Starting today and continuing until Nov. 30, York’s McLaughlin College will present the fall instalment in its highly popular series of informal lunchtime talks. The subjects covered this month include a personal reflection on volunteering in Ethiopia; the similarities and differences between the Nigerian High Court and the Supreme Court of Canada; a two discussions about the current challenges in Afghanistan; one student’s experience working with Peruvian street youth; a discussion of accountability to law and democracy; and one professor’s overview of a lifetime of research into transnational crime and policing.
All talks, unless otherwise specified, take place in the McLaughlin Senior Common Room, 140 
McLaughlin College, at noon. The talks are free and open to anyone in the York community.
Today, Ian Greene (left), master of McLaughlin College, will speak about his volunteer activities in Ethiopiafor a Canadian nonprofit organization that helps at-risk children obtain adequate food, shelter and an education so that they can go to school, then university, and then contribute to Ethiopia’s rejuvenation. Find out what you can do to contribute.On Thursday Sept. 22, L. H. Gummi justice of the high court of Nigeria along with several other high court judge, will speak on the differences and similarities between the Nigerian court and the Supreme Court of Canada, which was a model for the Nigerian High Court when it was established.
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Lieutenant-General (Ret’d) George Macdonald (right), the former vice-chief of the Canadian Defence staff, will speak on Sept. 23 about the current challenges facing the Canadian Forces as they transition from a combat mission in Afghanistan, deal with the pressures of reduced government funding, and try to manage within a very cumbersome procurement system. Macdonald, a Fellow of McLaughlin College, spent 38 years in the Canadian Forces, retiring in 2004 after three years as the vice chief of the defence staff. He began his military career as a fighter pilot and has occupied staff and command positions at several levels. He has served with NATO in Germany and Norway, and with NORAD in Canada and at Colorado Springs in the US. He currently works as a consultant in defence and security issues in Ottawa.
On Tuesday, Oct. 25, Sandra Vides Martinez, a senior student in International Development Studies and in the Faculty of Education at York University, will compare her experiences of working with youth in a Peruvian orphanage and her experiences of working with youth in Toronto. She will be facilitating discussions surrounding the importance of breaking down biases when working with at-risk youth in marginalized communities in conjunction with developing programs that are based on participatory development and capacity building. Vides Martinez will draw on her experiences in working with communities in Toronto as well as her work with McLaughlin College’s Human Rights, Participatory Growth and Poverty Eradication Project.
Gregory Tardi, legal counsel to the House of Commons, will speak on Monday, Oct. 31 about “Accountability to Law as an Aspect of Democracy.”
Then on Thursday, Nov. 24, Tahera Aurban-Ali, who is a York University student and a Canadian who was born in Afghanistan, will provide her passionate analysis of the situation in Afghanistan. She argues that allied (including Canadian) intervention has done a lot of good to promote human rights, but we should be wary of compromises made with the Taliban. 
On Wednesday, Nov. 30, James Sheptycki (right), a professor of criminology at York University, will speak about his 20-year career researching transnational crime and policing.This talk coincides with the publication of two new books Transnational Crime and Policing’ (Ashgate, 2011) and Global Policing, co-authored with Ben Bowling, professor of criminology at King’s College, London (Sage, 2011). In his talk, Sheptycki will reflect upon the role of the researcher the study of “the police” and how this is effected by “globalization”.
A light lunch is served at noon and the talks usually begin at about 12:15pm, followed by a question-and-answer session. Each talk usually finishes shortly after 1pm.
For information on subsequent lunch talk schedules, visit the McLaughlin College website.