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Issue 28 The Newsletter of the Edinburgh University Club of Toronto (EDUCT) January 2012

Happy New Year! Before we turn our attention to the New Year, I will highlight some recent events. In early November, EDUCT held its

first networking event, targeted at new graduates in the GTA. Later that month, we enjoyed a wine tasting co-­hosted with the University and attended by Mariana West of Alumni Development and Chloe Kippen, Deputy Director, Major Gift Fundraising. Connexion Oenophilia generously donated the wine.

th year. To celebrate, we have planned a fund-­raising campaign to establish EDUCT Decennial Fund Access Bursaries. (See page 7 for details.) We are also very happy to report that Professor Mary Bownes, Vice-­Principal External Engagement, will join us for the Annual Dinner on 20 April, at which our speaker will be Dr. Richard Hunt. And in March we will hear about the very influential former professor of philosophy at Edinburgh, John Macmurray. As always, 2012 begins with the annual Burns Nightcap. We are fortunate to have a very talented group of members who never disappoint. This year, we hope to unearth a few new musicians to add to the event. And, since it is that time again, I do urge you to renew your annual membership. Margaret Reid

Upcoming Club and Alumni Events

The 2012 Burns Nightcap

When Thursday 19 January, 6:30 10 pm (six days before Burns)

Where Details

The Duke of Kent, Yonge & Eglinton, east side of Yonge Street at Roehampton Avenue, just north of Eglinton Ave E (parking underground across Yonge or surface lot on Roehampton) All are part of the entertainment. Ian Duncan promises another star performance.

RSVP Toni McGregor, tonimcg@cogeco.ca, 905-­637-­9015

John Macmurray: A Contemporary Scottish Philospher of Social Influence

When

Sunday, 4 March, 2012, 1:30 3:30 pm

Where Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street, Toronto Details Father John E. Costello, Ph.D., will be our speaker. Dr. Costello is President and Adjunct

Professor at Regis College, and a Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto. He has written a biography of John Macmurray, who held the chair in Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University from 1944 to 1958. Macmurray, who is regarded by many as the last significant contributor to the Scottish philosophical tradition, is known for his influence on political thought and leaders on the Left in Britain in the 1930s and early 1940s. Dr. Costello will introduce us to some of the dimensions of this contemporary philosopher, with special reference to Macmurray's anticipation of major public issues in our own day, such as globalization and the urgent need to move towards world community. The cost is $15 each.

RSVP Simon Miles, simon-­miles@sympatico.ca, 416-­466-­8793

EDUCT Annual Dinner

When Friday, 20 April, 2012, 6:30 pm

Where The Great Hall, The Arts & Letter Club, 14 Elm Street, Toronto Details Dr. Richard Hunt, Professor, Gastroenterology, McMaster University Health Science Centre,

will be our after-­dinner speaker on the subject: Science, Society and the Gastroenterologist: The Influence of Politics, Pharma and Professors. A graduate of Edinburgh, Dr. Hunt is now working worldwide. He will introduce us to some of the more fascinating dimensions of the larger context within which research, teaching and drug development are being pursued in a field that has to be of more than passing interest to all of us at some point in our lives. The cost is $70 each.

RSVP Simon Miles, simon-­miles@sympatico.ca, 416-­466-­8793 or Toni McGregor, tonimcg@cogeco.ca, 905-­637-­9015

Annual General Meeting and Doors Open Toronto Tour

When Sunday, 27 May, 2012, 1:30 pm

Where The offices of Fraser Mackenzie, 48 Yonge Street, Toronto Details Meeting to be followed or preceded by a tour of a building of interest. . RSVP Margaret Reid, educt.margaret@yahoo.ca, 416-­697-­2807

Membership fees for 2012 are due in January. If you have not yet renewed, please see page 21 for details.

Message from the President

Do you know of other Edinburgh alumni in Toronto? Please pass this newsletter on to

anyone who might be interested.

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Inside this Issue Connections Netorking Event a Great Success

Wine Goes Down Well

Robin

The Old Quad: Finished at Last!

Edinburgh University Explains its New Fees for RUK Students

EDUCT Geography Centenary Fund Progress Report: We Made It!

Giving is Good

Marshall McLuhan: A Student Reflects

Letter from Ottawa

Back to the Burn

Ruth Davidson Wins Leadership of Scottish Conservative Party

Shade-­grown Coffee in Nicaragua

Past Presidents Lunch

Centre Needed to Protect

Glass

Famous Alumni: Edinburgh and the American Declaration of Independence

Welcome to Our New Members

on Scottish Identities

Mark Haworth Book

Board of Directors

Are You On Our List?

by James de P. Hunter

The month of November was kicked off to an exciting start as

ional networking event in Toronto. An enthusiastic assembly of twenty Edinburgh alumni, seasoned veterans as well as those fresh out of school, gathered at the Duke of Kent pub to share a drink and swap business cards. There were representatives from an eclectic assortment of career fields and educational backgrounds law, finance, education, information technology, accounting, medicine and consulting, to name a few which added a great deal of intrigue to the conversation. EDUCT board member & past president, Josh Gillespie, was on hand to discuss the Career Connections programme that is designed to provide a mechanism for students and graduates returning or moving to the Toronto area to access employment information. The programme taps the knowledge of experienced local alumni who are able to act as mentors for those who have an interest in entering a particular field. Several such mentors, such as Liz McBeth, Jim

Hunter, Simon Miles and our current president, Margaret Reid, were kind enough to attend and field questions about their areas of expertise. As the evening came to a close, the business card draw was successful and Eirini Mihanatzidou and Natalie Rochon were the lucky recipients of gift cards redeemable at the Pub.

Feedback on peopfavourable, and we expect to hold more networking opportunities for new graduates and club members in the future.

-­-­ Liz McBeth (chair), Christine Saunders, Josh Gillespie and James de P. Hunter -­-­ for having organized this event. As Editor I extend particular thanks to James, a recent graduate of Edinburgh (M.Sc., 2010), and now an Investment Analyst at Manulife, for this article.

And the winners are: Liz McBeth draws the names, scrutinized by Catherine Tremblay, James de P. Hunter and Josh Gillespie

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Wine Goes Down Well The University of Edinburgh and EDUCT co-­hosted a very successful wine tasting in Toronto on Saturday 20 November. Chloe Kippen, Deputy Director, and Mariana West, Alumni Representative, of the Development and Alumni Office of the University of Edinburgh, were the

They both had a splendid time and really appreciated the relaxing ambiance of the studio space in the Arts & Letters Club as a setting in which to get to know the 23 thirsty alumni who were on hand to sample the wines.

It was good to see alumni coming in from far afield. Vivian and Pamela Abrahams travelled in from Kingston, armed with canes and back in fine form as our photo shows.

Brian Ivey came from Ottawa, primarily to see his daughter and granddaughter perform in the ballet Romeo and Juliet, but he could not resist this side attraction. And Ian and Magda Doris came in from Hamilton. We also welcomed some alumni new to our gatherings, including Frida Ardal, Andrew Graham, and Robert Dipede. Chloe gave us a very upbeat report on the fund-­raising at the University. By October 2011, they had reached 340 million pounds of the 350M targeted for the five-­year campaign. So they have wisely given themselves another year, which should, we hope, see them overshoot their original target. She spoke of the benefits of the campaign including, most notably, that one in four Edinburgh students now enjoys some form of financial support. And she thanked EDUCT for its initiatives, such as the plan to launch our Decennial Fund campaign (see the article on page 7), which continue to inspire other clubs around the world. Martha Harrison, who runs Connexion Oenophilia, with offices in Montreal and Toronto, is an old friend of EDUCT. She has kindly hosted whisky tastings for us in the past and again she excelled;; this time with four wines available in LCBO Vintages. Her company has over 150 wines and whiskies on its lists. You can and should go to her web site <www.oenophilia.ca> for information on all of these. To tempt you, we shall tell you a little about the four she chose for us to sample. But, obviously, we cannot do justice to them here. So we really recommend you try them for yourself. Each one of them is splendid and all are reasonable in price. To help you find them in the Vintages store, we have reproduced images of the labels here.

