Brigadière-générale Krista Brodie

Brigadier-General Krista D. Brodie is the Commander of the Canadian Armed Forces’ Military Personnel Generation Group (MPGG). She is a student and practitioner of leadership and literature, of history and humanity, of character and culture, of tactics and tenacity, of science and strategy, and of global supply chains. Over the course of her career, Brigadier-General Brodie has served in key command and staff appointments, been a paratrooper and professor, deployed on international operations in Croatia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and joined domestic battles against floods, ice storms, forest fires, and the recent pandemic. She is a passionate advocate for people operations. With the help of a ridiculously large shaggy dog, she and her husband are raising three school-age children. 

Charles-Philippe David

Charles-Philippe David is Full Professor of Political Science, President of the Centre for United States Studies, as well as the Founder of the Raoul Dandurand Chair of Strategic and Diplomatic Studies (which he directed from 1996 to 2016) at the University of Québec at Montréal. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2001. He has been appointed in 2017-2018 the Rotary Chair in Peace Studies at the University of Lille in France. He was recipient of the Jean Finot Award of the Institute of France in 2003. He was first to receive, in 2012, the George Vanier distinguished award from the Royal Military College of Canada, for his scholarly contribution to the advancement of strategic and security studies. Dr. David received his PhD from Princeton University in 1986 (under the supervision of Robert S. Gilpin). From 1985 to 1995, he taught at the former Canadian Military College in Saint-Jean sur Richelieu. Professor David is a specialist on American foreign policy decision-making, nuclear strategy, security studies, armed conflict and peace missions. He has published several books in English, including National Security Entrepreneurs and the Making of American Foreign Policy (McGill‑Queen's University Press, 2020), Hegemony or Empire? The Redefinition of U.S. Power under George W. Bush (Ashgate, 2006), The Future of NATO (McGill‑Queen's University Press, 1999) and Foreign Policy Failure in the White House (University Press of America, 1993). A dozen other books have been published in French and translated in Spanish, Portuguese, English and mandarin. He has also published numerous articles in journals such as Policy & Politics, Security Dialogue, The Canadian Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Crisis Management, International Journal, Diplomacy & Statecraft, Defense and Security Analysis, The American Journal of Canadian Studies, Contemporary Security , the Journal of Borderland Studies, and European Security. Dr. David is a frequent television commentator on Radio-Canada on crises, conflicts, security, defense and peacekeeping issues. He has taught many courses and lectured to a wide variety of audiences in Canada, the United States and Europe. He has been Visiting Professor at a dozen universities in France (Paris, Lyon, Grenoble, Lille, Nice, Montpellier), and the United States (UV, UVA, UCLA, Duke, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Tampa, Georgia Tech). He is the only Canadian scholar to have been nominated three times as Senior Fulbright Scholar (UCLA, Duke and Norwich).

Laurence Deschamps-Laporte

Laurence Deschamps-Laporte is Scientific Director of Université de Montréal (UdeM)’s CÉRIUM (Centre d’études et de recherches internationales) and Assistant Professor of Political Science at this same institution. A specialist in Canadian foreign policy and diplomacy, she is particularly interested in feminism in international relations, Middle Eastern politics and the study of Islamist movements. She completed her doctoral studies in political science at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. Before joining UdeM and CÉRIUM, Laurence Deschamps-Laporte was an advisor and then chief of staff to three Canadian foreign ministers. As a consultant with McKinsey & Company, she carried out public policy mandates in several African and Middle Eastern countries.

Brigadier-General James Lambert

Brigadier-General D.J. Lambert joined the Canadian Forces in 1986 to attend the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean and graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston in 1991 with a degree in mechanical engineering. After two years as a strategic headquarters staff officer, he was promoted to the rank of captain in 1994 and was posted to Valcartier, where he was employed in a variety of positions in 5 GBMC Headquarters and Signal Squadron and with the 1st Battalion, Royal 22e Regiment (1 R22eR). While serving with 1 R22eR in 1996, he deployed on a United Nations’ mission in Haiti, serving as the Canadian Contingent signals officer.

After his promotion to major in 2001, Brigadier-General Lambert completed a master’s degree in Business Administration from Laval University and was thereafter assigned to Ottawa as a staff officer in Army headquarters. In June 2006, he was appointed as Commanding Officer of 2 CMBG Headquarters and Signal Squadron in Petawawa, Ontario. This command appointment was followed in May 2008 by a deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan, as the Canadian Joint Task Force J6, where he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

In 2009, Brigadier-General Lambert was assigned to the US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After two years of education in a joint and multinational environment, he graduated from the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies with a masters in military art and science, and was posted to Kingston first as G6 of the Land Force Doctrine and Training System, and then as directing staff in the Canadian Army Command and Staff College. In 2013, Brigadier-General Lambert was appointed Commandant of the Canadian Forces School of Communications and Electronics.

