YP Speakers Series

The Global Refugee Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Solutions
2019-02-08 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Cameron Hall, 1585 Yonge Street, Toronto
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The world is facing a global refugee crisis unprecedented since the 1945-1952 period. There are currently almost 68 million people forcibly displaced.Professor Hansen’s lecture will review the causes of mass forced migration and explore the solutions. It will argue that solutions are not found in the global north; they are rather found in the global south — where most refugees are. It ends by making a series of policy recommendations: that resources be concentrated in the global south where the refugees in fact are; that refugees be given economic, political and social opportunities in the countries to which they flee; that nascent efforts to encourage refugee self-sufficiency be expanded; that refugee access to education in particular be expanded and that donor support aim to improve life for both refugees and locals so that refugees may come to be seen not as an intolerable burden but as an economic and political asset.
BIOGRAPHYRandall Hansen is Interim Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Full Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and Canada Research Chair in Global Migration. He works on Immigration and Citizenship, Demography and Population Policy and the Effects of War on Civilians. His published works include Disobeying Hitler: German Resistance after Operation Valkyrie (2014), Sterilized by the State: Eugenics, Race and the Population Scare in 20th Century North America (2014), and Fire and Fury: the Allied Bombing of Germany (2009). Professor Hansen has also co- edited a number of books on immigration and public opinion in Western democracies. He appears regularly on TVO’s The Agenda and has written for and been quoted in the national and international press.

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Technology, Truth and Trust – Democracy in a Digital Media Age - Panel Discussion
2019-01-11 19:00 - 21:00
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Moderator:Daniel Tisch (CEO, Argyle Public Relationships)Panelists:Wendy Duff (Dean, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)Carol Radford-Grant (City Archivist, City of Toronto)Robert Benzie (Queen’s Park Bureau Chief, Toronto Star)
The digital age has radically democratized communication — allowing almost anyone to create, publish and consume content. But technological advancement has also decimated the news media and made it more difficult for citizens to separate truth from falsehood — resulting in dangerous declines in trust in leaders, institutions, governments and businesses. Join us for a dynamic dialogue between an academic, an archivist, a journalist and a professional communicator — each a national leader in their field — as they explore the implications of the digital revolution on our democracy, and what we can do to preserve it.

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Canada’s Hundred Days, 1918: The Greatest Victory
2018-11-02 19:00 - 23:00
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Canada’s Hundred Days, 1918: The Greatest Victory. Most Canadians have heard of Vimy Ridge. Very few know of the Hundred Days, the series of great battles led by the Canadian Corps from August 8 to the Armistice on November 11, 1918. Then Canada’s 100,000 men defeated one-quarter of the German Army on the Western Front in the most significant battlefield victories in Canadian history. The cost was terrible, but the Canadians played a hugely disproportionate share in winning the Great War. It is long past time for Canadians to know and remember what their great-grandfathers did a century ago.
BIOGRAPHYJack Granatstein writes on 20th Century Canadian national history, the military, defense and foreign policy, Canadian-American relations, the public service, and politics. He has been described as “the most prolific Canadian historian of his generation” with more than 75 titles to his credit. Granatstein was born in Toronto in 1939. He attended the Royal Military College, the University of Toronto, and Duke University, served in the Canadian Army (1956-66), then joined the History Department at York University, Toronto (1966-95) where he is Distinguished Research Professor of History Emeritus.In 2008, the Conference of Defence Associations awarded Granatstein its 75th Anniversary Book Prize as “the author deemed to have made the most significant positive contribution to the general public’s understanding of Canadian foreign policy, national security and defence during the past quarter century.” He was instrumental in creating the new home for the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, where he was Director and CEO from 1998 to 2000. He is co-curator of the Museum’s Hundred Days 1918 exhibit.Granatstein’s better known books include: The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History; The Generals; The Greatest Victory; Canada’s Army; and Who Killed Canadian History?