The first wine, most appropriately, is perfect as an aperitif. This is Blanquette de Limoux Le Moulin, Domaine J. Laurens. (LCBO # 180323). Retail price: $17.95. Le Moulin is a sparkling methode traditionnelle white wine from the Languedoc. Although the average age of the vines is about 15 years, the different plantings of the vineyard allow

for a very precise and graded programme of selection at the time of harvest. This contributes to the freshness and originality of the wine. The grape varieties are: Mauzac 90%;; Chardonnay 5%;; and Chenin blanc 5%. The second wine is Sancerre Cuvée G.C. Jean-­Max Roger 2010. (LCBO # 189126). Retail price: $25.95. This white wine, made with Sauvignon blanc, is dry with zippy acidity and orchard fruit playing off against each other. Amazingly, the Roger vineyards go back to the 16th Century

Liz McBeth, Martha Harrison and Margaret Reid launch the tasting

Vivian and Pamela Abrahams enjoying the reds

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in the same family. stands for Grand Chemarin, which describes the soil of the region.

Number three on our list was Chateau Hauchat, Fronsac 2009. Vignobles Jean-­Bernard Saby & Fils. (LCBO # 123489). Retail price: $14.95. This wine comes from an area just west of Saint Émilion, in the Bordeaux region. It is a medium-­full bodied ruby red with a rich aroma. The chateau enjoys perfectly drained clay-­limestone soils and excellent exposure to the sun. This, combined with its being a 100% Merlot varietal, is seen to account for its distinctive features.

We ended the day with another red, Gigondas Lavau 2009. (LCBO # 234955). Retail price: $23.95. This wine is from the

Southern Rhone valley. Robert Parker, the well-­known wine writer, described this wine as being not the most concentrated of the

balanced and elegant offering sexy, sweet black cherry fruit notes intermixed with cedar, Christmas fruit cake, spice box and

Wow! Something for everybody! It was very good! EDUCT is greatly indebted to Martha. Knowing that if we were to have a profit it would go to the University, she kindly donated the wines for the tasting. We were delighted to be able to host this event with the University and we extend our thanks to Chloe and Mariana for attending and providing their support. We also thank Liz Mcbeth for having organized the event.

On Saturday, November 3rd, a group of nine Edinburgh alumni and friends met for a two-­hour squash round robin and dinner at the

All participants were quite sporting: Noel Wright placed the ball with medical precision;; Graham Ferguson struck the ball with intent and intensity;; Liz and Andrew McBeth and their guest, Dave Sommerville, put in a strong showing;; while Toni McGregor and Fionna Ferguson bore witness to the drama unfolding on-­ and off-­court. The event culminated in a heated final match that pitted Ian

James de P. no winners or losers that evening only tired and contented EDUCT squash members enjoying a meal and a pint or two together. So tired and contented, in fact, that they neglected to capture the moment with a photograph! Liz and Andrew McBeth hope to organize or join in another round of squash and pints with EDUCT members in the New Year. Please let us know if you are interested in participating or hosting an evening at your club. Liz McBeth can be reached at liz@mcbeth-­media.com Her phone is:416-­697-­9287.

The Old Quad: Finished at Last! by Simon Miles

We promised to bring you more pictures of the progress on the old quad. Janette Hannah, Friend of EDUCT, living in New Hampshire, was in Edinburgh in late August of 2011 and took the one of work in progress. One can get a good sense of the effort going into the completion of this magnificent space. Care was taken to follow the

By wine # 4 the seats were very welcome. Mary Hunter, Evelyn Wallace and Rosalind Peters savour the after-­effects.

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original plans of Robert Adam and his successor on the project, William Henry Playfair, for the building that began in 1789. The stone used is Clashach sandstone.

Our second photograph shows the completed space from the air. Amazingly, this is the scene just one month later. The awnings seen in the photograph are in readiness for the installation of HRH The

new Chancellor on 26 September. She unveiled a plaque commemorating the landscaping of the Old College quadrangle. That landscape was immediately put to good use with refreshments being served on the lawn following her installation.

The space is open to the public and is expected to be in much demand as a locale for events that are part of the annual Edinburgh Festival.

Edinburgh University Explains its New Fees for RUK Students Geoffrey Rose, EDUCT Friend, spotted an advertisement in the The Sunday Telegraph on 23 October that invited readers to find out about the forthcoming increase in fees that the University of Edinburgh will be charging students from the Rest of the UK. These students, now known a RUK students, will have to pay 9,000 pounds a year for each year of their four-­year undergraduate degree as of September 2012. The reader is referred to the University web site for a very clear explanation of what brought about this increase, why the Scottish students are not being charged, the arrangements for payment after graduation, and exceptions to the rule. It is worth reading. The link is http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/funding-­facts/overview

The University of Edinburgh is making a major investment in the future of its academic staff with the appointment of prestigious tenure-­track Fellowships across all disciplines. These 5-­year Fellowships are intended to support outstanding candidates at the start of their independent academic career. Up to 100 positions are available.

s Fellow will already show the ability to conduct world-­leading research and exhibit clear potential to become an international leader in their discipline. The Fellow will be able to concentrate on research in the first instance, acquiring the full duties of University Lecturer across the period of the Fellowship. Subject to satisfactory review at the end of 3 years, the Fellow will move to an open contract on the University academic staff. Appointment will normally be made on the Lecturer scale (£36,862 -­ £44,016), dependent on experience, and in exceptional circumstances a more senior appointment may be made. Some positions are available with immediate effect and it is expected that successful applicants will be in post from August 2012. Applications containing a detailed CV and a 1-­page outline of a proposed research programme should be made online at www.jobs.ed.ac.uk under job ref 3015150N to meet one of the closing dates 16th Jan, 29th Feb and 16th April 2012. General advice may be obtained by emailing chancellorsfellows@ed.ac.uk

EDUCT Geography Centenary Fund Progress Report: We Made It! by Simon Miles

Congratulations and an enormous thank-­you to all donors to the Fund! We have made our latest milestone target of 35,000 pounds. In our September issue I had reported that we had made our first

But well worth the wait.

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milestone of 25,000 pounds by about April of 2011. That was significant because it meant that the Fund would become a permanent endowment. Indeed, the University did make this official at the end of its fiscal year on 31 July 2011. I also reported last September that EDUCT and the University had agreed that the Fund should remain open indefinitely and that we should move beyond our original target of 25,000 pounds and strive to achieve a revised target of 35,000 pounds. The reason for this adjustment is that it would ensure that the annual value of the scholarship supported by the Fund could be raised to 1,000 pounds a year. This would put it in line with the standard size of similar awards at Edinburgh. It takes 25,000 pounds of endowed capital to support an annual award of that size. The other 10,000 pounds in endowed capital is to generate support for the lecture, every other year, in the name of J.Wreford Watson the prominent Canadian geographer who became Head of the then Department of Geography at Edinburgh. We had a wonderful response to our new round of fund-­raising. Not only have we made our target, but we still have some outstanding commitments. And, as ever, while I will not count these until I have eaten them, I do forever maintain a positive outlook! While the Fund will remain open indefinitely, and the University naturally welcomes further contributions, EDUCT is now shifting its efforts to build an endowment to be known as

the EDUCT Decennial Fund. That effort is to be guided by a

Fund appear below. We will continue to keep you informed of developments with the EDUCT Geography Centenary Fund and related activities at Edinburgh. Professor Charles Withers, of the Institute of Geography, is hoping to have the first J. Wreford Watson Lecture to be supported by EDUCT held in October 2012. If this comes about, the University will be inviting all donors. So, albeit that this is now tentative, please hold some time for this if it is of interest. In addition, Professor Withers hopes to be able to announce the first recipient of the scholarship in the Spring of 2012. As promised, in this issue we are providing a list of donors since our previous listing last January. We wish to extend our thanks to them for their generosity. Of particular interest is that the majority of them are repeat donors. For the ten new donors who are not remaining anonymous, we have listed only the Edinburgh degree, unless they did not attend Edinburgh, in which case all of their degrees are listed. The donors are as follows. Two anonymous donors EDUCT Colin Farquharson, B.Sc. (Hons.), Geophysics, 1990;; Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland;; St. John's, Newfoundland.

