexts.

Over the years CIPA has offered as speakers and attracted as participants current and future leaders in politics, education, science, the arts and the rest of civil society

Civil society

Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...

. In the past decade, speakers have included Tariq Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss academic, poet and writer. He is also a Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University...

, Will Kymlicka

Will Kymlicka

Will Kymlicka is a Canadian political philosopher best known for his work on multiculturalism. He is currently Professor of Philosophy and Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy at Queen's University at Kingston, and Recurrent Visiting Professor in the Nationalism Studies program at the...

, Haroon Siddiqui

Haroon Siddiqui

Haroon Siddiqui, CM, O.Ont is an Indo-Canadian newspaper journalist, columnist and a former editor.-Early life and career:...

, Kevin G. Lynch

Kevin G. Lynch

Kevin G. Lynch, is a Canadian economist and former Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, Canada's most senior civil servant....

, Sheela Basrur

Sheela Basrur

Sheela Basrur, O.Ont was a Canadian medical doctor and former Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health and Assistant Deputy Minister of Public Health. She resigned from these positions late in 2006 to undergo treatment for cancer.-Life and training:Basrur was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1956 to...

, John Ralston Saul

John Ralston Saul

John Ralston Saul, CC is a Canadian author, essayist, and President of International PEN.As an essayist, Saul is particularly known for his commentaries on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of manager-, or more precisely technocrat-, led societies; the...

, Alan Borovoy

Alan Borovoy

Alfred Alan Borovoy is a Canadian lawyer best known as the general counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association .He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1953 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1956 from the University of Toronto. He has been awarded four honorary doctorates. He was admitted to the Ontario...

, Major General Lewis Mackenzie

Lewis MacKenzie

Major-General Lewis Wharton MacKenzie, UE, CM, CMM, MSC, O.Ont, CD is a retired Canadian general, author and media commentator. MacKenzie is most famous for establishing and commanding Sector Sarajevo as part of the United Nations Protection Force UNPROFOR in Yugoslavia in 1992...

 Jennifer Stoddart

Jennifer Stoddart

Jennifer Stoddart is the current Privacy Commissioner of Canada.Stoddart received a licence in civil law from McGill University as well as a Master of Arts in history from the Université du Québec à Montréal. On December 1, 2003, Stoddart was appointed Canada's Privacy Commissioner by the Governor...

, Gerri Sinclair

Gerri Sinclair

Dr. Gerri Sinclair is a Canadian businesswoman and technologist and current Executive Director of the Masters of Digital Media Program at the Centre for Digital Media, Great Northern Way Campus, Vancouver, British Columbia....

, Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong FRSL , is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith...

, Senator Mobina Jaffer

Mobina Jaffer

Mobina S. B. Jaffer, QC is a Canadian Senator representing British Columbia. She is the first South Asian and the first Muslim woman appointed to the Upper House....

, the Hon. Michael Wilson (politician)

Michael Wilson (politician)

Michael Holcombe Wilson, PC, CC is a Canadian diplomat, politician and business leader.Born in Toronto, Ontario, Wilson attended Upper Canada College, Trinity College at the University of Toronto where he joined The Kappa Alpha Society...

, the Hon. Bill Graham

Bill Graham

William Carvel "Bill" Graham, PC QC is a former Canadian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, and Leader of the Opposition and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.-Personal life:...

, the Hon. Lloyd Axworthy

Lloyd Axworthy

Lloyd Norman Axworthy, PC, OC, OM is a prominent Canadian politician, statesman and University President from Manitoba. He is best known for having served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien...

, Ambassador Andres Rozental, Anne Golden

Anne Golden

Anne Golden, CM is a Canadian administrator.She received her BA in history from University College, University of Toronto in 1962. She received an MA from Columbia University and a Ph.D in American history from the University of Toronto....

, Barbara Hall

Barbara Hall

Barbara Hall is a Canadian lawyer, public servant and former politician. She was the 61st mayor of Toronto, the last to run before amalgamation. She was elected mayor of the pre-amalgamation City of Toronto in 1994, and held office until December 31, 1997...

, Roger Obonsawin, Sylvia Ostry

Sylvia Ostry

Sylvia Ostry, is a Canadian economist and public servant.Born Sylvia Knelman in Winnipeg, Manitoba on June 3, 1927, she received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from McGill University in 1948, a Master of Arts from McGill in 1950, and a Ph.D...

