Subjugation or Sovereignty: The Stakes of the Venezuelan Crisis

The International Issues Discussion (IID) series at Toronto Metropolitan University proudly presents its first talk of the Winter 2026 series, in partnership with the Canadian International Council (CIC): "Subjugation or Sovereignty: The Stakes of the Venezuelan Crisis”.

Our guest will be Ben Rowswell, a consultant with Catalyze4, a strategic advisory to help companies with Canada’s new nation-building strategy. He served as Canada’s most recent ambassador in Venezuela, from 2014 to 2017.  This capped a 25-year career in Canadian diplomacy which included assignments as Representative of Canada in Kandahar, Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan, Chargé d’Affaires to Iraq, as well as junior assignments to Canada’s Embassies in Washington and Cairo and at our Permanent Mission to the UN. Throughout his career, Ben’s principal thematic focus was on democracy and human rights. He launched a Democracy policy unit within headquarters in 2006 as well as the Protection of Democracy Fund, and led innovations into the use of social media to advance human rights in Iran and other authoritarian countries, an approach known as Direct Diplomacy. While on leave from the government he worked with the U.S. NGO known as the National Democratic Institute in Baghdad, with the thinktank known as the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, and he launched a software startup to crowdsource civic action called Betterplace.  From 2018 to 2023 he served as President of the Canadian International Council.

His talk will be held in-person on Wednesday, January 21^st  between 6:30 and 8:30 pm in ENG 103 (the Vari Engineering Building, 245 Church Street, Toronto). Attendance is free and everyone is welcome.  

Founded in 2005, the IID is a non-partisan, student-led forum designed to engage all members of the TMU community on major events and issues in contemporary global affairs through reasoned, objective, and scholarly discourse. For further details about the IID and our series please see http://iid.kislenko.com (external link)   or contact the IID student leaders at iidseries@gmail.com  

The CIC’s mission is to provide a platform for all Canadians to engage in global affairs. Since 1928, as a non-partisan, charitable organization, the CIC has provided a platform for citizens to help shape Canada’s place in the world.