About the Royal Canadian Military Institute

Currie Hall, RMC

For fifteen years, the Conference of Defence Associations, of which RCMI is an associate member, has organized a Graduate Student Symposium at RMC in Kingston every October. For the past two years, RCMI has dedicated the January issue of its journal Sitrep to a selection of papers coming out of that symposium, representing the work of some of the best young minds in Canadian defence and security studies.

At its January 30 meeting, the RCMI Board of Directors decided to create an award, named for our late Director Col Peter Hunter, in addition to the three already awarded by CDAI for the best presentations of the year. The Royal Canadian Military Institute Col Peter Hunter Award, in the amount of $750, will be awarded by the standing CDAI judging panel chaired by LGen Richard Evraire. The first Hunter Award will be presented at the 16th Graduate Student Symposium in October 2013, and the presentation will later be published as an Otter Paper. The Award was announced by President Col Gil Taylor at the CDA Board Meeting in Ottawa on February 20th.

The RCMI is proud to announce this award in furtherance of our historic mandate as a forum for discussion, research and education on defence, security and foreign affairs. In making this investment in Canada's young scholars, we are happy to be associated with other supporters of the Symposium including Bombardier Aerospace, the Hon. Hugh Segal, and the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute.

Our Mission:

The Institute is a private members’ organization which provides a forum to promote education on defence, security and foreign affairs in a unique collegial environment.

Our Vision:

The Institute will be recognized as the pre-eminent Canadian forum for discussion, research and education on defence, security and foreign affairs.

In 1890, the Officers of the Toronto Garrison founded the Royal Canadian Military Institute with the then Governor General of Canada, Lord Stanley, as its patron. Earl Grey laid the cornerstone of the first premises in 1907. From the 1930s until 2010, the heritage building was well known to the public as a city landmark – an Edwardian edifice flanked distinctively by two 19th-century cannons, with substantial space devoted to Museum galleries displaying exhibits drawn from the Institute's extensive collections. It also housed a 15,000 volume research library whose holdings include significant books detailing Canada's military history.

Today, the University Avenue site is in redevelopment, scheduled to re-open in late 2013. The new premises at 426 University Ave will have leading-edge new quarters for the Institute and our Library and Museum.