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• FREE Fall 2021 Speaker Event Series (via Zoom)

  • Start
    September 13, 2021
  •  
    10:00 AM
  • End
    November 01, 2021
  •  
    12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom virtual meetings

  
  

  Fall 2021 Speaker Event Series 
  
  

  All Fall 2021 speaker events will be conducted virtually using Zoom software

  Sept 13	Shane O'Mara, DPhil	In Praise of Walking
  Sept 20	Robert Bell, MD	Canada Needs a New Seniors’ Strategy: Lessons from the Pandemic
  Sept 27	Claudiu Popa	A Cybersafety Intro: Understanding Where Your Data Goes and Why It Matters
  Oct 4	John Lorinc	Decarbonizing our cities: going beyond transit and intensification
  Oct 18	Joe Schwarcz, PhD	Aging: Fact and Fancy
  Oct 25	Sara Mainville	Indigenous ethnies and Nations

  Nov 1

  Marta O'Brien

  Architecture: Now I Get It! Understanding the Elements of Architecture

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

    

  
   
  

  
  

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• Canada Needs a New Seniors’ Strategy: Lessons from the Pandemic

  • When
    September 20, 2021
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom virtual meeting

           

  

  Robert Bell, MD
  

  Robert Bell served as Deputy Minister of Health and Long-Term Care from 2014 to 2018. Prior to this role, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of University Health Network for nine years. He was previously the Chief Operating Officer at Princess Margaret Hospital and Chair of both Cancer Care Ontario’s Clinical Council and the Cancer Quality Council of Ontario.

  Dr. Bell received his Doctor of Medicine from McGill University, a Master of Science from the University of Toronto and achieved his Fellowship in Orthopaedic Surgery in 1983. He completed a sub-specialty training in Orthopaedic Cancer Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in 1985, and the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2005.

  Dr. Bell is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. As an internationally recognized orthopedic surgeon, health system executive, clinician-scientist, and educator, Dr. Bell has more than 40 years of health care experience.

  Canada Needs a New Seniors’ Strategy: Lessons from the Pandemic
  

  All Canadians will remember that a disproportionate number of our fellow citizens died in our country’s congregate seniors’ living centres during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure that we honour the memories of those people we need to ensure that we understand why mortality in long-term care was so high.  In this way we can respond to evidence in building back better now that vaccination is bringing this terrible episode to a conclusion.

  This renewed Seniors’ Strategy must not only address issues in congregate living but must also consider better ways of maintaining independence for frail seniors. This presentation will discuss the evidence of what needs to be done and will propose some new options for how seniors can live independently and safely.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  This event is part of the Fall 2021 Speaker series. 

  Show details
• A Cybersafety Intro: Understanding Where Your Data Goes and Why It Matters

  • When
    September 27, 2021
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom virtual meeting

  
  

           

  Claudiu Popa
  

  Claudiu helps some of the world's best companies protect their most valuable assets and make intelligent, risk-based decisions. As Informatica's CEO, he manages risk audit and assessment projects for organizations on both sides of the border.

  He is a professional speaker and a published author. His unique background and influence make him a trusted risk advisor to leaders and a reliable, authoritative source of engaging soundbites for media outlets.

  Claudiu is an ardent protector of information and supporter of privacy rights recognized by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner as a Privacy by Design Ambassador.

  His interest in standardizing cybersafety and hack-proofing online communities stems from a personal passion to build resilience back into the Internet, widely disseminate information, and create a conduit for high value knowledge transfer.  That conduit is the KnowledgeFlow Cybersafety Foundation, a non-profit organization he founded to help Canadian families improve their cybersituational awareness.  

  KnowledgeFlow's creation of Cybersafety by Design(TM) is a system of 7 principles based on Privacy by Design, often described as the gold standard in privacy.  KnowledgeFlow’s kindergarten to grade 12 education platform is based on the First Principles of Cybersafety(TM) created to empower students to safely contribute and not just consume online content. 
  

  A Cybersafety Intro: Understanding Where Your Data Goes and Why It Matters

  Claudiu will take the fear out of cyberfraud by demonstrating that the hallmarks of typical scams have been the same since the dawn of time! By taking the cyber out of cyberfraud attendees will be empowered to confidently participate in the online universe. Attendees will also receive access to our continually expanding database of cybersafety tip sheets and other resources. 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  This event is part of the Fall 2021 Speaker series. 

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• Decarbonizing our cities: going beyond transit and intensification

  • When
    October 04, 2021
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom virtual meeting

  
  

           

  John Lorinc
  

  John Lorinc is a Toronto journalist and editor. He writes about urban affairs, the environment, business, philanthropy and local history for a range of publications, including The Globe and Mail, Corporate Knights and Spacing, where he is senior editor. John is also the Toronto non-fiction editor of Coach House Books. 

  John has won numerous National Magazine Awards.
  

  
  

  Decarbonizing our cities: going beyond transit and intensification 

  While promoting transit use, active transportation and density are critically important goals for reducing urban emissions, our built form accounts for 40% of all carbon released into the atmosphere. Indeed, reducing building-related GHGs -- from natural gas heating, poor insulation, leaky windows, etc. -- requires far more focused policy attention and investment if our cities are to achieve net-zero by 2050.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  This event is part of the Fall 2021 Speaker series. 