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Why Rights Matter, and are Good Politics Too
2018-10-12 19:00 - 21:00
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In this lecture former Ontario Premier Bob Rae will talk about why human rights are important, and how and why they are so deeply challenged in the world. Drawing on his experiences in Canada and internationally, he will link how the Canadian debate on rights has evolved, and how it parallels what is happening around the world.
BIOGRAPHYBob Rae, who served as Premier of Ontario from 1990-95 and later as Interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, is currently practicing law in Toronto, focusing on indigenous issues and mediation. He also teaches law and public policy at the University of Toronto and currently serves as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Myanmar. He is the author of five books and three major reports for the federal and provincial governments. Bob lives in Toronto with his wife Arlene Perly Rae and thanks to their three daughters they are proud grandparents.

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Innovative solutions to disaster response
2018-09-28 19:00 - 21:00
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We are seeing a concerning trend in the world today — the total number of large-scale disasters and crises is rising, while the total amount of funding available is falling. Humanitarian organizations are struggling to respond and save lives.To keep up with this shift, we need to innovate. We need to find new and powerful solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. From distributing low-cost water purification units that produce safe drinking water for an entire year, to operating mobile water purification systems to the most remote locations, to installing bomb blast window film to protect vulnerable civilians trapped in war zones, to constructing permanent homes with strong, durable and environmentally friendly bricks made from compacted soil, to operating drones to provide better information to rescuers and responders, GlobalMedic is using innovative solutions to protect the health and dignity of families affected by disaster and crisis.
BIOGRAPHYRahul Singh founded the David McAntony Gibson Foundation (GlobalMedic) in 1999 to honour the memory of his best friend who tragically lost his life in 1998. Combining a passion for humanitarian assistance with a frontline emergency perspective — having been a paramedic since 1988 — Singh developed GlobalMedic’s unique operational mandate of providing efficient and cost effective disaster relief in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe using professional emergency workers.GlobalMedic teams have deployed on 193 missions in 63 countries following natural disasters and complex emergencies. Delivering of water purification equipment, installing of field hospitals, and running innovative programs like RescUAV, Singh continually strives to develop Canadian innovation in order to save lives.Singh has received a number of accolades for his humanitarian work over the years, including the Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2006, the Order of Ontario in 2012, and the Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. Singh as also been named on Time Magazine’s List of the 100 Most Influential People.

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Beneath Sicilian Skies… : The Canadians in Sicily, 1943
2018-06-08 19:00 - 21:00
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Seventy-five years ago this July 10th, 25,000 Canadian soldiers took part in one of the largest combined operations of the Second World War. All but forgotten today, the invasion of Sicily marked a turning point in the war and ushered the Canadian army into its longest land campaign of the Second World War. Vividly portrayed by the war artists who accompanied the fighting units, and described firsthand by participants like Farley Mowat, the battle for Sicily witnessed some of the most remarkable feats of arms ever achieved by Canadian soldiers. Relying on this rich archive of image and word, the lecture will take the audience from the landing zones through the rugged, ancient Sicilian landscape to the places where young men from every part of the country won Canada’s first victories of the Second World War.
BIOGRAPHYDr. Eric McGeer taught Latin and history for many years before turning to writing full time. Originally a specialist in Byzantine history, he was so moved by a visit to the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars that he shifted his focus to Canada’s military past. His publications include a set of three guidebooks to the Canadian battlefields in Italy, Canada’s Dream Shall Be of Them, a study of Canadian epitaphs from the First World War, and Words of Valediction and Remembrance: Canadian Epitaphs of the Second World War. His history of the University of Toronto Contingent of the Canadian Officers Training Corps is due to appear in the fall of 2018. He lives with his wife and two children in Toronto.

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Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley
2018-05-25 19:00 - 21:00
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In this lecture, “Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley,” based on her 2014 book of the same title, Professor Bonnell will show how the Don Valley played a central role in Toronto’s development. The lecture will trace the valley’s evolution from the founding of York in the 1790s to the construction of the Don Valley Parkway during the 1960s and up to the present day. For the past two centuries, the Don has served as both a sink for wastes and a site for numerous improvement schemes. By chronicling how successive generations of Toronto residents have imagined the Don Valley as an opportunity, an eyesore and a refuge, this lecture provides a fascinating account of how a small river can shape the growth of a big city.
BIOGRAPHYJennifer Bonnell is an Assistant Professor of Canadian and environmental history in the Department of History at York University. She is the author of the award-winning Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley (University of Toronto Press, 2014) and co-editor of Historical GIS Research in Canada (University of Calgary Press, 2014). Bonnell’s articles and essays have appeared in The Canadian Historical Review, The Journal of Canadian Studies, and Museum & Society, among other publications.She has contributed to a variety of public history projects, including documentary film and television projects for the Evergreen Brick Works and Metal Dog Films, and research and engagement work for LabSpace Studios and No9 Contemporary Art and the Environment. She is currently working on a new book, Foragers of a Modern Countryside: Honeybees, Agricultural Modernization and Environmental Change in the Great Lakes Region.

