TAKE NOTE OF THE NEW TIME: 7:15 pm
Discounted Parking for VI Attendees: VI attendees can park for $1.19 between 7:00 and 9:30 pm by using the promo code KTNC4.
FREE LECTURES. NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED. LECTURES ARE IN PERSON. We invite you to use our online platforms to support The Vancouver Institute:
The Vancouver Institute, a free public educational forum, has been in existence since 1916. Lectures are held on the campus of the University of British Columbia during the fall and spring academic terms. Overflow audiences have been common for our main au
ditorium of 500 seats. A second closed circuit lecture theatre is available with a very large colour television screen. This second room holds 240 people and additional rooms are opened as necessary. On several occasions, five or six rooms and the large lobby have all been used with many closed circuit television screens. We have had as many as an estimated 4000 people come out for our regular lectures although we can only seat 2000 at most in relative comfort and safety. As the quality of speakers goes up, so does the size of the audience. We have had many Nobel Laureates address us and people like French Academician Claude Levi-Strauss and Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, as well as distinguished speakers from Britain, continental Europe, Asia, the United States and, of course, Canada. Our most celebrated speaker was the Dalai Lama who attracted about 10,000, most of whom could not be seated. The appreciation of the audience for the evening's lecture is the only reward that the enthusiastic, all volunteer executive wants. The speakers, also, are not paid by The Vancouver Institute although their travelling expenses are covered by us. Over the last few years, The Institute has been fortunate enough to cosponsor speakers with several lectureship committees, including Cecil and Ida Green, Leon and Thea Koerner, Dal Grauer, J.V. Clyne, E.S. Woodward, the Vancouver Sun, and External Affairs Canada. In sum, we feel that we have achieved something very special in Canada--an exciting, educational public forum that reaches between 20 and 30 thousand people directly and many more indirectly each year. Some of the programs are later broadcast and our speakers are regularly interviewed and discussed in the news media. Books and reports have been published nationally and internationally quoting, with attribution, lectures given at The Vancouver Institute. Our speakers from various parts of the world have told us that The Vancouver Institute is by far the most successful public forum in North America.
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THE CRISIS OF CANADIAN DEMOCRACY - Apr 11 2026 - Vancouver Institute Lecture
This event will be held at the Chan Centre at UBC | Andrew Coyne is a leading Canadian journalist, author, and political commentator, currently a columnist for The Globe and Mail and a weekly panellist on CBC’s At Issue. He previously served as national editor of the National Post, editor of The W...
03/23/2026
Saturday, March 28, 7:15 pm
Dr. Kalina Christoff Hadjiilieva
Professor of Psychology, University of British Columbia
Saturday, March 21, 7:15 pm
Joint lecture with UBC Emeritus College
Dr. Catherine Potvin
Emeritus College Patricia Merivale Visitor in Residence at Green College
Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Mitigation and Tropical Forest (Tier 1), Department of Biology, McGill University
Dr. Dr. Chunhua Wu
Associate Professor & Finning Junior Professorship in Marketing.
Division Chair, Marketing and Behavioural Science, UBC Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
Saturday, March 7 at 7:15 pm
A Concert by UBC Opera Alumni Led by Nancy Hermiston
NOTE: This concert will be held in the Old Auditorium
A Concert by UBC Opera Alumni led by Nancy Hermiston - Mar 7 2026 - Vancouver Institute Concert
This event will be held in the UBC Old Auditorium | Professor Nancy Hermiston is a distinguished opera singer, stage director, and educator whose career has taken her across Canada, the United States, and Europe. She has taught voice and directed productions at the Meistersinger Konservatorium in N....
02/23/2026
Saturday, February 28 @7:15 pm
Dr. Sara J. Angel, C.M.
Founder, Executive Director and Publisher, Art Canada Institute (ACI)
THE SECRET LIFE OF MAX STERN AND HIS NAZI-LOOTED ART - Feb 28 2026 - Vancouver Institute Lecture
Dr. Sara J. Angel founded the Art Canada Institute (ACI) in 2013 to democratize access to Canadian art for a diverse, twenty-first-century public, making high-quality, bilingual digital resources available to all regardless of location or prior knowledge. The ACI now offers open-source publications,...
