AMBCANADA Events

Speaker Events

AmbCanada convenes speaker events throughout the year for our members. Depending on the availability of the speaker, we hold in-person events over lunch in the National Capital Region, which are also live-streamed for members residing elsewhere, or we organize purely virtual speaker events. Our in-person lunches in recent years have been held at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club in Chelsea, Quebec, although we are also exploring other venues, including possible locations outside the National Capital Region. 

Many of our events are conducted under the Chatham House Rule, which permits participants to share information received or discussed at the event, provided it is done without attribution. Recordings of events held under the Chatham House Rule are accessible via the password-protected Members Portal

We also organize some on-the-record events, either just for our members or for a wider public, in partnership with other organizations. Recordings of these events are available for public viewing on our YouTube channel.

Email notices announcing our events are sent to members several weeks in advance and include registration details and links. Pre-registration and credit card payment are required. Members are welcome to invite guests to our in-person events, provided they ensure their guests adhere to the Chatham House Rule.

Please find below a listing of all of the speaker events for the current and previous years.

Recent Events 2025

November 18, 2025 – luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World

Guest Speaker: Alex Neve, former Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada

Moderator: Alex Bugailiskis, former Ambassador to Syria, Cuba, Poland and Italy

October 27, 2025luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

The State of Canada-U.S. Relations

Guest Speaker: Kirsten Hillman, Ambassador of Canada to the United States

Moderator: Martin Loken, former Deputy Head of Mission in Washington D.C. and Consul General in Minneapolis

October 8, 2025 – webinar

The Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention: Two Multilateral Security Regimes Under Stress

Guest Speakers: Paul Meyer, Fellow in International Security and Adjunct Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University, and Sabine Nölke, former Director General of the Non- Proliferation & Security Threat Reduction Bureau at Global Affairs Canada and former Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

Moderator: Olivier Nicoloff, former Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium

September 29, 2025webinar and in-person at University of Western Ontario

Iran and the Gulf States: Navigating a New Middle East Reality

In partnership with the University of Western Ontario’s Western Academy for Advanced Research (WAFAR), 

Panelists: Dennis Horak, former Head of Mission in Iran and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain and Oman, 2025 WAFAR Fellow

Masud Husain, former Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

Moderator: John Holmes, former Ambassador to the Philippines, Türkiye, Indonesia and Jordan, 2025 WAFAR Fellow 

September 9, 2025 – luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

Canada in the Current International and Institutional Setting

Guest Speaker: John Hannaford, former Clerk of the Privy Council

Moderator: John Holmes, former Ambassador to the Philippines, Türkiye, Indonesia and Jordan

May 27, 2025 – luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

Mexico, Canada and the USA: What Happened to Los Tres Amigos?

Guest Speaker: Graeme Clarke, former Ambassador to Mexico, the OAS, Peru and Bolivia

Moderator: Patricia Fuller, President of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, former Ambassador to Uruguay and Chile

May 12, 2025 

AmbCanada-CIPS Conference – University of Ottawa

Finding Canada’s Place in a Disordered World

April 15, 2025 – luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

Current Events

Guest Speaker: Stefanie Beck, Deputy Minister of National Defence

Moderator: Sarah Fountain Smith, former Ambassador to Chile and Deputy High Commissioner to the UK

March 19, 2025 – coffee morning at 280 Beechwood Ave

The Rise of Populism in Quebec, Canada and beyond

Guest Speaker: Philippe Bernier Arcand, essayist, part-time professor at Saint-Paul University, and columnist for L’Acadie Nouvelle.

Moderator: Olivier Nicoloff, former Ambassador to Belgium

February 11, 2025 – luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

A fireside Chat with Marc Garneau about his new autobiography, “A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream

Guest Speaker: Marc Garneau, former Navy engineer, astronaut, politician and Foreign Minister

Moderator: John Holmes, former Ambassador to the Philippines, Türkiye and Indonesia

January 24, 2025luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

Canadian foreign policy capacity changes in a chaotic world

Guest Speaker: Paul Wells, a leading political journalist and host of “The Paul Wells Show”, a weekly podcast about Canadian politics

Moderator: Michael Small, President of AmbCanada, former Ambassador to Cuba and High Commissioner to Australia

2024

November 13, 2024

Annual Writers’ Luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

Six authors from our membership talk about their recent work. Moderator: Ian Ferguson

 

Alan BowkerA Church at War: MacKay Presbyterian Church, New Edinburgh and the First World War

Phil Calvert (co-editor) with Helen Lansdowne and Nick Etheridge, Supervising A Peace that Never Was: Recollections of Canadian Diplomatic Personnel in Indochina, 1954-1973

Nicholas Coghlan, Sailing to the Heart of Japan

Rhonda Gossen, The Twelfth of February: Canadian Aid for Gender Equality During the Rise of Violent Extremism in Pakistan

Bodil Jelhof JensenDenmark’s Forgotten Holocaust: My Family History in Letters 

Tim Martin, Unwinnable Peace: Untold Stories of Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan

September 19, 2024luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

Special advance preview of “My Life in Politics, the latest book by Lloyd Axworthy

Guest Speaker: Lloyd Axworthy, former Foreign Minister

Moderator: Rob McRae, former Ambassador to NATO

May 14, 2024luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

A sceptic dissects the Foreign Interference Commission’s first report

Guest Speaker: Dr. Wesley Wark, Canadian historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto

Moderator: Patricia Fortier, former Ambassador to Peru, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic

April 24, 2024webinar

Ranking Prime Ministers of Canada in Their Foreign Policy: The Really Good, the Good, and the Ordinary

Guest Speaker: Professor Patrice Dutil, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Toronto Metropolitan University  

Moderator: Pierre Guimond, diplomat in residence and lecturer at the École supérieure d’études internationales (ESEI), Université Laval. 

March 20, 2024  – webinar

Presentation by Catalyste+ Looking for An Interesting Volunteer Opportunity? Your Skills and Experience Could be a Great Match.

Guest Speakers: Wendy Harris, CPA, CA, President and Chief Executive Officer, Catalyste+; Suzanne Laporte, AmbCanada member and past Catalyste+ Board Member; Darren Schemmer

Catalyste+ Past Board Chair and Catalyste+ Advisor

March 6, 2024 – luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

 

UNPLUGGED The Back and Future Story on the Senate Report: More Than a Vocation: Canada’s Need for a 21st Century Foreign Service

Guest Speaker: The Honourable Senator Peter Boehm 

Moderator: Alex Bugailiskis, former Ambassador to Syria, Cuba, Poland and Italy

February 21, 2024 – luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

Ukraine: Winning the Fight

Guest Speaker: Larisa Galadza, former Ambassador to Ukraine 

Moderator:   Alison LeClaire, former Ambassador to Russia

January 19, 2024 – luncheon at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club

Indo-Pacific strategies: from France to Canada, how allies approach the future in this region?

Guest Speaker: H.E. Ambassador Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, Ambassador of France to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands 

Moderator: Gabriel Lessard, former Ambassador to Vietnam and Ethiopia

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