Next Speaker

John Anderson Fraser, What to do about China, November 24, 2020

A Whiff@Home Zoom™ Event
5:00 – 6:30pm
N.B., All in-person events have been deferred due to the status of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click here to jump to the RSVP below the speaker’s bio.

For our third Whiff@Home meeting, we welcome back John Anderson Fraser to speak on Tuesday, November 24, 2020 to answer the timely question “What to do about China!“. 

John last spoke to us 10 years ago this month, when his topic was “Through a glass darkly: Why academics (and journalists) should never try to predict anything“.  [You can see that meeting notice in this Internet Archive Wayback Machine captured page.]

John Fraser has been a reporter, columnist, editor, ombudsman and benefactor. Fraser has lived as diverse a journalistic career as anyone in Canada. His extraordinary legacy spans six decades of the modern news media era in Canada.

Fraser started out at 16 as a summer copy boy at the old Toronto Telegram. He also worked summers in newsrooms in St. John’s and Sherbrooke. In his distinguished and award-winning tenure at The Globe and Mail, Fraser was a dance and theatre critic, a China correspondent, UK-based European correspondent, Ottawa bureau chief, national columnist and national editor, before becoming editor of Saturday Night magazine from 1987-1994.

As a journalist, John Fraser received multiple national and international awards, he has been a columnist at The Toronto Star and the National Post, a best-selling author of 12 books and has been published in everything from the New York Times to Paris Match and The Guardian. In his career, he twice became part of the story: first when he assisted Russian ballet star, Mikhail Baryshnikov, to defect from the old Soviet Union to the West in 1974; and later as a correspondent in China when he addressed a crowd of over 20,000 people in Tienanmen Square during the short-lived 1978 Xidan Democracy Movement.

He was Master and Chair of the board of Massey College for 19 years before becoming Founding President and CEO of the National NewsMedia Council, the principal media ethics watchdog in Canada with over 500 daily and weekly newspapers, digital news platforms, magazines and campus publications. He currently serves as the council’s Executive Chair.

Over the years, John Fraser has been a staunch and tireless mentor for countless young journalists. He rescued the beleaguered University of Toronto Southam Journalism Fellowship Program, which for two decades under his leadership supported dozens of mid-career journalists from across Canada and around the world. In 2016, in recognition of his long and continuing career in the profession, he was named to the Canadian Journalism Hall of Fame.

On June 18, 2020, the Michener Awards Foundation honoured John Fraser by presenting him with its prestigious Michener-Baxter Special Award for long-term achievement to an individual whose achievement exemplifies the best in public service journalism.  This special award has only been bestowed on eight Canadians in the past three decades.

Join fellow Whiffers at 5 pm Tuesday November 24th for another thought provoking talk by a great Canadian journalist.                 

The deadline to RSVP for this event has passed.

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Coming Events

Jon Allen, Senior Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, “Values vs Interests in Canadian Foreign Policy”January 26, 2021

Jon Allen Senior Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy Biography Born in Winnipeg in 1950, Jon Allen (LL.B., University of Western Ontario, 1976; LL.M., International Law, University of London School of Economics, 1977) joined the then Department of External Affairs in 1981. In addition to postings abroad in Mexico City (1983-85), New Delhi (1989-92) and Washington (1997-2001), Mr. Allen spent his early career in the Legal Bureau where he represented Canada in disputes under the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and worked in the areas of human rights, humanitarian and environmental law. Mr. Allen also held the positions of Director General, North America Bureau (2001-2004), Minister (Political Affairs) at the Embassy of Canada in Washington (2004-2006) and Assistant Deputy Minister for the Americas (2010-2012). From 2006 to 2010, he was Ambassador of Canada to Israel. From 2012 to 2016 he was Canada’s Ambassador to Spain and Andorra and was Chargé d’affaires a.i. to the Holy See from December 2012 to July 2014.
Coming Events

Ian Dejardin, Executive Director, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, February 23, 2021

