The 2022 Spring Speaker Series offers 6 enriching lectures, Thursdays, 10 am to 12 noon, starting April 7th, 2022.
This series will be offered virtually. You will be able to enjoy the variety of speakers from the comfort of your home.
All lectures are on Zoom webinar platform.
Richmond Hill Speaker Series is continuing to partner with the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts (RHCPA). This was the location of the inital live Speaker Series and we expect to return there in the fall.
Ticket sales are through the RHCPA box office. The cost of the series of 6 talks is $50.00. (plus handling fee and HST). Please click HERE to purchase.
Only series tickets are being sold.
Here is the line up:
April 7th
David Leyton-Brown:
The Embattled Presidency and Beyond
Donald Trump came into the US presidency with a unique personal style. As a self-described master of the art of the deal, he set forth several principles of successful deal-making, which will be illustrated in the experience of trade negotiations with Canada. As the only US president to be impeached twice (but not convicted) his experience reveals important differences from the parliamentary system and illustrations of the extreme polarization of US politics. The 2020 presidential election with its seemingly massive voting majority was actually far closer than it first appears, and Trump’s continuing dominance of the Republican party coupled with the enduring success of the “big lie” pose a chilling threat to the future of American democracy.
David Leyton-Brown did his undergraduate studies in Economics and Political Science at McGill, and his graduate work in Political Science at Harvard. A specialist in International Relations, he taught initially at Carleton, and for many years at York University, where he is now Professor Emeritus of Politics (which is a polite academic term for retired). Most of his work has been on Canada-United States relations, and he has spent many years interpreting Canada to American audiences, and the United States to Canadians.
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April 14th
Allan Bartley:
Ku Klux Klan in Canada
The Ku Klux Klan was the fastest growing group in Canada during the 1920s. The American white supremacist organization with origins in the aftermath of the United States’ Civil War found a ready market in this country for its image, ideology and racism. Flaming crosses appeared across the Canadian landscape from Ontario to the Maritimes to the Western Provinces. KKK rallies attracted thousands of participants. Allan Bartley’s presentation traces the arrival of the Klan in Canada in the wake of the First World War, its growth during the 1920s and decline during the Dirty Thirties as the world slid toward a second war. The Klan left in its wake a residue of racism and hatred that remains with us a century later.
Allan Bartley is a former journalist, intelligence analyst and executive in the Government of Canada. He divides his time between Ottawa and the Bruce Peninsula. He is an adjunct professor in the political science department at Carleton University. His books include Heroes in Waiting: The 160th Bruce Battalion in the Great War (Brucedale Press) and most recently the Ku Klux Klan in Canada: A Century of Promoting Racism and Hate in the Peaceable Kingdom (Formac Publishing).
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April 21st
Leah denBok:
But I Can Still Do Something
Leah will share some of the photos and stories of the people experiencing homelessness whom she has met in major cities throughout the world, such as New York, Brisbane, Toronto, Washington, and Las Angeles. Her goal in doing so is to, both, humanize these individuals and shine a spotlight on their plight. The title of her talk is from a well-known quote by Edward Everett Hale who said, “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”
Leah is a Fashion, Beauty and Portrait Photographer. For the past six years, she has been traveling to cities throughout the world, such as Toronto, New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and Brisbane, photographing people experiencing homelessness and recording their stories. Her fourth book, entitled Nowhere to Call Home--Photographs and Stories of People Experiencing Homelessness, Volume Four, was recently published by Europe Books.
In the summer of 2017, CBC's 'The National' aired a documentary about Leah's photography and stories of people experiencing homelessness. Since then, her work has attracted worldwide attention. She has been interviewed by such major media networks as the BBC, CBS, CTV, the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Toronto Life, Chatelaine, and the Corriere Della Sera in Italy. Recently a couple of her photos appeared in Vogue Italia, widely regarded as the world’s leading fashion magazine.
Leah attended, by invitation, ARTWALK NY 2017 and the Women of the World 2018 festival in Brisbane, Australia, where she exhibited and spoke. In 2017 she was invited to speak, along with Prince Harry and Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General to the U.N., at the Air Canada Centre for the WE Day and WE Family events where she addressed 40,000 people. She has been a keynote speaker at the annual She Talks events in Cambridge and Muskoka.
Leah has won several awards, including the IDRF Youth Impact Award 2018, Murray Clerkson Award 2019, SNAP Photo Competition 2020, and the Ascend Rising Star of the Year Award 2020.
