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