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Our Next Speaker

569th Meeting

12 March 2024

John Gilbert

SPARK TO CYBERSPACE: MILESTONES IN CANADA’S NORTHERN COMMUNICATIONS

Canada can justly claim to be a world leader in communications but bringing communications to the underserved areas of the Canadian North has been a challenge. The Western Arctic, building on the early telegraph service, was served from 1923 to 1959 by The Northwest Territories and Yukon Radio System but the eastern Arctic, the focus of this talk, developed differently. The talk will highlight the early innovators and personalities who brought communications to the eastern Arctic. Examples of major communications milestones, starting in 1924, will be explored with particular emphasis on the years 1927 to 1929. Wireless played a major role in those years for the 1927-29 Hudson Strait Expedition, the arrival of the railway at Churchill and the inaugural voyage of the RCMP vessel St Roch. The talk will conclude by describing the pivotal Yellowknife Communications Conference, September 1970, the launch of the domestic communications satellite Anik in 1972 and steps taken to adapt this new technology to meet the needs of northerners with the announcement of Canada’s Northern Communications Policy in 1975.

John Gilbert received his early education at King Alfred School, London, England, under the headmaster Frederick Spencer Chapman, a member of the 1930-31 British Arctic Air-Route Expedition and the 1932–33 Greenland Expedition. Immigrating to Canada in 1953 he served as a Radio Operator at Resolute Bay and Eureka, Nunavut from 1956-58. He travelled to Eureka on the icebreaker D’Iberville. He then followed a career in telecommunications and information technology. He was the Executive Secretary of the 1984 Worldwide Commission on Telecommunications under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union, a UN specialized agency. He was associated for many years with UNESCO. John has maintained a life-long interest in the High Arctic and compiled a collection of photographs, documents and stories on the Joint Arctic Weather Stations: 1947-72 now held by the Nunavut Archives. He curated the 2014 exhibit "The Polar Adventures of Andrew Taylor" assisted by a Northern Studies Award and Research Grant Program from the University of Manitoba. John is a graduate of Carleton University and is currently President of The Arctic Circle.

The meeting will be held in the Beaver Lounge on the ground floor of the Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess, 4 Queen Elizabeth Driveway, Ottawa. The Mess sits alongside Lisgar Collegiate, facing the Rideau Canal, and is accessible from the Driveway just south of the Laurier Bridge. Parking is available in front of the Mess and in adjacent lots and is free. The meeting begins at 2000 hrs and the bar will be available from 1930 hrs. As always, guests are welcome.

Next meetings:
Apr   9         Vincent Blouin & Gabrielle Boudreault on contaminants in lakes near Yellowknife

Apr 25 Annual Dinner with guests-of-honour, Jack Kobayashi and Antonio Zedda

Thomas Frisch
Secretary
613-725-2221; tfrisch@sympatico.ca



SPEAKERS PROGRAMME
2023-2024

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