October 1, 2026 – “I’ve Got A Story: Recollections of Life in the Junction,” by Lorne Clayton Lorne’s presentation will draw from his book, “I’ve Got A Story: Recollections of Life in the Junction,” a compilation of stories based on his experiences growing up in Toronto Junction in the 1940s. He lived through the hardships of the depression, the uncertainty of having a brother in a Japanese POW camp during WWII, and the loss of his parents when he was just fifteen — his father, a WWI veteran, to alcoholism and cancer, and his beloved mother to two strokes that left her debilitated. Lorne always viewed life through a cheerful lens and considers himself lucky. Despite his disadvantaged upbringing, as the seventh child of eight, Lorne always has a story.

November 5, 2026 – “Dominion: The Stained Glass Legacy of William Potts,” by Henry Knight. William F. Potts is Toronto’s most lost great artist. With his two assistants, John Hurst and Joseph Schneider, he designed almost all of Toronto’s Victorian stained glass windows. Then his name was forgotten. Toronto artist Henry Knight has worked for years to find those names. Please join us as we reconnect the names to the art and discover a lost world of invention, beauty, precarity, and loss. Henry Knight is an artist, mechanic, conservator, and historian of stained glass. A lifelong Torontonian, he is dedicated to documenting and celebrating Toronto’s unique heritage of glass, which is now critically endangered.

December 3, 2026 – “Sir John A. Macdonald & the Apocalyptic Year 188, Reconciling with Sir John A. Macdonald,” by Patrice Dutil. Could Sir John A. Macdonald have been that bad? Why have nine monuments to him been taken down? With a fresh new look at the evidence, Patrice Dutil makes the case that Macdonald was worthy of adulation in his day and that it is necessary to reconcile with him and his legacy. Patrice Dutil is an author and commentator, as well as professor of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has written four books, co-written three more, and edited seven volumes (two of these books are also available in French). He writes about foreign policy, politics and budget practices, but his speciality is leadership. He has written extensively on Sir John A. Macdonald, including  Sir John A Macdonald at 200: New Reflections and Legacies and Prime Ministerial Power in Canada: Its Origins under Macdonald, Laurier and Borden. His two most recent books on the subject are Ballots and Brawls: The 1867 Canadian General Election and Sir John A. Macdonald and the Apocalyptic Year of 1885. Dutil launched and edited the Literary Review of Canada for five years (it is still published today), and was President of the Champlain Society (Canada’s second oldest publisher) for seven years. He hosted one hundred podcasts for the series Witness to Yesterday which features conversations with Canadian historians.

February 4, 2027: “Black Voyageurs in the Fur Trade” by Dr. Jacqueline L. Scott. Canoeing and camping are iconic summer activities in Canada. Canoeing was the backbone of the Fur Trade, which was the main industry in colonial Canada. This talk explores the Black presence in canoeing and the Fur Trade. Based on her own experiences of canoeing and her academic research on outdoor recreation, Dr. Scott’s talk gives new insights on Black history in Canada. Dr. Scott is a scholar and writer on race and nature. She has written for The Narwhal, The Conversation, and CBC. She is currently working on her first book, “Black in the Great Outdoors: Canada,” which will be published by Goose Lane.