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Spur 17 Toronto Final Program

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a national festival of<br />

politics, art and ideas<br />

RISK<br />

SPUR TORONTO<br />

April 6-9, 20<strong>17</strong><br />

www.spurfestival.ca/toronto-20<strong>17</strong>


The <strong>Spur</strong> Festival is produced by the LRC<br />

in partnership with Diaspora Dialogues.<br />

Festival Partner<br />

Table of Contents<br />

a national festival of politics, art and Ideas TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

Government Funders<br />

National Supporters<br />

<strong>Program</strong>ming Partners<br />

Access <strong>Spur</strong> <strong>Toronto</strong> Supporter<br />

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9<br />

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15<br />

16<br />

<strong>17</strong><br />

18<br />

19<br />

20<br />

Venues & Ticket Information<br />

Schedule at a Glance<br />

Greetings from the Festival Director<br />

Festival Staff<br />

Emerging Scholars and Artists<br />

Books That <strong>Spur</strong>: Lynne Olson on Last Hope Island<br />

Books That <strong>Spur</strong>: Tom Nichols on The Death of Expertise<br />

Books That <strong>Spur</strong>: Denham Jolly on In the Black: My Life<br />

<strong>Spur</strong> Presents a Night of Irish Music and Poetry<br />

Risk and the Psychology of Collecting<br />

Risk and Health<br />

Risk and The Environment<br />

Films That <strong>Spur</strong>: Durcan - Dark School<br />

Films That <strong>Spur</strong>: WB Yeats - A Vision<br />

Risk and Journalism<br />

Risk and The Economy<br />

Risk and Geopolitics<br />

Media Partner<br />

1


a national festival of politics, art and Ideas<br />

TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

Venues & Ticket Information<br />

George Ignatieff Theatre — 15 Devonshire Place<br />

(between Harbord & Bloor, 1 block east of St. George<br />

Heliconian Hall —35 Hazelton Avenue (1 block north of Yorkville Ave)<br />

Yorkville Public Library — 22 Yorkville Avenue<br />

Gardiner Museum — 111 Queen’s Park<br />

Innis Town Hall — 2 Sussex Ave (at St. George)<br />

OISE Auditorium — 252 Bloor Street West, Main Floor<br />

Buying Tickets Online<br />

Online tickets for all individual events and bundles are available at spurfestival.ca until one hour before the event<br />

via the <strong>Spur</strong> Festival website (spurfestival.ca) or on Eventbrite. Please bring your printed e-ticket with you to the<br />

event, or have the e-ticket readable on your portable device.<br />

Buying Tickets in Person<br />

Tickets for individual events will be available from 30 minutes prior to the event. You will also be able to purchase<br />

bundled tickets and passes at the door.<br />

Will Call<br />

If you have purchased a Festival Pass, you can bring your e-ticket to the first event (or any subsequent event<br />

should you be unable to attend the first) and redeem the ticket for a physical pass. You will to need to present<br />

that pass at each event you attend.<br />

Ticket Prices (plus HST)<br />

<strong>Toronto</strong> Festival Pass: $100<br />

Individual tickets between $5 and $20 with multiple event<br />

and student discounts available.<br />

<strong>Spur</strong> National Office<br />

706-<strong>17</strong>0 Bloor Street West<br />

<strong>Toronto</strong> ON M5S 1T9<br />

Canada<br />

Schedule at a Glance<br />

Thursday April 6<br />

5:30pm | Books That <strong>Spur</strong>: Lynne Olson on Last Hope Island<br />

Friday April 7<br />

12:00pm | Books That <strong>Spur</strong>: Tom Nichols on The Death of Expertise<br />

5:30pm | Books That <strong>Spur</strong>: Denham Jolly on In The Black: My Life<br />

