O. D. Skelton Memorial Lecture, Ottawa, 25 October 2006

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, V. Peter Harder, is pleased to announce that the O. D. Skelton Memorial Lecture for 2006 will be given by a distinguished Canadian scholar, Professor Denis Stairs. Professor Stairs will speak on the subject, "The Menace of General Ideas in the Making and Politics of Canadian Foreign Policy."

The lecture will take place at 6 p.m. (18h00) on Wednesday, 25 October 2006, in the Marcel Cadieux Auditorium of the Lester B. Pearson Building, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa. A brief question period will follow the lecture. Simultaneous translation will be available throughout the proceedings.

Everyone is welcome to attend this event and there is no admission charge. Please note, however, that there are no reserved seats. The Marcel Cadieux Auditorium is wheelchair accessible. Please note that there is very little public parking at the Pearson Building.

About the speaker
Denis Stairs is a Professor Emeritus and former McCulloch Professor of Political Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition to numerous published lectures and articles, he is the author of The Diplomacy of Constraint: Canada, the Korean War, and the United States. He specializes in Canadian foreign and defence policy, Canadian-American relations and related subjects. Dr. Stairs has served his university and the academic community in various senior capacities. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1979. In 2004, Dr. Stairs was honoured with a Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Studies Association. He has frequently been consulted by royal commissions, parliamentary committees and government departments, most notably the Department of National Defence and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Throughout his career, the contributions of Dr. Stairs to scholarly and political consideration of Canada's international relations have been distinguished by wit and insight.

About the O. D. Skelton Memorial Lecture Series
This will be the twelfth O. D. Skelton Memorial Lecture and the third to be held in Ottawa. This series encourages a scholarly examination of topics within the subject of Canada's international relations. Inaugurated in December 1991, it honours Dr. O. D. Skelton, a prime architect of the Department of External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada) and of Canadian foreign policy. For more information about O. D. Skelton and about the series, as well as for the texts of past lectures, please consult the website of Foreign Affairs Canada at the following URL: http://www.international.gc.ca/skelton/menu-en.asp