Peter Furley, B.A. (Hons.), Geography, 1959, Oxford;; M.A., Geography, 1962, Oxford;; D.Phil., Soil Science, 1966, Oxford;; Professor Emeritus (Tropical Biogeography) and Senior Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Edinburgh;; Aberlady, East Lothian.

Valerie Hume, Ph.D., Geography, 1970;; Civil servant (retired);; Ottawa.

J. Alistair McVey, M.A. (Hons.), Geography and Modern History, 1967, St. Andrews;; M.A., Geography, 1974, Simon Fraser University;; non-­graduating doctoral studies in Geography, 1975-­76, at Edinburgh;; Campus Principal, North Island College, BC (retired);; Qualicum Beach, British Columbia.

John Mercer, M.A. (Hons.), Geography, 1964, Glasgow;; M.A., Geography, 1967, McMaster;; Ph.D., Geography, 1971, McMaster;; Emeritus Professor of Geography, Syracuse University;; Dewitt, New York.

, M.A. (Hons.), Geography, 1963;; Professor of Environmental Sciences (retired), University of East Anglia;; Norwich, England.

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Briony Penn, Ph.D., Geography, 1988;; Consultant on environmental education, writer and illustrator;; Salt Spring Island, B.C.

David E. Smith, Ph.D., Geography, 1964;; Distinguished Visiting Research Associate, School of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Oxford;; Leamington Spa, England.

John Warkentin, Ph.D., 1961, Toronto;; Professor Emeritus, York University;; Toronto.

Ann G. Wilkie, M.A., Geography & Sociology, 1966;; Consultant on land use policy and environmental matters;; Halifax, Nova Scotia.

and a second generous donation from each of: Jacques Bernier, of Québec City, Québec;; William J. Carlyle and his wife, Isobel P. Carlyle, of Winnipeg;; George Gordon, of Glasgow, Scotland;; Alan G. Macpherson, of St. John's, Newfoundland;; Linda Mason, of Toronto;; Eric Ross, of Sackville, N.B.;; Peter J. Smith, of Edmonton, Alberta;; D. R. Fraser Taylor, of Ottawa;; J. David Wood, of Egbert, Ontario;; Margaret Wyeth, of Victoria, British Columbia.

and a third generous donation from each of: Paul Bradley, of Toronto;; John Donnelly, in England;;

Christine Gude, of Toronto;; David Kemp, of Thunder Bay, Ontario;; Simon Miles, of Toronto;; R. Geoffrey Rose, of Pointe Clair, Québec, and England.

and an outstanding donation from the School of GeoSciences.

Giving is Good by James Hunter

There are lots of opportunities for you to part with your money in the month of December. This is not just about retailers big action time for charities. Charities know there is a spirit of generosity in the air;; they also know about guilt, so consumers (that is, everyone) are firmly in the charitable gun sights in December. The volume of unsolicited letters seeking money ramps up around

favourite good cause, you are ambushed outside the LCBO, smiling young people canvassing for hospitals and environmental causes stop you on Yonge Street, homeless people never looked more deserving, and so it goes on. The endless re-­runs on television of sentimental movies add to the guilt-­inducing brew. Whose heart is so hard that it is not affected

starring Alastair Sim (a former rector of Edinburgh University)? So, come January, you can look forward to battening down the cash-­ EDUCT would like to encourage you to donate some of your remaining money to the EDUCT Decennial Fund. This has been set up to provide bursaries to financially-­strapped students (undergraduate and postgraduate) who might otherwise struggle to take up a place at Edinburgh. EDUCT was founded in 2002. We believe this is something to celebrate, and so the Decennial Fund was set up to mark our tenth anniversary. In our first nine years, we avoided fundraising and focused on having a good time. -­connecting with the University by digging into your pocket. Giving money to Edinburgh University is not the same as succumbing to the December guilt-­ s something to feel good about. Frankly, most of us owe a lot to the generosity of others who went before us, which made our time at Edinburgh so rewarding. The intellectual and physical infrastructure was made possible with the initial benefaction of Bishop Robert Reid in 1558. Cold hard cash was required to finance the glories of

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eighteenth century European Enlightenment. And today, we can feel proud of our link to Edinburgh whose glittering (let us not be modest) reputation has placed it in the globally-­ranked top twenty universities (2011 QS World University Rankings). In the mood to contribute now? s easy. Complete the form

attached to the end of this edition of EDUCT News and send off your cheque or credit card details directly to the University at the address set out in the form. The University will send you a tax receipt which you can attach to your 2012 Canadian income tax return, since our friends at the Canada Revenue Agency treat Edinburgh University as if it were a Canadian charity. You can choose to donate anonymously, but otherwise EDUCT News will tabulate

levels of giving as follows:

Greyfriars $100 -­ $499

Canongate $500 -­ $999

Meadows $1,000 -­ $1,999

Waverley $2,000 and above.

The message of Charles

is that poverty and ignorance are the enemies of a humane society. Please try to be like Scrooge at the end of the movie, not the beginning.

Marshall McLuhan: A Student Reflects by Donald J. Gillies

In the autumn of 2011, Donald Gillies gave three public lectures in Toronto on Marshall McLuhan. Your Editor asked him if he would prepare a piece on McLuhan for EDUCT News. Ever gracious, he agreed. Donald is certainly well qualified for this task. He is Professor Emeritus, School of Image Arts, Ryerson University;; Adjunct Professor in the Joint York University Ryerson University Graduate Program in Communication and Culture;; Honorary Professor, University of the Highlands and

Islands of Scotland;; and, Fellow, Senior College, University of Toronto, where he is also a member of the Academic Retirees Centre (ARC). This article is adapted with permission from his article in a recent ARC News. 2011 marked the centenary of the birth of Marshall McLuhan (1911-­1980). It was a year in which a great deal was written, spoken, and broadcast about the man, his message, his impact and his significance to our cyberworld of interactive media and communication and the cultures they subtend. As a former student of McLuhan, I should like to add to these works by recalling some of my memories of the great man.

in the University of Toronto from 1946 until his retirement in 1979. He was also the foCulture and Technology, a grandiose name for a small, two-­storey

immediately southwest of the Kelly Library on St. Joseph Street. I provide these locators in case you have never noticed it, or mistook it for a disused campus warehouse. You would not be alone. Tom Wolfe, who wrote a great deal about his friend Marshall McLuhan, described it as looking like a Newfoundland fishing shack despite its

The Centre has just been given new life as the now eponymous McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, with a newly created research unit, the Coach House Institute, honouring its customary name.

iad senses: academic, intellectual, pedagogical, political, popular, and media-­smart. It functioned as a unit of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, offering one course of instruction. As the calendar listed it: C&T 1000Y/1001F&S Media and Society/ A course considering media as man-­made environments. These environments act both as services and disservices, shaping the awareness of the users. These active environments have the inclusive character of mythic forms and perform as hidden grounds of all activities. The course trains

