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, 2025 – luncheon 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, 2025 – webinar 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, 2025 – luncheon 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 Bowker, A 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 Jensen, Denmark’s Forgotten Holocaust: My Family History in Letters
Tim Martin, Unwinnable Peace: Untold Stories of Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan
September 19, 2024 – luncheon 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, 2024 – luncheon 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, 2024 – webinar
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