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April 28th
Mark Kozak-Holland:
Lessons from the Project that Built, Launched and Sank the Titanic
Mark will take us through the project of building the Titanic and show how decisions and influence by the stakeholders affected the outcome. Had the principal stakeholders been better managed, would the history of the Titanic have been different?
Mark Kozak-Holland brings 40 years of experience as a consultant who helps Fortune-500 companies formulate projects that leverage emerging technologies. Since 1985 he has been straddling the business and IT worlds making these projects happen. He is a PMP, certified business consultant, the author of several books and a noted speaker. Mark has always been interested in tracing the evolution of technology and the 3 industrial revolutions of the last 300 years. As a historian, Mark seeks out the wisdom of the past to help others avoid repeating mistakes and to capture time-proven techniques. In 2002 Mark founded the “Lessons from History” series to help today’s business organizations find unique solutions to complex problems.
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May 5th
Daniel Black:
A Strange and Secret Wartime Journey
Dan Black is author of Harry Livingstone’s Forgotten Men: Canadians and the Chinese Labour Corps in the First World War. Published in 2019, this book has received excellent reviews. Dan will talk about the book, particularly how a small-town doctor embarked on a strange, secret journey after joining the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Instead of heading to the Western Front, Captain Livingstone, who is a relative of the great African explorer Dr. David Livingstone, travelled to China where he examined thousands of men intent on joining the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC). Approximately 100,000 young men travelled to France as members of the CLC in what was a British scheme to find labour to work behind the lines—stockpiling ammunition, unloading ships, repairing roads, and the grisly task of cleaning up the battlefields. Dan’s presentation will explain how Canada and the CPR offered the safest route for the CLC to war-torn Europe, and it will detail Livingstone’s journey with one of the large contingents that crossed Canada. Altogether, the talk—like the book—will shed light on Canada’s role in a forgotten scheme.
Dan is also co-author of Old Enough To Fight: Canada’s Boy Soldiers in the First World War (Lorimer, Toronto, 2013, 2nd Edition 2015) and Too Young To Die: Canada’s Boy Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen in the Second World War (Lorimer, Toronto, 2016). He is former Editor of Canada’s Legion Magazine and more recently a contributor to the Singapore National Library’s BiblioAsia magazine. He lives near Ottawa.
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May 12th
Joanna Chiu:
China Unbound
As the world’s second-largest economy, China is extending its influence across the globe with the complicity of democratic nations. Joanna Chiu has spent a decade tracking China’s propulsive rise, from the political aspects of the multi-billion-dollar “New Silk Road” global investment project, to a growing sway on foreign countries and multilateral institutions through “United Front” efforts.
“For too long, Western societies have mishandled or simply ignored Beijing’s actions out of narrow self-interest. Decades of willful misinterpretation have over time become complicity in the toxic diplomacy, human rights abuses and foreign interference seen from China today,” Chiu argues.
In China Unbound, Joanna Chiu offers background on the protests in Hong Kong, underground churches in Beijing, and exile Uyghur communities in Turkey, and exposes Beijing’s high-tech surveillance and aggressive measures that result in human rights violations against those who challenge its power. The new world disorder documented in China Unbound lays out the disturbing implications for global stability, prosperity, and civil rights everywhere. Joanna Chiu is an internationally recognized authority on China, whose work has appeared in the Guardian, Foreign Policy, BBC World, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Quartz, Al Jazeera,
GlobalPost, CBC, and NPR. For seven years she was based in China as a foreign correspondent reporting for top news agencies such as Agence France Presse (AFP) and Deutsche PresseAgentur (DPA), and in Hong Kong, she reported for the South China Morning Post, The Economist, and Associated Press (AP). In 2012 her story on refugees in Hong Kong won a Human Rights Press Award, and in 2018 her report on #MeToo cases in Asia was named one of the best Foreign Policy long-form stories. She is the founder and chair of the NüVoices editorial collective, which celebrates the creative and academic work of women working on the subject of China. She is currently a senior journalist covering China-related topics for the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, and has previously served as bureau chief of the Star Vancouver.
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Series cost: $50. (plus handling fee and HST)
Please click HERE to order.
The Zoom link will be sent to you about 9 a.m. on the day of the talk.
These talks will not be recorded.
For more information please contact:
Marj Andre
416 822-5139
[email protected]
or Mary Kot
905 886-9903
[email protected]
