Registration and Payment Procedures

1. Registration for ALL lectures is available here. Scroll down for lecture descriptions.
2. Instructions on How to Register Online
3. View your cart in Athena 
4. What to do if you have forgotten your Athena username or password
5. There is a $10 fee per lecture payable by credit card.
6. If you are registered to attend a lecture online using Zoom, the link to access the lecture will be sent the day before the lecture starts. The registration for Friday lectures closes at midnight on the Wednesday before the lecture date. The registration for Wednesday lectures closes at midnight on the Monday before the lecture date.
7. REFUND POLICY: You may cancel your registration in a lecture, workshop, or outing and obtain a refund until one day after the scheduled date, in case of technical problems, emergency or illness. This should be done online in your Athena account.

 

MCLL Spring 2024 Workshops and Lectures

MCLL Workshops

YCLML 746 Unleashing Transformation Through Personal Narratives (In person)

Time: Friday, April 19, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Robert Paris
Attendance: In person

The workshop will present new knowledge of the brain focused on research that concludes that the majority of us are unaware of our authentic personal stories. The presenter will demonstrate the power of storytelling by telling his own genuine narrative and guide the group to become comfortable telling their own genuine stories. He will then relate the power of personal storytelling to self-leadership and fulfilment. 

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YCLML 747 Poetry Excursion (In person) 

Time: Friday, May 10, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Gordon Postill
Attendance: In person

A “Poetry Excursion” primes the pump for what really matters, getting us out of our heads and into our hearts. Using an understated delivery, the presenter will recite from memory poems of universal appeal by renowned poets such as Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, and Jane Kenyon with themes like awe, sadness, affection, death, hope, and longing. Each poem will be recited twice for clarity, followed by ample time for personal introspection and shared reflections.

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YCLML 748 Ladies Only: Self-Defence (In person)

Time: Friday, May 17, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Howard King & Linda Sidel
Attendance: In person

This is non-threatening. You will learn different techniques on how to avoid a situation and if not, how to produce a positive outcome. You will have a live demonstration on some fun techniques. Please be prepared to learn, laugh and enjoy yourself.

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YCLML 749 Mastering External-Self Awareness (Online)

Time: Friday, May 31, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Tania Chomyk
Attendance: Online

Join us for an engaging workshop on External Self-Awareness, where we will delve into the often-overlooked truth behind feedback. We will explore the nuances of seeking and receiving feedback effectively, the art of asking, and discover the transformative power of feedback when approached as a gift, guided by a structured process provided in the session. Through an interactive role-play exercise, participants will have the opportunity to put theory into practice, enhancing their ability to navigate and utilize feedback for personal and professional growth.

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MCLL Lectures

YCLML 750 Champollion: Decipherer of Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Online)

Time: Friday, April 19, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Frank Nicholson
Attendance: Online

At the turn of the 19th century, no one in the world had been able to read the writing of ancient Egypt for a thousand years. Taking advantage of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799, European scholars set to work of solving the mystery, but that didn’t happen until a French country boy, who had taught himself to read at age five and become a university professor while a teenager, rushed into his brother’s office in Paris in September 1822 and shouted, “I’ve done it!” before fainting to the floor.

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YCLML 751 Gravitational Waves (Online)

Time: Friday, April 19, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: John Felvinci
Attendance: Online

In this lecture, we will find out what gravitational waves are, how they propagate, their prediction by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, their varied causes in the universe and their recent measurements by LIGO, the very sensitive interferometer. We will also describe the causes of primordial gravitational waves and how they are measured.  

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YCLML 752 Update on War in Ukraine (In person)

Time: Friday, April 19, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Denis Thompson
Attendance: In person

A presentation on recent events vis-à-vis the war in Ukraine with a view to discussing the situation on the ground, the geo-strategic repercussions, and the military implications.

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YCLML 753 More Than the Plains of Abraham (Online)

Time:  Friday, April 26, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Mark G. Peacock
Attendance: Online

France and Britain’s global rivalry exploded into The French and Indian War in North America, 1754-1760. This lecture delves into the economic, political and military strategy and tactics implemented by the protagonists and their Indigenous allies. From the Ohio River to the Battle of Ste-Foy, the transformation from initial French victories to the loss of New France is explored and key personalities discovered.

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YCLML 754 German Unification (In person)

Time: Friday, April 26, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Harald von Cramon
Attendance: In person

This lecture is a historical review of the political unification of Germany in the second half of the 19th century.

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YCLML 755 Awakening to Indigenous Spirituality (Online)

Time: Friday, April 26, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Randy Kritkausky
Attendance: Online

As someone with French-Canadian voyageur and indigenous (Anishinaabe) ancestry, and with dual residency in Montreal and rural Vermont, I have experienced an awakening to indigenous history, identity, and spirituality that points to unexplored pathways which reach beyond mere reconciliation, and which offer revitalization of both indigenous and mainstream cultures. I invite you to listen to a 21st century tale of hope and transformation and to begin your own journey of being or becoming ever more indigenous.