8:00pm | <strong>Spur</strong> Presents a Night of Irish Music and Poetry<br />

Saturday April 8<br />

10:00am | Risk and the Psychology of Collecting<br />

12:00pm | Risk and Health – Will Technology Advances Save Us?<br />

2:00pm | Risk and the Environment<br />

4:30pm | Films That <strong>Spur</strong>: Paul Durcan – The Dark School<br />

6:30pm | Films That <strong>Spur</strong>: WB Yeats – A Vision<br />

Sunday April 9<br />

10:30am | Risk and Journalism<br />

12:30pm | Risk and The Economy<br />

3:00pm | Risk and Geopolitics with Masha Gessen<br />

2 3


a national festival of politics, art and Ideas<br />

TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

Greetings from the Festival Director<br />

Festival Staff<br />

Helen Walsh<br />

Festival Director<br />

Michael Booth<br />

Head of Production and<br />

Operations<br />

Erica May<br />

Development Officer<br />

Last summer, as we were considering our 20<strong>17</strong> festival theme, we were struck by the<br />

juxtaposition of Canada’s sunny sesquicentennial plans and the darkening clouds of<br />

‘populist’ intolerance gathering in the US and around the globe. The 75 <strong>Spur</strong> events<br />

we produced last year, under the “Our New Tribalism” theme, seemed suddenly more<br />

prescient, as partisanship grew rapidly and communities splintered in the US public space.<br />

This year, accordingly, we’ve decided to tackle these issues from another, urgent angle:<br />

RISK. Namely, in light of this nation building anniversary, what are the real and perceived<br />

threats facing a better Canada and a better world? And what are we willing to risk to build<br />

a more just and equitable society?<br />

Across topics such as the environment, the economy, geopolitics, war, race, health and<br />

the role of journalism and art, we ask, are the things we typically fear really the biggest<br />

risks for us as individuals and societies? Why do we perceive some issues, challenges or<br />

people as risky – and not others?<br />

I’m glad you’ve joined us. We can all commit to acts large and small that move us in the<br />

right direction. Our hope is that through the amazing array of writers, thinkers, scientists,<br />

community leaders, journalists and others from Canada and the US taking part in <strong>Spur</strong><br />

<strong>Toronto</strong>, you will both find inspiration and an opportunity to contribute.<br />

Your voice is important as anyone else’s at <strong>Spur</strong>, so I hope you will attend, ask questions<br />

and provide commentary. Talk to us, and to each other. And please, fill in the feedback<br />

forms, as they are essential to our designing programming that truly has impact.<br />

With thanks for being part of <strong>Spur</strong>.<br />

All best,<br />

Christian Sharpe<br />

Administrator<br />

For the LRC:<br />

Sarmishta Subramanian, Editor in Chief<br />

Michael Stevens, Managing Editor<br />

Bardia Sinaee, Assistant Editor<br />

For Diaspora Dialogues:<br />

Zalika Reid-Benta, <strong>Program</strong> Manager<br />

Anthony Burton<br />

Production and Marketing<br />

Coordinator<br />

Cathy Paine<br />

Marketing & Partnerships<br />

Sheila Kay<br />

Publicist<br />

Helen Walsh<br />

Festival Director<br />

4 5


a national festival of politics, art and Ideas<br />

RBC Emerging Scholars <strong>Program</strong><br />

The RBC Emerging Scholars & Artists <strong>Program</strong> is an opportunity for local young scholars under 30 and<br />

emerging spoken word artists under 30 each contribute to a national conversation on politics, art and<br />

ideas in each <strong>Spur</strong> city.<br />

Through a residency in <strong>Spur</strong>’s inclusive, intellectually vibrant atmosphere, up to 130 young thinkers and<br />

artists from across the country will participate in 20<strong>17</strong>, with special access to festival participants and<br />

exclusive events helping create a lasting network of young Canadians who will help write the country’s<br />

future.<br />

This program is made possible with support from the RBC Foundation<br />

Scholars & Artists<br />

Brennan Wong<br />

FATIN TAWFIG<br />

LAUREN KIM<br />

Their Someday is the freedom<br />

to pursue their passion.<br />

MAGI NEUNG<br />

SOPHIE BARNETT<br />

The hard work, perseverance and vision of emerging artists<br />

demonstrate the power of having – and the joy of realizing – a<br />

Someday . Together with programs like the <strong>Spur</strong> Festival, we<br />

support a diverse range of Canadian talent in communities<br />

across the country through the RBC Emerging Artists Project.<br />

Phoebe Wang<br />

TM<br />

6<br />

® / Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. 39788A (11/2015)


TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

Thursday April 6<br />

Books That <strong>Spur</strong>:<br />

Lynne Olson on Last Hope Island<br />

5:30 PM<br />

Location: George Ignatieff Theatre<br />

LYNNE OLSON<br />

BEN MCNALLY<br />

MODERATOR<br />

“Olson is our era’s foremost chronicler of World War II politics and diplomacy.” – Former US Secretary<br />

of State, Madeline Albright<br />

<strong>Spur</strong> sits down in conversation with Lynne Olson, whose latest book, Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied<br />

Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War, is a groundbreaking account of how<br />

Britain became the base of operations for the exiled leaders of Europe in their desperate struggle to<br />

reclaim their continent from Hitler. A fascinating companion to Citizens of London, Olson’s bestselling<br />

chronicle of the Anglo-American alliance, Last Hope Island recalls with vivid humanity that brief<br />

moment in time when the peoples of Europe stood together in their effort to roll back the tide of<br />

conquest and restore order to a broken continent.<br />

This conversation will be moderated by Ben McNally, <strong>Spur</strong> <strong>Toronto</strong>’s official bookseller.<br />

Lynne Olson is a New York Times bestselling author of seven books of history, most of which deal in some way<br />

with World War II and Britain’s crucial role in that conflict. Olson’s books Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh,<br />

and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941, and Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its<br />

Darkest, Finest Hour, were New York Times bestsellers.<br />

Before becoming a full-time author, Olson worked as a journalist for ten years, first with the Associated Press as<br />

a national feature writer in New York, a foreign correspondent in AP’s Moscow bureau, and a political reporter<br />

in Washington. She left the AP to join the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered national<br />

politics and eventually the White House.<br />

Ben McNally has been selling books in downtown <strong>Toronto</strong> for more than 30 years, most recently at his Bay Street<br />

store, Ben McNally Books. He has been the bookseller at the <strong>Spur</strong> Festival since its inception.<br />

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a national festival of politics, art and Ideas<br />

TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

Friday April 7<br />

TOM NICHOLS<br />

Marcia Young<br />

MODERATOR<br />

DENHAM JOLLY<br />

Books That <strong>Spur</strong>: Tom Nichols on The Death of Expertise<br />

12:00 PM<br />

Location: Heliconian Hall<br />

This event will include a light lunch.<br />

Books That <strong>Spur</strong>: Denham Jolly on In The Black: My Life<br />

5:30 PM<br />

Location: Yorkville Public Library<br />

People are now exposed to more information than ever before, provided both by technology and<br />

by increasing access to every level of education. Tom Nichols argues that these societal gains have<br />

helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed<br />

debates on any number of issues. Nichols has deeper concerns than the current rejection of expertise<br />

and learning, noting that when ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else,<br />

democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy, or<br />

both. The Death of Expertise is not only an exploration of a dangerous phenomenon but also a warning<br />

about the stability and survival of modern democracy in the Information Age.<br />

Tom Nichols is a professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and an adjunct professor in<br />

the Harvard Extension School. He also taught at Dartmouth College, Georgetown University and other schools<br />

and lecture programs. He is currently a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International<br />

Affairs, and a Fellow of the International History Institute at Boston University. He has also been a Fellow of<br />

the International Security <strong>Program</strong> and the Project on Managing the Atom at the Belfer Center for Science and<br />

International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.<br />

In the Black traces B. Denham Jolly’s personal and professional struggle for a place in a country where<br />

