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Sub-series consists of material documenting Prof. Russell’s involvement with the College and Universities Retiree Association of Canada (CURAC). His activity with the organization began at its founding as he participated in initial 2002 meeting of the CURAC Steering Committee and helped draft the organization’s constitution. Prof. Russell would later become its Founding President (beginning in 2003 for a 2-year term) and continued serving on various committees, including the Professional Support Committee into the next decade.

Material documents executive and committee activities predominantly covering the period between 2003 and 2008. Files include Board of Director minutes, documentation of incorporation, planning for annual conferences and general meetings, membership surveys, publicity material and correspondence.

Sub-series consists of records documenting Prof. Russell’s participation in the Retired Academics and Librarians of the University of Toronto (RALUT). At its founding, the organization focused on issues surrounding pensions at the UofT and the continued academic activity of faculty members following retirement. Prof. Russell served as the organization’s Founding President. Material covers activities of the Executive Committee, Benefits Committee, Pension Committee, and the Joint Working Group on Retirement Issues, in addition to an address given by Peter Russell at the organization’s 2006 annual general meeting.

This series contains files of correspondence, notes, reports, minutes of meetings, clippings, manuscripts, and other records relating to various activities, organizations, issues that Prof. Russell has been involved in over the past four decades. Material reflects his academic interests related to constitutional issues, legal topics, as well social justice issues. Sub-series includes correspondence, reports and notes relating to the Canadian Bar Association’s Committee for appointment of Judges, the China Democracy project, the Bilingualism & Biculturalism Commission, the Task Force to Review Comprehensive Native Land Claims, the University League for Social Reform, the Truth and Reconciliation Committee panels, electoral reform, and other issues and bodies.

In 1974, Prof. Russell was appointed Chairman of the Dene Nation Southern Support Group. This informal body led by both Russell and Prof. Don Simpson (University of Western Ontario), was established in September 1974 by the Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories and Metis Association. Their task was to secure support and understanding for the Land Settlement in southern Canada. To accomplish this goal, volunteers were attracted and the group produced an information booklet and coordinated fundraising activities in major cities across Canada. In 1975, a Support Group office was set up in Ottawa and closed two years later (October 1977) following the resolution of a number of Dene Nation concerns. These included the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline and the recognition that the Dene Nation’s political struggle for self-determination had become the primary goal. As a result, Prof. Russell and Prof. Simpson assumed an advisory role. Records include correspondence, notes, copies of newsletters, and copies of Land Claims documents.

In 1992, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, co-chaired by Judge René Dussault and Georges Erasmus, was established by the federal government. Prof. Russell was hired as Chair of the Research Advisory Committee and served from 1992-1995. According to the terms of reference, this Committee was to “devise and recommend a set of ethical principles to guide the conduct of research authorized” by the Royal Commission, “to provide advice on the overall design and methodological approaches of research”, and “to oversee discipline-based peer review in Political Science, Law, Economics, Anthropology/Sociology, Geography and History in addition to …peer review of Applied Studies and studies on the North”. Prof. Russell’s role is documented in correspondence, notes, newsletters, reports and manuscripts of studies. Among the studies included are “Aboriginal peoples and constitutional reform” written by Prof. Russell and Roger Jones, “Canadian governments and aboriginal peoples” governance papers for British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

In November 2003, the Ipperwash Inquiry was established by the Government of Ontario to investigate and report on the factors surrounding the death of Dudley George. Mr. George was shot and killed during a protest at the Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995. The Commission responsible for the Inquiry submitted its final report in 2007. Prof. Russell served as a member of the Inquiry’s Research Advisory Committee whose work assisted with Part II of the Inquiry: Policy and Research. Material in this sub-series covers background research, correspondence and documentation of the activities of the Committee, as well as draft typescripts of individual chapters from the final report. Series also includes letters written in response to statements made by then OPP Commissioner, Julian Fantino, following the National Day of Action, 2007.