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Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic promise—it’s the infrastructure of everyday life.  Our phones finish our sentences, our cars guess where we’re going, and our search engines quietly learn what we care about.  But beneath the hype, there is something interesting happening: we’re trying to understand a new kind of intelligence while it grows up in real time.

The Salt Spring Forum is pleased to welcome a leading expert who can explain how AI actually works!

Kevin Leyton-Brown is Professor of Computer Science and Director of Centre for AI Decision-making and Action at the University of British Columbia. He has been a visiting professor at UC Berkeley, Harvard University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Microsoft Research New York City.

Professor Leyton-Brown’s work blends mathematics, computation, and behavioural insight to reveal what these systems can deliver. He advises leading companies while participating in global conversations around responsible AI.

Please join us for a clear and candid tour of AI’s past, present, and emerging future. What do we all need to know?

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As the global headlines shift daily — from war crimes in Israel and Gaza to airstrikes on nuclear facilities in Iran, from humanitarian crises to fragile ceasefires — it’s easy to feel adrift. Who knows what’s really changing vs. what’s just noise?

Professor Michael Barnett, who teaches in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, can help us identify the realities under the headlines.

A renowned scholar of international affairs, Middle East politics, humanitarianism, and global governance, Professor Barnett has authored and edited some of the most influential works in the field — from Rules for the World: International Organizations in World Politics (2004), to Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism (2011), to The Star and the Stripes: A History of the Foreign Policies of the American Jews (2016). 

Professor Barnett’s deep dives into topics such as humanitarian response, state behaviour, and Middle Eastern politics draw on decades of research, teaching, and fieldwork in countries such as Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Liberia. 

Whether you follow international politics closely or simply want clarity in an uncertain time, this is a rare chance to speak with an expert who sees the deeper currents, both in the Middle East and in the United States.

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In a world marked by conflict, inequality, climate crisis, and rising polarization, the promise of human rights can feel distant and sometimes impossible.  But for Alex Neve, that promise is not an outdated ideal; it is a call to action that still matters deeply, and urgently.

A lawyer, educator, and internationally respected human rights advocate, Neve has spent more than three decades working to protect humanity’s most basic freedoms.  He served as Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada from 2000-20, leading or participating in more than 40 research and advocacy missions worldwide - from Indigenous communities in Canada to Guantanamo Bay and beyond.

Neve’s work has shaped national and international debates on refugee protection, Indigenous rights, gender equality, corporate accountability, climate justice, and the rule of the law.   He has taught international human rights law as a professor, served on Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, and regularly appears before parliamentary committees and UN bodies.

An Officer of the Order of Canada and recipient of multiple honorary doctorates, Neve was selected as the CBC Massey Lecturer in 2025, exploring why human rights matter more than ever and how we have fallen short of that promise.  His book ‘Universal:  Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World’ (House of Anansi Press Inc, 2025) explores how we can fulfil the promise that human rights are inherent.

Please join the Salt Spring Forum and Alex Neve as we explore the question at the heart of Neve’s work: if human rights are universal, how do we make them real for everyone, everywhere?

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During this time of global crisis, few Canadians have had a closer view of the world’s faultlines than Bob Rae. The former Ambassador to the United Nations spent the past five years at the very heart of global diplomacy, where some of the most consequential decisions affecting humanity are made.

Bob Rae brought four decades of hard-fought political experience to the United Nations. He’d been an NDP Member of Parliament, the Premier of Ontario, and the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. He’d also done important work on Indigenous issues and human rights, giving him a rare blend of moral clarity and political realism.

Bob Rae represented Canada at the United Nations through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. Again and again, his principled voice was heard in the highest corridors of power, helping Canada make a difference on the world stage.

Please join the Salt Spring Forum in an informed, sobering but ultimately optimistic conversation with one of Canada’s greatest statesmen, the remarkable, irrepressible Bob Rae.