Probus club of OAK Bay

Our March Speaker:
Colin McNairn who comes to us as a highly recommended speaker by Probus clubs in the east. A distinguished lawyer, Colin is also the author of two books, Signs of the Times through Reimagined Nursery Rhymes and What If Jack Wasn’t So Nimble: Mother Goose Characters Reimagined. Colin told us, “I can promise the Oak Bay Club an entertaining talk about what Mother Goose might make of our challenging modern world.” And so, while historical analysis of nursery rhymes has proven to throw light on undying historical trends, our Speaker’s Chair, Ellen, thinks that, rather than a serious examination of this topic, and after our last two deadly serious talks on the Ukraine and Democracy, Colin’s perspective is just what we need. She thinks we are more than ready for some light relief.

Our February Speaker:
Jonathan Manthorpe has been a journalist and author for over 55 years, mostly as a foreign correspondent and international affairs columnist. Manthorpe worked for the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and the Southam Group of Canadian metropolitan newspapers. Outside journalism, he was an advisor to Pierre Trudeau on patriation of the constitution, and was a member of the 2003-2006 Canada-Japan Forum. He has also done projects for the United Nations, the World Bank, the Asia Development Bank, and NGOs. Manthorpe gave up column writing in 2018 and is now a full-time author. Mr. Manthorpe will speak on 'Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence.

Our January speaker:
Our January Meeting’s Speaker will be Major-General T. F. de Faye CMM, CD, SB St J. (Ret’d)
Tom de Faye served as an Infantry officer in The Royal Canadian Regiment in mechanized and airborne infantry. His command experience includes all levels from platoon up to the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group which was Canada’s 6,000 person NATO Brigade stationed in Germany. He served as army Deputy Chief of Staff for Combat Development where he was responsible for integrating new weapon systems and technologies into army doctrine, tactics and training, then as Executive Assistant to the Chief of Defence Staff, then as Commandant of the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College and then as Commander of the newly established Land Force Western Area which covered the four western provinces. He was then appointed Chief of Force Development, responsible for the organizational structures and equipment requirements for the army, navy and air force. His last assignment was as Military Attaché to the USA and Commander, Canadian Defence Liaison Staff, Washington DC, where he was the principal point of contact between the Canadian and US armed forces. After 37 years with the Canadian armed forces he joined the private sector where he worked in the area of wheeled light armoured vehicles. In 2009 he retired to accompany his spouse Valerie to Prague where she served as Canada’s Ambassador. 

Our November speaker:
Charla Huber
Most of you will recognize Charla Huber as a weekly columnist for the Times Colonist. She has both First Nations and Inuit heritage, and has a Master’s Degree in Professional Communications. Carla is currently a consultant in Indigenous Affairs and Communications, and formerly worked for an aboriginal housing cooperative. She is a member of the Victoria-Esquimalt Police Board, chair of its Human Resources Committee and is President of the BC Association of Police Boards. She is also an associate faculty member at Royal Roads University. Charla’s speech topic is still being developed. It will be announced in the meeting reminder which you will receive during the week before our November 28 Monthly Meeting

Our October speaker:
Dr. Richaed Keeler
Dr. Keeler is an Emeritus Professor at U Vic, and a researcher who studies the physics of particles which are the building blocks of matter. He will tell us about the massive effort that went into finding the Higgs Boson, an elusive particle predicted by theory, but not detected until 2012. This tiny particle was found using the Large Hadron Collider, which comprises the innards of a 27 km long circular tunnel constructed beneath the France-Switzerland border near Geneva. It smashes particles together at nearly the speed of light. Dr. Keeler will also describe important work at U Vic which has contributed to discoveries made using the Large Hadron Collider. 

