The Defuser

At the forefront of the current wave of development and technology is the innovative team at Demine Robotics. On this episode, CLMF intern Tefsi Golla and I sit down with the CFO of Demine Robotics (DR), Douglas Blair, to discuss the progress of the company's work in Cambodia. Doug shares his experience working in the field with DR's team of Canadian and Cambodian engineers.

As well, Doug explains the evolution of DR's robot excavator from simple prototype to marketable product, and the environmental challenges that have catalyzed this evolution. Now locally sourced, fully mobile, and (technically) capable of surviving a landmine explosion, the Jevit excavator is a lean, mean, demining machine!

And Demine Robotics needs your help for the finishing touches! Check out their Kickstarter and help make the world a safer place, one landmine at a time: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/445791472/jevit-saving-land-limbs-and-lives

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What happens to landmine-sniffing dogs after they retire? Well, some of them could be adopted into Canadian homes through a new Wilfrid Laurier University student startup, Pups for Peace!

In this episode, I interview Pups for Peace founder Emilio Castillo on dogs, demining, and the potential challenges of intercontinental pet adoption!

Contact: [email protected]

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Why is the Canadian Landmine Foundation raising money for landmine clearance in a distant country twenty years after the treaty that was supposed to solve the landmine problem forever? Why doesn’t Cambodia pay for its own mine clearance?

We're called upon to answer this question a lot here at the Canadian Landmine Foundation, and we believe it's important for Canadians to understand their own complicity in the Vietnam War, as well as the terrible consequences of 30 years of conflict for the Cambodian people.

In this episode, I interview Canadian Landmine Foundation president Dr. Alistair Edgar, who has conducted field work in a number of landmine-affected nations including Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Cambodia.

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Is the cost of demining greater or lesser than the economic benefit? Should we even ask that question? Is the Landmine Ban Treaty's requirement that all known minefields be removed actually hurting the efficiency of global mine action, and what is Canada's role in trying to meet the 2025 of global mine eradication?

In this episode, I interview development economist Ted paterson. Ted has worked on international development for many years with Canadian NGOs, the North-South Institute and as an independent consultant. He began working on mine action in 2000 and, after 10 years heading the Policy Research & Evaluation section at the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, returned to Canada in 2014. He now works as a consultant focussing on how mine action relates to broader development, humanitarian and peacebuilding programmes.

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Episode 2

Last year, Dr. Timothy Donais led a field school from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario to Bosnia & Herzegovina. There, students traced the roots of the 1992-1995 conflict that followed the disintegration of Yuguslavia, and learned about international peacekeeping efforts to negotiate the Dayton Accords and rebuild the new states.

In this episode, Dr. Donais speaks about the residual dangers of landmines in Bosnia, the impact of the conflict upon Canadian peacekeeping efforts, and Canada's current struggle to renew its status as a middle power in the international order.

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Can a robot defuse landmines? University of Waterloo graduate Richard Yim and his company Demine Robotics have spent the last two years trying to answer that question. Richard was born in Cambodia, and spent the first 13 years of his life surrounded by the human cost and potential danger of landmines.

In this episode, Richard explains how his robot works, some of the difficulties involved in landmine removal, and his personal experience taking demining training!

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