Promoted to Colonel in 2015, Brigadier General Lambert first served as the Chief of Staff of the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre, and was appointed Commander 7 Communication Group in 2016. At the end of his command tour in 2018, he attended the Senior Course at the NATO Defense College in Rome, and was thereafter employed as the Deputy Director General Cyberspace.

In 2019, Brigadier-General was promoted to his current rank to serve in CFINTCOM as the Director General Intelligence Enterprise, followed in 2020 by an appointment as the Director General Information Management Operations and the Joint Force Cyber Component Commander. He also served as the Communications and Electronics Branch Leader from May 2020 to July 2022.

Brigadier-General Lambert has two beautiful daughters. He practises all sports and particularly enjoys competitive running and golf, and serves as the Patron of CAF men’s basketball. He loves reading and has a significant interest in history.

Alexandra Lesnikowski

Dr. Alexandra Lesnikowski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment at Concordia University, where she leads the Concordia Climate Change Adaptation Lab. She is an expert in climate change adaptation governance and policy, as well as methods and approaches for adaptation assessment. Her research group focuses on advancing our empirical understanding of emerging adaptation gaps and opportunities, and on the intersections between housing systems and adaptation governance. Dr. Lesnikowski’s work is published in academic journals and edited books, and she is a Contributing Author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the latest Health Canada Climate Change Assessment Report. She is an adaptation expert advisor for the Canadian Climate Institute. At Concordia she teaches geography and urban studies courses on climate change, urban impact assessment, and urbanization.

Megan Mackenzie

Megan MacKenzie is a Professor and the Simons Chair in International Law and Human Security at Simon Fraser University. Her work is broadly focused on the ways that gender matters in understanding war and insecurity and the ways that experiences of war and insecurity are shaped by gendered norms and sexism. Megan has been studying military culture and gender integration in the military for over a decade, including projects on military sexual violence, the integration of women into combat roles, and military suicide. Her most recent book is Feminist Solutions for Ending War (Pluto 2021, co-edited with Nicole Wegner).

Christine Normandin

Christine Normandin was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Saint-Jean on October 21, 2021 and re-elected on September 20, 2021. In Parliament, she has served as Deputy House Leader of the Bloc Québécois since November 13, 2019. In her first term, she was the official Bloc Québécois critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Since her re-election in 2021, she has been acting as the official Bloc Québécois critic for National Defence.

Ambassadrice Jacqueline O’Neill

Jacqueline O’Neill is Canada’s first Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security. Appointed by the Prime Minister in June 2019, her primary role is to advise Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence, and numerous other departments engaged in implementing Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. 

Previously, Ambassador O’Neill was President of The Institute for Inclusive Security, a US-based organization that increased the inclusion of women in peace negotiations and related processes, including the reform of police and military organizations. Over 13 years at Inclusive Security, she supported the creation of national strategies and policy frameworks for more than 30 countries, NATO, the OSCE, and the United Nations. She also worked directly with coalitions of women leaders in Colombia, South Sudan, Sudan, Pakistan, and beyond. Prior to that, Ambassador O’Neill worked at the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan and at Khartoum’s Ahfad University for Women. Along with former Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire, she helped found the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative to eliminate the use of children during conflict. She was also a policy advisor to Canada’s Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific region. 

Most recently, Ambassador O’Neill was a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Canada Institute, an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian International Council. She has a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Alberta and a Master in Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Caroline Quach-Thanh

Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh is a Professor in the Departments of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases & Immunology and of Pediatrics at University of Montreal. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health at McGill University and a scientific collaborator at the School of Public Health at Université Libre de Bruxelles. She is the physician in charge of Infection Prevention and Control at CHU Sainte-Justine where she also works as a pediatric infectious diseases specialist and medical microbiologist. Dr. Quach is a clinician-scientist and the Canada Research Chair, Tier 1 in Infection Prevention and Control.

Dr. Quach is the former Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization from the PHAC (2017-2021) and is the current chair of the Quebec Immunization Committee. She is a former president from the Association for Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Canada (2014-2016). She was named Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. She was selected as one of the 2019 most Powerful Women in Canada (Manulife Science and Technology category). In 2021, she received the Order of Merit from Université de Montréal and was made Officer of the Ordre national du Québec in 2022.

Alexis Rapin

Alexis Rapin is researcher in residence at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal. In 2019, he participated in the creation of the Observatory of Multidimensional Conflicts at the same institution, and has contributed since 2021 to the supervision of the Canadian Cyber Incidents Directory. He works in particular on the transformations of conflictuality, such as cybersecurity issues or the rise of disinformation strategies, and is more globally interested in the impact of new technologies on international security. He has authored or co-authored several academic contributions in French and English, as well as numerous analysis and popularization posts. In 2021, he contributed to the book Conflits, crimes et régulations dans le cyberespace (ISTE Éditions).