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YCLML 756 Nuclear Power: Has Its Time Finally Come? (Online)

Time: Friday, April 26, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Colin Wright
Attendance: Online

This presentation leads off by explaining that the use of the atomic bomb eighty years ago has prevented a more widespread use of nuclear technology to generate electricity. The speaker goes through the objections raised to nuclear power - safety and security, radiation risk, waste management, and capital cost – one by one, comparing nuclear negatives to those of alternative power sources. He concludes by arguing that nuclear may be a better choice than renewables for achieving a low-carbon future for our world.

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YCLML 757 Irish Reunification: A Possibility or a Dream? (Online)

Time: Friday, May 3, 10:00 a.m.  
Presenter: Francis Jacobs
Attendance: Online

It’s now been more than a century that the island of Ireland has been divided between the Republic, a member of the EU, and Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. We all recall The Troubles that broke out in the 1960s, claiming over 3,500 lives before peace was achieved with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Could reconciliation go further, with the island again being united? Francis Jacobs, a dual Irish and British citizen, will explain the recent demographic, attitudinal and political changes that suggest that this has certainly become more likely than before, but that many obstacles remain.

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YCLML 758 Seven Cardinal Sins of Sustainability (Online)

Time: Friday, May 3, 10:00 a.m. 
Presenter: Alexander S. Preker
Attendance: Online

The presentation and discussion will focus on several hidden threats to sustainability reforms from overambitious, poorly designed, and badly executed policies. These threats include a) pitfalls associated with lack of realism, b) mission creep in corporate governance, c) single-issue capture, d) hidden political agendas, e) greenwashing, f) diversity washing, and g) loss of competitiveness.

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YCLML 759 Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels? (In person)

Time: Friday, May 3, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Elizabeth Robinson
Attendance: In person

The final statement of the COP 28 climate summit in Dubai in December 2023 called on countries to contribute to "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science;.." What are the implications of this for our governments and for ourselves as individuals? Bring your own thoughts and be prepared to share if you wish.

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YCLML 760 Canada’s Indigenous Languages (Online)

Time: Friday, May 10, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Elaine Gold
Attendance: Online

In this talk, Elaine Gold, Director of the Canadian Language Museum, will take us on a tour of the many languages spoken by Indigenous peoples in Canada, contributing to the multicultural richness of our country. She will explain the processes that have threatened these languages and describe efforts being made to maintain and revive them both within Indigenous communities and more widely in response to recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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YCLML 761 Han van Meegeren: Hustler or Hero? (Online)

Time: Friday, May 10, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Sharon Harris
Attendance: Online

This is the story of the most notorious art forger of the twentieth century, Dutch painter Han van Meegeren. During the 1920s, Van Meegeren turned to forging versions of masterpieces from the Dutch Golden Age. The buyers were museums and collectors world-wide, including Nazi art-lover Hermann Göring. At the end of WWII, Van Meegeren was charged with collaboration, and his trial became a sensation. To save himself from a death sentence, he admitted he’d been peddling fakes. His flamboyant lifestyle and skill at forging have made him a national hero to some, a “truly brilliant fraud” to others.

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YCLML 762 Hamlet – a Masterpiece? (Online)

Time: Friday, May 10, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Richard Rose
Attendance: Online

This lecture is a discussion about masterpieces in our time. The lecturer will illustrate why Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a masterpiece, illustrating his point in detail.  

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YCLML 763 The History of Slavery in Africa (Online)

Time: Friday, May 17, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Roy Doyon
Attendance: Online

Between 1400 and 1900, Africa experienced four simultaneous slave trades. The most recent and best known was the transatlantic slave trade. The older and less well-known ones were the trans-Saharan, Red Sea and Indian Ocean. In his lavishly illustrated talk, Roy Doyon, a retired professor and active later life learner speaking from his home in Cambridge, England, will take us through the origins, mechanics, demographic impacts, ultimate abolition and continuing legacy of the four centuries of the enslavement of Africans.

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YCLML 764 The 1921 Cairo Conference and Its Consequences (Online)

Time: Friday, May 17, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: John Felvinci
Attendance: Online

Winston Churchill, the Colonial Secretary of Great Britain in 1921 called a secret conference in Cairo, to fix the many problems in the Middle East, created by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The conference established two new countries, Iraq and Transjordan, ruled by the sons of the Sharif of Mecca as kings. It also dealt with the delicate balance in British Palestine between the Jews and the Arabs.

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YCLML 765 Canada’s Coming-of-Age in World War I (Online)

Time: Friday, May 24, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Mark G. Peacock
Attendance: Online

World War I had a major impact on Canada’s evolution as a country. Military, social, and political events of the time are used to demonstrate how the young country rose to its many challenges, including women’s participation. Major battles and some fascinating Canadians are also explored in the process. 

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YCLML 766 World History Explorer (Online)

Time: Friday, May 24, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Peter Strobach & Marna Murray
Attendance: Online

How have you learned history? Dates? Names? Battles? Places? The lecture offers a new approach – yes, places, people, events, and development on a timeline, but with a global view. Taking a period critical to human advancement, the perspective looks at many concurrent civilizations. Watch a demonstration of a multi-media tool to link these events and experience an alternative way to learn history.  

