When: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Where: Chartwell Victoria Harbour Retirement Residence, 777 Belleville Street, Victoria
Time: 2 – 3:30 pm (doors open at 2:15 pm)
Our Speaker: Dr. Chris Kilford

General information

Join us for a special event with our own branch president. Many of you have heard Chris speak at various venues in Victoria (Probus clubs, Gyro and Newcomers) and now he is following up with an additional talk for the residents at Chartwell. Plus, we have space for 25 CIC Victoria members.

Our topic

The geopolitical challenges today are seemingly endless. Indeed, from Washington, to Moscow, Beijing, Kyiv and beyond, countries are burning the midnight oil as they seek a way out of the turbulent times we live in. Over the past 18 months, our speaker travelled to Turkiye, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Bhutan on official and semi-official visits, where he had a chance to sit down with numerous officials including Canada’s Ambassador to Turkiye, Kevin Hamilton to Taiwan’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Remus Li-Kuo Chen. Earlier this year, Chris also spent two weeks in Poland and Latvia, meeting officials from both countries and visiting members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are training Ukrainian military personnel and leading NATO’s Multinational Brigade in Latvia. During his talk, Chris will speak about his various visits, what he learned while on the ground and what are the key geopolitical issues we should be on the lookout for.

Our speaker

Chris is a member of the national board of the Canadian International Council, the editor of CIC’s online foreign policy magazine Open Canada, president of the CIC Victoria branch and a sessional professor with the Canadian Forces College where he teaches courses focused on Canadian foreign and defence policy. He holds a PhD in history from Queen’s University with a focus on civil-military relations in the developing world. Chris also enjoyed a 36-year career in the Canadian Army, commanding 4th Air Defence Regiment, followed by various senior positions in the Department of National Defence, including Director, Future Security Analysis and Military Liaison Officer to the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. From July 2009 until July 2010, Chris deployed to Canada’s Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan as the Deputy Military Attaché. On his return to Canada, he commenced Turkish language training, after which he was sent to Canada’s Embassy in Ankara as the Canadian Defence Attaché with cross accreditation to Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkmenistan. He was in this post from July 2011 until July 2014. Chris retired from the military in September 2014.

The seating for this event is very limited and we only have space for 25 CIC Victoria members.

If you would like to come, please register directly with Chris Kilford at cakilford@gmail.com.

There is no fee to attend this event.

If you are not able to come after registering, please let Chris know as soon as possible.