Black Canadians have faced systematic discrimination.<br />

Jolly chronicles not only his own journey; he tells the story of a generation of activists who worked to<br />

reshape the country into a more open and just society. While celebrating these successes, In the Black<br />

also measures the distance Canada still has to travel before we reach our stated ideals of equality.<br />

Denham Jolly arrived from Jamaica to attend university in the mid-1950s and worked as a high school teacher<br />

before going into the nursing and retirement-home business. Though he was ultimately successful in his business<br />

ventures, Jolly faced both overt and covert discrimination, which led him into social activism. The need for a<br />

stronger voice for the Black community fuelled Jolly’s 12-year battle to get a licence for a Black-owned radio<br />

station in <strong>Toronto</strong>. At its launch in 2001, Flow 93.5 became the model for urban music stations across the country,<br />

helping to launch the careers of artists like Drake.<br />

Marcia Young hosts World Report on CBC Radio, and can sometimes be seen on the Breaking News Desk on<br />

CBC. She brings compassion and patience to every story she tells. From New York State to Illinois, Young has told<br />

stories of regular everyday people trying to overcome real life difficulties. Young is committed to supporting<br />

diverse groups in the community that work for change and encourage hope. Young has spent most of her career<br />

as a journalist working for CBC. She has lived in Saskatchewan, has experienced the wonder of the east coast in<br />

Prince Edward Island and is now based in <strong>Toronto</strong>.<br />

10 11


a national festival of politics, art and Ideas<br />

TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

Friday April 7<br />

Saturday April 8<br />

MARY NOONAN ADAM CROTHERS CHARLIE FORAN DEB QUIGLEY<br />

<strong>Spur</strong> Presents a Night of Irish Music and Poetry<br />

8:00 PM<br />

Location: Heliconian Hall<br />

Patrick Ourceau<br />

Photo by robin macmillan<br />

DON THOMPSON DAVID MOOS HELEN WALSH<br />

MODERATOR<br />

MODERATOR<br />

Risk and the Psychology of Collecting<br />

10:00 PM<br />

Location: Gardiner Museum<br />

<strong>Spur</strong> Presents a lively night of poetry and music direct from Ireland and <strong>Toronto</strong>’s own vibrant<br />

Irish community.<br />

Mary Noonan’s first collection, The Fado House (Dedalus, 2012), was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre<br />

Prize and the Strong/Shine Award. Her poems have been published in Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, PN<br />

Review, The Threepenny Review, Poetry London, New Hibernia Review, and The Spectator. A limited edition pamphlet,<br />

Father (Bonnefant Press) was published in 2015. Her second collection will be published in 2018.<br />

Adam Crothers was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1984. A contributor to New Poetries VI (Carcanet, 2015),<br />

he is the author of Several Deer (Carcanet, 2016), which has been shortlisted for the 20<strong>17</strong> Shine/ Strong Poetry<br />

Award for best first collection by an Irish writer; he was one of the poets selected for Poetry Ireland Review‘s<br />

special issue on ‘The Rising Generation’ in 2016<br />

Charlie Foran was born and raised in <strong>Toronto</strong>. His fiction, non-fiction, and journalism have won the Governor<br />

General’s Literary Award, the Weston Prize, the Taylor Prize, the Canadian Jewish Book Award, two QSPELL prizes,<br />

and several National Magazine Awards. Charlie has also made radio documentaries for the CBC program Ideas and<br />

co-wrote the Gemini-winning TV documentary Mordecai Richler: The Last of the Wild Jews.<br />

Deb Quigley was born in Newtownards, County Down and lived during the early 70’s in the town of Bangor where<br />

she was first introduced to the native music of Ireland. During the late 80’s she was inspired musically by the<br />

playing and teaching of the late Chris Langan, an Uillean piper, instrument maker, and music teacher originally<br />

from Rush, County Dublin who lived for many years in <strong>Toronto</strong>.<br />

Patrick Ourceau has for over twenty years been performing and teaching Irish Music all over North America and<br />

Europe. He has released and been featured on a host of recordings, most notably on the TG4 CD and DVD release<br />