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perceptions of the nature and effects of these ever-­changing structures. That course outline was what faced a graduate student considering an application to study with McLuhan, and was the only published information about the course. Despite this polysemic challenge I applied to be a part-­time Special Student in 1969. At the time I was a full-­time instructor of media and communication in the then Ryerson Polytechnical Institute

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man as a text for first-­year undergraduates. I was interviewed in the Centre by McLuhan himself and after a call-­

it. His awareness of Ryerson stemmed from a guest lecture there in 1953 and, more significantly, the applied media research he carried out at Ryerson for his 1960 report, Understanding New Media, commissioned by the United States National Association of Educational Broadcasters. This work led to the publication in 1964 of Understanding Media, the book that would transform him into a media star and cultural celebrity, though not at the time an academic icon. Very little has been written about studying media with McLuhan. This omission is unfortunate since he was a committed, probing, engaging (though sometimes ruthless) and often brilliant teacher. It seemed to me worthwhile to offer some observations and experiences from a personal and anecdotal point of view in the hope of giving some of the

flavour of these weekly events, for events they were. The class would meet in the coach house at 8:00pm in a two-­hour format popularly known as the Monday-­night seminar. Attending each week were some twenty students, along with McLuhan colleagues and friends and other occasional visitors. Among these might be politicians looking for an image analysis: he invited Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau to grace the seminar. There were media figures looking for new production clues, tips, and angles: he told Stanley Burke how news should be presented an hour before Burke went off to read the CBC national news at 11:00pm. And there were assorted fans and critics, the famous and the merely curious, all welcomed alike. One learned to arrive early to find a chair or else sit on the floor, at the feet of the master. In addition to an oral examination at the end of the course, each student was required to make a two-­hour presentation, the only formal course assignment, and thus crucial to those needing a PhD course credit. the presentation. I still recall with chagrin and sympathy the student who began with a definition read from the Oxford English Dictionary. dictionary to me! I have two BAs, In the stunned silence that ensued, the student, doubtless contemplating the remaining one hour and 50 minutes awaiting him like trackless quicksand, composed himself and soldiered on to the end.

I was more fortunate. Since I had access to an excellent range of media processes and equipment, I persuaded McLuhan to allow me to present at Ryerson, in a studio that included a 25-­foot hemispherical geodesic dome covered in translucent white Mylar. This material permitted projection both on and through its surface, thus invoking

I produced a nine-­image, mixed-­media performance using live off-­air television, transparencies, the then new medium of videotape, and a 22-­minute film that I

Counterblast, with a quotation from -­screen

projection tends to end the story-­line, as the symbolist poem ends narrative in verse. That is, multiple screen in creating a simultaneous syntax eliminates t For the presentation I positioned everyone inside the dome, McLuhan reclining at ease -­longue and the class sitting or lying on slabs of foam. After the designed novelty of the venue had taken hold, I cued my five crew members and the

Marshall McLuhan

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show began. Everything worked: simultaneous syntax connected;; poetic symbolism spilled out in startling allusive modalities;; the end came on time and in sync. Wanting to share the applause with my crew, I introduced them, whereupon McLuhan quoted

He took over the evening from then on, as he usually did, leaving me to answer questions of a technical nature while he explained to us what we had just experienced. The class was considered a success, and soon afterwards McLuhan invited me to make some videotape recordings of him: since he was too busy to accept all the invitations to speak that he received, he proposed to send these mediated McLuhans in his stead. I made four half-­hour programs with Ryerson colleagues and facilities as a contribution to the work of this remarkable teacher. As I mentioned earlier, the only other form of assessment was an oral examination. At the beginning of the course students were provided with a reading list, very like the bibliography in Understanding Media. From this one nominated six books on which to be examined. It was never referred to until the individual oral to be conducted by McLuhan was announced. When I asked him about the form of the examination, he

conversation in which you will force upon me your knowledge

As the July exam day approached the daunting prospect of an hour

gradually took over my summer. But it turned out to be pleasant indeed, and I may even have reminded McLuhan of some of Harold

The Bias of Communication, one of his principal theoretical guides, that he claimed to have forgotten. It was a happy coincidence to end the course with Innis's work. It took me back to the library of the Political Economy Department in George Square where I had first encountered Innis ten years before. To conclude in simple truth, my time with McLuhan both inspired and reconfigured my subsequent professional life.

Letter from Ottawa by Kirsty Duncan, M.P.

Once again, it is a great pleasure for me to bring you an update on some of the issues I have been wrestling with in Ottawa since my last letter to EDUCT members, in our newsletter of May 2010. My current three priorities are: neurological diseases, and especially multiple sclerosis (MS);; climate change;; and, regenerative medicine. In this letter I want to focus on the first of these. With respect to MS, after enormous effort, we have finally been seeing progress as my private s bill, C-­180, is currently being read for the second time and it is my hope that it will be referred to a committee. This bill is to put in place an Act to Establish a National Strategy for Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI). In lay terms, CCSVI is caused by narrowed veins in the neck and chest. It has been an uphill battle to get this far. While I do not wish to appear unduly partisan, I think it is important to tell you something of the struggle it has been to get our current government to take action on this front, where there is such opportunity to improve the quality of life for so many Canadians living with MS. Over the past 18 months, I have been personally in touch with over 1,500 MS patients across Canada. Of those, over 400 have now been treated and my data mirror the international data, namely, one-­third significantly improve, one-­third moderately improve and one-­third experience minimal to no improvement. Regardless, there are no drugs for the progressive forms of the disease and no drug has ever reversed the symptoms of devastating MS. Hence the importance of clinical trials and a registry to track experiences of those treated.

Kirsty Duncan, M.P.

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Picking up from my last letter, it was in May 2010 that Carolyn Bennett, M.P. for the Toronto

to the Minister of Health asking for clinical trials and a registry. We were ignored. In June, I organized hearings for four internationally respected researchers on MS to appear before a neurological sub-­committee that I had established. All four called for clinical trials. This time, it was they who were ignored. And at other meetings, I was informed that the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) was not in favour of a registry. Eventually, on 26 August 2010, the CIHR held a meeting of

CCSVI, from whom we had heard in May. Only in March 2011 did the government finally reverse its position and announce a registry for MS. Tragically, tracking the patients will not begin until July, 2012, some 31 months after Canadians began travelling overseas for treatment. And only on 29 June did the Minister of Health reverse her position and agree to launch clinical trials. My Bill C-­280 calls on the Minister of Health to convene a conference with the provincial and territorial ministers responsible for health to establish a national strategy for CCSVI in order to: ensure that proper health care is not refused to a person on the grounds that that person is seeking or is obtaining the

treatment for CCSVI outside of Canada;; identify the most appropriate level of clinical trials for the treatment of CCSVI in Canada in order to place Canada at the forefront of international research;; estimate the funding necessary to undertake those clinical trials in Canada;; establish an advisory panel to be composed of experts who have been or are actively engaged in imaging or treating individuals with CCSVI;; and, ensure that clinical trials begin in Canada by 1 March 2012. There is no excuse not to image. Imaging is safe. There is no excuse not to treat. Angioplasty is an established, low-­risk standard of care. There is no excuse not to undertake clinical trials that would put Canada at the forefront of medical research. If you are in touch with your M.P., you may wish to find out what their position is on this issue which is if such import for so many Canadians. Again, I wish you the very best for the coming year, and look forward to the next opportunity to brief you on some of the developments in Ottawa that are of such concern to us all. Hope to see you all very soon, Kirsty

North. She was first elected in October 2008.

