04/22/2026
Preserving Canadian Democracy: An Evening with Jason Stanley
Democracy in Peril speaker series: A way forward against authoritarianism.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Cost:
Free, registration required
Location:
Bonnie & John Buhler Hall, Level 1, Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Schedule:
6:30 p.m.: Doors open
7 p.m.: Keynote
8:30 p.m.: Audience Q and A
9 p.m.: Program ends
In his urgent and timely presentation, Preserving Canadian Democracy, philosopher and bestselling author Jason Stanley examines the specific pressures facing Canadian democracy at this moment and what citizens, institutions, and communities can do to defend it. Drawing on decades of scholarship on authoritarianism, propaganda, and the erosion of democratic norms, Stanley brings both intellectual rigour and moral clarity to a question that could not be more pressing: how do we protect what we value when the forces working against it are so close to home?
About the Speaker
Formerly a Professor of Philosophy at Yale before leaving the US in 2024, Jason Stanley is now the Bissell‐Heyd Chair in American studies in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto. The descendant of Holocaust survivors and a leading expert of authoritarianism, Jason has dedicated his life’s work to studying the ideologies and structures that enable and conceal injustice. His essential bestseller, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics and their enduring prevalence in society today. His most recent book, Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, covers authoritarian attacks on education worldwide and the university’s role in protecting democracy.