Line Rochefort, Université Laval Thursday February 7, 2013 Major disruption of natural landscapes is too often the unavoidable consequence of extracting economic value from Canada's natural resources. While Université Laval biologist Line Rochefort is under no illusion about the difficulty of bringing disturbed systems back to a viable natural state, she and her colleagues have […]

Paul C. Van Oorschot, Carleton University Thursday March 7, 2013 At this breakfast, we will explore the key questions related to security and mobile devices:What software is running your smartphone, how did  it get there, and who is responsible for it? The answers are surprising - for example, today's dominant smartphone platform delegates essentially all […]

Gordon McBean, Western University Thursday April 18, 2013 North Americans are now confronted with a growing number of catastrophic weather events. With near unprecedented fury, these events frequently disrupt communities and economies over huge areas. In the last two years alone, direct costs to Canadian insurers reached nearly $3 billion. Warmer temperatures mean more hot […]

Howard Wheater, University of Saskatchewan Thursday May 23, 2013 While Canada is widely perceived as water-rich, forces such as climate change, pollution and competing water needs are creating unprecedented challenges to our water security. Governance issues pose major challenges since many water bodies cross provincial, state or national borders, with high-stakes consequences for upstream and […]

Debra Inglis, Brock University Thursday October 24, 2013 With an annual economic impact reaching almost $7 billion, Canada’s grape and wine industry has grown phenomenally to involve more than 31,000 Canadians in a wide range of jobs from agriculture, restaurants and retail, to tourism and beyond. Nevertheless, Canadian wines account for only 30 percent of […]

John Valliant, McMaster University Thursday February 27, 2014 The way we diagnose and treat diseases like cancer is changing. Where once we settled for comparatively simple X-ray images, today medical isotopes and molecular imaging probes give us far more comprehensive views of the human body’s inner workings. These new technologies enable us to detect cancer […]

Christiane Hudon, Environment Canada Thursday March 27, 2014 Reservoir to a fifth of the world’s surface freshwater and support system to some 59 million people, the Great Lakes - Saint Lawrence River Basin is central to Canada’s identity. But these are troubled waters. Average temperatures are rising, water levels falling. The public feels the pain […]

Jeff Casello, University of Waterloo Zachary Patterson, Concordia University Thursday May 1, 2014 From large suburban developments to gentrification of downtown cores, growing urban centres create new challenges for how people get around within cities. And the challenges aren’t only about moving people – they include issues around funding infrastructure projects, land-use designations, engineering considerations, […]