Our September 2022 speaker:
Dr. Phillip Steenkamp, President of Royal Roads University, will talk about his university and how its unique vision has given it a singular position among Canadian universities. He’ll also share his thoughts on the challenges universities face as the role of advanced education in society is being transformed

Our August 2022 speaker:
Alan Breakspear
Alan Breakspear is an expert in the field of ferreting out information about the intentions and actions of other countries. He will be telling us about the “Five Eyes”, and our endeavors to find out about the things that threaten us. The “Five Eyes” comprise Canada, Great Britain, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand and, in these days of war in Europe, climate change and other international crises, the work of people like Alan is critical for our continued prosperity and survival. The “Five Eyes” listen to audio and look at visual messages passing around the world, so to accumulate intelligence about likely actions and attitudes of other countries. Alan spent more than 30 years in the Public Service of Canada, most of it in intelligence gathering and analysis. Early on he was a linguist/analyst with the Communications Security Establishment following which he headed a strategic analysis unit in the Privy Council Office and, later, he became a Senior Manager in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Since leaving the Public Service in 1994, he has headed a company which does security and intelligence work for private sector clients. The work of Alan and people like him is critical for our continued prosperity and survival. 

Our June 2022 Speaker:
Dr. Andrew WeaverOur speaker’s ‘s subject will be: The challenges of creating and delivering sound environmental policy in our parliamentary system. Dr. Weaver is a professor in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria and was also the Canada Research Chair in Climate Modelling and Analysis. In 2015 Dr. Weaver assumed leadership of the BC Green Party, leading them to an historic election result in the 2017 provincial election. Dr. Weaver is uniquely suited to addressing the June topic, having been a world leader in environmental research and then an insider when the minority government of B.C. struggled to enact the environmental policies he had worked toward for a lifetime. For his work developing British Columbia’s CleanBC economic plan collaboratively with the BC NDP, he and the Minister of Environment, George Heyman, received 2020 Clean 16 and Clean 50 awards for outstanding contributions to sustainable development and clean capitalism in Canada. 

Our May 2022 Speaker:
Our guest on May 23rd will be Dr. Chris Gainor, renowned for his knowledge of the technology of space, aeronautics, telescopes and astronomy. We are so fortunate to have him here in Victoria and to welcome him to speak about the extraordinary technical accomplishment of the James Webb telescope, one of the greatest technological achievements of our era. As a historian of technology specializing in space exploration and aeronautics, he has written six books on the history of space exploration and on the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, a jet interceptor aircraft canceled by the Canadian government in 1959. Dr. Gainor has most recently completed a history of Hubble Space Telescope operations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration so he is particularly appropriate to talk about the new eye in space. Dr. Gainor has been editor of Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly since 2016. He served as President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada from 2018 to 2020, and he is a fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. Dr. Gainor holds a Ph.D. in the history of technology from the University of Alberta, and has worked as a history instructor in the University of Victoria's history department. He is also an Assistant Professor for the Royal Military College of Canada. 

Our April 2022 Speaker:
Dr. Stefanie Green spent 10 years in general practice and another 12 years working exclusively in maternity and newborn care. Then, in 2016, she changed her focus to medical assistance in dying (MAiD). Dr. Green is the co-founder and current President of the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers (CAMAP). She is medical advisor to the BC Ministry of Health’s MAID oversight committee, moderator of CAMAP’s national online forum, and she has hosted several national conferences on the topic. Beyond her clinical practice, she frequently speaks about MAID to a wide range of audiences locally, nationally and internationally. She is clinical faculty at both the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria and author of THIS IS ASSISTED DYING, a memoir about her first year providing assisted dying in Canada. These are the slides that Dr. Green used:

Probus April 2022 FINAL. These slides take about two minutes to upload to your device.

Our March 2022 Speaker:
Professor Will Greaves.
On March 28th Dr. Greaves will enlighten us with an exciting presentation for which he suggests the following title: Breaking Through: Canada’s Interests in a Changing Arctic. We are thrilled to be welcoming Dr. Greaves. He will share his deep knowledge about how the Arctic is changing and help us understand how these environmental changes are affecting Canadian sovereignty. An alternative title he has offered for his subject was “Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot: Politics and Transformation In the Global Arctic”. so we expect this talk to be both informative and delightfully entertaining. Dr. Greaves is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Victoria. His research focusses on global security and politics with emphasis on climate change, resource extraction, indigenous peoples, Canadian foreign policy and the politics of the circumpolar Arctic. You won’t want to miss this one.

