Canada-China Business Relations: Outlook Under a New Government

As Canada navigates an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving global landscape, the future of its relationship with China remains a matter of national and international significance. With a new government in Ottawa, the Canada China Business Council (CCBC) is pleased to host this timely webinar to explore the potential for a recalibration of bilateral ties and to examine the implications for Canadian businesses and the broader economic landscape.

The discussion will assess ongoing challenges in Canada-China relations, as well as the growing trade complexities Canada faces with the United States — and the impact these developments may have on Canada’s trade and business relations with China.

To unpack these critical issues, we are pleased to present a distinguished panel of experts with extensive experience in both the business and policy arenas:

Panelists:

• Gwen Burrows, Assistant Vice-President, International Engagement & Impact, University of Toronto
• The Honourable Martin Cauchon, Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; Vice-Chair, CCBC Board of Directors; Counsel, DS Lawyers Canada LLP
• Paul Evans, Professor Emeritus, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia
• Constantine Karayannopoulos, Former President and CEO, Neo Performance Materials Inc.; CCBC Board Director

Moderator:

• Stephen Wortley, Partner, DLA Piper (Canada) and DLA Piper (US); CCBC Board Director

Welcome Remarks:

• Bijan Ahmadi, Executive Director and COO, CCBC

This webinar is free of charge and open to the public. We invite all interested participants to join this important discussion on the evolving dynamics of Canada-China relations and the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

Tickets:
Free for CCBC Members and Non-Members.
Click here to register.

Pre-registration is required. Upon successful registration, you will receive a confirmation email with the link to join the webinar. Please check your spam or junk folder if you do not receive the email promptly.

About the Speakers:

Gwen Burrows
Assistant Vice-President, International Engagement & Impact
University of Toronto

Gwen Burrows is Assistant Vice-President, International Engagement & Impact at the University of Toronto (U of T). She collaborates with colleagues across the university and internationally to advance U of T’s global excellence and impact in research, its translation, and in teaching and learning. She has an integral role in leading and executing the university’s international strategy across multiple dimensions, with a particular focus on region-specific engagement strategies and the development of partnerships to maximize global impact and advance U of T’s role and reputation as one of the world’s top universities.

Before being appointed the inaugural Assistant Vice-President, International Engagement and Impact in June 2022, Ms. Burrows served as Executive Director, International, with responsibility for developing and leading a team on the implementation of U of T’s first international strategic plan. She has led the development of key international partnerships in a number of regions around the world. In particular, she played a leadership role in the development of the recently launched Health Collaborative Network with eight universities in Africa.

Before joining the University of Toronto, Ms. Burrows served in various leadership roles at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). From 2014-17, she was the Executive Director, Communications, Public Affairs and Advocacy at SickKids. From 2006-2013, she was Director of Strategic Projects at the SickKids Research Institute. In that role, Ms. Burrows was part of a small team that led a successful $227-million Canada Foundation for Innovation grant proposal and its implementation to support the vision guiding the development of the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning.

Ms. Burrows began her career at SickKids in 1997 in the Foundation’s National Grants Program, a Canada-wide funding program for child health research. There she held the role of Director, National Grants Program, for five years, where she led a peer-reviewed granting program which supported child health researchers across the country.

Ms. Burrows has been an active volunteer in the charitable sector, including as President for the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs from 2009-2011. She holds a Master’s in Philosophy from Johns Hopkins and a BA from McGill University.

The Honourable Martin Cauchon, P.C., LL.M., ICD.D, Ad. E.
Counsel
DS Lawyers Canada LLP
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors
Canada China Business Council

Martin Cauchon has had a distinguished career. First elected as a Member of Parliament in October 1993, he has held many positions in the Government of Canada. He has served as Secretary of State (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec), Minister of National Revenue, and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. In 2013, he was an official candidate in the leadership race of the Liberal Party of Canada. From 2015 to 2019, he was also a shareholder and Executive Chairman of Groupe Capitales Médias, which gave him a better understanding of the challenges facing the print media in a digital world.