Back to the Burn by David Kemp

In the fall of 1961, a group of young students met for the very first time in High School Yards at the University of Edinburgh. We were there to become geographers. In June 2011, we came together again to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of that event. We had had reunions before. In 1990 we met to mark the quarter century that had passed since graduation, and in 2008, in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Geography programme at Edinburgh, we had dinner together. Enjoyable as these events were, it is just not possible to catch up with the activities of 20-­30 people over several decades in a one evening dinner meeting. There was a general feeling that we needed more time together, and to achieve that we decided upon a retreat for 2-­3 days. Choosing a location for such an event could have been difficult, but, in fact, it turned out to be quite easy. After some sterling organization by two of our number, involving a

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multitude of e-­mails and telephone calls, 19 of the original 29 members of the class returned to the site of one of our undergraduate field trips the Burn, near Edzell, in Angus.

The Burn was built in 1791, in a parkland setting in Strathmore close to the edge of the Highlands. In 1948 the estate was gifted to Goodenough College, which modernized it and created a comfortable, inexpensive holiday and study centre for students, graduates and academic staff from around the world. Our class spent two weeks there in June 1964 gaining hands-­on experience in mapping the glacial and fluvial morphology of the area, digging and analysing soil pits, and creating maps using plane tabling or other survey methods. We worked long hours but did have time for a bit of rest and recreation, such as a barbeque on the beach at St Cyrus and a visit to the bar at the US Air Force Base in Edzell. This time the emphasis was on R and R, but the weather was not suitable for beach visits and the US Base is long closed. We spent the evenings reminiscing, looking at slides and pictures taken on past field trips. Many conversations began with the

laughter. As a result of this and by reading the mini biographies that each of us had prepared we found out what we had been up to since graduation. Teaching seems to have been the most common starting career, either in high school or university, but also as part of voluntary service in what was then called the under-­developed world. Planning of some form or other town or environmental was also a popular career path. Both teaching and planning can be seen as natural careers for geographers, but we also had our share of civil servants Inland Revenue and Scottish Office as well as a couple of people who became involved in sales and public relations. All but one of us now lives in the UK, but, as might be expected from geographers, we have worked and travelled all over the world, on all continents except Antarctica. Although all of us are retired, most keep remarkably busy with varying combinations of consulting work, volunteering, playing golf, travelling or caring for grandchildren. One enterprising individual is now a crofter on the Isle of Lewis.

Daytime activities were curtailed a bit by cool, cloudy and rainy weather, but some hardy souls hiked though the mud and water along the River Esk and a couple headed into Glen Esk to become reacquainted with the glacial features we had mapped forty plus years ago.

All of our undergraduate field trips were educational and to ensure that the reunion included such an element the organizers arranged a whisky tasting. A representative from the Fettercairn Distillery, a few miles north of the Burn, took us through the distilling process and the characteristics of different whiskies using samples that ranged from the original raw spirit through a selection of malts matured in different casks and for different lengths of time. Most of us slept well that night and were sufficiently inspired by the learning experience that we paid a visit to the distillery the following morning to further our education. Other jaunts took us to Edzell Castle, close to the Burn, and to Dunnottar Castle on the coast near Stonehaven. Several of the more literary minded members of our group paid a visit to the Lewis Grassic Gibbons Centre, which celebrates the life and work of the author of A Scots Qair, an account of traditional country life in the Mearns at the beginning of the 20th century, written in a combination of English and the local colloquial speech.

The Burn, near Edzell, June 2011.

The Burn from the Goodenough College website www.goodenough.ac.uk/the_burn.html

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We had our own poet Bill Nolan in the group. He wrote the following, which he

about a bunch of people who will be for ever special to each

, to celebrate our reunion. It seems an appropriate way to end this report. FRIENDSHIP Ye'd hardly credit that near fifty years Ha'e passed since we first met as peers, Keen an ' fresh in Embra Toon Fae different airts o' kintra roon Or lands ootside o' Scotia's shore, We came tae learn, tae play -­ and more.

oot But maist folk didnae gie a hoot Fur thae whae spent their days jist moaning, Blethering skytes an' never knowing That it wis their loss, no' tae belang Tae a set whae's freenship wis sae strang That, efter 'twae score years an' ten, They'd still be freens, whae aye wid ken Frae memories, laughs an' tales o' ploys O' days lang syne that they did enjoy On Lakeland fells, or Yorkshire's dales Or Alpine peaks, each still has tales That e'en efter a' these years Can weave sik laughs, an' aftimes tears, Wi' tales o' each other or o' the crowd That fair mak ye stop an' think aloud

Hoo a quirk o'fate, like a cut o' cards, Brocht us a' thigither in High School Yards Where o' a' we learned an' a wee took, The best ne'er cam frae ony book. A freenship enduring through ilka stage That still burns bricht

frae age tae age So that even when we're past and gone Memories ensure that we'll still live on In the hearts of those who've enjoyed sik fun O' being part of that Class o' 61. Bill Nolan The Burn, near Edzell June 2011

bargain for anyone considering a reunion.

Ruth Davidson Wins Leadership of Scottish Conservative Party

Ruth Davidson came from behind to win the leadership of the Scottish Conservative Party on 4 November last year. Ms. Davidson, an Edinburgh and Glasgow graduate, surprised some, given that she was only 32 at the time and had been a Member of the Scottish Parliament only since last May. She ran against the former Deputy Leader of the Party, Murdo Fraser, who had campaigned on the promise to scrap the party and replace it with a more centre-­right party. Not surprisingly, many of the party stalwarts did not think much of that idea. And yet, conservative as they may be in some respects, the Conservative

Party members seem to be prepared to take a chance with this young, openly gay woman, who had been a member of the Party for only two years. She is only the third woman to lead a Scottish party. She is, however, fiercely unionist and has spoken forthrightly against the devolution of more powers to Scotland.

The Class of back row, left to right Sue Davies (Lees), Claire Methven (Cooper), Dave Kemp, Eileen Russell (Mackay), Bill Taylor, Ailsa Wardrope (John), Gillian Burt (Lothian), Peter Wardrope, Dave Hendry front row, left to right Iain MacKinnon, Gillian Young (Randall), Alison Sanchez-­Ruiz (Barclay), Ann Cassells (Ross), Bill Nolan, Trixie Levein (Pett), Kate Stout (Goodfellow), Vivienne Cochrane (Martindale), Rosalind Pearson (Brown) seated, front Cathie Allan (Bell)

Ruth Davidson, MSP

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The turnout was just 63.4%. With only 8,000-­plus members of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Association as eligible voters, Ms. Davidson won with 2,983 votes to Mr.

preference votes were counted. As a result of a shake up in the Conservative party in Scotland, Ms. Davidson becomes the first leader of the entire Scottish party. EDUCT members will be please to know that she has appointed David Mundell, MP, another Edinburgh graduate (law), to be interim Chairman of the Party. David Mundell is the Parliamentary Under-­Secretary of State for Scotland, in Westminster. Although this is a non-­Cabinet post, he works in the office of the Rt. Hon. Michael Moore, the Secretary of State for Scotland, and one of the Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Cabinet. And, yes, Michael Moore is also an Edinburgh graduate (politics and modern history). Ms. Davidson has plenty of challenges ahead. The Party has only 15 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. The SNP dominates that Parliament with 68 seats, Labour has 37, the Liberal Democrats 5, the Greens 2 and there is one Independent. David Mundell is the only Scottish Conservative sitting at Westminster now, following the last UK elections. She is planning to use new media to reach out to many more Scots, and especially the younger generation, hoping to get them more involved in policy development. She has been

welcomed by David Cameron, but has been at pains to make it clear that Cameron is not her boss. She is doubtless very able to take on the First Minister in Holyrood, Alex Salmond, a committed separatist, given that she honed her debating skills at school and, of course, at Edinburgh. As a footnote, as with the leader of the Conservatives, following the May 2011 elections to the Scottish Parliament, the leader of the Labour Party, Iain Gray, also decided to step down. He was replaced at a Party convention in November. He, too, is an Edinburgh graduate, having studied physics. And what, you are doubtless asking, is the pedigree of the current First Minister, Alex Salmond, the leader of the SNP? Well, of course, he went to that other place St Andrews.

correspondent, for the lead to this article.

