ACCUTE’s 2024 conference will begin in three weeks. Although we’re still finalizing the details of the changes to our program, I wanted to provide conference participants and ACCUTE members with an update. 

The Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) has been on strike since late April and will quite possibly still be on strike by the time that the Congress for the Humanities and Social Sciences begins at McGill University on June 12. ACCUTE supports the right to unionize and engage in collective bargaining and will not ask conference participants to cross the picket line in order to participate in our conference. We have made a public declaration of solidarity with AMPL.

After consultations with our partner associations, Congress staff, and AMPL, the ACCUTE Board has decided to stay within Congress and to continue to hold an in-person conference in Montreal from June 12-15. In response to AMPL’s call to associations to express their solidarity by reducing their financial commitment to McGill, the ACCUTE Board has decided to move some of our sessions to Concordia University (located a short distance from McGill’s Bronfman Building) and significantly reduce our McGill catering orders. We are still working out the logistics, but we will also ensure that all those participating in the ACCUTE conference will receive “picket passes” from AMPL so that you can participate in our conference events at McGill without crossing the picket line.

Although we are doing our best to minimize the disruption to the conference schedule caused by these decisions (and due to decisions made by our partner associations to move their conferences online or to other universities in Montreal), there will inevitably be some changes to the schedule. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at divison@lakeheadu.ca.

I look forward to seeing you in three weeks,

Douglas Ivison

President, ACCUTE