Tina J. Park @ Massey College
Brief bio about Tina Park:
Dr. Tina J. Park is a Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, based at the University of Toronto. The CCR2P is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization aimed at advancing scholarly engagement and political implementation of the R2P principle. Dr. Park has advised over 30 governments and regional organizations on their policies with regards to R2P/human rights, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the InterAction Council, and has addressed the UN General Assembly’s annual dialogue on R2P at the UN Headquarters in New York since 2013. She also contributed to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon’s annual report on R2P since 2012.
At the University of Toronto, her Ph.D. research focused on a century of bilateral relations between Canada and Korea under the broader history of globalisation in the 20th century. She has taught undergraduate students at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University for the last six years on Canadian foreign policy, Asian-Canadian history and the history of espionage. As one of Canada’s top experts on North Korea, Dr. Park was designated as the country expert for Korea at the Centre for Intercultural Learning at Global Affairs and has trained over 90 high-ranking members of the Canadian Armed Forces in Kingston.
Dr. Park is a frequent commentator in the media on security challenges involving North Korea and Korean-Canadian issues, specifically nuclear weapons and the peace process on the Korean Peninsula She is actively engaged with policy discussions involving Canada and Korea, such as Canada-Korea Dialogue on the Hill and the annual Canada-Korea Forum in Ottawa and Seoul.
In 2018, she was invited to address the InterAction Council, a gathering of former prime ministers and presidents from around the world, on North Korea. She also participated at the Ditchley Foundation Conference in the UK on nuclear weapons, as well as the annual Korea Symposium jointly hosted by Global Affairs Canada and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Ottawa.
Dr. Park has hosted a dozen conferences and roundtables on international affairs at the University of Toronto, such as the implications of the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement (2015) which she co-chaired with the Hon. Hugh Segal. In the fall of 2016, Dr. Park organized the Canada-U.K. Colloquium in Edmonton on a transition to a low-carbon economy, chaired by the Hon. Jean Charest. In the fall of 2018, she organized the North American Colloquium chaired by Dr. Peter Loewen which focused on the future of free trade in North America, as well as the Canada-U.K. Colloquium on Artificial Intelligence & Society chaired by Dr. Alan Bernstein.
Tina Park and the Hon. Jean Charest
Dr. Park is currently working on a monograph examining the Korean Peace Process and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. She has published two book chapters, one on the past, present and future of Canadian-Korean defence relations (CIGI/Asan, 2015) and another on the role of private sector in advancing R2P, published by the Cambridge University Press in 2016.
Dr. Park is also passionate about advancing gender equality and co-founded the U of T Women in House program with the Hon. Carolyn Bennett, the Minister for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in 2013. To this date, this innovative program has taken over 350 bright, young female students to shadow an MP or a Senator for a day on the Parliament Hill in Ottawa and engage in an intimate Q/A session with Justice Rosie Abella at the Supreme Court of Canada. Dr. Park is a director and vice-president of the the NATO Association of Canada, a fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, and an alumna of Massey College. In 2019, Dr. Park will be joining the NATO Defense College in Rome as a research fellow.
The Hon. Carolyn Bennett, Dr. Tina Park and Dr. Siyue Guo
Dr. Tina Park at the UN General Assembly’s Dialogue on Responsibility to Protect, Sept 2016
Ditchley Foundation Conference on Nuclear Weapons & Modern Deterrence (Fall 2018)
A longer version:
Dr. Tina J. Park is one of Canada’s foremost experts on Canadian-Korean relations and North Korea. Her doctoral research examined various aspects of the bilateral history, ranging from early missionary activities to the changing patterns of trade and immigration during the Cold War. Dr. Park’s research marks one of the first attempts to explore the bilateral history in a multidisciplinary and evolving manner over a hundred years. This pioneering research was supervised by Dr. Robert Bothwell, Dr. Margaret MacMillan and Dr. Andre Schmid at the University of Toronto.
Tina is dedicated towards the promotion of Canadian-Korean relations, both through her scholarly work and in public sphere. The 2013 CAN-KOR conference at Munk School of Global Affairs, celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Canada, was a natural culmination of her doctoral research. Tina continues to participate in the annual Canada-Korea Forum, aimed at advancing bilateral relations in trade, defence and cyber security.
Ambassador Dae-Shik Jo of the Republic of Korea, Master Hugh Segal, and Tina Park @ Munk School, June 2015
In June 2015, Tina organized a full-day conference with the Hon. Hugh Segal, Master of Massey College, on strategic partnership between Canada and the Republic of Korea in the 21st century. This conference featured a keynote address by His Excellency Dae-Shik Jo, South Korean Ambassador to Canada, and panels on the CKFTA, defence & strategy, and immigration & education. It also involved a special luncheon address by the Hon. Justice Michael Kirby who wrote the UN report on the Commission of Inquiry on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Tina is a frequent commentator in the media on issues related to Canadian foreign policy, inter-Korean relations, North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and Canadian-Korean relations. Since 2013, Tina has participated in the annual Canada-Korea Forum, a track 1.5 discussion between the two countries, specializing in Canadian-Korean defense relations. Her latest book chapter on the past, present and future of Canadian-Korean defense relations can be found in Mutual Security in the Asia-Pacific: Roles for Australia, Canada and South Korea, co-published by CIGI & Asan Policy Institute, 2015. (Available for purchase here.)