Shade-­grown Coffee in Nicaragua by Margaret Bain

The flight began at 4pm Scissor-­tailed Flycatchers, palest grey and white with brilliant rose-­pink underwings, returning to roost for the night in the plantation, some stopping briefly in the tops of the huge Guanacaste trees then arcing onwards across the bright sky like a hail of shining arrows. Mixed in with them were sleek Tropical

Kingbirds, lemon-­yellow below, greeny-­grey above. Small groups of parrots, surely the biggest gossips in the bird world, never seemed to draw breath in their raucous fly-­by conversations. We were on a shade-­grown coffee estate on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua, to see for ourselves the advantages of an organic, environmentally-­friendly way of coffee farming, and the birding was fantastic!

Coffee, now the second most-­traded commodity worldwide after oil, originated as a forest shrub in the highlands of Ethiopia. By the fifteenth century it had been introduced through Arabia to India and southeast Asia, and by the seventeenth century to the Americas. At first, coffee in Central America and the Caribbean was grown on small-­holdings, usually in a shaded setting. More recently, however, large multinational companies began demanding better

The Gaia shade-­grown coffee estate, Diriamba, Nicaragua

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yields on bigger farms using faster-­growing varieties that did not require shade. So, down came millions of hectares of rain forest, and serried ranks of coffee plants now grow on many an open, sunny hillside. With this vast clearance came a huge loss of habitat composed of all the myriad, intricately linked components of a healthy forest ecosystem, including native plants, birds, and insects. Both native species and the millions of breeding birds of North America that migrate to the neotropics for the northern winter have suffered enormously from this loss. Bridget Stuchbury, in her

astonishing continent-­wide declines over the last 40 years in well over 20 formerly common North American breeding bird species. Barn Swallows, Wood Thrushes, and Canada Warblers are all on this list.

Fortunately, coffee has its own revenge. Shade-­grown coffee matures more slowly than sun-­grown and develops more delicate, complex flavours, increasingly sought after by the growing numbers of coffee-­lovers around the world. Colder nights and lower oxygen levels on higher slopes slow plant maturation even further, often adding attractively different subtleties to the final product. Many coffee aficionados are now developing adjectives rivalling those of oenophiles, discussing hints of rich chocolate, earthy sweetness,

-­grown coffee gravitates to supermarket shelves and fast-­food outlets. On the Gaia estate, head-­high coffee bushes, dark green and luxuriant, were already carrying ripening

usually called. Welcome shade came from magnificent forest trees high overhead, all native species: Guanacaste, Ceiba, strangler fig and many others. The middle storey featured patches of banana palms and fruit trees tangerines, limes, papayas, and mangoes. Birds were many and varied, including

-­browed Motmot, as well as the much more familiar warblers, vireos, and orioles that could have been in our own Canadian backyards only a few weeks before. Yellow Warblers were everywhere, just as they are on the edges of every summer woodlot and pasture and marsh in Ontario. Wintering Tennessee Warblers were common too, and bright Baltimore Orioles and Yellow-­throated Vireos foraged in the tree branches. We heard a few Wood Thrushes, doing poorly on their breeding grounds in the fragmented forests of Ontario, but they were easily outnumbered by the resident Clay-­coloured Robins (as dull-­coloured as their name suggests, poor things!)

It was the butterflies that I found most astonishing enormous Blue Morphos, lovely pale yellow Swallowtails, giant brown butterflies with a perfect

wings butterflies of every size and shape and colour, sailing by, wherever you looked. This was the greatest testimony to pesticide-­free organic farming I could imagine. We did spend one morning on a nearby sun plantation, densely planted,

Scissor-­tailed Flycatcher photo by Sherwood McLernon

Ripening coffee berries on the estate

Blue Morpho butterfly photo by Chris Wille

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hardly a weed in sight, almost no birds except in the few trees bordering the farm, but worst of all, not a single butterfly to be seen anywhere. The contrast to the shade-­grown estate could not have been more obvious. Ironically, the manager of the sun plantation explained to us that they were going to have to plant more shade trees to shelter their crop from the increasing effects of climate change revenge indeed. On our final day on the glorious Gaia estate, the owner, Jefferson Shriver, insisted that we take part in a blind taste-­test of coffees from his own and other farms, including beans from a non-­organic, sun plantation. We found this idea very stressful. What if we got it all wrong? Jefferson carefully roasted pale coffee beans to perfection in his own table-­top coffee-­roaster as our anxiety levels climbed. The beans were ground, and coffee made in a French press. We tried to look intelligent as we inhaled each aroma and took discerning sips. A sigh of relief arose as all four of us listed the test coffees in the same order, with the Gaia beans taking the prize! We truly could taste the difference!

All the coffee beans from the

company offering certified organic, shade-­grown, fairly traded, bird-­friendly coffee at www.birdsandbeans.ca (and now also in the US at www.birdsandbeans.com). If you enjoy really great coffee and the idea of preserving forest habitat in coffee-­growing

regions, this is a great way to combine the two. If you would like to visit a Nicaraguan shade-­grown coffee estate, see www.gaiaestate.com. By next year Jefferson will have perfected his

Past Presidents Lunch by James Hunter

In what has become a December tradition, the Past Presidents of EDUCT assembled for lunch at

celebrate the ninth anniversary of the foundation of EDUCT. Our photograph shows the past Presidents in festive mood: left to right Paul Bradley, Simon Miles and James Hunter. Unfortunately, one past President Josh Gillespie -­ was not available to join the group. However, the past Presidents in

And as always, this was a self-­financing effort.

d Glass

On 28 December, the BBC gave a welcome boost to a campaign being led by Alison Robertson, an EDUCT Friend (née Malloch, M.A. Hons. Geography 1962), to establish a Centre dedicated to the protection

Alison, whose husband Charles is a retired Parish Minister of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, founded and runs The Scottish Stained Glass

Symposium and Trust, whose volunteers research and record stained glass in Scotland and by Scots artists. She maintains that Scotland has some of the finest stained glass in the world, but that it needs protection from the rigours of time and development. She envisages a centre that would maintain a registry of the works, and a space to exhibit some good examples of pieces saved.

churches and religion;; it encompasses social history, trades,

Scottish Episcopal Church, Princes St., Edinburgh

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industry, indeed, all areas of She feels that this art

form is very much under-­appreciated. Again, in her

of going to a performance of The Messiah not knowing the name of the composer. Yet we cheerfully walk past a piece of fabulous stained glass, not knowing the artist, and without

This needs to change.

Alison is also fighting to save an outstanding stained glass World War I memorial in St. Andrews United Reformed Church, in Hampstead, North London, whose supply of light is threatened by a proposed five-­storey development next door. The artist, Douglas Strachan, who was born in Aberdeen in 1875 and who died in Edinburgh in 1950, is widely

stained glass artist. Our photograph is of an extract of this work. It shows the lower section of the Crucifixion window in the right hand

window of the pair. Here Strachan portrays British soldiers sacrificing themselves in the cause of freedom, and a British soldier giving water to an injured German prisoner -­ a symbol of reconciliation and peace. This window is generally considered to be the most outstanding First World War Memorial in stained glass in the whole of London. Anyone who is interested in supporting encouraged to get in touch with her at Scotstainedglass@aol.com

Famous Alumni Edinburgh and the American Declaration of Independence by James Hunter

On the fourth of July, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence;; the manifesto which formally cut the

Three of the fifty-­six men who signed this document were Edinburgh alumni (two graduates and one non-­graduating alumnus). The men who signed the Declaration are today regarded as patriots of heroic stature in America. Certainly it was an act of signal bravery to sign such a document. Had the War of Independence been resolved in favour of the colonial power, the signatories would have been regarded as traitors to the British Crown.