Our February 2022 Speaker:
Ambassador Marc Lortie.
Marc Lortie will be familiar to many Oak Bay Probus members as he spoke to us in 2018 about Brexit. He got rave reviews as one of our most entertaining and informative speakers. Marc is a retired career diplomat of 41 years in the Canadian foreign service. He has served as Canada’s ambassador to Chile, Spain and France. He retired from Paris to Victoria in 2012. Marc is married to Trish Dunn from Oak Bay and they closely follow politics in France and in Europe. After graduating from Laval University with a specialized Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (International Relations), Lortie joined the Department of External Affairs in 1971. His responsibilities there included deployments to Tunisia and Washington, D.C.. In 1985, Lortie joined the Prime Minister's Office where he was responsible for international media relations before being assigned as press secretary in 1987. We’ve invited him to speak to us about the forthcoming election in France which is turning into a surprising competition of many of the forces roiling the politics of democratic nations right now -- with some quite astonishing players on the right.

Our January 2022 Speaker:
Lisa Matthaus.
Lisa Matthaus is the Provincial Lead with an organization entitled Organizing for Change. She has played lead roles in several high profile BC campaigns including forest policy reforms, negotiating Forest Stewardship Council standards for BC and climate initiatives such as BC’s ground-breaking carbon tax. She gained extensive experience with media and government in these roles and earned a strong reputation for constructive collaboration with government and environmental organizations. Lisa has a Masters degree in Environmental and Resource Economics from University College London (London, UK, 1995) and an undergraduate degree in commerce/finance (McGill). She spent seven years working as an investment banking credit analyst in Toronto and London before joining SCBC in 1998. She was raised in a resource-based community in coastal BC and now lives in Victoria

Our November 2021 Speaker:
Deniz Unsal.
Topkapi Palace served as the seat of Ottoman imperial power for 400 years. Built in the 15th century following the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans, the palace was not only the focus of political power, intrigues and riots. In Western imagination it was also the materialization of an Oriental desire. The harem occupied the fantasy of the travelers, authors, artists and musicians most of whom had never been inside. This lecture takes you on a journey of the palace through art, architecture, history, music and popular culture.Dr. Ünsal is a cultural anthropologist with a research and teaching focus on communication of arts and heritage through stories, images and spaces. She has two master’s degrees from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. The first is in European Studies, the second in Anthropology. She then achieved a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University in New York. Dr. Unsal started her career as an assistant curator at the Trope museum in Amsterdam and has worked in heritage planning as well as exhibition development in several museum projects in Turkey and at a dig in Troy where she was involved in developing the museum where the artifacts were displayed. Prior to emigrating to Victoria, Deniz taught arts and cultural management in the Faculty of Communication at Istanbul Bilgi University. She is now an assistant professor at the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University. She also offers University of Victoria courses in the Department of Anthropology and the Division of Continuing Studies. 

Our October 2021 Speaker:
Corey Levine is a human rights and peacebuilding policy expert, re-searcher and writer. She has spent more than 20 years working in conflict areas, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, East Timor, Iraq, Kosovo, Mali, Palestine, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. She has worked with non-governmental, bilateral and multilateral organizations. In March and April 2002 she began an almost 20-year engagement with Afghanistan. She has done capacity building with local women’s NGOs. spent two years with the UN Mission in Afghanistan and led a political rights monitoring project. She undertook two extended research missions in Afghanistan on behalf of Amnesty International.Corey has published in the Globe and Mail, Ottawa Citi-zen, Hill Times, Huffington Post, among others, and has been interviewed over the years by CTV and CBC radio and TV, including interviews on the current crisis in Afghanistan.

Our September 2021 Speaker:
Dr. Justin Leifaso.
Dr. Justin Leifso received his PhD and MA from the University of Alberta and his BA (High Honors) from the University of Regina. He grew up on Treaty 4 Territory, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Before pursuing an academic career, he served as a public servant in Saskatchewan, where he worked for the Ministry of Health and the Office of the Provincial Auditor. He is a scholar and teacher of Canadian politics. His research explores the relationship between broad discursive formations and specific practices. In other words, he studies power, policy and politics in Canada. In his presentation Dr. Leifso will discuss the state of Canadian democracy in a few ways, each with examples. The concentration of power in the executive is probably the central piece in this discussion, with examples such as Harper’s prorogation and the current government’s impasse with the House of Commons over the release of documentation surrounding the release of scientists. Dr. Leifso may relate this to electoral democracy and the increasing influence of populism and misinformation, as well as the stakes at play when there are challenges such as climate change and reconciliation to tackle.  