Madeleine Redfern

Madeleine Redfern is an indigenous woman involved in high-tech and innovation. Actively involved in transformative technologies in telecommunications, transportation and energy. COO of CanArctic Inuit Networks Inc committed to building 3,000 km of marine fibre-optic cable into Canada’s Arctic to significantly improve telecommunications in Inuit Nunangat and Nunavut. CEO of SednaLink Marine Systems, which would transform segments of SednaLink fibre-optic cable into a SMART (science monitoring and reliable telecommunications) to monitor marine climate changes, assist with environmental monitoring especially near marine protected areas and assist in collecting marine intelligence. 

Martine Saint-Victor

Martine Saint-Victor is a communications strategist. For almost 20 years, she led the public relations agency she founded, before joining Edelman as General Manager of its Montréal office in 2021.

Martine is a regular contributor to the Montreal Gazette, La Presse, Radio-Canada television and radio as well as to the CBC.

Martine is a trustee on various boards, namely that of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, of which she also chairs the communications advisory committee, the KANPE Foundation, the Pensionnat du Saint-Nom-de-Marie Foundation, the think tank IRPP (Institute for Research on Public Policy) and the Fondation de l’Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal.

Martine St-Victor is a founding member of the Black Opportunity Fund and the Diversity and Inclusion emissary of the Start-Up Festival.

Béatrice Vaugrante

Beatrice is Director, Global Movement Development at the International Secretariat (IS) of Amnesty International since 2019. She has defined and implemented organisational transformation strategies to increase the human rights impact of the 70 national entities operating in all continents: governance, well-being and security, collective accountability, financial resource allocation, anti-racism, internal conflicts and external threats, movement growth. She advises the management team and the global executive board. Beatrice was Interim Director, Global Strategy and Impact at the IS in 2018, preparing the Movement for the new global strategy covering priority human rights issues.

She was the Executive Director of Amnesty International Canada from 2007 to 2017. Her significant impact was raising awareness and advocacy on Indigenous peoples' rights, promoting human rights among youth, developing partnerships, and increasing media visibility. She was a member of Amnesty's Global Management Team from 2011 to 2017.

In 2016, she received the Hommage 40e award from the Quebec Human Rights Commission.

Prior to 2007, Beatrice was a director and consultant in the private sector in Canada and Europe. She holds an MBA from HEC Paris.

Laure Waridel

Laure Waridel is a PhD ecosociologist, an Adjunct Professor at UQAM’s Institut des sciences de l’environnement and an advisor to the law firm Trudel, Johnston & Lespérance. Aware of the fact that society is being transformed by individual and collective choices, Laure Waridel fell into the pot of civic engagement when she was 15.

Co-founder of Équiterre, a pioneer of fair trade and responsible consumption in Québec, she is also co-author of the Pact for Transition and co-founder of the Mothers Step In movement.

She is the author of the books “Acheter, c’est voter,” “L’Envers de l’assiette” and her most recent “La transition, c’est maintenant.” She has also made a name for herself through her columns on Radio-Canada radio and in the print media. She writes a column in the Journal de Montréal and the Journal de Québec.

For years, Laure Waridel has been accumulating distinctions, including an honorary doctorate from the Université du Québec à Rimouski, the Insigne du mérite de l’Université de Montréal, the Order of Canada and the Order of Quebec. But for Laure Waridel, her two greatest achievements each stand on two legs. These are her children: Colin and Alphée.

Aphrodite Salas - Modératrice - Panel 1

Aphrodite Salas is Director of the Graduate Diploma Program and assistant professor in the Journalism Department at Concordia University, where her research focuses on collaborative forms of visual journalism and more specifically, the decolonization of journalism education.

Her most recent works include multimedia collaborations with the Inuit community of Inukjuak, the First Nation community Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek and CTV Montreal. Aphrodite is also a workshop leader and trainer for the Journalists for Human Rights Misinformation Project, focusing on media literacy and digital investigation. She has trained hundreds of journalism students, journalists and policy experts on how to identify misinformation and disinformation online. As a journalist, Aphrodite has worked across Canada and internationally. She spent several years with CTV both locally and nationally, as a reporter, anchor, video journalist and assignment editor. Aphrodite was also senior anchor at Global Quebec, Parliament Hill correspondent for CityTV and a current affairs radio host on 940 Montreal. Her industry honours include four RTDNA awards for excellence in news reporting.

Catherine François - Modératrice - Panel 3

Catherine François has been a journalist at Radio-Canada since 1993, where she held various positions in radio and then at RDI when the network was launched, working in the editorial department, at the news desk and in international news. As TV5 Monde's correspondent in Canada since 2008, she covers Canadian news for the 64, TV5's main news bulletin, as well as the TV5 Monde Info website.