Mr. Cauchon’s unparalleled experience in government and the private sector has given him a deep understanding of a wide range of issues. As counsel at DS Lawyers Canada, he advises companies on the various issues facing the knowledge economy and the globalization of markets, taking into account geopolitical factors. Mr. Cauchon also facilitates the creation of partnerships at the provincial, national, and international levels.

Having established relationships with several counterparts in China, Martin Cauchon has acquired a good knowledge of that market, which allows him to intervene in projects that are related to the Canada-China relationship.

After obtaining a law degree from the University of Ottawa, Mr. Cauchon became a member of the Quebec Bar in 1985 and completed a master degree in International Business Law in 1991, at the University of Exeter, in England. He was the 2004 recipient of the Equality Forum’s International Role Model Award. In 2015, he received the honorary distinction of “Advocatus emeritus” and “Le Mérite” from the Quebec Bar. He is also Vice Chair, Board of Directors of the Canada China Business Council and Chair of its Quebec Chapter Advisory Council. He also serves on the board of directors of several companies.

Paul Evans
Professor Emeritus in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
University of British Columbia (UBC)

Paul Evans (PhD with distinction Dalhousie University 1982) retired from UBC in June 2023 after 43 years of university teaching. He is currently Professor Emeritus.

His academic appointments have been as follows:

• Assistant Professor, Acadia University, 1980-81
• Assistant, Associate and Professor, Department of Political Science, York University, 1981-97;
• Director, University of Toronto – York University Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, 1991-96;
• Visiting Professor, Asia Center, Harvard University, 1997-99;
• Acting Director, Liu Institute for Global Issues, 2004-5;
• Director, Institute of Asian Research, 2008-11 and 2014;
• Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong, 2011 and 2013;
• Visiting Professor and Head of the International Academic Advisory Panel to the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, 2013-16.
• Visiting Pok Rafeah Chair, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2022-23.

Between 2005 and 2008, he was seconded from UBC to serve as the Co-CEO and Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. And between 2020 and 2023 he held the HSBC Chair in Asian Research at UBC.

A regionalist rather than country specialist, he has held visiting fellowships at the Australian National University (1988); National Chengchi University in Taiwan (1989); Chulalongkorn University (1989); the East-West Center (1995); and the National Institute for Research Advancement in Tokyo (1999) and spoken at more than fifty universities and think tanks across the region.

An advocate of cooperative and human security, he has been studying and promoting policy-related activity on track-two security processes and the construction of multilateral institutions since 1988. He was a co-founder of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific (CSCAP), the Canadian Consortium on Human Security, and the co-founder of the Canada-Korea Forum. He has directed exchange and partnership projects with fifteen research institutes in Asia and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded by governments and foundations in Canada, Japan, the United States, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. Between 1990 and 2002 he organized two dozen meetings involving participants from North Korea.

He is currently a Canadian representative on the ASEAN Regional Forum’s Experts and Eminent Persons Group.

A member of the Global Council of the Asia Society in New York, he also sits on the editorial boards of The Pacific Review, the Chinese Journal of International Politics, the China Quarterly for International Strategic Studies, and Mexico y la Cuenca del Pacifico.

Constantine Karayannopoulos, BASc, MASc, P.Eng.
Former President and CEO
Neo Performance Materials Inc.
Board Director
Canada China Business Council

Constantine Karayannopoulos, BASc, MASc, P.Eng., is a highly accomplished Professional Engineer who recently served as the President and CEO of Neo Performance Materials Inc. until July 2023 (NEO). NEO, a distinguished REE and critical minerals Canadian public company, benefited from Mr. Karayannopoulos’ 30 years of expertise including his leadership as COO (2000 – 2005), CEO (2005 to 2012), Chairman of the Board (2016 to 2020) and most recently again as CEO from July 2020 to July 2023.

With an impressive career spanning over three decades, Mr. Karayannopoulos has emerged as one of the most enduring executives in the rare earth industry. His expertise extends to collaborating with various governments across Europe, North America, and Asia, aligning public policy and industrial economics for strategic growth.