Our July Speaker:
Brenda Schoepp.
Brenda Schoepp brings a global perspective on food system leadership and has visited a wide variety of farms and food processing floors around the world. She has deep appreciation of the importance of food policy and collaborative community- led outcomes. In her decades of farming, Brenda developed regenerative practices and contributes to the National Index on Agri-food Performance. She is currently an appointed member of the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council. In 2019 Brenda earned a M.A. in Global Leadership from Royal Roads University, researching Global Food Leadership and completed her United Nations FAO courses on Food Security and on Rural Community Development. Her book ‘Three Times a Day: Leadership to Feed Our World’ will be published in 2021. 

Our June Speaker:
Dr. Jacqueline Peterson.
Optimizing and promoting brain health and cognition is the overarching mandate of Dr. Pettersen’s clinical and research programs. In this regard, a major avenue of research concerns nutrition and cognition, particularly, the important role of vitamin D in cognition and dementia. Her research has garnered much media and social media attention and also earned Dr. Pettersen international recognition with three recent medical research prizes. Other areas of research focus have included vascular contributions to brain health/cognition, exercise in dementia, and massage therapy for concussion recovery. Dr. Pettersen was born and raised in Prince George. She completed her BSc Honours degree in Biopsychology and MSc degree in Neuropsychology at the University of Victoria. Subsequently, she received her MD from the University of Toronto, followed by a Neurology residency at the University of Calgary. She then completed a 2-year clinical research fellowship in Cognitive/Behavioural Neurology at the University of Toronto. Since moving back to Prince George in 2008, Dr. Pettersen’s time has been divided between research, teaching, leading stroke strategy development, and providing clinical care through her role as a Cognitive/Behavioural Neurologist, primarily in the Memory Clinic at the University Hospital of Northern BC in Prince George. Outside interests include cross-country skiing, marathon running, and spending time with her young family.

Our May Speaker:
Betsey Coleman.
Betsey Coleman has travelled all over Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of a Distinguished Fulbright Awards in Teaching Program and with multiple grants from the University of Denver’s Vinnik Award for advanced study in Israel. There, she explored how arts improve learning, foster community projects, and enhance economic development. In her talk to us, Betsey will describe the Palestinian and Israeli artists she has met who shared candid and vivid stories about ever-changing cultural worlds, evolving identities and common dreams of peace, normalcy, and prosperity. This is a revealing journey which explores a facet of Palestinian and Israeli identity rarely treated in mainstream media. Betsey has a B.A. from Pitzer College and an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan. She taught at Bishop’s College School in Quebec and Colorado Academy in Denver and served on the board of the Middle East Outreach Council. Betsy has taken courses at such international universities as Oxford, Cambridge, McGill, Yunnan, and Hebrew University.

Our April 2021 Speaker:
Calvin Sandborn QC.
Calvin Sandborn has practiced environmental law for over 25 years as counsel for West Coast Environmental Law Association. He has extensive experience in both environmental litigation and successful lobbying for environmental reform. He has successfully litigated many high profile cases, particularly in the areas of forestry and endangered species. Besides being the legal director of the Environmental Law Centre he teaches law at University of Victoria. In 2011, Calvin was named Honourary Citizen of the City of Victoria and that same year received BC’s top prize for Environmental Advocacy. In 2016, he received the Victoria Bar Association “Contribution to the Law Award”, and in 2017 he received an Award at the International Public Interest Environmental Law Conference. In 2018 Calvin was appointed Queen’s Counsel. He will speak to us about the challenges facing our environment.  

Our March 2021 Speaker:
Dr. Chris Kilford.
Our speaker in March will be Dr. Chris Kilford. He will be bringing us the latest about Turkey’s end game in the Middle East and its possible implications for Canada. The talk will include insights gleaned from Dr. Kilford’s last visit to Ankara and Istanbul in November, 2019. He will also discuss his latest research and upcoming book chapters on Canada - Turkey relations. Members will remember Chris as an expert on Turkey and perhaps one of the most popular of our speakers. His insight and knowledge are remarkable. Dr. Chris Kilford holds a PhD in history from Queen’s University (2009) with a focus on civil-military relations in the developing world. He is a Fellow with the Queen’s Centre for International and Defence Policy, a Research Fellow with the Conference of Defence Associations Institute and he has taught numerous distance-learning courses for the Royal Military College and the Canadian Forces College focusing on geopolitical issues. His long career in the Canadian Armed Forces was capped with postings to the Canadian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan as the Canadian Deputy Military Attaché from July 2009 until July 2010 and then to the Canadian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey as the Canadian Defence Attache from July, 2011 until August, 2014. 