Geantrai, a compilation celebrating the first ten years of the popular traditional Irish music television program.<br />

Art adviser, curator and author David Moos in conversation with Don Thompson, economist and author<br />

of the new book, The Orange Balloon Dog: Bubbles, Turmoil and Avarice in the Contemporary Art Market<br />

which uses the prism of the contemporary art market to explore risk and behavioural economics. Why<br />

do we behave the way we do?<br />

Don Thompson is an economist and professor of marketing, emeritus, at the Schulich School of Business at York<br />

University in <strong>Toronto</strong>. He has taught at Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics. He has<br />

written about the art market for The Times of London, Fortune, and Harper’s Art.<br />

Thompson is the author of twelve books. The thirteenth, The Orange Balloon Dog: Bubbles, Turmoil and Avarice in<br />

the Contemporary Art Market was published this month. His two earlier books on the contemporary art market are<br />

the 2008 The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art which has appeared in fourteen<br />

languages, and 2013’s The Supermodel and the Brillo Box.<br />

David Moos is an independent art adviser, curator and writer based in <strong>Toronto</strong>, Canada. He received his M.A. and<br />

Ph.D in art history, both from Columbia University, New York. Moos was the curator of modern and contemporary<br />

art at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, from 1998 to 2004, and most recently, the curator of modern and<br />

contemporary art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, <strong>Toronto</strong>. He has organized numerous retrospectives and traveling<br />

exhibitions, including Jonathan Lasker: Selective Identity (2000) and Radcliffe Bailey: The Magic City (2001), both at<br />

the Birmingham Museum of Art, and then, at the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Shape of Colour: Excursions in Colour<br />

Field Art, 1950-2005 (2005), and Julian Schnabel: Art and Film (2010). Moos is also a contributing editor to Art Papers<br />

and Art US.<br />

Helen Walsh is <strong>Spur</strong>’s festival director and publisher of the LRC.<br />

12 13


a national festival of politics, art and Ideas<br />

a national festival of politics, art and Ideas<br />

TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

Saturday April 8<br />

Saturday April 8<br />

SACHA BHATIA NEIL FRASER<br />

KELLY CROWE<br />

DAVID MCGOWN<br />

Stewart Elgie AMBER SILVER<br />

MODERATOR<br />

ALANNA MITCHELL<br />

MODERATOR<br />

Risk and Health<br />

12:00 PM<br />

Location: Gardiner Museum<br />

Risk and the Environment<br />

2:00 PM<br />

Location: Gardiner Museum<br />

Medicine has successfully sequenced the entire human genome. So what? Genome sequencing reveals<br />

our predisposition to inherited disease risk and enables identification of medications that are right for<br />

us individually. As innovation in healthcare marches us towards personalized medicine – chemotherapy<br />

that targets your individual tumours rather than treatments with massive collateral damage, phone<br />

apps that enable you to monitor your insulin levels or heart health daily, 3D printing that will replace<br />

your diseased organs – <strong>Spur</strong> asks: can technology help us live to 120 years old and save medicare? And,<br />

as the Canadian parliament debates the issue of mandatory genetic testing for insurance purposes,<br />

where has privacy gone to die?<br />

Sacha Bhatia, a health policy researcher with significant experience in health policy, is the national Evaluation<br />

Lead for Canada’s Choosing Wisely Campaign – an effort to help clinicians and patients engage in conversations<br />

about unnecessary tests and treatments to reduce harm and improve care. He advises the Ministry of Health<br />

and Long-Term Care, hospitals and other healthcare organizations on various health systems issues, including<br />

strategic planning and quality improvement.<br />

Neil Fraser is the President of Medtronic Canada and Regional Vice-President – Canada, Medtronic plc. He is also<br />

the Chair of MEDEC and a Board Member of Baycrest Health Sciences. In 2014, he was a member of the federal<br />

