Spur 17 Toronto Final Program

a national festival of politics, art and Ideas
a national festival of politics, art and Ideas
TORONTO APRIL 6–9 2017
Saturday April 8
Saturday April 8
SACHA BHATIA NEIL FRASER
KELLY CROWE
DAVID MCGOWN
Stewart Elgie AMBER SILVER
MODERATOR
ALANNA MITCHELL
MODERATOR
Risk and Health
12:00 PM
Location: Gardiner Museum
Risk and the Environment
2:00 PM
Location: Gardiner Museum
Medicine has successfully sequenced the entire human genome. So what? Genome sequencing reveals
our predisposition to inherited disease risk and enables identification of medications that are right for
us individually. As innovation in healthcare marches us towards personalized medicine – chemotherapy
that targets your individual tumours rather than treatments with massive collateral damage, phone
apps that enable you to monitor your insulin levels or heart health daily, 3D printing that will replace
your diseased organs – Spur asks: can technology help us live to 120 years old and save medicare? And,
as the Canadian parliament debates the issue of mandatory genetic testing for insurance purposes,
where has privacy gone to die?
Sacha Bhatia, a health policy researcher with significant experience in health policy, is the national Evaluation
Lead for Canada’s Choosing Wisely Campaign – an effort to help clinicians and patients engage in conversations
about unnecessary tests and treatments to reduce harm and improve care. He advises the Ministry of Health
and Long-Term Care, hospitals and other healthcare organizations on various health systems issues, including
strategic planning and quality improvement.
Neil Fraser is the President of Medtronic Canada and Regional Vice-President – Canada, Medtronic plc. He is also
the Chair of MEDEC and a Board Member of Baycrest Health Sciences. In 2014, he was a member of the federal
Advisory Panel on Healthcare Innovation and the Ontario Health Innovation Council. Neil is a frequent speaker
on the topics of value-based procurement, outcomes-based healthcare, and the medical device sector’s role in
improving clinical outcomes, economic value, and access to quality healthcare.
Kelly Crowe is a medical sciences correspondent for CBC National News. During her career she has reported on
elections, floods, forest fires, political leadership conventions and breaking news such as the 1999 Columbine
shootings in Colorado and the SARS outbreak in Canada in 2003. Kelly has followed an Afghanistan theatre troop
touring through the war-torn country, embedded with the Canadian military during sovereignty exercises in
Canada’s North, and spent a week in Yellowstone National Park following up on a Canadian wolf pack.
Flash floods in Toronto. Raging wildfires in Fort McMurray. The threatened Big One on the West Coast.
Severe weather events have increasingly dominated news reports, given their unpredictable appearance
and the huge cost to individuals and communities, both financially and in terms of human misery. Our
world’s climate patterns are surely changing; Spur explores the science, the economics and the policy
implications, and asks how can we nudge Canada and the world in the direction we need to go?
David McGown is the Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Insurance Bureau of Canada. Previously, he
held senior leadership roles at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce over 28 years, most recently serving as its
Vice-President for Government, Regulatory and Public Affairs. He began his career in research at Queen’s Park and
then as an economist in the Department of Finance in Ottawa.
Amber Silver is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography & Environmental Management at the
University of Waterloo. Her primary research interests involve the human dimensions of natural hazards,
particularly severe and hazardous weather in Canada. More specifically, she is interested in the ways that people
make decisions, both individually and collectively, during emergencies.
Stewart Elgie is the founder and chair of Sustainable Prosperity, Canada’s major green economy think tank and
policy-research network. His research involves many aspects of environmental and economic sustainability, with a
particular focus in recent years on market-based approaches. In 2001, Elgie was awarded the Law Society of Upper
Canada medal for exceptional lifetime contributions to law – the youngest man ever to receive the profession’s
highest honour.
Alanna Mitchell is a Canadian journalist, author and playwright. She is fascinated with the intersection of
science, art and society. Her second non-fiction book, Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, became an international
best-seller. A few years ago, she turned it into a one-woman play that she is performing all over the world. Her
fifth book, The Spinning Magnet, about the Earth’s protean magnetic field, is due out in the fall.
Amber Silver and Stewart Elgie’s research has been funded by
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
14 15