02/17/2026
Saturday, February 21 at 7:15 pm
Dr. Jeremy G. Venditti
Director of Environmental Science and Professor
School of Environmental Science & Geography, Simon Fraser University (SFU)
RIVER IN PERIL: THE FRAGILITY OF THE MIGHTY FRASER RIVER
RIVER IN PERIL: THE FRAGILITY OF THE MIGHTY FRASER RIVER - Feb 21 2026 - Vancouver Institute Lecture
Dr. Jeremy G. Venditti is a geomorphologist and Director of the River Dynamics Laboratory at SFU. His research focuses on the fluid and sediment dynamics of large river systems, with particular attention to bedrock canyons, global sediment export, and the physics of extreme flooding. His work, inclu...
02/03/2026
Saturday, February 7 at 7:15 pm
Dr. Taylor Owen
Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communication
Founding Director of the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, McGill University
CAN DEMOCRACY SURVIVE AI?
CAN DEMOCRACY SURVIVE AI? - Feb 7 2026 - Vancouver Institute Lecture
Dr. Taylor Owen is a Canadian scholar and policy expert specializing in digital technologies, democracy, and international security. His research examines platform governance, information disorder, and the regulation of emerging technologies. Dr. Owen’s work has informed public policy debates in C...
01/27/2026
Saturday, January 31, 7:15 pm
Dr. Kimberley Brownlee
Canada Research Chair in Ethics and Political & Social Philosophy
Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia
RE-IMAGINING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
:
RE-IMAGINING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS - Jan 31 2026 - Vancouver Institute Lecture
Dr. Kimberley Brownlee’s research examines the social dimensions of human life, focusing on loneliness, belonging, social human rights, and freedom of association. Working in moral, political, and legal philosophy, she explores how sociability shapes human flourishing and how everyday interactiona...
01/25/2026
**Discounted Parking for VI Attendees**
VI attendees can park for $1.19 between 7:00 and 9:30 pm by using the promo code KTNC4.
This reduced rate applies only on Saturday evenings when a VI lecture is held, and only at the Health Sciences Parkade.
The Health Sciences Parkade is located at 2250 Health Sciences Mall.
Please note that the ticket machine is located at the south entrance of the parkade.
There is no ticket machine at the north entrance. You may also use the Honk app to pay for parking.
01/20/2026
THE VANCOUVER INSTITUTE
110TH ANNIVERSARY
Spring 2026 Program, Saturdays at 7:15 pm
January 31
Dr. Kimberley Brownlee
Canada Research Chair in Ethics and Political & Social Philosophy
Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia
RE-IMAGINING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
February 7
Dr. Taylor Owen
Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communication
Founding Director of the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, McGill University
CAN DEMOCRACY SURVIVE AI?
February 21
Dr. Jeremy G. Venditti
Director of Environmental Science and Professor
School of Environmental Science & Geography, Simon Fraser University (SFU)
RIVER IN PERIL: THE FRAGILITY OF THE MIGHTY FRASER RIVER
February 28
Dr. Sara J. Angel, C.M.
Founder, Executive Director and Publisher, Art Canada Institute (ACI)
THE SECRET LIFE OF MAX STERN AND HIS NAZI-LOOTED ART
March 7
A Concert by the UBC Opera Ensemble, led by Nancy Hermiston
This event will be held in the UBC Old Auditorium
March 14
Dr, Chunhua Wu
Associate Professor & Finning Junior Professorship in Marketing.
Division Chair , Marketing and Behavioural Science, UBC Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
GENERATIVE AI IN THE MARKETPLACE: APPLICATIONS, TRENDS, AND IMPACT
March 21
Joint lecture with UBC Emeritus College
Dr. Catherine Potvin
Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Mitigation and Tropical Forest (Tier 1), Department of Biology, McGill University
CLIMATE CHANGE AND CLIMATE POLICY: A CANADIAN FOREST ECOLOGIST’S PERSPECTIVE
March 28
Dr. Kalina Christoff Hadjiilieva
Professor of Psychology, University of British Columbia
REASONING OR DAY-DREAMING? THE MANY WAYS WE THINK
April 11
Mr. Andrew Coyne
Canadian author, journalist and political commentator
THE CRISIS OF CANADIAN DEMOCRACY
Visit our website for more information:
Vancouver Institute - Global Reporting Centre
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