UN Special Envoy Stephen Lewis will be the keynote speaker at the Canadian Social Investment Conference, SIO’s national summit on socially responsible investment to be held in Toronto June 12-14, 2005.

Stephen Lewis has been a strong voice for Canadian values of compassion and social justice for over three decades,” said Eugene Ellmen, Executive Director of the SIO. “We’re very pleased that he has accepted our invitation to speak at our conference gala dinner.”

Mr. Lewis, former leader of the Ontario NDP and former UN Ambassador for Canada, will speak about the globalization of poverty and the role that the socially responsible investment community can play in addressing the needs of developing countries. Mr. Lewis is currently the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS.

“Mr. Lewis’ talk is very timely given growing interest in issues of poverty, starvation, refugees, AIDS and other diseases, and now, emergency relief because of the South Asian tsunami,” Ellmen said.

The conference features a roster of Canadian and international speakers on topics of interest to the retail and institutional SRI industries.

Some of the confirmed speakers to date include:

o         Gary Hawton, CEO of Meritas Mutual Funds, and Bob Walker, Vice-President of SRI Policy and Research, The Ethical Funds Company, speaking about Future Directions of SRI

o         Chris Coulter of GlobeScan and Jan Kestle of Environics Analytics, talking about investor attitudes toward SRI in Canada

o         Hans de Ruiter, Senior Portfolio Analyst with Netherlands-based ABP, the second-largest pension fund in the world, and Nada Villermain-Lecolier of Fonds de Reserve, the state pension plan in France, addressing European approaches to SRI and pensions

o         Martin Grosskopf, Manager of Sustainability Analysis for Acuity Investment Management, discussing recent case studies on SRI and financial returns by leading global investment houses

o         Ken Delaney, CEO of First Ontario Fund, addressing the thorny issue of job creation, economic development and SRI

The conference will be held at the Radisson Admiral Hotel on Toronto’s waterfront with the trade show and gala dinner to be held at the Stone Distillery in the city’s historic Distillery District.

Final program information and registration details will be released in early February. A preliminary brochure is available at www.socialinvestment.ca/conference05.