UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, March 21st
7 pm
Phil Gurski
Shaken and Stirred:
Writing about National Security
What is it like to spend three decades in a job where you cannot say anything to anyone, then try to write a book about it?
Ottawa native Phil Gurski, author of seven books on national security, will discuss the challenges of writing about what you can and cannot say without ending up in jail!
Mr. Gurski’s presentation will be of interest to everyone, especially anyone interested in the timely topics of national security and terrorism, and how to write about issues touching sensitive governmental information.
Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. and Distinguished Fellow in National Security at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute (PDI). Spanning a career of over 30 years at CSIS and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), he specialized in violent Islamist-inspired homegrown terrorism and radicalization and served as a multilingual analyst on the Middle East. His experience also includes working as a senior special advisor at the National Security Directorate of Public Safety Canada, as a consultant for the OPP’s Ani-Terrorism Section, and as Director of the National Security Program at the University of Ottawa’s PDI.
Phil is the author of seven books to date on subjects such as Al-Qaeda-inspired radicalization and terrorism in the west, extremist violence justified by faith, and a history of terrorism in Canada.
He is a regular commentator on national security, terrorism, and radicalization for a wide variety of Canadian and international media.
An evening with award winning writer Cody Caetano
Tuesday April 24th, 7pm
One of the freshest voices on the Canadian literary scene, CODY CAETANO is a writer of Anishinaabe and Portuguese descent and an off-reserve member of Pinaymootang First Nation. He has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, where he wrote this memoir under the mentorship of Lee Maracle. Excerpts of Half-Bads in White Regalia earned him a 2020 Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Prose.