How to get tickets to attend Alex Neve's 2025 CBC Massey Lectures

The CBC Massey Lectures are back — and they may be coming to a city near you. 

This year, human rights lawyer Alex Neve will explore what it takes to make human rights truly universal. 

Universality is the core promise of the human rights order born out of the devastation of the Second World War and the Holocaust. These rights extend to everyone, everywhere, at all times, without exception.

But in his lectures, Neve argues that the word "universal" also screams of our profound failure to keep that promise. Too often, human rights are applied selectively, withdrawn on the whims of political leaders, or ignored altogether, he says.

This is not universality's finest hour. But it could be. 

Weaving together law, history, and stories from decades on the front lines of the struggle for human rights, Neve investigates where we went wrong, how we have progressed, and what we can do to fulfil the promise that human rights are inherent, inalienable, and applicable to all people. 

His lectures, called Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World, will be published in book form by House of Anansi Press on Sept. 2, 2025. 

Neve served as Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada from 2000 to 2020. He took part in over 40 human rights research and advocacy delegations throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, Guantánamo Bay and, closer to home, First Nations communities in Canada.

He will visit five Canadian cities starting in September for live recordings of his Massey Lectures: Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and Ottawa.

The series will be broadcast on CBC Radio's IDEAS and be available as a podcast from your favourite app and at CBC's Listen App in November. 

Tickets will be on sale through the theatre box offices starting July 21 — but there is a presale in most cities starting July 14 that offer a discount. 

Toronto | Friday, Sept. 19, 2025

Koerner Hall, TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, 273 Bloor St W.
Event time: 7.00p.m.
Tickets go on sale: July 21 | Presale: July 14
Pre-sale code: MASSEY2025 
Order tickets online 
Phone: 416-408-0208 

Vancouver | Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025 

York Theatre, 639 Commercial Dr.
Event time: 7:00 p.m.
Tickets go on sale: July 21 | Presale: July 14
Pre-sale code: MASSEY2025
Order tickets online 
Phone: 604-251-1363

Edmonton | Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025

Myer Horowitz Theatre, 8900 114 St NW
Event time: 7:00 p.m.
Tickets go on sale: July 21 | Presale: July 14
Pre-sale code: MASSEY2025
Order tickets online 
Phone: (780) 492-4764

Happy Valley-Goose Bay | Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025

Lawrence O'Brien Arts Centre, 15-21 Voisey Drive
Event time: 7:00 p.m. 
Tickets go on sale: July 21
Order tickets online: (Link to come)
Phone: 708-896-4028

Ottawa | Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025

National Arts Centre, Babs Asper Theatre, 1 Elgin St
Event time: 7:30 p.m.
Tickets go on sale: July 21 | Presale: Jly 14
Pre-sale code: MASSEY2025 
Order tickets online
Phone: 1-800-515-2171

The CBC Massey Lectures is a partnership between CBC, House of Anansi Press and Massey College at the University of Toronto, providing a forum where contemporary thinkers can explore important issues of our time.