What meaning do these legacies hold for us? What lessons can we draw from them? How are they a source of nostalgia, regret, sorrow, anger? How do they inspire or otherwise inform the choices we make in our own lives? And can we cherish or transform these legacies in positive and meaningful ways?

In this our 15th year of sponsoring a Spring Interview Series, the Thomas More Institute will again welcome distinguished guests to share with us their insights and ideas, as we consider how these questions continue to shape our individual lives in an increasingly multi-faceted and multi-cultural society.

Stefano Faita is a young celebrity chef in Montreal's Little Italy district who grew up in the family's store, Quincaillerie Dante. He has recently published his first cookbook, Entre cuisine et quincaillerie, which features both mouth-watering recipes and wonderful stories about his family history, beginning with his grandfather's arrival in Canada from San Vittore del Lazio near Rome.

Alan Hustak is a well-known journalist with the Montreal Gazette and the author of eight books about the people and places that have shaped Montreal. Three of them focus specifically on the contribution of the Irish community, notably his biographies of St. Patrick's Basilica and of 19th-century Montreal mayor, Sir William Hingston, both of which were nominated for the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction.

Monique Polak is a professor of English and Humanities at Marianopolis College, as well as a prolific freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The Montreal Gazette, The Globe and Mail and Maclean's Magazine. She is also the author of nine novels for young adults; her most recent one is What World is Left, a historical novel based on her mother's experience in a Nazi concentration camp.

Martin Baenninger, a retired international business executive, is a long-time student at the Thomas More Institute. His memoir, In the Eye of the Wind, co-authored with his brother Ron Baenninger, tells the story of their parents’ life as foreign nationals in Japan in the years leading up to the Second World War and their dramatic evacuation and journey to Canada in 1942.

Guests are invited to stay after the June 10 interview for Thomas More Institute’s 2009 Convocation ceremony.