So who were the Edinburgh men who took the brave, or foolhardy,

to the Declaration? They were:

Benjamin Rush MD. Rush was born in Byberry, Pennsylvania. He was a physician by profession. In the eighteenth century,

a global centre of excellence (as it is today) and following completion of his BA undergraduate studies at the college of Philadelphia, Rush travelled to Edinburgh for medical studies. He later became professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

James Wilson Wilson was born in Carskerdo, Fife. He attended Edinburgh University, as well as St. Andrews and Glasgow but, remarkably, he did not graduate from any of them. He later managed to obtain an honorary MA from the College of Philadelphia. He

An extract from the pair of Ist World War Memorial windows (1919) at St Andrews United Reformed Church, Frognal Lane, Hampstead, North London, by the artist (Robert) Douglas

Strachan. Photograph courtesy of Bill Forbes of Orpington, Kent.

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was called to the bar of Philadelphia and practised as a lawyer. He was one of the six original justices appointed by George Washington to the Supreme Court of the United States. John Witherspoon MA. Witherspoon was born in Gifford, East Lothian. He was a Presbyterian minister. He became the first President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). He was a hugely successful President. He closed the College during the revolutionary war (it was badly damaged by the British) and devoted all his energies to rebuilding it after the cessation of hostilities. Edinburgh University also influenced the pre-­revolutionary ideas of Benjamin Franklin himself. He visited the city twice -­ in 1759 and in 1771.

described his 1759 conversations at Edinburgh. On his second visit, he stayed with David Hume for three weeks. He also visited another Edinburgh Enlightenment philosopher, Henry Home (Lord Kames). Although the language of the Declaration of Independence is lively and inspiring, there was little original thought in it: it represented an amalgam of ideas then current on liberty

of tyranny. Edinburgh University was a centre of

advanced thought throughout the Enlightenment so it is hardly surprising that Edinburgh alumni were among those who found themselves willing and able to sign the Declaration of Independence, a document central to how Americans see themselves and their aspirations as a people. Welcome to Our New Members

by Simon Miles

Richard H. Hunt is Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and a faculty member of the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute in Hamilton. He recognizes that he could never have been anything other than a gastroenterologist;; he was born in the charming Cornish town called Looe! That childhood in Cornwall, and then Wiltshire and Somerset, where he went to school at Clifton College, was somewhat idylllic! Since he wanted to study medicine, Edinburgh was an obvious choice. He arrived there in 1960. Most medical students find being a medic is quite enough to take on. Richard, however, seems to have led at least a double life, for he also had a remarkably impressive record as an athlete while at Edinburgh. He captained the Edinburgh University Boat Club for two years, during which time the club won the Scottish Senior Championships and the British Universities IV's championships, along with a variety of other cups from regattas around the UK. During his years rowing, he was awarded his Blue and two Greens. As if that was not enough, he was also Vice-­President of the EU Athletic Union and Convener of the EUAC's Centenary Ball. The Spartans Club also benefited from his being its President. This is a club for those athletes who have been awarded Blues or half-­blues (known as greens in Edinburgh). It has its near equivalent at Cambridge in the Hawks Club and at Oxford in the Vincents. He was particularly pleased that, while President, he managed to secure the Spartans their first permanent rooms. Perhaps we had better make that a triple life. Richard also joined the Navy at the age of 21, while still a full-­time student. He was on a medical cadetship. Not only did he have a grand title of Surgeon Sub-­Lieutenant but he also had a salary and a car! This second stage of the idyllic life lasted five years. For two summers he was posted to Malta and another summer was spent on HMS Belfast, a World War II cruiser now preserved and moored by Tower Bridge in

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the pool of London, that took him on, yes, a cruise to the Mediterranean. In 1966, he graduated with his M.B., Ch.B. and split his internship year between an assignment in Perthshire and another with the Navy. He was clearly a boat man for he then went to sea for two years on a survey ship which was making charts in the Persian Gulf in readiness for the advent of the supertankers. This was a further extension of the idyllic life. Since the Suez Canal was closed at the time, they had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope. Stopovers in exotic places like St. Helena and the Comoros saw Richard established on the beach providing medical care for any local inhabitant who had an ailment. Pulling teeth was a

doctor also meant that he had to serve as the resident marine biologist. Anything caught had to be analyzed. Shades of Darwin? Returning to land and with the Navy base at Portsmouth and the Naval Hospital at Haslar as home, he concentrated on obtaining further medical qualifications: his MRCP and his final training as a gastroenterologist specialist, and then his appointment as a consultant. However, even this period allowed him time to travel with the Navy to Gibraltar, where he served as the Medical Specialist at the Naval Hospital in Gibraltar handling patients from the services and their dependents. The hospital was also responsible for the health of the

colony of Barbary apes resident on the Rock! Richard immigrated to Canada in 1982 to join the faculty at McMaster as a Professor of Medicine. He has had a truly outstanding career here. He is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London, of Edinburgh and of Canada, and of the American College of Gastroenterology and American Gastroenterology Association. He has been recognized with many prizes and medals for his work in Gastroenterology, where his special interests focus on the acid related disorders, Helicobacter pylori infection, the role of anti-­inflammatory drugs and the gut and the clinical pharmacology of treatment of gastrointestinal disease. He is also widely recognized for an extensive interest in colorectal disease, colonoscopy, and therapeutic endoscopy. He has been honoured to deliver many high-­profile lectures around the world. He has also served his professional bodies in Canada with distinction. He was President of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology 1992-­1993 and a founding member and President of the Canadian Helicobacter Study Group from 1997 to 2001. He is currently a Director and Vice-­President of the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation. He received the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology Distinguished Service Award in 2002 and the Ontario Association of Gastroenterology Award in 2006. Richard is also a formidable organizer. He was Co-­chair of the scientific programme committee of the World Congress of Gastroenterology, Montreal, 2005. He was co-­President of the OESO World Congress 2010 and co-­organizer of the scientific programme for the Falk 50th Anniversary Symposium on Environment and Lifestyle effect on Disorders of the Digestive Tract 2010. And he is a leading light in the publishing of learned papers in his field. He has been Associate Editor of the Esophagus, Stomach and Duodenum sections of the journal Gastroenterology, and a member of the Editorial Boards of 19 other scientific journals. His international stature as an academic has led to his having been Visiting Professor at universities throughout the world. He has over 350 scientific papers and 400 abstracts to his name. He is the author or editor of 10 books and 69 chapters, and has produced 20 TV video films on peptic ulcer disease, reflux esophagitis, and colonoscopy. Most importantly, for EDUCT members, Richard is to be our speaker at our Annual Dinner on Friday, 20 April this year. It was no mean feat to nail him down! He seems to spend his life on a plane. We had tried to get him last year and he had an unfortunate injury which laid him up for a short while. He has kindly agreed to try again this year! The information on this talk is to be found on page 1 of this newsletter. Do make sure to attend. It should be both enlightening and entertaining. EDUCT welcomes Richard.

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Scottish Identities

by Simon Miles

Jodi Campbell, Elizabeth Ewan, and Heather Parker (eds.), Scottish Identities: Family, Nation, and the World Beyond, (Guelph: University of Guelph Press) and it will be available from the Scottish Studies Office at Guelph at scottish@uoguelph.ca The cost in Canada is Cdn. $30 + $5 shipping and handling. As EDUCT members will recall, Dr. Elizabeth Ewan was the star of our Annual Dinner in April 2011 with her fascinating presentation on the shaping of Scottish identities, as illustrated by reference to the lives of six heroic, medieval women. (More on that talk can be found in our newsletter of May 2011.) At that time Dr. Ewan told us that she and two colleagues were planning to bring out a book that would delve deeper into this subject. The good news is that the volume is now out.