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YCLML 767 Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Love at the End of Time (Online)

Time: Friday, May 24, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Andrew Moore
Attendance: Online

William Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence contains 154 short poems. It is a masterpiece of the genre, containing some of the best-known lines of poetry in the English language — “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Most of these love poems are addressed to a beautiful young man. The others are addressed to a “Dark Lady,” who does not conform to conventional beauty standards: “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun!” But Shakespeare’s sonnets are not simply beautiful love poems; they are, in fact, profound meditations on love, desire, beauty, mortality, and art. How do we live, knowing the people we love will ultimately die? Can beautiful art somehow transcend time?

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YCLML 768 Alexander von Humboldt and The Invention of Nature (Online)

Time: Friday, May 24, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Wolfgang Schneider
Attendance: Online

Based on Andrea Wulf’s biography, we will explore the life of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a visionary German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. He is famous for his explorations in South America, his descriptions of nature as an interconnected web of life, and for warning of man-made climate change. His writings became the basis of ecology and climate science. He was also a global superstar, the most famous man after Napoleon according to his contemporaries; yet his name has been all but forgotten today in the English-speaking world.

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YCLML 769 The Amazing Life of Gertrude Bell (Online)

Time: Friday, May 31, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: John Felvinci
Attendance: Online

Getrude Bell (1868-1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archeologist. She spent much of her life exploring and mapping the Middle East and became highly influential to British imperial policy as an Arabist due to her knowledge and contacts built up through extensive travels. She participated in both the 1919 Paris Peace Conference (briefly) and the 1921 Cairo Conference as the only woman in it. The Conference helped decide the territorial boundaries and governments of the post-War I Middle East as part of the partition of the Ottoman Empire.

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YCLML 770 The Japanese 'FUGU PLAN' for Nazi-persecuted Jews (In person)

Time: Friday, May 31,1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Paul Kuai-Yu Leong
Attendance: In person

During the mid 30's, while the Nazis were busy persecuting the Jews, Imperial Japan tried to attract the Jews to settle in China - with its 'FUGU PLAN'... This lecture is about that bizarre attempt - as a special for this year's Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day, 2024.5.5)

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YCLML 771 Doing Business with a Conscience (In person) 

Time: Friday, June 7, 1:00 p.m. 
Presenter: Nadia Alexan
Attendance: In person

Finally, good news. Ralph Nader, one of America’s most effective social critics of our time, shows us how 12 CEOs rejected the narrow yardsticks of shareholder value, by leading companies to larger models of prosperity, while maintaining social justice principles, instead of the dog-eat-dog world of jungle ethics.

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YCLML 772 The Trials and Tribulations of Montreal’s Recorder’s Court in 1906 (In person)

Time: Friday, June 14, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Robert N. Wilkins
Attendance: In person

This presentation will examine just some of over 12,000 cases brought before Montreal’s Municipal Court in the year 1906. Acquaint yourself with some of the heart-wrenching stories that were recounted from the prisoner’s docket in the city tribunal, then located in the old Montreal City Hall. From uncared for, unwanted children who found themselves before the Recorder, to hardened criminals, this lecture is indeed an eye-opener for those living in 2024!!  

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YCLML 773 The Enchanting British Military Wives CHOIRS (In person)

Time: Friday, June 14, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Paul Kuai-Yu Leong
Attendance: In person

In 2010, two Scots Guards wives managed to get Gareth Malone to form the first Military Wives Choir at the RMB Chivenor. Since then, the 'Wives Choir' grew to over 70 across the UK and internationally (including Canada). They performed at the Royal Albert Hall, No.10 Downing St., Queen's Diamond Jubilee, etc. - with their musical albums achieving top awards... A fascinating story about the joy of singing, camaraderie of being part of the Armed Forces, and leadership.

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YCLML 774 Beyond Monograms: The Story of Louis Vuitton (Online) This lecture is brought to you by the Cummings Centre

Time: Thursday, June 20, 4:00 p.m.
Presenter: Olivier Courteux 
Attendance: Online

Louis Vuitton, a name synonymous with luxury and prestige that we all know. Within a few decades Louis Vuitton's handbags and fashion design became symbols of wealth and status. The Vuitton dynasty made headlines on more than one occasions, until the third generation lost control of their empire. But what do we know of the real history of the House of Vuitton, its ascent to prominence and struggles leading to a takeover? Let's find out.

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YCLML 775 Latvia’s Rich Jewish Tapestry (Online) This lecture is brought to you by the Cummings Centre

Time: Wednesday, June 26, 11:00 a.m. 
Presenter: Evgenia Kempinski 
Attendance: Online

Join us as we welcome back one of our most respected guides, the erudite Evgenia, who will take us on a virtual tour through the vibrant legacy of the Jews of Latvia. This was a community that thrived and impacted Latvia’s cultural diversity, by its resilience, creativity, and community spirit. We shall visit synagogues and landmarks and hear untold narratives of the challenges and triumphs woven into the rich tapestry of Latvia’s Jewish history.

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