SPEAKER AND TRAINER

As a speaker and trainer I focus on the copyright questions that cultural players have to answer in order to keep up with the evolving environment around them. 
You can watch me give presentation on copyright and cultural appropriation (once in October 2018 and once in June 2019)  to get a taste of my style and check out this one-minute clip summarizing the issue of cultural appropriation. You can also download my slides to get a good overview of the issue. Curious about what cultural institutions can do about cultural appropriation? This four-minute video sums up all the main issues (at minute 30:00). 
Cultural institutions have the primordial function of preserving and giving access to our shared cultural heritage. In the digital world, fresh opportunities to interact with culture abound; the function of institutions takes on a whole new dimension. Digital technologies are evolving faster than the policy landscape can keep up with the right tools, we can find solutions to move forward. I am particularly interested in touching on such questions as:

• ​​Is copyright a tool or a hindrance for cultural institutions?
• What are the policy aspects of preservation and safeguarding?
• What is the relationship between intellectual property and the UNESCO Conventions?
• Is digitization of cultural heritage compliant with the policy framework in your country?
• Is copyright the answer to cultural appropriation? 

​I have organized and participated as a speaker in dozens of events around the themes of law and culture in Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, Oman, Peru, Romania, Russian Federation, Solomon Islands, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Here is a sample:

• Workshops - two editions of WIPO Practical Workshop for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities on IP and Traditional Knowledge in Geneva, Switzerland 
• Training activities - WIPO Technical Training Program on Cultural Documentation and Intellectual Property in Jamaica and International Technical Workshop on Documentation and Registration of Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions in Oman
• Seminars and symposia - International Symposium on IP, TK, TCEs and GR: Towards Sustainable Development for Indigenous Peoples in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
• Summer schools - WIPO-Unige Summer School on Intellectual Property in Geneva and Université de Sherbrooke Ecole d'été en droit international appliqué in Sherbrooke, Canada 
• Major international conferences - CopyCamp in Warsaw, Poland (watch the presentation), International Conference on Intellectual Property and Cultural Heritage in the Digital World in Madrid, Spain

I also tutored students from all over the world in a WIPO distance learning course on intellectual property and traditional knowledge: DL203 - Intellectual Property, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions.

At Europeana, the EU digital platform for cultural heritage, I devised a training strategy to address the copyright questions raised by the digital preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage and co-organized in Croatia the training workshop "Croatian Cultural Heritage in the Digital World" to help cultural institutions overcome copyright challenges.

WRITER AND RESEARCHER

I have written several published papers on  intellectual property issues of cultural institutions, international negotiations on the protection of traditional cultural expressions and the international trade aspects of indigenous cultural heritage protection, to name a few. Here are a few examples: 
 Academic and Policy Articles

• Ensuring Respect for Indigenous Cultures: A Moral Rights Approach, 2020, Centre for International Governance Innovation.
  
• Curbing Cultural Appropriation in the Fashion Industry, 2019, Centre for International Governance Innovation.
• Traditional Cultural Expressions: Laying Blocks for an International Agreement, 2018, Centre for International Governance Innovation. 
• Cultural Institutions and the Documentation of Indigenous Cultural Heritage: Intellectual Property Issues, 2016, IFLA/De Gruyter Saur, in Indigenous Ownership & Libraries, Archives, and Museum, Camille Callison, Gretchen LeCheminant, and Loriene Roy, eds.
• Are They In or Are They Out? Traditional Cultural Expressions and the Public Domain: Implications for Trade, 2012, Edward Elgar, in International Trade in Indigenous Cultural Heritage – Legal and Policy Issues, Christoph B. Graber , Karolina Kuprecht, and Jessica C. Lai, eds.

 WIPO Magazine Articles

• Curbing Cultural Appropriation in the Fashion Industry with Intellectual Property, 2019
• Supporting Indigenous Communities at the Grassroots, 2014 (with George Nicholas)
• Celebrating Culture: IP & Arts Festivals, 2012
• Traditional Cultures, Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Institutions, 2010​

  Official Publications

• Intellectual property and folk, arts and cultural festivals - a practical guide , WIPO, 2014 (as WIPO staff)

Brigitte Vézina in the Media

• Vogue Arabia - Vogue.me Investigates: The State Of Cultural Appropriation & Why It Needs To Change
• Toronto Star - Cultural appropriation keeps happening because clear laws simply don't exist
• Parents Magazine - A Parents Guide to Navigating Questionable Halloween Costumes
• CTV News - Tougher laws needed to police cultural appropriation in fashion, study says 
• Global News - Group calls for tougher laws protecting Indigenous tradition from cultural appropriation 
• National Post - Study calls for tougher laws against cultural appropriation in fashion
• Ontario Morning on CBC Radio  - Brigitte Vezina explains how copyright could be used to prevent cultural appropriation - 15 April 2019
• CBC Windsor Radio One - Protecting cultural expressions... with copyright? CIGI study says intellectual property laws can protect against cultural appropriation. At 6:40 we hear from study author Brigitte Vézina - 15 April 2019
• Unsatisfashion and Fashion for Future, 2020 
  

Blogs and Web Articles 

• Creative IP - University of the Arts London - Cultural Appropriation

LEGAL AND POLICY ADVISOR 

As Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), in the International Law Research Program, I am analyzing the international negotiations for the IP protection of traditional cultural expressions and examining IP issues, particularly the role of moral rights, around cultural appropriation in the fashion industry. 

​As Policy Advisor at SPARC Europe I work to secure positive changes to the draft EU Copyright Directive, the PSI Directive and Horizon Europe to support Open Access and Open Science. 

As Legal Officer at the World Intellectual Property Organization, I facilitated for several years international negotiations in the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC). The IGC is a negotiation body where WIPO member states are undertaking text-based negotiations with the objective of reaching agreement on a text(s) of an international legal instrument(s) which will ensure the effective protection of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources. I also provided legal and legislative advice on copyright and traditional cultural expressions in regional and national instruments. 

Past experience also includes work in the Cultural Enterprise and Copyright Section at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, and with the Montreal-based IP law firm ROBIC.