Back by Popular Demand - Favourite Speakers, Fresh Insights
January 7, 2027 - February 11, 2027
Come and hear some of your favourite speakers from past lectures. Get updates on farming and global food security and find out about the latest AI developments. Has our pandemic preparedness improved in the wake of COVID? What is Mother Earth telling us about the consequences of climate change? Learn about the history of religion and politics in India and get a global perspective on what is happening in our world since our Geopolitics series.
6 lectures, live streamed on Vimeo only
Thursday mornings 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Replays until May 2027 on Vimeo
Tickets for this series will go on sale in late November, 2026
Thursday January 7, 2027
The Fast-changing Nature of Food and Farming in Canada
This talk will give a big picture overview of the trajectory of food and farming in Canada, with a focus on how the industrialization of agriculture relates to the dramatic decline in Canada’s farming population and why this is an unsustainable course. It will consider key issues such as: the long-term shift of value and control away from farmers (and the pressure to ‘get big or get out’); the displacement of labour and skill with technology (and the changing nature of the labour that remains); and the resource and pollution intensity that underpins the immense productivity gains, which helps to explain both the relatively cheap bounty we have come to expect and the periodic volatility (that is likely to get worse in the coming years). The talk will culminate in a case for supporting more sustainable farming techniques and livelihoods.
Lecturer - Tony Weis
Tony Weis is a Professor in Geography and Environment at Western University. He is the author of The Ecological Hoofprint: The Global Burden of Industrial Livestock (2013) and The Global Food Economy: The Battle for the Future of Farming (2007), and co-editor of A Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice (2014) and Critical Perspectives on Food Sovereignty (2014). His research is broadly located in the field of political ecology, and he teaches courses on agri-food systems, climate change, animal geographies, and conservation.
Thursday January 14, 2027
The Religious and Political History of India
India is the world's largest democracy and a growing power on the planet. It is also incredibly devout and religiously diverse. In this talk, we will dive a bit into history but focus primarily on recent centuries and decades to understand the religious and political history of this amazing country.
Lecturer - Brian Carwana
I run Encounter World Religions and have spent 25 years teaching about and exploring religious traditions and communities. I have a PhD in religion with a focus on politics. I have been interviewed numerous times by the CBC, am considered a subject matter expert on religion and religious diversity, and teach to the public, governments, police and private firms.
worldreligions.ca religionsgeek.com
Thursday January 21, 2027
Pandemic Prevention in the Wake of COVID
The COVID-19 pandemic caught the world by surprise. It exposed fundamental gaps in our ability to coordinate effective responses to health emergencies, highlighted the fragile state of our healthcare system, and resulted in the politicization of scientific and medical issues that has diminished public trust in experts. In the years since the pandemic, several domestic and global initiatives have been undertaken to bolster our collective ability to effectively prepare for - and respond to - future health threats. To what extent have those initiatives been successful, and what more must we do to protect society moving forward? This lecture will reflect on these questions and focus on some of the innovative work being done locally to minimize the threat of future pandemics.
Lecturer - Matthew Miller
Dr. Miller is Executive Director of NexusHealth and Scientific Director of the M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University. He also serves as Co-Director of Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Hub (CP2H). Dr. Miller holds a Canada Research Chair in Viral Pandemics. He has received several major awards and distinctions including election to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars in 2024. Dr. Miller’s research program is focused primarily on pandemic prevention, especially the development of broadly-protective vaccines, antibodies, and therapeutics. He serves on NACI as a voting member of the Ontario Immunization Advisory Committee. He also serves on the PHAC H5Nx avian influenza expert panel. Dr. Miller is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of AeroImmune Inc.
https://www.themillerlaboratory.com/
Thursday January 28, 2027
Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency: How goes the struggle?
A few years ago, and shortly after the release of his 2020 book "A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency," Seth joined us to give a talk. Six years later he's back to tell us how that effort to confront this existential threat is going. What's the state of play in Canada and globally? Are we going backwards or forwards? Why has climate dropped in public and political attention, and what can we do about it?
Lecturer - Seth Klein
Seth Klein is a public policy researcher and writer based in Vancouver, BC. Seth served for five years (2021-2025) as founder, Team Lead and Director of Strategy of the Climate Emergency Unit. Prior to that, he served for 22 years as the founding director of the British Columbia office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), a social justice think tank. He is now a freelance policy consultant, speaker, researcher and writer, and author of "A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency." Seth is a regular columnist with Canada’s National Observer, an adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies program, and serves on the board of the BC Society for Policy Solutions.
Thursday February 4, 2027
NOW….What in the World is Happening?
George spoke about the new world order in his two Cold War 2.0 lectures for BALL in January 2026. In this short return engagement a year later, George will tie together a series of trends emanating from Ottawa, Washington, Europe, China, and Taiwan, focusing on continuity and change in geopolitics. Making sense of the blaze of activity on the global scene is never easy - George will provide some analytical tools to help BALL members stay on top of the deluge of strategic current events.
Lecturer - George Takach
George has undergrad and law degrees from the University of Toronto, and an MA from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. He practiced technology law for 35 + years as a partner at McCarthy Tétrault. He was also an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School for 22 years, and wrote three books on tech/law topics. He is now a Senior Fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary History at the University of Toronto. George now writes books on geopolitics, including Cold War 2.0: Artificial Intelligence in the New Battle Between China, Russia and America, published in 2024 (Chinese-language version came out in 2025). His latest book is Inspired By Taiwan, published by Sutherland House Press.
Thursday February 11, 2027
Critical Thinking, Ethical Reasoning, and Artificial Intelligence
This lecture will provide attendees with an update on the progress I've made in researching, publishing, lecturing, and public/political advocating in relation to critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and artificial intelligence.
My hope is to draw attention to three main areas regarding the mitigation of risk with AI: 1. The future economic landscape and how Canada can best prepare for it. 2. The ways in which AI is and will affect mental health - both positively and negatively. 3. The role Canada needs to play in developing an international regulative body on the governance of safe AI.
Lecturer - Christopher DiCarlo
Dr. Christopher DiCarlo is a philosopher, educator, and author. He is the Principal and Founder of Critical Thinking Solutions, a consulting business for individuals, corporations, and not-for-profits in both the private and public sectors. He currently holds the position of Senior Advisor at Convergence Analysis – a UK-based agency focusing on AI Risk and Governance.
Dr. DiCarlo is also the Ethics Chair for the Canadian Mental Health Association and a past Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard University. Dr. DiCarlo has won several awards including TV Ontario’s Best Lecturer in Ontario Award, and Canada’s Humanist of the Year.