Lawyers from around the world will attend a convention entitled “Our Responsibility In The Face of Religious Persecution” to be held in downtown Toronto on June 27, 2000.

“Many parts of the world have been suffering from the devastating effects of religious persecution,” says Barry W. Bussey, convention organizer and Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ontario. “This Convention will be an opportunity for lawyers to discuss what role they can play in lessening those tensions around the world. Lawyers have a keen sense of what justice and the rule of law means and when these ideals become perverted, lawyers have the tools to assist in rebuilding the ideals of religious freedom.”

The convention is expected to attract some 250 lawyers, judges and politicians from around the world, many of whom will be in Toronto for the World Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that is meeting in Toronto from June 29 - July 8, 2000. An expected 50,000-plus people will converge on the city for the World Session. The Lawyers Convention is one among many side events that are taking place during the same time period.

“The Convention is open to all interested lawyers, and it will be a great opportunity to network while discussing a most important issue of our time,” says Bussey.

Presenters will include Dr. Derek Davis of the J.M. Dawson Institute at Baylor University in Texas; Samuel Ericsson, a Harvard Law School graduate and the current President of Advocates International; David Brown of the law firm Stikeman, Elliott, in Toronto; Dr. Janet-Epp Buckingham, director of the Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada; Glenn Penner of the Voice of the Martyrs; and Dr. John Graz, director of the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters.