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Dr. Robert Murray and Marcus Kolga named Senior Fellows for MLI’s Foreign Policy Centre


OTTAWA, March 9, 2017 – Dr. Brian Lee Crowley, Managing Director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), welcomes Dr. Robert Murray and Marcus Kolga as Senior Fellows to MLI's emerging Foreign Policy Centre.

"It gives me great pleasure to welcome Dr. Robert Murray and Marcus Kolga to the institute," said Dr. Crowley. "They will be joining MLI Munk Senior Fellow Shuvaloy Majumdar to further strengthen the institute's thought leadership on a great variety of vital foreign policy issues for Canadians."

"It is a genuine honour to join the team at MLI's Foreign Policy Centre, and to further our understanding of Canada's values and interests around the world," said Dr. Murray.

"From this national platform, Canadians finally can find a home for the effort to tackle the belligerents of the global community – from Russia, to China and Iran," Kolga added.
Marcus Kolga - photo by Taavi Tamtik (2017)

Dr. Murray's scholarship in international security, human rights, multilateralism and the Arctic, and his expertise with Canadian foreign policy will be instrumental in the Centre's success. Mr. Kolga's network of contacts, his human rights advocacy and his understanding of Russian revanchism will be a tremendous complement to MLI's capabilities.

Robert Murray and Marcus Kolga bring a wealth of both practical and academic experience on foreign policy. Based in Edmonton and Toronto respectively, they will greatly expand the national reach for MLI's work in global affairs.

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute is the only non-partisan, independent national public policy think tank in Ottawa focusing on the full range of issues that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government.

Marcus Kolga is an international award winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, digital communications strategist, and a leading Canadian expert on Russian and Central and Eastern European issues. Marcus has a focus on communications and media strategies as tools of foreign policy and defence, and continues to write commentary for national and international media including the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. He is the co-founder and publisher of UpNorth.eu, an online magazine that features analysis and political and cultural news from the Nordic and Baltic region. He frequently comments on Russian, Eastern and Central European issues on North American radio and television and at foreign policy conferences. Marcus is involved with international human rights organizations and national political organizations. In 2008 he spearheaded an effort to make August 23rd, the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a Canadian national day of remembrance for the European victims of Nazism and communism – Black Ribbon Day – by drafting a parliamentary resolution that was introduced and passed by Hon. Bob Rae. In 2015, Marcus was awarded the Estonian Order of the White Star by President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.