KLEINBURG, Ontario – The Board of Trustees of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection is pleased to announce that Mr. Ian A. C. Dejardin has been appointed as its new Executive Director, beginning April 2017. Ian joins the McMichael from the renowned Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, England, where he served as its Chief Executive since 2005. “Ian is a globally recognized leader in historical art with a passion for Canada and Canadian art,” said Mr. Andrew W. Dunn, Acting Chair of the Board of Trustees. “During his leadership at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, he coordinated a succession of record-breaking shows and more than doubled annual attendance at the gallery,” he added. Similar to the McMichael, the Dulwich Picture Gallery is located outside of the city centre. Mr. Dejardin was the driving force behind the critically acclaimed Painting Canada exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, showcasing Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. That exhibition began in 2011 and moved to Norway at the National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design in Oslo. Subsequently the exhibition travelled to the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands before returning to the McMichael and finishing there in early 2013. Driven by a mission to interpret and promote Canadian art, the McMichael is now, more than ever, strongly-positioned to bring The Art of Canada* to the world stage. The Collection is actively exploring and planning exhibitions of outstanding Canadian and international artists, with an intention to loan these exhibitions within Canada and abroad. “I have personally experienced the global interest and passion for Canadian art and I am tremendously honoured and excited to join the world-class team at the McMichael,” said Mr. Dejardin. “My experience as the Sackler Director, and previously Curator, of Dulwich Picture Gallery was highly rewarding for me professionally and personally. I am confident that my experience there will support me well as we work together to deliver on the ambitious plans for the McMichael and The Art of Canada*,” he added. “On behalf of the Board of Trustees and Members of the McMichael Foundation, I would like to thank the search committee members for their time and insight. We would also acknowledge and thank Ms. Nathalie Mercure who, over the last 10 months has served as Interim Executive Director and will continue to do so until Mr. Dejardin is in place. Her passion for the vision of the McMichael, her collaborative spirit and professionalism will leave a permanent impression here,” added Mr. Dunn. *The Art of Canada is an official mark of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. About the McMichael Canadian Art Collection The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, and the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation. It is the foremost venue in the country showcasing the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. In addition to touring exhibitions, its permanent collection consists of over 6,000 artworks by Canadian artists, including paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, as well as First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists. The gallery is located on 100 acres of northern landscape and hiking trails at 10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in the City of Vaughan. For more information: mcmichael.com. Read an interview with Ian Dejardin in Canadian Art and the Globe and Mail.
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Thank you for RSVPing for Whiff@Home

Thank you for RSVPing that you will be attending the next Toronto Whiff@Home meeting which starts at 5 PM on Tuesday, November 24. [Please plan on joining 15 minutes early to resolve any technical issues so that we may start promptly at 5 PM.]

The details for joining the Zoom meeting will be emailed to you the day before the meeting. 

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Membership Fees: If you have not yet paid your $100 2020-21 membership fee, please make an immediate Interac e-Transfer to treasurer@Whiff-of-Grape.ca . [A PDF “cheat sheet” on how to make Interac e-Transfers to the Whiff may be downloaded from here.]  
Communiqués

2020.07.04 Post June Bash Junta Announcement

July 4, 2020 The Whiff’s Junta would like to provide you with a brief update of the virtual June Bash held on June 23, using the Zoom platform. Our June Bash experiment was extremely successful! Members who participated gave high marks to the event and the Zoom method of communication. The evening was highlighted by having several breakout sessions. This provided a unique opportunity for a number of participants to communicate freely their ideas one with the other in a relaxed atmosphere, with all observations and ideas then shared with everyone participating in the evening. I might add, the “open bar” concept was popular and contributed to the relaxed evening. 
The Junta has lined up an exciting list of speakers for our Fall meetings. There is a significant possibility that these meetings will need to be held on a virtual basis. Therefore, prior to the commencement of our Fall campaign, the Whiff technologists will be offering the opportunity to Whiffers to update their technology skills in order to utilize the Zoom platform. 
 
We will be communicating with you at the end of August. In the meantime, your Junta wishes you a safe and healthy Summer. We look forward to seeing all of you, either physically or virtually, in the Fall. 
 
John Paterson 
Chair of the Toronto Chapter of The Whiff of Grape on behalf of your Junta: 
 
Peter Baines, Ian Brown, Mac Borden, Jim Cairncross, Ron Foreman, Charles MacRae, Stuart McKay and Brian Westlake. 
The Toronto Whiff of Grape
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Thank you for RSVPing for the June Bash

Thank you for RSVPing that you will be attending the virtual June Bash. The RSVP confirmation email you have been sent includes links for setting up and testing the meeting software we’ll be using – Zoom – if you haven’t already used it.    The agenda and details on how to join the social gathering at 5pm on June 23 will be sent later in the Reminder email on June 21st. See you, and your guest if they wish to join in, on the 23rd. Change your response.