Advisory Panel on Healthcare Innovation and the Ontario Health Innovation Council. Neil is a frequent speaker<br />

on the topics of value-based procurement, outcomes-based healthcare, and the medical device sector’s role in<br />

improving clinical outcomes, economic value, and access to quality healthcare.<br />

Kelly Crowe is a medical sciences correspondent for CBC National News. During her career she has reported on<br />

elections, floods, forest fires, political leadership conventions and breaking news such as the 1999 Columbine<br />

shootings in Colorado and the SARS outbreak in Canada in 2003. Kelly has followed an Afghanistan theatre troop<br />

touring through the war-torn country, embedded with the Canadian military during sovereignty exercises in<br />

Canada’s North, and spent a week in Yellowstone National Park following up on a Canadian wolf pack.<br />

Flash floods in <strong>Toronto</strong>. Raging wildfires in Fort McMurray. The threatened Big One on the West Coast.<br />

Severe weather events have increasingly dominated news reports, given their unpredictable appearance<br />

and the huge cost to individuals and communities, both financially and in terms of human misery. Our<br />

world’s climate patterns are surely changing; <strong>Spur</strong> explores the science, the economics and the policy<br />

implications, and asks how can we nudge Canada and the world in the direction we need to go?<br />

David McGown is the Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Insurance Bureau of Canada. Previously, he<br />

held senior leadership roles at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce over 28 years, most recently serving as its<br />

Vice-President for Government, Regulatory and Public Affairs. He began his career in research at Queen’s Park and<br />

then as an economist in the Department of Finance in Ottawa.<br />

Amber Silver is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography & Environmental Management at the<br />

University of Waterloo. Her primary research interests involve the human dimensions of natural hazards,<br />

particularly severe and hazardous weather in Canada. More specifically, she is interested in the ways that people<br />

make decisions, both individually and collectively, during emergencies.<br />

Stewart Elgie is the founder and chair of Sustainable Prosperity, Canada’s major green economy think tank and<br />

policy-research network. His research involves many aspects of environmental and economic sustainability, with a<br />

particular focus in recent years on market-based approaches. In 2001, Elgie was awarded the Law Society of Upper<br />

Canada medal for exceptional lifetime contributions to law – the youngest man ever to receive the profession’s<br />

highest honour.<br />

Alanna Mitchell is a Canadian journalist, author and playwright. She is fascinated with the intersection of<br />

science, art and society. Her second non-fiction book, Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, became an international<br />

best-seller. A few years ago, she turned it into a one-woman play that she is performing all over the world. Her<br />

fifth book, The Spinning Magnet, about the Earth’s protean magnetic field, is due out in the fall.<br />

Amber Silver and Stewart Elgie’s research has been funded by<br />

the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.<br />

14 15


a national festival of politics, art and Ideas TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

Saturday April 8<br />

Saturday April 8<br />

MARY NOONAN ADAM CROTHERS Alan Gilsenan<br />

MARY NOONAN<br />

ADAM CROTHERS<br />

CHARLIE FORAN<br />

Films that <strong>Spur</strong>: Durcan – Dark School<br />

4:30 PM<br />

Location: Innis Town Hall<br />

Films that <strong>Spur</strong>: WB Yeats – A Vision<br />

6:30 PM<br />

Location: Innis Town Hall<br />

Paul Durcan – The Dark School is an intimate and enthralling account of the childhood and youth of one<br />

of Ireland’s best-loved as well as critically acclaimed poets. This moving story of the making of an artist<br />

and of a man ends with his emergence as a poet, his relationship with Patrick Kavanagh, and finally his<br />

meeting and marriage to Nessa O’Neill and the birth of his own children. 52 minutes, 2009<br />

Alan Gilsenan’s portrait is a rare, courageously frank and beautifully crafted reflection on childhood,<br />

non-conformity and the price of being an artist. Seen through the raw and lyrical prism of memory<br />

that has marked much of Durcan’s poetry, it is in many ways the writer’s “portrait of the artist as a<br />

young man”.<br />

This screening will be followed by a talk back session with Director Alan Gilsenan and poets Mary<br />