Tina is also an enthusiastic advocate of international human rights issues, especially the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle. On Feb 14, 2010, Tina Park and Victor MacDiarmid co-founded the Canadian Centre for Responsibility to Protect (CCR2P), a non-partisan and non-profit independent research institute based at the University of Toronto, which currently has over a hundred analysts across Canada and over 300 Senior Fellows and Junior Fellows in the R2P Scholars Network across the globe.
Victor MacDiarmid & Tina Park @Trinity College, U of T
In the fall of 2012, Tina advised the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the 127th Assembly in Quebec City with Dr. Edward Luck, the former Secretary-General’s Representative on R2P. Tina continued to advise the IPU Assembly at the 128th Assembly in Quito, Ecuador in the spring of 2013 for their adoption of R2P Resolution on the role of parliamentarians in enforcing R2P. She has contributed to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s Report on Responsibility to Protect and has participated in the annual UN General Assembly Dialogue on R2P since Sept 2013. Most recently, Tina addressed the UN General Assembly at the annual dialogue on R2P in September 2015 and her remarks can be found here. 
Tina believes in advocating for the decisive and timely implementation of our collective responsibility to protect as we witness on-going crises around the world. She has spoken at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington D.C., the Nexus Convening on Mass-Atrocities in Istanbul, the Korean Women’s International Network Conference in Vienna, the Diplocat conference in Barcelona, and many other places around the world to advocate for the political implementation of R2P. In the summer of 2014, Tina advised the Liberal Party of Canada’s policy in Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo with regards to R2P on the Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Tina is an active writer on R2P issues, most notably on opencanada.org, and recently co-authored a book chapter with Victor MacDiarmid on the role of private sector in promoting R2P, which will be published by the Cambridge University Press in the spring of 2016.
Manuscript workshop for R2P & Private Sector, U.S. Institute of Peace, Summer 2014, Washington D.C.
Tina received her Honours.B.A. in International Relations at Trinity College, University of Toronto and graduated summa cum laude. She received numerous awards and distinctions for her academic achievements and extra-curricular contributions. Throughout her undergraduate years, Tina was elected twice as the co-president of the International Relations Society, a governing body representing the students in IR program. Tina was actively involved with the G8/G20 Research Group, the Journalists for Human Rights chapter at U of T and the Attaché Journal of International Affairs. The University of Toronto recognized her contributions with Gordon Cressy Leadership Award and Robert Catherwood Scholarship. She returned to Trinity as a Modern History Tutor when she began her graduate studies and directly advised over 600 undergraduate students in modern history and international relations.
Tina Park and the Right. Hon. Paul Martin @ U of T
Tina Park and the Right. Hon. Brian Mulroney @Munk School
On campus, Tina teaches modern history and Canadian foreign policy to undergraduate students at the University of Toronto. She currently lectures for HIS311, a third-year course in the Department of History at U of T which examines the history of Canadian foreign policy.
Over the course of her graduate studies,Tina taught seminar classes for the history of modern espionage, history of globalization, Canadian-Asian history, Canadian nationalism, strategy & statecraft in Europe, both at the University of Toronto and at Ryerson University.
Master Hugh Segal, the Don of Hall and Tina Park at Massey College
For the last five years, Tina was elected as a Junior Fellow of Massey College, where she co-founded a new discussion series called “Massey TALKS!” with Robert Fraser and Julie Wilson. This initiative has showcased prominent Canadians who are Senior Fellows or Quadranglers at Massey College, and has featured notable figures such as Dr. Margaret MacMillan, Charles Pachter, President Emeritus David Naylor, Justice Patrick LeSage, Dean Mayo Moran, the Honourable Bill Graham, Mr. R.H. Thomson, to name a few. Massey Talks reflects a commitment to encourage cross-disciplinary conversations among the Fellows of Massey College and to foster intimate networking.
Tina has extensive experience as a translator (Certified at Level 1 by the Korean Society of Translators) and a simultaneous interpreter for Korean, English, Spanish and French. Over the past decade, Tina has worked for various corporations, media, governments and academic institutions including the G20 Seoul Summit.
Tina Park @G20 Seoul Summit
Her past clients include LG Electronics, Hyundai Motors, Samsung, BBC World News, the Metropolitan government of Seoul, the Incheon Airport Corporation, CJ Foods Inc., as well as various track 1.5 government meetings, international conferences and trade conventions. In the fall of 2015, Tina shared her experience on the art of translation from a practitioner’s perspective at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia.
With the Hon. Carolyn Bennett, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Tina co-founded a program called the “U of T Women in House” which pairs up undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Toronto for a 1-day job shadowing on the Parliament Hill with female parliamentarians. This program, aimed at empowering female students and promoting gender equity in federal politics, has been increasingly expanding over the last few years and 130 students have participated to this date. In March 2016, fifty students from the University of Toronto will be participating.
2013 U of T Women in House @Parliament Hill, Ottawa
A firm believer in community engagement, Tina has been actively involved as a member of the International Delta Kappa Gamma Fellowship and was appointed to the University of Toronto Governing Council (Academic Board and Budget/Planning Committee) during her graduate education at the University of Toronto. Tina is a board member and vice-president of the executive committee of the NATO Association of Canada and a member of the Editors Association of Canada.
Tina Park @Korean International Women’s Network Convention, Vienna, Austria
Always a ball of energy, Tina enjoys engineering new projects, travelling around the world and learning new languages. She is a fan of classical music, Irish poetry and Shakespeare’s plays. Tina is trained in traditional Korean cuisine and enjoys volunteering at St.Thomas Anglican Church on Fridays to feed the hungry.
Sailing on the Nile River in Aswan
At Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry
Tina J. Park 