Michael Byers (Canadian author)

Michael Byers is a Canadian legal scholar and non-fiction author.

Academic background

Byers was educated at the University of Saskatchewan, where he received his BA (honours) with majors in English literature and political studies. He then studied law at McGill University, achieving his LLB and BCL degrees. He completed his studies at Cambridge University, where he received his PhD in international law. Before becoming a professor of political science at University of British Columbia in 2004, he was a research fellow from 1996-1999 at Oxford University and from 1999–2004, he was a professor of law and the director of Canadian Studies at Duke University.

Since 2004, he has held the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.^[1] Byers has also taught as a visiting professor at the universities of Tel Aviv, Cape Town, Nord (Norway) and Novosibirsk (Russia).

2008 federal election

On July 2, 2008, Byers announced that he was seeking the New Democratic Party nomination for the federal riding of Vancouver Centre, a seat held by Liberal Party of Canada incumbent Hedy Fry since 1993, in the 40th Canadian federal election.^[2] Byers had not previously sought elected office and the Liberal Party had tried to attract him as a candidate, with Stephane Dion inviting him for a beer in the spring of 2008.^[3]

Byers received much attention because he was considered by many to be a "star" candidate for the NDP.^[4]

During the campaign, he was sharply critical of the Harper government's supposed militarization of the Arctic; he also advocated a negotiation with the Taliban in Afghanistan. At a candidates' debate at the end of September 2008, Byers made the controversial statement that the Alberta tar sands needed to be shut down "to address the global climate crisis". The Liberal and Green candidates claimed that this position contradicted the official NDP platform, while Byers believed that it was covered by already-passed legislation calling on Canada to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.^[5]

After the national NDP campaign faltered, Fry won reelection with 19,423 votes (34.4% of the popular vote). Byers ran third, with 12,043 votes (21.3%).

Writing and advocacy

His books include Custom, Power and the Power of Rules (Cambridge University Press 1999), The Role of Law in International Politics (Oxford University Press 2000), US Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law (Cambridge University Press 2003), War Law (Atlantic Books and, in Canada, Douglas & McIntyre, 2005), and Intent for a Nation: What is Canada For? (Douglas & McIntyre 2007) (playing against George Grant's Lament for a Nation). In 2009, he wrote Who Owns the Arctic? (Douglas & McIntyre 2009), which was shorted for the Donner Prize for the best Canadian book on public policy. Four years later, his International Law and the Arctic (Cambridge University Press 2013) won the Donner Prize.

Byers is a regular commentator on CBC on programs such as The Current and The National, and a frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star. His articles have also been published in international newspapers, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Independent on Sunday, The Guardian, and London Review of Books.

Some of his positions:

Liberal–NDP coalition

In November 2009, Byers suggested that the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party (NDP) "should agree to not run candidates against each other in the next campaign" in electoral ridings in order to prevent the Conservative Party of Canada from forming another minority government.^[6] However, critics pointed out that his reasoning is based on the assumption that Liberal voters who are denied the ability to vote for a liberal candidate would automatically vote for a NDP candidate, and that many might instead vote for the Conservatives (or simply not vote at all).^[7] The same proposal was advanced by Nathan Cullen MP in his 2011-12 campaign for the federal NDP leadership.^[8]

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II purchase

Byers was a vocal opponent of the Harper government's proposed purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets.

In July 2010, he wrote: "The F-35 is a stealth fighter designed to penetrate radar defences on the first day of a war. It's the sort of plane you would use to create 'shock and awe' in Baghdad or Tehran. Unless Canada is planning on being the sharp end of the American spear, we don't need stealth technology. The F-35 is designed for short takeoff and landing, with two of the three versions destined for aircraft carriers. Canada, of course, doesn't have aircraft carriers. And all that stealth technology and short takeoff and landing capacity comes at a cost. In addition to the price tag of about $135 million per plane, the F-35 has a relatively short range. This makes it an odd choice for a large, sparsely populated country."^[9]

In June 2014, he returned to the subject, comparing the 1960-era Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter and the F-35 Lightning. Both single engine planes are strike aircraft as opposed to air-superiority fighters and are poorly suited for dog-fighting. The single engine makes both vulnerable to failure: 110 of the 239 CF-104 Starfighters crashed before they were replaced by the CF-18s; one quarter of those crashes were attributed to bird strikes. Furthermore, the F-35 Lightning will be equipped with 24 million lines of computer code, making it vulnerable to EMP warfare.^[10]

Arctic sovereignty

Byers has written extensively on issues of Arctic sovereignty.

In 2007 Byers was critical of the Harper government's change of plans for building new ice-strengthened patrol ships.^[11] The previous year the Harper government had announced plans to build three heavy duty icebreakers but in 2007 the Harper government revised the plan to build 6-8 dual use vessels, which would only be capable of operations in one metre of first year sea ice.

Byers agreed with a 2010 report prepared for the Canadian Senate that Canadian Coast Guard vessels patrolling the Arctic should be armed, stating, the "quiet authority of a deck-mounted gun" is not a provocation.^[12]

On December 28, 2011, the Toronto Star published an article by Byers entitled "Russia pulling ahead in the Arctic".^[13] In that article he pointed out that Canada and Russia have taken identical positions as to whether they exercise sovereignty over the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route. Byers also quoted a previously secret US diplomatic cable, released by Wikileaks, that reported Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's opinion that relations with Russia in the Arctic were good and would not lead to war.

Also on December 28, 2011, Al Jazeera published an article by Byers entitled "The dragon looks north", about China's recent exploration efforts in the Arctic.^[14] He suggested China didn't need to challenge the sovereignty of coastal countries in the Arctic because those countries were open to foreign investment and trade and saw the benefits of Chinese capital and Chinese markets.

Pinochet Case

Byers was involved in the 1998-1999 extradition case concerning Augusto Pinochet in the British House of Lords, working with Ian Brownlie QC and members of a legal team representing Amnesty International and other human rights organizations. One of Byers’ roles was to speak with the British and international media. He also wrote about the Pinochet Case in the Times of London,^[15] the London Review of Books,^[16] the British Yearbook of International Law,^[17] and the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law.^[18]

Afghan Detainees

Byers has been involved in the issue of Afghan detainees since January 2002 when he wrote the first widely read op-ed article about Guantanamo Bay, which was published in The Guardian newspaper.^[19] In September 2005, Byers wrote an article in The Globe and Mail newspaper questioning the legality of Canadian troops transferring Afghan detainees to US custody.^[20] When Canada and Afghanistan entered into a transfer agreement^[21] three months later, Byers questioned the legality of that agreement, and detainee transfers made under it, before Parliamentary committees,^[22] in a press conference with Amir Attaran,^[23] and through two open letters to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court co-authored with William Schabas.^[24] In June 2016, Byers and Schabas called on the new Canadian government to open war crimes investigations.^[25]

References

External links

• "Celebration for a Nation", Ottawa Citizen article by Michael Byers, June 2007
• Michael Byers at the University of British Columbia faculty page
• 'Michael Byers on the Arctic' – weblog