4:40 PM, April 26^th, 2022

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What do archaeologists do when the world is at war?
Surprisingly, many of them turn spy. During wartime, archaeologists on all sides have become involved with military intelligence, turning their in-depth knowledge of the land and the peoples they studied to support their countries at war. This was no more apparent than in the Middle East where prominent archaeologists played a very political game during the First World War. Some of these names, such as T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia, would become legendary. Others, when the war was over, simply went back to their museums and their excavations.
Continue reading Dr. Amy Barron, PhD, “Digger, Teacher, Soldier, Spy”, What do archaeologists do when the world is at war? April 26, 2022 →

Andrew Kirsch served as an intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for just under a decade (2008-2016). He held roles as a policy analyst and a field investigator, ultimately leading the special operations security team running covert warranted operations. Andrew’s talk will explain the need for the sort of grunt work he mostly did to make the sexier, tip-of-the-spear assignments possible; describe the challenges of “online dating from off the grid”; and burst a few bubbles for anyone gulled into mistaking Hollywood for reality.
Continue reading Andrew Kirsch, Inside Canadian Intelligence: A behind the scenes look at what the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is, what it does, and what it’s really like to serve on the front lines defending Canada against the evolving threats to our national security, March 29, 2022 →

James Lockyer CM, a founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), previously spoke to the Whiff in April 2010. He laid out the clear case that the justice system makes mistakes. These mistakes may have resulted from inadequate investigations, flawed forensic evidence, lying or mistaken witnesses, prosecutorial tunnel vision, or simple human error. His talk laid bare several examples of the inevitably devastating consequences that a wrongful conviction has had for some of his well known clients – Guy Paul Morin, David Milgaard, Robert Baltovich, James Driskell, Clayton Johnson, Steven Truscott and William Mullins-Johnson.  Since his last talk, the AIDWYC rebranded in 2016 as Innocence Canada, and adopted a new dynamic logo consisting of tally marks, one for each of the exonerations they have been involved in. Its team of pro-bono lawyers are currently reviewing approximately 80 claims of innocence.
Continue reading James Lockyer CM, Criminal Defense Lawyer, Founding Director of Innocence Canada, February 22, 2022 →

 Scotland and the Union of 1707

Robbie Burns Celebration, Scottish Dress Encouraged

The Centre for Scottish Studies at the University of Guelph is the oldest – and the leading – academic unit in North America for research, graduate training, and teaching on Scottish history and Scottish culture.

Continue reading Dr Kevin James, Professor of History, College of Arts, University of Guelph, and Scottish Studies Foundation Chair, January 25, 2022 →

Don R. Lindsay is President and Chief Executive Officer of Teck Resources Limited, one of Canada’s leading mining companies. Lindsay studied mining engineering at Queen’s University (B.Sc., Hons.), and has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He worked underground in Uranium City, Saskatchewan, and was a foreman at the Iron Ore Company of Canada.
Continue reading The Importance of Mining to Canada, Donald R. Lindsay, President and CEO, Teck Resources Limited, November 30, 2021 →

David Ross has just returned to Canada from northern Ethiopia where he worked from March until September as an access and civil-military coordination officer. Contracted by RedR Australia to the United Nations  Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), David facilitated humanitarian access in Tigray Region, an area severely disrupted by conflict since November 2020. The emergency is vast, complex, and often dangerous. Moreover, the pressures caused by the several hundred thousand people who have flooded into cities and internally displaced person camps, continue to be immense. David  worked alongside many hard-working, innovative and committed humanitarians who made the tour of duty all the more fulfilling. Continue reading The Tigray Conflict – David Ross (Ottawa) – October 26, 2021 →

Dr. Kamran Khan is an infectious disease physician with training in public health and preventive medicine based at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital. After completing his training in infectious diseases, preventive medicine, and public health at Cornell, Columbia, and Harvard, he returned to Toronto just before SARS crippled the city during the 2003 outbreak. Deeply motivated by this event, Dr. Khan has dedicated his career to finding solutions that help the world better prepare for and respond to tomorrow’s infectious disease threats.

He is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. His research interests focus on the globalization of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.
Continue reading Kamran Khan MD, FRCPC, MPH, Scientist, Founder, CEO at BlueDot Inc. September 28, 2021 →