Noonan and Adam Crothers<br />

Save $10 by also joinng us for the 6:30PM screening of A Vision: A Life of W. B. Yeats.<br />

The life and work of W.B. Yeats holds a particular place in hearts and imaginations across the world.<br />

This film is a response to that vast body of work – a visual and avowedly experimental ‘film-poem’.<br />

Using solely the words of Yeats, the creators of this film attempt to take the viewer on a cinematic<br />

journey into his extraordinary imagination – an unconventional biography of sorts.<br />

Yet, beyond the poet’s popular profile and his cultural tourist caché, little is really known of his<br />

complex life, despite having articulated it so completely, so creatively. In so many ways, Yeats dreamt<br />

up his life. He fashioned his own majestic screenplay and we are – endlessly – the beneficiaries.<br />

Directed by Alan Gilsenan<br />

The screening will be followed by talk back session with Director Alan Gilsenan, poets Mary Noonan<br />

and Adam Crothers and author Charlie Foran.<br />

Save $10 by also joining us for the 4:30PM screening of The Dark School.<br />

75m, 2013<br />

Alan Gilsenan is an award-winning Irish film-maker, writer and theatre director. His many films include<br />

the feature film Unless - based upon the novel by Carol Shields - which was premiered at the 2016 <strong>Toronto</strong><br />

International Festival. His latest film Meetings with Ivor is currently on cinema release in Ireland. He is a former<br />

Chairman of the Irish Film Institute and a board member of both the Irish Film Board and RTÉ, Ireland’s public<br />

service broadcaster. He also serves on the board of Fighting Words, a creative writing centre for young people.<br />

Mary Noonan see page 12<br />

Adam Crothers see page 12<br />

Mary Noonan see page 12<br />

Adam Crothers see page 12<br />

Charlie Foran see page 12<br />

16 <strong>17</strong>


a national festival of politics, art and Ideas<br />

TORONTO APRIL 6–9 20<strong>17</strong><br />

Sunday April 9<br />

Sunday April 9<br />

CATHERINE WALLACE<br />

DANIEL DALE<br />

VICKY MOCHAMA<br />

SUSAN G. COLE<br />

MODERATOR<br />

DR. JOHN COATES SHEELAH KOLHATKAR Dilip Soman<br />

MODERATOR<br />

Risk and Journalism<br />

10:30 PM<br />

Location: OISE Auditorium<br />

Risk and The Economy<br />

12:30 PM<br />

Location: OISE Auditorium<br />

Alternative facts. Fake news. A combative president. A media on the defensive. Increasing risks for<br />

journalists. What role has journalism traditionally played in speaking truth to power, and how has that<br />

been impacted by the digital tsunami that turned media on its head, and the geopolitical tsunami that<br />

has changed the world order.<br />

Catherine Wallace is the 2016-20<strong>17</strong> Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy, funded by the Atkinson Foundation, the<br />

Honderich family and the <strong>Toronto</strong> Star. She is a former managing editor of the Montreal Gazette, was executive<br />

producer of its evening iPad edition, and has also worked at the <strong>Toronto</strong> Star and the Globe and Mail.<br />

Daniel Dale covers the Trump presidency and other American stories as the Washington bureau chief for the<br />

<strong>Toronto</strong> Star. Dale covered Mayor Rob Ford’s administration from 2010 to 2014 as a reporter and city hall bureau<br />

chief. He won the Goff Penny Award for Canada’s best young journalist in 2010 and 2011 and a National Newspaper<br />

Award for short features in 2012.<br />

Vicky Mochama is the national columnist for Metro News Canada. Three times a week, you can read her thoughts<br />

on race, politics, and culture in Metro newspapers across the country. She is a co-author of the Canadaland Guide<br />

to Canada (May 20<strong>17</strong>, Touchstone Books), a rude satirical look at the history, people and places we live in and make<br />

fun of. She has also written for Vice, Hazlitt, Buzzfeed, the Guardian, and The Globe and Mail.<br />

