Fall 2017 Lecture Series
Time to Protect Your Privacy, Before it’s Taken Away From You
Oct 19, 2017 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Privacy is presently under siege. What kind of information does the government have on us? What about the private sector? Who can access what information? Who is tracking us? And for what purpose? Should we be paranoid?
With the growth of social media, wireless devices, ubiquitous computing and online connectivity, people are being led to believe they have no choice but to give up their privacy. That is not the case!
Dr. Cavoukian will outline a privacy framework called Privacy by Design that will enable our privacy and freedom, to live well into the future. We must reject the zero-sum, either/or model of privacy vs. security. We can and must have both! Privacy by Design enables win/win models which allow us to preserve our privacy and benefit from data analytics/security.
Dr. Cavoukian will also speak about what we can expect regarding the privacy of our health records, court records, bank information, purchase records, etc. Audience members will leave with several concrete steps to take to protect their privacy.
Dr. Ann Cavoukian is recognized as one of the world’s leading privacy experts. She is presently the Executive Director of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University and served an unprecedented three terms as the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada. There, she created Privacy by Design (PdB), a framework that seeks to proactively embed privacy into design, thereby achieving the strongest protection possible. In 2010, International Privacy Regulators unanimously passed a Resolution recognizing Privacy by Design as an international standard. Since then, PbD has been translated into 39 languages.
Dr. Cavoukian has received numerous awards recognizing her leadership in privacy, including being named as one of the Top 25 Women of Influence in Canada, the Top 10 women in Data Security and Privacy, one of the Top 100 Leaders in Identity, and most recently, Dr. Cavoukian was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for her outstanding work on creating Privacy by Design and taking it global (May, 2017).
Tomorrow’s Weather: Warmer, Wetter and Wilder
Oct 26, 2017 1:30 to 3:30 PM
More and more people are asking: What's happening to our weather? It's almost as if extreme weather has become the new norm. A majority of experts suggest that we are witnessing run-away climate change and that extreme weather may be the most telling and significant proof of an overheated, out-of-control planet. On the other hand, could we simply be going through some rough times and bad weather luck?
What we are seeing is not just a warming up but a destabilization of historic weather patterns and a change in the statistics of weather. What is for sure is that we can no longer assume that yesterday’s weather will apply tomorrow. Coping with more variable and extreme weather will take more ingenuity and adaptability – something Canadians are good at.
David Phillips, employed with Environment Canada's weather service for more than 45 years, studies the climate of Canada to promote awareness and understanding of meteorology. He has published several books, papers and reports, including a book on The Climates of Canada, and two bestsellers: The Day Niagara Falls Ran Dry and Blame It On The Weather. He is the originator and author of the Canadian Weather Trivia Calendar, the most popular calendar sold in Canada, now in its 30th year.
David frequently appears on national radio and television as a commentator on weather and climate matters. He has been awarded the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada, the Queen Elizabeth Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals and has twice received the Public Service Merit Award. David is the recipient of three honorary doctorates from the universities of Waterloo and Windsor and Nipissing University. In 2001, David was named to the Order of Canada.
News and the Crisis of Legitimacy
Nov 2, 2017 1:30 to 3:30 PM
From allegations of bias in reporting, to the rise of “fake” news, to the ubiquity of opinion in social media, ever-greater numbers of people today are growing concerned with what qualifies as legitimate news. It is a valid concern.
Democratic societies function best when informed citizens make decisions based on the best available evidence. Our era, however, seems to be affirming the wisdom of rapper and producer Kanye West when he tweeted that “feelings are the only facts.”
The problem is one of authority. In an era when anyone with a Smartphone can create content and communicate it instantaneously, who gets to decide - or has the authority to decide - what matters? This messy state of affairs will continue until we agree to a new methodology, argues Dan Dunsky, and is one of the central fault lines running through early 21st Century western societies.
Dan Dunsky has been in the business of opinion formation for 25 years, with deep experience in broadcast and digital journalism, strategy, marketing, and communications.
He is Vice President, Client and Business Strategy at Public Inc., a full-service social impact consultancy and agency helping companies transform social impact into consumer loyalty.
Prior to that, he founded Dunsky Insight, a strategic communications consultancy, and created and was Executive Producer of “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”, Canada’s premier platform for long-form analysis and insight journalism.
As an analyst, Dan is heard on NewsTalk 1010, has appeared on CNN and CTV, and has written for numerous Canadian and American publications, including The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The National Interest, and The National Review.
Dan speaks regularly on the promise and peril of change in the digital era. He lives in Toronto, Canada.
linkedin.com/in/dandunsky
Great Songs of the Folk Revival
Nov 9, 2017 1:30 to 3:30 PM
The folk revival of the 1950s and 60s was driven by great songs that came from a variety of sources, not all of them "folk" in the pure sense.
In this fascinating and tuneful presentation, Dr. Mike Daley tells the stories and sings the songs of this great era. Songs include "Blowin' In The Wind," "Goodnight Irene," "Tom Dooley" and many more.
Dr. Mike Daley holds a Ph.D in music from York University and has taught undergraduate courses at Guelph, McMaster, Waterloo and York Universities as well as acclaimed later-life courses at York, University of Toronto, Ryerson, George Brown, Learning Unlimited in Etobicoke and Later Life Learning in Mississauga.
Mike has published scholarly articles on American popular music in international journals and has been invited to speak at academic conferences from Normandy to Nashville. Mike has also toured the U.S. and Canada as a musician with Jeff Healey, the Travellers and others, and has appeared on dozens of recordings as a guitarist and singer. Presently Mike and his wife Jill are leading music-themed tours to New York, Nashville, St. John's and New Orleans.
The New World (Dis)order: Conflict in Ukraine Ushers in New Cold War
Nov 16, 2017 1:30 to 3:30 PM
This lecture will focus on the root causes (mostly ignored or unknown now by our media & politicians) of the civil war in Ukraine and how it has evolved, uncontrolled and perhaps unwittingly, into a global issue dividing East and West.
Largely as a result of what began as a domestic conflict, Russian and NATO troops now face each other throughout Eastern Europe in a new Cold War that could easily turn into a hot one.
Black will conclude with a general overview of the results of sanctions imposed on Russia and the accompanying demonization of Russia generally and Vladimir Putin specifically.
Dr. Larry Black was born in Middle Sackville, NB; He has degrees from Mount Allison, Boston University and McGill (Ph.D., 1968). A professor of history at Laurentian (9 yrs) and Carleton Universities (30 yrs), he was also Director of the Institute for Soviet & East European Studies at Carleton, where he is now Professor Emeritus and a Distinguished Research Professor.
Black has served as a researcher for NATO and a recruit trainer for CSIS; is the author, co-author or editor of 53 books on Russia, the USSR and Russian-Canadian relations. The two most recent are The Return of the Cold War. Ukraine, Russia and the West (2016), with Michael Johns; and The Russian Presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, 2008-12 (2015).
He is now under contract with a British publishing house for a book on Vladimir Putin.
Location Of Lectures
Lectures will take place in the Shirley Auslander Hall at the Schwartz/Reisman Centre (SRC) located at 9600 Bathurst St. (southwest corner of Bathurst/Lebovic Campus Drive, just North of Rutherford Rd). Parking is free. Get directions here.