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• Winter 2026 Speaker Event Series (via Zoom)

  • Start
    January 12, 2026
  •  
    10:00 AM
  • End
    February 02, 2026
  •  
    12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom virtual meetings

  
  

  Winter 2026 Speaker Event Series 
  
  

  All Winter 2026 speaker events will be conducted virtually using Zoom software

  January 12  Robert Rotenberg, LLM  Evolution of a Crime Fiction Writer  January 19 Panel of Virginia Flintoft, Denyse Burns, Mary Anne Cecutti, Barbara Bresver   M.A.I.D /Advanced Planning  January 26  Barry Lane  The Acadians: from Nova Scotia  to Louisiana  February 2  Daniel Vnukowski  The Life of a Concert Pianist

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

    

  
   
  

  
  

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• Evolution of a Crime Fiction Writer

  • When
    January 12, 2026
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom webinar

     

  
  

  Robert Rotenberg, LLM

  Robert Rotenberg was born and raised in Toronto and studied at the University of Toronto, Osgoode Hall and the London School of Economics.

  While in Europe in the early 1980s, he was the managing editor of English-language magazine Passion, The  Magazine of Paris. When he returned to Canada, he and a partner founded and published T.O. The Magazine of Toronto, which ran for six years until 1988. He also worked for a year as a radio producer at CBC Radio.

  After all this, he opened a criminal law practice — crime was the only part of law that ever interested him. The first day he started working as a lawyer, he also started writing his first novel that took 10 years. It’s still in a drawer. I worked on “Old City Hall” next. It took a decade, and in 2009 he had his first breakthrough. The book was published in nine languages and became a Canadian bestseller. He has written seven additional novels.  His latest is titled One Minute More.

  Rotenberg has had always worked full time as a criminal lawyer. Since the early 1990s he and associates Alvin Shidlowski and Jacob Jesin have had a criminal law practice in Toronto Rotenberg, Shidlowski, Jesin, defending, as Rotenberg describes it, "everything from murder to shoplifting." 

  He also works as a screenwriter. He has co-written two Murdoch Mysteries and a TV series proposal that has been sold. He is working on a number of TV and film projects and, of course, his next novel.

  Rotenberg has always loved teaching. For many years now he has taught at the Humber Writer’s Correspondence Course, (which he took myself years ago). As well he has a number of private students that he mentors.

  
  

  Evolution of a Crime Fiction Writer

  
  

  
  

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

  This event is part of the Winter 2026 Speaker series.  
  

  Show details
• M.A.I.D. /Advance Care Planning

  • When
    January 19, 2026
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom webinar

   

        Presenters & Resource People

      

      Denyse Burns

  Denyse Burns is the founder of Madison-Burns & Associates, a Toronto firm specializing in executive coaching, communication and Leadership consulting. She is also an end-of-life doula consultant, working with people who are dying and with their families. In a career spanning more than 25 years, Denyse has had honed her presentation skills, addressing audiences that ranged from Fortune 500 vice presidents and CEOs to middle managers and salespeople.  Fluently bilingual in English and French, Denyse has extensive volunteer credentials. In addition to DWDC, she is an advocate for the intellectually disabled and Management Advisory Services Board member and former chair of L’Arche Toronto.

     

     Mary Anne Cecutti

  Mary Anne Cecutti is a retired heath care consultant and has served as Chair of the Greater Toronto Area Chapter of Dying with Dignity Canada since its inception. She is currently building the chapter, with passionate, like-minded, individuals, whose goal is to inform and educate the public and other stakeholders in our community on MAID and MAID-related topics, as well as advocating for improved access to MAID. She also is a volunteer independent witness for those seeking MAID and a researcher for the national office of DWDC.

     

      Barbara Bresver
  

  After retiring from 40 years in private practice in psychology, Barbara Bresver became involved with DWDC as a witness, connecting with people at an emotionally critical time.  As a volunteer, Barbara conducts personal Advance Care Planning workshops for people, helping them address the “approach/avoidance dilemma” about death and dying.

  Through the Bresver Family foundation, Barbara and her family have helped create a new academic position at U of T: Chair of End-of-Life Care and MAID. The foundation also supports research at the Hospital for Sick Children, Alzheimer’s Research at Baycrest Centre and “Indspire”, an Indigenous charity sponsoring post-secondary education.

     

     Virginia Flintoft
  

  Virginia Flintoft is a retired senior researcher in health policy and patient safety at the University of Toronto and a member of the education and community outreach committee of the Toronto Chapter of Dying with Dignity. She has been a board member of the Cancer Quality Council of Ontario and the Toronto-York Victorian Order of Nurses. Virginia’s background in intensive care nursing has reinforced her commitment to the importance of education as critical to individuals and their families to make informed end-of-life decisions.

  
  

     Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) 

  Medical Assistance in Dying has been legal in Canada since 2016 and the legislation has  recently been amended. Have you wondered who is eligible and what the process entails? This 30-minute presentation will provide a brief history of how MAID came into law; outline eligibility criteria as well as the application and assessment process; and describe what is next for existing legislation. A conversation with a resource person will follow.  