Susan G. Cole is an activist, writer and editor. She is the author of the ground-breaking play A Fertile Imagination,<br />

about two lesbians trying to have a baby, and two books on violence against women. She is the editor of<br />

Outspoken, a collection of scenes and monologues.<br />

As the US looks set to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act (put in place to regulate Wall Street after 2008),<br />

<strong>Spur</strong> asks: how is financial risk quantified by those within the system, and what are the human<br />

factors – gut feelings, hormones and/or emotions – that impact that? From risky lending practices,<br />

to packaged financial instruments like mortgage-backed securities no one really understood, the<br />

post-mortem on the financial crisis revealed the degree to which human irrationality, bias and<br />

cognitive errors drove the financial decisions of those at the top. <strong>Spur</strong> explores the confluence of<br />

economics, psychology and neuroscience that influence human decision-making in a sector whose<br />

actions dictate the well-being of the world.<br />

Sheelah Kolhatkar, a former hedge fund analyst, is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she writes about Wall<br />

Street, Silicon Valley, economics and national politics, among other things. She has profiled characters as diverse<br />

as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Pimco founder Bill Gross, hedge fund mogul John Paulson and<br />

president Donald Trump. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Black Edge, about the largest insider<br />

trading investigation in history and the transformation of Wall Street and the U.S. economy.<br />

John Coates, former Research Fellow, University of Cambridge, traded derivatives for Goldman Sachs and ran<br />

a trading desk for Deutsche Bank. He developed techniques for valuing and arbitraging the tails of probability<br />

distributions, and for trading low probability events such as financial crises. He now researches the biology of gut<br />

feelings, risk taking, and stress. His book, The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and<br />

Mind, was short listed for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year, and the UK Wellcome<br />

Trust Science Prize.<br />

Dilip Soman is a behavioural scientist and does research on interesting human behaviours and applications<br />

to choice architecture, consumer welfare, policy and financial literacy. He is a professor at the Rotman School<br />

of Management at the University of <strong>Toronto</strong>, the director of the university’s India Innovation Institute, and the<br />

coordinator of the Behavioural Economics in Action research cluster.<br />

Dilip Soman’s research has been funded by the Social<br />

Sciences and Humanities Research Council.<br />

18 19


a national festival of politics, art and Ideas<br />

Sunday April 9<br />

MASHA GESSEN<br />

ANNA MARIE TREMONTI<br />

MODERATOR<br />

Risk and Geopolitics<br />

3:00 PM<br />

Location: Innis Town Hall<br />

The US Presidential results caught many people in this country – and around the world – by surprise.<br />

Yet, we have seen echoes of the same far-right, populist, anti-immigration language in our own<br />

Conservative Party of Canada leadership campaign as well as in France and other European nations.<br />

The tragic events in Quebec City are a terrible reminder that Canada is not immune to the impact<br />

of hateful rhetoric. <strong>Spur</strong> explores the recent US Election, the implications of Russia’s involvement in<br />

North American politics, and what that means for Canada, given the massive inter-connectivity of the<br />

modern world.<br />

Masha Gessen is a Russian-American journalist and author of many books of nonfiction, most recently The Future<br />

Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, forthcoming from Riverhead in October. She is also the author of<br />

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (Riverhead, 2012). She is a contributing opinion writer<br />

to The New York Times and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, among other publications. She<br />

lives in New York.<br />

Anna Maria Tremonti is the host of CBC Radio One’s flagship network morning news program, The Current.<br />

Previously, she has been a senior reporter for CBC television’s The National and a host of The Fifth Estate. As a<br />

foreign correspondent she was based in Berlin, London, Jerusalem and Washington. She has covered provincial<br />

and federal politics across Canada. As host of The Current, she has interviewed people as diverse as Malala<br />

Yousafzai and Henry Kissinger. She has broadcast The Current from Kabul, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Havana, New<br />

York, Chicago, Miami and across Canada.<br />

20

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