, the Hon. Pierre Pettigrew

Pierre Pettigrew

Pierre Stewart Pettigrew, PC is a Canadian politician.Born in Quebec City, Pettigrew has a BA in Philosophy from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and an M.Phil in International Relations from Oxford University...

, Moses Znaimer

Moses Znaimer

Moses Znaimer, M.A., O.Ont is a co-founder and former head of Citytv, the first independent television station in Toronto, Canada, and the current head of ZoomerMedia.-Early life and career:...

, Sir Michael Marmot

Michael Marmot

Sir Michael Gideon Marmot is professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London.- Career :Michael Marmot was born in London, England. He moved to Australia as a young child and graduated in Medicine from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 1968. He earned a MPH in 1972...

, Dr. Fraser Mustard, Sir John Maddox

John Maddox

Sir John Royden Maddox, FRS was a British science writer. He was an editor of Nature for 22 years, from 1966–1973 and 1980-1995.-Career:...

, John Polanyi, Bartha Knoppers

Bartha Knoppers

Bartha Maria Knoppers, is a Canadian lawyer and an expert on the ethical aspects of genetics, genomics and biotechnology....

 and Margaret Somerville

Margaret Somerville

Margaret Anne Ganley Somerville, AM, FRSC is a conservative Australian/Canadian ethicist and academic. She is the Samuel Gale Professor of Law, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and the Founding Director of the Faculty of Law's Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill...

.

Speakers in earlier decades included John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith , OC was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism...

, Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger

Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...

, Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan

Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...

 , Denys Arcand

Denys Arcand

Georges-Henri Denys Arcand, is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. He has won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004 for The Barbarian Invasions...

, Pierre-Marc Johnson

Pierre-Marc Johnson

Pierre-Marc Johnson, , is a Quebec lawyer, physician and politician. He was the 24th Premier of Quebec from October 3 to December 12, 1985.- Early background :...

 and Bernard Crick

Bernard Crick

Sir Bernard Rowland Crick was a British political theorist and democratic socialist whose views were often summarised as "politics is ethics done in public"...

. Former or future Prime Ministers of Canada have featured at the conference too: John Diefenbaker

John Diefenbaker

John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...

, Lester B. Pearson

Lester B. Pearson

Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE was a Canadian professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat, and politician, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis...

, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Joe Clark

Joe Clark

Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...

, Kim Campbell

Kim Campbell

Avril Phædra Douglas "Kim" Campbell, is a Canadian politician, lawyer, university professor, diplomat, and writer. She served as the 19th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 25, 1993, to November 4, 1993...

 and Paul Martin

Paul Martin

Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

.

Annual conferences

The annual conference, which is open to the public, draws about 250 participants from all walks of life and from 18 to past 80 who are interested in the current topic or in public affairs generally. The usual format involves about three days (Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon) of speeches, panels and debates, with ample opportunity for questions from the floor in all cases, together with formal and informal discussion groups. The lakeside setting encourages casual contact and one-on-one conversations among speakers and participants. Most participants, including many speakers, stay on-site for the duration of the conference.

The conference usually draws media coverage, both print and broadcast, including some video on CPAC, the Cable Public Affairs Channel.

The last seven years' conferences have been:

2010: Watershed Moment or Wasted Opportunity: evaluating the political, economic and social responses to the financial crisis.
2009: The Global Politics of Food

2008: The Power of Knowledge: the New Global Currency

2007: The Stranger Next Door: Making Diversity Work

2006: Wedded to Progress: For Better, For Worse

2005: Handcuffs and Hand Grenades: the Use of Force Within and Between Nations

2004: God's Back - with a Vengeance

The 2011 conference will be held on August 4-7 2011 and titled From the Ground Up: Civic Engagement in Our Times. The 2011 event will mark the 80th anniversary of the conference.

Round-Table meetings

The Round-Table meetings held from time to time between annual conferences usually occupy an evening session with one or more resource-speakers and about thirty participants. They may deal with aspects of the topic of the forthcoming annual conference or an unrelated matter. In recent years such events have been held in Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver as well as in Toronto. A list of topics and (since 2009) podcasts of the speakers' portion of the events, but not the discussion, are found at the Couchiching web site.

Organization

CIPA is a registered charitable organization run by a board of directors and committees of volunteers, supported by Base Consulting and Management Inc. of Toronto.