Forty Minute Forum » Winter 2010

Sergei M. Plekhanov Associate Professor, Political Science; Coordinator of Post-Communist Studies, York University; Secretary, Canadian Pugwash Group (international scientists advocating nuclear disarmament); former policy researcher for Mikhail Gorbachev,;Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada, Russian Academy of Sciences.

The Challenge of Nuclear Disarmament

2009 will go down in history as the year when the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons has been revived. Under President Obama, practical steps are being taken to reduce nuclear stockpiles, ban nuclear tests, and strengthen the regime of nuclear non-proliferation. But this progress is encountering stiff resistance in various quarters. Sergei Plekhanov, challenges the misconceptions concerning nuclear weapons and argues that the ultimate abolition of nuclear weapons is not a matter of choice - it is imperative for human survival.

JANUARY 17, 2010

Liz Driver Curator of Campbell House Museum; author of the recently published Culinary Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825-1949; teacher of "Applied Food History: A Museum Experience"ﾝ for George Brown College; past President of the Culinary Historians of Ontario.

Favourite Old Home Recipesﾝ: Canadian Cooks in Print

This is the story of community cookbooks, those humble collections produced by women's groups to raise funds, beginning in 1877 in Toronto with The Home Cook Book. Historian Liz Driver explores the motivations, methods, and accomplishments of the women who produced these cookbooks and considers how they contributed to their society by producing books and building communities.

JANUARY 24, 2010

Karolyn Smardz Frost Archaeologist, educator, historian; author of I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad, Governor-General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2007; discoverer of the remains of the Blackburn family home beneath the asphalt of a downtown Toronto schoolyard.

I've Got A Home In Glory Land: Coming to Toronto on the Underground Railroad

Karolyn Smardz Frost tells the remarkable story of African American refugees who came to Toronto in the years before the Civil War. One couple, Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, who began Toronto's first cab business, were the subject of a major public archaeology project in 1985. Karolyn excavated their home, and then spent more than 20 years researching their lives in slavery and freedom. Her award-winning book is the first original fugitive slave biography since the Civil War,

JANUARY 31, 2010

Kevin Sylvester Writer, illustrator and broadcaster; author of three best-selling books on sports; sportscaster and regular CBC-Radio back-up host on The Current, Sunday Edition, Sounds Like Canada and Here and Now. Broadcaster from the Olympic Games.

Sports, Spirituality and Culture

In less than two weeks the Winter Olympic Games begin in the Vancouver area. But regardless of the season, sports have become a major force in our North American society. As both an author and a broadcaster with a great interest in sports, Kevin will take a critical look at the good and bad ways that sports help to shape our social values. Considering the principle of winning at all costs and of gender stereotypes, he asks whether the values of sports are the values that society should endorse?

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

Brigadier General John Collin Commander, Joint Task Force (Central) and Land Force Central Area (Ontario); veteran, Bosnia (opening of Sarajevo Airport, 1992), Afghanistan (Operation APOLLO, 2002); former commander,12e Régiment blindé du Canada; Deputy Special Advisor to the CDS for Defence Policy Review and Homeland Security Issues.

Canada's Engagement in Afghanistan - A Soldier's Perspective

The Government of Canada's six priorities for its engagement in Afghanistan span a broad spectrum from the very strategic to the very tactical, each one requiring the collaboration of soldiers, diplomats and development workers.  Brigadier-General Collin will share the soldier's perspective of Canada's engagement in Afghanistan and will highlight the very significant effort underway to increase Afghan capacity to self-govern, to provide humanitarian assistance and to stimulate economic growth -- lofty objectives being tenaciously pursued by individual soldiers on the ground.