Our February Speaker:
Catherine Holt.
We have invited Catherine Holt to put on her Chamber of Commerce hat. Catherine will talk on the current and near future outlook for businesses in Greater Victoria where many of them are in peril. She also promises to share with us some interesting information about BC Transit. From 2016 to 2020 Catherine was the Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. Prior to her role with the Chamber, Catherine was President and Principal Consultant with Sage Group Management Consultants for 18 years. Catherine has been an Assistant Deputy Minister in the BC Government, Cabinet Communication Advisor for the Yukon Government, and a producer for CBC National Radio and TV Current Affairs. She has been a board member of the Victoria Police Board, the BC Gaming Commission, the Vancouver Island School of Art, and the Nature Alliance of Canada. Currently Catherine is the Chair of BC Transit.

Our January 2021 Speaker:
Twyla Rusnak and Illarion Grant.
Their Company, Rusnak Gallant Ltd. are Landscape Architects/Designers who design and build projects ranging from single family residential gardens to high end residential estates. In addition to private residences, their work in seniors’ care facilities has focused on the creation of gardens for physically frail residents, as well as specialized gardens for those with Dementia / Alzheimer disease. You may be familiar with Illarion’s Public Art. His sculptures are seen across Canada. We, in Victoria, have enjoyed his playful sculpture at the airport ‘Bouquet of Memories’; his recent work ‘The Commerce Canoe’ at the new bridge; along with several other pieces scattered around the region. He will share with us more of his public art projects and the process and challenges he has had as an artist creating public art. Pag

Our November Speaker:
Dr. David Moscrop.
A Political Theorist, spoke to us via Zoom from Ottawa where he is a professor at the University of Ottawa. It was an incredibly interesting and enlightening talk from someone highly versed in the politics of the United States. “This election was extraordinary”, Dr. Moscrop began. “It was actually better than I expected.” The Republicans, in the 1950’s-60’s, deemed themselves too liberal.

Our October 2020 Speaker:
Geoff Dickson.
It comes as no surprise that Victoria Airport has won major awards as a community airport. For those of us who have travelled through Toronto or Vancouver, the airport here is both uncrowded and relaxed as well as aesthetically pleasing. Much of the credit is due to the CEO of the Airport Authority, Geoff Dickson, our speaker today.

Our September 2020 Speaker:
Gene Miller.
September’s talk on Homelessness by Gene Miller was a confirmation of the worries of many Victorians. A well-known Urban designer, small time developer amongst other attributes, he is well known and admired. Mr. Miller professed not to be a font of knowledge, a homeless expert, or an expert on its many issues. However, when the response was negative to his query of anyone knowing a homeless person he suggested we learn and share together. 

Our August Speaker:
Jonathon Manthorpe
He will speak to us about his forthcoming book, "Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence".
Restoring Democracy is an informed and insightful account of how we can save democracies from the despots and populists who provide easy answers to complicated situations, dumping political discourse down to sandbox antics.
Mr. Manthorpe argues that democracy is more resilient than it appears. Good news in dark times!
His previous book, "Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada", was published in February, 2019.

Our June Speaker:
Michael McEvoy
Michael McEvoy is our B.C. privacy commissioner. He will talk about privacy issues for us, and in particular in a time of COVID-19, where ‘track and trace’ – finding who has had contact with an infected person -- means intrusion into our privacy. Where is the balance? And when it comes for questions, some folks may want to ask him about his experience in his work in the U.K.  around finding out what Cambridge Analytica was up to in the last US and UK elections.

Our May Speaker:
Ken Fyke
 Ken has served on numerous boards and commissions dealing with health care. He has a deep interest in infectious diseases.  In 2004 he received the Governor General of Canada award for, in part, “Through a variety of roles, he has displayed a profound dedication to overcoming the most challenging issues facing our health care system”.