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17 Paintings That Scream 'Magnificent!'
2018-04-20 19:00 - 21:00
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In this illustrated lecture Julian Porter, author of 149 Paintings You Really Need to See in Europe (So You Can Ignore the Others) and 149 Paintings You Really Need to See in North America (So You Can Ignore the Others), will focus on 17 paintings “that scream, ‘Magnificent!’”
Painting is magic, often beyond the capacity of words. Give a painting time to talk to you and you’ll be the wiser. Enjoy the journey of looking again. Copies of Mr. Porter’s books will be available for sale at the lecture.
BIOGRAPHYJulian Porter, QC, was called to the Bar in 1964 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1976. He has practised litigation exclusively since his call and is a specialist in civil litigation and a leading expert in defamation law.
He has a passion for art that began when, as a student, he spent seven years as a tour guide in Europe. Since then he has conducted countless tours of famous galleries in Europe and North America.
His first book, 149 Paintings You Really Need to See in Europe (So You Can Ignore the Others) was published in October, 2013. In February, 2015, he was the guest of honour at a luncheon given by the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada who invited him to talk about his book and some of the paintings in his book. His new book, 149 Paintings You Really Need to See in North America (So You Can Ignore the Others), is co-authored by Stephen Grant. These books describe with entertaining irreverence the best of the best art.

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Civics 101: Toronto Edition
2018-02-23 19:00 - 21:00
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City Hall can seem daunting! While there is much to offer, navigating bureaucratic channels can often be challenging. This lecture will aim to empower citizens of Toronto to get involved in local issues, and to understand the inner workings of City Hall. Councillor McMahon will draw on her experience as Chair of the Parks and Environment Committee to speak about some of the pressing issues related to parks, forestry and the environment in the City, and how civic action plays an important role in helping the City to achieve its goals.
BIOGRAPHYMary-Margaret McMahon is the Toronto City Councillor for Ward 32 Beaches-East York. First elected in 2010, Councillor McMahon has sat on various committees and boards, including Audit, Public Works and Infrastructure, Licensing and Standards, Executive Committee and is currently Chair of the Parks and Environment Committee. Councillor McMahon is also a voting member on 5 BIA’s in her ward and has served on the Young People’s Theatre Board and the Design Exchange Board. Councillor McMahon has championed many initiatives at City Hall, some of which include TransformTO, the City’s climate change plan, the development of a Laneway Suites as-of-right planning policy, the introduction of Indigenous cultural competency training for City Staff, incorporating Indigenous place-making in parks, and the implementation of the 10 year Cycling Network Plan, particularly the Woodbine Bike Lanes.

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Canada’s Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests
2018-01-19 19:00 - 21:00
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In this lecture, based on his 2017 book of the same title, Professor Russell will make the case that the distinctive character of Canada is best understood as the result of the interaction of Canada’s three foundational pillars, Aboriginal Canada, French Canada and English-speaking Canada. It is the survival of the two smaller pillars as “nations within” and English-speaking Canada’s relinquishing its desire to be a simple one-nation state, that has enabled Canada to become the world’s leading multinational, multicultural country.”
BIOGRAPHY
Peter H. Russell is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Toronto where he has taught since 1958. He was the Principal of Innis College and the founding Principal of Senior College, the University of Toronto’s youngest college for its oldest scholars. His writings and public activities cover the fields of judicial, constitutional, Aboriginal and parliamentary politics. His most recent books are Two Cheers for Minority Government, Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis, Recognizing Native Title: Indigenous Resistance to English-Settler Colonialism and, in 2017, Canada’s Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests. He has served as the President of the Canadian Political Science Association and Chair of the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy. He is the recipient of honorary degrees from a number of universities, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Officer of the Order of Canada.

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