Dr. Elizabeth Ewan is an Edinburgh graduate (Ph.D., Scottish History, 1985), who now holds a University Research Chair, and is a Professor of History and Scottish Studies, at the University of Guelph. Not surprisingly, given the stimulating lecture we enjoyed, she has won awards for the excellence of her research and for her lecturing abilities. The new book explores the multi-­faceted construction of Scottish identities from medieval times to the modern era.

Chapter highlights in this book include:

Abroad: Scottish Gaelic Immigrant Identity and Culture in North

America

Rosalind Carr (Sheffield ) Women, Presbyterianism and Political

Agency: A Case-­Study of the Anglo-­Scottish Union

Graeme Morton (Guelph) The Scottish nation of Jane Porter in

her international setting

Daniel Travers (Huddersfield) The Italian Job: Orcadian Identity

and the legacy of its Prisoners of War

Families in Scotland, 1800-­1850

Kenneth Baxter (Dundee) Identity, Scottish Women, and

Parliament, 1918-­1979

in the Long-­Eighteenth Century

Katherine H. Terrell (Hamilton) Depicting Identity: Cartography,

Chorography, and the Borders of Pre-­Reformation Scotland

John Sherry (Guelph) The Evolution of Scottish Protestant

Identities in Stuart Ulster, 1603-­1714

The book is the latest in the Guelph Series in Scottish Studies. The

(2009), was also written by an EDUCT member, Dr. Graeme Morton. For more information on both of these books, click on the following link: http://www.uoguelph.ca/history/Scottish%20Studies/Guelph%20Series%20in%20Scottish%20Studies

Dr. Elizabeth Ewan

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Mark Haworth Book

by Simon Miles

Camille Silvy Photographer of Modern Life (London: National Portrait Gallery, 2010;; also US Edition -­ Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010;; French Edition -­ Camille Silvy photographe de la vie moderne, Paris: Jeu de Paume, 2010)

In September 2009, EDUCT members had the opportunity to hear Mark Haworth-­Booth, the former Senior Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, talk at the Art Gallery of Ontario on

ions

That talk was very well received by EDUCT members. With this in mind, and given that Mark is a graduate of Edinburgh (Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art), it seems appropriate to

latest book: Camille Silvy Photographer of Modern Life. At the time of the Toronto talk it was forthcoming. This is his second book on Silvy;; his first being Camille Silvy: River Scene, France (J Paul Getty Museum, 1992). In that first book, Haworth-­Booth analyses in detail a famous photograph that provides an excellent example of Silvy the photographer as social commentator. It also exhibits

manipulating his photographs and thus the truth of the imagery. His second book, written to accompany a Silvy exhibit in London, provides a comprehensive tour of the

ever-­changing fortunes.

Rather than give you my review of the book, I think it far preferable to introduce you to a review, in Études photographiques, by Professor Marta Braun, of the School of Image Arts, at Ryerson University in Toronto. In her capacity as a photographic historian she has done an excellent job of conveying the significance of Haworth-­ . For her review, go to: http://etudesphotographiques.revues.org/index3205.html

Professor Braun regards the work as a gift to the history of photography. Others seem to think likewise. The book was short-­listed in the top three photography books for the 2010 And/Or Awards. Indeed, it is the third of Haworth-­books to be short-­listed for this international prize. These awards are in two categories: for best photography book and best book about film. For the photography category, the award is considered to be the most important of all international awards.

Are you a fan of Scottish writing? Do you enjoy reading novels and non-­fiction by Scottish authors? How about books about Scotland or Scots? If so, EDUCT would welcome your views and opinions for publication in EDUCT News. Please contact the EDUCT News Editor, Simon Miles at simon-­miles@sympatico.ca

MEMBERSHIP DUES Annual membership fees are due in January of each year. If you have not yet renewed for this year, please send your cheque, for

Treasurer, Ms. Toni McGregor, at: 464 Scarlett Crescent, Burlington, Ontario, L7L 5P1. Your promptness in this regard greatly lightens the load on our volunteer Board and is thus much appreciated. Thank you, in advance, for your payment. Tell us your news EDUCT News is always looking for interesting alumni stories and news.

just returned from an interesting trip or have a memory you wish to share with your fellow EDUCT Members, we would love to hear from you. If you have a something you would like to share, please contact the EDUCT News Editor, Simon Miles at simon-­miles@sympatico.ca

The cover photograph

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EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY CLUB OF TORONTO (EDUCT)

UNAUDITED ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENT 2011

DRAFT

As at December 31

BALANCE SHEET 2011 2010

Total Member Funds $20,679 $16,805

being:

Cash in bank $20,679 $4,305

GIC $0 $12,500

INCOME STATEMENT 2011 2010

Income

Membership Fees 2,350 2,940

Events 5,733 4,465

Interest 261 100

Total Revenue 8,344 7,505

Expenses

Events 4,238 3,649

Bank Charges 72 72

Donations to the University 160 0

Total Expenses 4,470 3,721

Net Income $3,874 $3,784

Opening Funds $16,805 $13,021

Closing Funds $20,679 $16,805

President Treasurer

Margaret Reid Toni McGregor

Toronto, January, 2012

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Friends of EDUCT Friends of EDUCT are recognized by the Club by virtue of the generosity they demonstrated when, as non-­members, they donated to the University of Edinburgh through an EDUCT-­initiated special fund. Carlyle Circle Members in Canada EDUCT wishes to acknowledge the generosity of alumni and friends of the University of Edinburgh who have decided to leave a bequest to the University in their wills. They are recognized by the University as Carlyle Circle members. We extend our gratitude to each of them. If you are a member of the Carlyle Circle or know of such members, you are encouraged to contact us. Promoting Your Event If you are organizing an event or participating in an activity that would be of interest to fellow alumni in the GTA, please get in touch with our Communications Officer, Paul Bradley: pbradley@frasermackenzie.com. You may also join us on LinkedIn or FaceBook to submit your information directly to participating members through these networks. Other Electronic Connections with EDUCT In addition to our newsletter, we now have other ways to connect with alumni in the Toronto area and learn more about our club's activities. Visit us on the web: www.dev.ed.ac.uk/clubs/toronto/ or join us on LinkedIn or FaceBook.

The Story Behind EDUCT

of Toronto.

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appropriate for all of our members receiving EDUCT News via e-­mail.

Members and Membership We know of over 170 graduates in the Toronto area. As of 22 December 2011, we have 97 members. If you would be interested in joining EDUCT, please do not hesitate to contact the EDUCT President or the Club Treasurer.

EDUCT News is published three times a year in January, May and September. Please send submissions or ideas for articles to the Editor: simon-­miles@sympatico.ca

Board of Directors We invite your comments and suggestions at any time. Please feel free to contact any member of the Board of Directors with your comments and suggestions: Margaret Reid President, (MPhil 1995), 416.697.2807 educt.margaret@yahoo.ca Liz McBeth Vice President, (MA Hons 1994), 416.697.9287 lmcbeth@armourvalve.com Toni McGregor Treasurer, (BA 1978), 905.637.9015 tonimcg@cogeco.ca Joshua Gillespie Immediate Past President, (MA Hons 1994, MBA 1998), 416.835.7447 Josh.Gillespie@algonquinpower.com Simon Miles Past President (MA Hons 1962), 416.466.8793 simon-­miles@sympatico.ca Paul Bradley Past President and Communications (BSc Hons 1982), 416.464.9771 pbradley@frasermackenzie.com James Hunter Past President and Chair, Decennial Fund Committee (MA Hons 1973), 416.236.2595 jameshunter236@rogers.com

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