Our March Speaker:
Ed Chwyl.
Ed Chwyl will speak on the Horticultural Centre in Victoria.  He has B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in engineering from the University of Edmonton. He has spent his working life in the oil and gas industry in the US and Canada (Alberta). Since retiring and moving to Victoria, Ed has served as chair of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, president of the Master Gardening Association, and president of the Holy Cross Parish, and is currently chair of the Horticulture Center of the Pacific. The horticultural centre is an internationally recognized botanical garden, a respected centre of life-long learning, conservation and research and one of the jewels of Victoria.

Our February Speaker:                                                                                                                                                                                        John Neville.                                                                                                                                                                                                    John Neville took courses in ornithology from Cornell University and attended their Nature Sound Recording Workshop in 1991. Neville Recording started in 1993 which led to a series of CD collections of bird songs in North America and beyond. These recordings are available at www.nevillerecording.com, in the Bateman Gallery Gift Shop and on iTunes. John has travelled throughout British Columbia capturing the sounds of nature and of birds in particular. John has served as President of BC Nature for 4 years and writes a regular feature in the BC Nature magazine called North in the Spring.  

Our January 2020 Speaker:                                                                                                                                                                                  Dr. Chris Kilford.                                                                                                                                                                                                    Dr. Kilford is the president of the Canadian International Council, Victoria branch. He holds a PhD in history from Queen’s University (2009) with a focus on civil-military relations in the developing world and he is a Fellow with the Queen’s Centre for International and Defense Policy. Chris also teaches distance-learning courses for the Royal Military College and the Canadian Forces College focused on geopolitical issues. His long career in the Canadian Armed Forces was capped with postings to the Canadian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan as the Canadian Deputy Military Attaché from July 2009 until July 2010 and then to the Canadian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey as the Canadian Defense Attaché from July 2011 until August 2014.

Our November Speaker:                                                                                                                                                                                      Pam Madoff,                                                                                                                                                                                                            An ex-city councilor with much experience, has long dedicated herself to preserving the character and heritage of Victoria, especially in the Old Town. She was instrumental in getting rules and regulations in place to protect our Old Town. Her influence has extended to protection of green spaces and parks. Pamela Madoff has written and lectured on urban planning and heritage issues. A long-time resident of James Bay, Pamela owns a 126-year-old heritage home, designated as a Municipal Heritage site, and located in a Heritage Conservation Area .

Our October Speaker:                                                                                                                                                                                         Roger Girouard,                                                                                                                                                                                                     Assistant Commissioner Canadian Coast Guard, Western Region.                                                                                                              A  Montreal native, Roger served the navy for 35 years, including three ship commands, Maritime Operations Group Four, and Commander Canadian Fleet Pacific. His missions included the Gulf War; the SWISSAIR 111 recovery operation off Peggy’s Cove; Canada’s peacemaking contribution to East Timor; and Command of a naval Task Force in the Arabian Gulf in 2003. He retired in September of ’07 as Commander Maritime Forces Pacific. He assumed responsibilities as the Canadian Coast Guard’s Assistant Commissioner for Western Region in May 2013.                                                                                                                 

Our September Speaker:                                                                                                                                                                                     Jonathan Manthorpe,                                                                                                                                                                                          Mr. Manthorpe was a political correspondent and columnist for the Globe and Mail and then The Toronto Star. He turned to foreign corresponding in 1979 when he was appointed European Bureau Chief for The Toronto Star. In the mid-1980s Manthorpe became European Correspondent for Southam News , the internal news agency for Canada’s largest group of metropolitan daily newspapers. In the following years Manthorpe was sent by Southam News to be the correspondent in Africa, based in Zimbabwe, and then Asia, based in Hong Kong. He now works as a freelance international affairs columnist and commentator. He writes weekly columns for the Ottawa-based news web site iPolitics and for the Hong Kong-based online news site, Asia Times. Jonathan Manthorpe has also been involved in many associated international endeavours. In the early 1980s he was a special adviser in London to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on “patriation” of Canada’s constitution from Britain. He also spent three years as a member of the Canada-Japan Forum, a small committee advising the prime ministers of the two countries on how to enhance bilateral relations. As well, he has undertaken special projects for the United Nations, the World Bank, the Asia Development Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency, and several non-government organizations.