     Advance Care Planning

  It’s never too early to start thinking about your health care options, to articulate your wants  and needs for a time when you are not able to speak for yourself. If something unexpected were to happen tomorrow, what care would you want to receive – or not receive? These decisions are challenging and this session will let you know how to start creating an Advance Care Plan. OR This session empowers people and their caregivers by helping them plan for serious injury, illness and end-of-life. In the 30-minute presentation viewers will learn the what, why and when of Advance Care Planning; how to select a substitute decision maker; and the process of creating an Advance Care Plan.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

  This event is part of the Winter 2026 Speaker series.  
  

  Show details
• The Acadians: from Nova Scotia to Louisiana

  • When
    January 26, 2026
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom webinar

     

  
  

  Barry Lane

  Barry Lane was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and studied history at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. He later served as a Captain in the United Nations Emergency Force, Sinai, at its headquarters on the Suez Canal in Egypt.  Since 1976, he has resided in Quebec City.  Barry speaks fluent English and French, and is also conversant in Russian and Italian.

  After working in historical interpretation with Parks Canada, Barry became co-founder and Vice-President of Mendel Tours in 1984. The company specializes in organizing academic travel for the alumni and associate members of major American universities and museums.  Barry’s special interests are British colonial and maritime history. He has lectured extensively on rail trips across Canada, and to cruise ship passengers sailing along the St. Lawrence, in the Canadian Maritimes, along the American Atlantic coast, the Great Lakes, and in the Caribbean.

  In Paris, in 1991, he was awarded the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry prize for his book, "Ce jour-là en Nouvelle-France". This award is given to the author of the best children’s book published in the French language, outside of France.

  Retired from Mendel Tours in 2014, Barry has just completed a book entitled « Canadian Pacific and the Golden Age of Travel. »  Among many other captivating topics, this publication retraces the story of Canadian Pacific Railway, which became, in the early 20th Century, the largest transportation company in world history. Barry also continues to work as an historical lecturer on board both cruise ships and trains.

  
  

  The Acadians: from Nova Scotia to Louisiana

  The Grand Dérangement, the deportation of 15,000 Acadians (French colonists) from Maritime Canada between 1755 and 1763 is one of the most poignant chapters in North American history, a story made famous by Longfellow’s epic prose poem Evangeline. With beautiful colour illustrations from a 19th-century edition of the poem, the speaker tells the dramatic tale of the expulsion, the arrival of “Cajuns” in Louisiana and Acadians’ partial return to the Maritimes.

  
  

  
  

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

  This event is part of the Winter 2026 Speaker series.  
  

  Show details
• The Life of a Concert Pianist

  • When
    February 02, 2026
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Zoom webinar

     

  
  

  @tjallingphotography
  

  Daniel Vnukowski

  Daniel Vnukowski was trained at the Lake Como International Piano Academy in Italy where he worked with distinguished artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Menahem Pressler, Claude Frank, Fou Ts’ong, John Perry and William Grant Naboré, and at the Peabody Institute of Baltimore under the guidance of Leon Fleisher.
  

  Hailed as “a pianist to watch” by New York Classical Review and “a dashing pianist” by The Sunday Times, Polish-Canadian pianist Daniel Vnukowski (pronounced Vnoo-koff’-skee) has performed throughout Europe, North America, South America and Asia in prestigious concert halls. These have included large-scale concerts for crowds in the thousands and outreach recitals for youth in remote communities throughout Canada, as a founder of the “Piano Six – New Generation” program. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the “Collingwood Music Festival.”

  The music of interwar Jewish composers also occupies a special place in Mr. Vnukowski’s repertoire, which resulted in a sold-out Carnegie Hall recital debut in a program that included Karol Rathaus’ Piano Sonata No. 3 not heard in New York since 1929; and released an all-Rathaus recording of solo piano music on the Toccata label. Vnukowski’s virtual performances have made waves internationally, reaching over half a million viewers. His performances have been endorsed by Fazioli Pianoforte and featured on NPR Radio, Classical FM, Ludwig Van Toronto and BBC Music Magazine, among other media.

  Since November 1, 2021, Mr. Vnukowski has been radio announcer of the Classical Jukebox on the New Classical FM, the only full-time classical radio station in English-speaking Canada. Visit ClassicalFM.ca for more information.

  Note: Vnukowski is an anglicized version of the original Polish name Wnukowski.

  
  

  The Life of a Concert Pianist

  Classical pianist and much-loved classical music radio host, Daniel Vnukowski talks about his early life in music, his special connection to Chopin, Beethoven and Bach and why they are so important to study. Daniel will demonstrate different forms and cadences of music by playing musical excerpts on the piano, something his radio audiences enjoy frequently. Daniel will also share his passion for the recovery of music banned during the Holocaust, related to his own family’s haunted past.
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

  This event is part of the Winter 2026 Speaker series.  
  

  Show details