Dr. Allison McGeer, Microbiologist and Infectious Disease Consultant
Professor Kate Choi, Associate Professor of Sociology, Western University
Professor Erica Di Ruggiero, Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, UofT
Professor Christopher Rutty, Historian

Two years on from the start of the pandemic, we invite four distinguished scholars from four different academic disciplines and research traditions to consider the pandemic in perspective. Each panelist will offer an opening statement summarising their particular approach to the pandemic, the kinds of questions they’ve been engaged in and what they have learned so far following which Dr. Allison McGeer will lead a panel discussion among the four guests digging more deeply into some of the key issues and themes. There will be time at the end of the presentation for questions from the audience.

The Notwithstanding clause is perhaps the most obscure part of Canada’s constitutional history that everyone loves to hate. Ever since 1982 critics have attacked Section 33 as an unfortunate compromise that negates the Charter’s great promise of human rights. When the Quebec government invoked Section 33 to allow them to pass otherwise unconstitutional language laws, many in the rest of Canada were irate. Ever since, each time a government invokes or threatens to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause, the same criticisms re-emerge. In this talk historian Christopher Dummitt explains the origins of the clause, including how pivotal it was to ensuring repatriation, and places it within the long and vital history of responsible and parliamentary government in Canada.

National best-selling author and professional adventurer Adam Shoalts takes us on the journey of a lifetime: a nearly 4,000 km solo odyssey by canoe across Canada’s Arctic. This harrowing expedition took almost four months to complete and years of preparation. Shoalts will share photos from his journey, which involved weaving through ice floes, facing down snarling bears and galloping musk-ox, and paddling under the midnight sun in a land as old as time. But also why we urgently need to save vast wild places while it’s still possible.