Aside from the many informational and awareness-raising activities which play an integral role in our international cooperation programs, LWBC is also involved in similar activities in Canada.
Each year, the members of the LWBC team and their partners on the ground participate as lecturers or panelists in a variety of conferences and lectures on different themes related to the organization's mission.
These conferences and lectures are an important part of LWBC's awareness-raising role. They allow the organization to participate in informing and training the Canadian public on specific cases or on human rights issues and, as a result, be able to engage in debates on these topics or in collective action.
For the representatives of our partners on the ground, on a mission in Canada with LWBC, these activities are opportunities to send the message directly to the Canadian public, to exchange ideas with civil society organizations, legal groups and Canadian authorities.
In 2010, LWBC participated in the mobilization of a number of organizations in the region of Québec to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Each participating organization acted as a spokesperson for one of the rights protected by the Convention. LWBC chose article 40, which acknowledges the right of every child suspected of having committed an offence to be treated in accordance with his or her age, and illustrated this right using the case of Omar Khadr.
In 2008 LWBC launched an awareness-raising campaign meant to explain the great importance of the Omar Khadr case for all Canadians. This campaign allowed the public to download a specific ringtone so that they may manifest their support to this cause. The downloading was also possible thanks to an active brigade in various public places in Québec, Montréal and Ottawa, and also on the web.
In October 2008, a gathering and a press conference also took place in Montreal on October 6, 2008 and various activities were organized in university settings in Québec, Montréal and Ottawa.
On May 8, 2008, three months before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, LWBC participated in a public event organized at Université Laval by the Student Collective for Human Rights in China, an initiative which was moderated by LWBC-ULaval.
LWBC took advantage of the opportunity to describe the situation of human rights defenders in China and to launch an appeal for their rights to be respected.
