Sept 30, 2025: Professor David Wilson,
Celtic Studies Program at St. Michael’s College

Spies, Rogues, and Informers:
Irish Revolutionaries and the Canadian Secret Police

In the mid-nineteenth century a group of Irish revolutionaries, known as the Fenians, set out to destroy Britain’s North American empire. Between 1866 and 1871 they launched a series of armed raids into Canadian territory. revolutionary and conservative movements; David will take us into a dark and dangerous world of betrayal and deception, spies and informers, invasion and assassination, spanning Canada, the United States, Ireland, and Britain. Canadian Spy Story raises fundamental questions about state security and civil liberty, with important lessons for our own time.
 

 

 

Oct 28, 2025: Andrew Coyne,
Columnist & Broadcaster

The Canadian Political Landscape

Andrew Coyne is a Canadian columnist with The Globe and Mail and a member of the At Issue panel on CBC’s The National journalism.

Andrew last spoke to Whiff in November 2017 … some things have changed since then …

 

 

Nov 25, 2025: Professor Matti Siemiatycki, Professor of Geography & Planning, and Director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto

Toronto Congestion and Planning

Professor Siemiatycki’s work focuses on delivering large-scale infrastructure projects, evidence based infrastructure investment decisions, and the effective integration of infrastructure into the fabric of cities. His recent studies explore transit policy decisions, the value for money of public-private partnerships, and the development of innovative mixed-use buildings as a form of place based infrastructure policy. He is a highly engaged public scholar with a deep commitment to informing public discourse about city building. He regularly provides advice to governments, civic institutions and industry, and is a frequent commentator in the media and public realm on urban issues, with a honed ability to communicate with various audiences.