  Show details
• Aging: Fact and Fancy

  • When
    October 18, 2021
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom virtual meeting

  
  

          

  Joe Schwarcz, PhD
  

  Joe Schwarcz is Director of McGill University’s “Office for Science and Society” which has the mission of separating sense from nonsense. He is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching chemistry and for interpreting science for the public.

  “Dr Joe” has hosted a radio show on science for forty years, "The Dr. Joe Show" on Montreal's CJAD. He has appeared hundreds of times on television, writes a regular newspaper column “The Right Chemistry” and is the author of eighteen best-sellers, some of which include Dr. Joe And What You Didn’t Know,” “The Fly In The Ointment” “Let Them Eat Flax” “An Apple A Day,” “Brain Fuel,” and “Science, Sense and Nonsense. His next book, “Science Goes Viral” is to be released in August. 

  He has been awarded honorary degrees by Athabasca University, Cape Breton University, the University of Windsor and Simon Fraser University. He was the first non-American ever to win the American Chemical Society’s prestigious Grady-Stack Award for demystifying chemistry, and in 2021 he was honoured with the Society of Chemical Industry’s Outreach Award.

  Professor Schwarcz is also an amateur magician and often spices up his presentations with a little magic.

  
  

  Aging: Fact and Fancy

  Everybody wants to live long but nobody wants to get old.  Can science solve this conundrum?  What are we to make of claims which suggest that the secret of longevity lies in human growth hormone injections, or some dietary supplement?  Can testosterone or estrogen keep us young?  Can we live longer just by eating less?  Are antioxidants like beta carotene or vitamin E the key to happy golden years?  A look at the science behind these issues can be a real eye opener!

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  This event is part of the Fall 2021 Speaker series. 

  Show details
• Indigenous ethnies and Nations

  • When
    October 25, 2021
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom virtual meeting

  
  

  
  

  Sara Mainville LLM

  Sara Mainville is a Partner at the law firm OKT.

  Sara works with First Nations as legal counsel, strategic advisor and negotiator. She has been called to the Ontario bar since 2005.

  Sara Mainville has a Management degree (Lethbridge) and a LL.B. (Queen’s).  She earned a LL.M (Toronto) and her thesis, “An Anishinaabe Perspective of Treaty #3” was the beginning of a lifetime of study by her regarding Treaty #3 and Indigenous jurisdiction’s important role in legally reconciling Indigenous sovereignty in Canada.

  In 2014, Sara was elected Chief of Couchiching First Nation. During that term she ensured that the First Nation had strong policy going forward and she started the Wasaw group of companies.

  Sara Mainville is also very proud of her participation in the negotiations that led to the creation of the First Nation Sovereign Wealth LP, a partnership of 129 First Nations in Ontario.  Sara was co-chair in the negotiations that resulted in the commercial transaction between the Province of Ontario and the First Nations of 14 million Hydro One shares and $29 million in seed capital to facilitate long-term wealth creation. 

  Sara has advised First Nations on their own cannabis control laws in 2018 and 2019.  She is well regarded as a strategic thinker and negotiator and is often speaking at various conferences and First Nation forums about emerging legal issues.

  Sara is listed as "Most Frequently Recommended" in Indigenous Law by Lexpert.

  
  

  Indigenous ethnies and Nations

  Sara Mainville will explain why “Indigenous” and other blanket terms are only the starting points of relationships with the Anishinaabe and other peoples we should all know in Canada. 

  • A symbol of reconciliation should be that you know much more about Inuit, Metis, Anishinaabe, and other distinct Indigenous ethnies (cultural groups in Canada who have their own “creation stories”) and understand the importance of those creation stories to Canada’s own sustainability.
  • More important, a real act of reconciliation is to renew the Nation-to-Nation relationship with important allies of the former British colony, including the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee confederacies that gathered for a treaty at Niagara in 1764.

  Sara Mainville will explore this important legal history which is the actual “creation story” of Canada.  “Indian” “Native” “First Nations” “Aboriginal” and “Indigenous” are blanket terms that pose a barrier to true reconciliation.

   

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

   This event is part of the Fall 2021 Speaker series. 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Show details
• Architecture: Now I Get It! Understanding the Elements of Architecture

  • When
    November 01, 2021
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom virtual meeting

  
  

          

  Marta O'Brien
  

  Marta O'Brien has been an architectural historian for over 25 years. She
  earned her architecture degree with honours from Ryerson University, and
  Masters in environmental studies from York University.

  Marta teaches many architectural history courses for the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies. Through her company, Citywalks, she presents tours
  and illustrated lectures for historical societies, seniors' learning organizations, and others.

  In 2021, Marta was elected an Honourary Member of the Ontario Association of Architects.

  
  

  Architecture: Now I Get It! Understanding the Elements of Architecture

  Architecture is everywhere; it affects our daily experience of a street,
  neighbourhood, and city -- often subconsciously.  Buildings can positively
  affect our experience of a place and raise our spirits. Conversely, a
  building can make us feel uneasy or even intimidated. This stimulating
  talk on the visual elements of architecture will help you really see the
  architecture around you, and understand why you feel as you do when
  observing a building. We'll see how the use of proportion, ornament,
  colour, and more affect our impressions.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  This event is part of the Fall 2021 Speaker series. 

  Show details