Mr. Karayannopoulos’ journey in the Rare Earth sector began in 1994, working under the guidance of Peter V. Gundy, the founder of Advanced Material Resources Limited (“AMR”) in Toronto. AMR marked a historic milestone as the first foreign company granted access to China’s Rare Earth industry, establishing two majority-owned operating joint ventures. Mr. Karayannopoulos’ roles at AMR evolved from Business Development Manager to North American Sales Manager, Global Sales Manager/Chairman of the JVs, VP/General Manager of AMR’s Rare Earth Business Unit, COO overseeing AMR’s both Rare Earths and Magnetic Material divisions and eventually to CEO following the acquisition of Magnequench Inc. in 2005 and the renaming of the combined company to Neo Material Technologies. Neo was sold to Molycorp in 2012 for $1.3 billion.

Mr. Karayannopoulos is also the co-founder and was the non-executive Chairman of the Board of Neo Lithium Corp., a position he held from 2016 until January 2022 when the company was sold for $960 million.

In addition to his corporate responsibilities, Mr. Karayannopoulos is a member of the Advisory Board at the University of Toronto’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. He is also a Director of the Canada China Business Council and serves on the Advisory Board of Lithium Royalties Corp., a fund specializing in battery materials royalties and streams.

Mr. Karayannopoulos, leveraging his profound expertise in the sector, will provide invaluable services related to consultation on critical minerals through his consulting company, Kloni Inc., further enhancing Appia’s strategic positioning. The Company has granted 300,000 options exercisable at $0.275 per share for five years to Kloni Inc.

Stephen Wortley
Partner
DLA Piper (Canada) and DLA Piper (US)
Board Director
Canada China Business Council

Stephen Wortley is a leading capital markets and mergers and acquisitions lawyer. He is highly regarded for his deep knowledge of the Chinese, Hong Kong and East Asian markets. With extensive expertise in domestic and international securities and corporate matters, Mr. Wortley advises state-owned enterprises and a variety of small and medium-sized businesses.

Assisting startups and established companies in the technology, financial services, advanced materials, manufacturing and energy and mining industries, Mr. Wortley provides counsel on local, national and international prospectus offerings, as well as numerous listings on the TSX, TSX Venture Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. He also advises on Chinese outbound M&A transactions into the Americas, ASEAN and Europe.

Mr. Wortley has been recognized for his work in M&A by Chambers Global and The Legal Media Group – Guide to Leading Practitioners: China. He speaks frequently on the topic of Hong Kong Stock Exchange listings by Canadian companies, and on alternative investment structures.

Mr. Wortley clerked for The Honourable Mr. Justice Lambert of the British Columbia Court of Appeal.

Bijan Ahmadi
Executive Director and COO
Canada China Business Council

Bijan Ahmadi serves as the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Canada China Business Council (CCBC), overseeing the operations and activities of the Council across its seven chapters in Canada and China.

Before joining CCBC, he co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy (IPD) from 2018 to 2024. IPD is a non-partisan think tank operating in Canada and the United States, dedicated to fostering constructive engagement and interest-based thinking in international affairs.

During his tenure at IPD, Mr. Ahmadi launched the organization’s Asia research program in 2020 and its flagship annual conference, the Indo-Pacific Strategy Forum (IPSF), in Ottawa in 2021. Today, IPSF is recognized as Canada’s premier conference on the country’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. He was also the co-editor of Canada-China Brief, a biweekly policy newsletter providing the latest developments and expert insights on political and economic relations between Ottawa and Beijing.

In his work on China, Mr. Ahmadi has advised large corporations and SMEs on navigating Canada-China trade, policy, and regulatory developments. He has also spearheaded the publication of numerous research reports on China and Canada-China relations and led Track 2 diplomacy initiatives in collaboration with Chinese and American research institutions.

Mr. Ahmadi holds a Master’s degree in Global Diplomacy from SOAS University of London and a Master of Applied Science from the University of Toronto. Before founding IPD, Mr. Ahmadi worked in strategy and management roles in the financial services and real estate sectors, where he honed his skills in organizational leadership and operational planning. He also served on the executive boards of several Canadian non-profits and NGOs, including the Toronto branch of the Canadian International Council.