A short documentary on how members of PEN Canada brought Salman Rushdie, in total secrecy and heavy security, out of deep hiding in the UK to the stage of the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto for the 1992 PEN Benefit, and thence to Ottawa, to convince the Canadian Government and then the United Nations to condemn the fatwa and stand with him.
Kaveh Shahrooz is a lawyer and human rights activist. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Toronto, he has written widely on human rights issues and international affairs. He led a recent successful effort to convince Canada's parliament to recognize the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran as constituting crimes against humanity under international law. He resides in Toronto.
The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson arrived in Canada from Hong Kong with her family in 1942 and made the astonishing journey from penniless child refugee to accomplished broadcaster, journalist, and distinguished public servant in a multi-faceted lifetime. Madame Clarkson was Canada’s 26th Governor General from 1999 to 2005.
Louise Dennys is an award-winning editor and publisher. A champion of writers and readers, and of the fundamental right to freedom of expression, she is also a Past President of PEN Canada. Driven by her belief in the illuminating gifts of storytelling—both in non-fiction and fiction—she is, in these increasingly challenged times, committed to advancing social and climate justice through the power of the word. She has worked with 4 Nobel Prize winners, and several Booker, Giller, Governor General and Weston Award winners, including Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Michael Ondaatje, Toni Morrison and Yann Martel. She is a Member of the Order of Canada.
Sturla Gunnarsson is a Canadian screen director whose feature films, TV drama, comedy and documentary films have received dozens of awards, including an Emmy, the Prix Italia, multiple Canadian Screen Awards and Directors Guild Awards and an Oscar© nomination. Recent work includes the hit comedy Schitt’s Creek and the acclaimed Montreal police drama, 19-2, as well as feature documentaries Monsoon (TIFF Top Ten People’s Choice Award) and Force of Nature (TIFF Documentary Audience Award). Feature films include Beowulf & Grendel (Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgaard), Rare Birds (William Hurt, Molly Parker) and Such A Long Journey (Roshan Seth, Om Puri, Nasseerudin Shah).
Deepa Mehta is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose work is internationally renowned. Her emotionally resonating, award-winning films have played every major film festival, and been sold and distributed around the globe. Her films include the Elemental Trilogy: Earth, Fire, and the Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee, Water; Bollywood/Hollywood, Heaven on Earth and the epic adaptation of Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie’s three-time Booker Prize winning novel; Anatomy of Violence, and most recently the award-winning Funny Boy, which was nominated for several Canadian Screen Awards and won for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. The film also picked up Best Picture and Best Supporting Performance Female at the 2021 Leo Awards. For the small screen, Mehta shot the pilot and second episode for the Netflix Original series, Leila, and is the Creative Executive Producer for the show. She also directed The Manager, the pilot episode of Little America for Apple TV as well as the episode Bear Down for Showtime’s critically acclaimed series Yellowjackets. Mehta is currently working as the Writer and Director of Propagate Content’s feature film Burnt Sugar, based on Avni Doshi’s award-winning novel shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
John Ralston Saul is an award-winning essayist and novelist. His 16 works have been translated into 29 languages in 38 countries. Saul is President Emeritus of PEN International, Co-Chair of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and sits on the International Advisory Board for the Common Action Forum. He is a Companion in the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario as well as an Officer in Germany’s Order of Merit and a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. His many literary awards include Chile’s Pablo Neruda Medal, South Korea’s Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, Italy’s Premio Lettarario Internazionale and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
Eric (Ric) Young is widely recognized as a leader in the field of large-scale transformative social change, and architect of numerous social change projects within Canada and internationally. Founder, The Social Projects Studio; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Social Innovation, Ryerson University (2013-18); Co-founder of Nashulai Maasai Conservancy (winner of UNDP Equator Prize, 2020); Advisor to the Sun Valley Writers Conference; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; awarded Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal “in recognition of his contributions to society”; adopted as a Respected Maasai Elder (2013).
Bob Rae is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York. He served as Premier of Ontario from 1990-1995, interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011-2013 and was appointed as Canada’s Special Envoy to Myanmar (2017) and Canada’s Special Envoy on Humanitarian and Refugee Issues (2020). Mr. Rae taught law and public policy at the University of Toronto and was a partner and senior counsel to the law firm OKT LLP, specializing in indigenous law and constitutional issues. Bob Rae is a Privy Councillor, a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario.
