Honorary Committee

Co-chairs

The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean is the Co-Founder and Co-President of the Michaëlle Jean Foundation (FMJF). Born of her desire to see underserved young people empowered to take action for change in their communities, the Foundation sees Mme Jean collaborating actively with her husband, the filmmaker and philosopher Jean-Daniel Lafond, to support creative youth and arts initiatives for social change across Canada.

After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian and Hispanic languages and literature at the University of Montréal, she pursued her master’s studies in comparative literature and taught at the university’s Faculty of Italian Studies. Mme Jean worked for 10 years with Quebec shelters for battered women, actively contributing to the establishment of a network of emergency shelters throughout Quebec and elsewhere in Canada. She later became a highly regarded journalist and anchor of information programs at Radio-Canada and CBC. She also took part in three award-winning documentary films produced by her husband, filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond.

On September 27, 2005, Mme Jean was sworn in as 27th Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada. During her time in office, Mme Jean made youth a priority of her mandate. Mme Jean is a Companion of the Order of Canada (CC) and has won numerous awards, including the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Canada Award; the National Quality Institute’s Board of Governors Recognition Achievement Award; Prix Anik for best information reporting in Canada; and the inaugural Amnesty International Canada Journalism Award. The Assemblée internationale des parlementaires de langue française bestowed upon her the Ordre des Chevaliers de La Pléiade.

Mme Jean is the UNESCO Special Envoy for Haiti, as well as Chancellor of the University of Ottawa, President of the Institut québécois des hautes études internationales of the University of Laval and a Board member of the Toronto Luminato Festival.

 

Roseann O’Reilly Runte is President and Vice-Chancellor of Carleton University. Dr. Runte is the author of numerous scholarly works in the fields of French, comparative literature, economic and cultural development and higher education. In addition, she is a creative writer and has received a poetry prize from the Académie française.

Dr. Runte has been awarded the Order of Canada and the French Order of Merit and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She has also been awarded the Palmes Académiques and several prizes for her work on the environment, for community and national service.

Dr. Runte has served on numerous boards and commissions in both Canada and the United States. She was president of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, president of the Humanities Federation of Canada, a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Foundation for International Training, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the Virginia Industrial National Development Authority, the Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding Integration Center, the advisory board of SunGard SGT, the non-profit LifeNet Health Board and the Ontario Quebec Private Sector Advisory Committee. She currently serves on the board of the National Bank of Canada, the executive of the Royal Society and Fulbright Canada-U.S., and on advisory committees of the Council of Ontario Universities and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. She is a member of both the European and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Honorary Committee Members

 

Susan Aglukark is one of Canada’s most unique and honored artists. An Inuk from Arviat, Nunavut, Aglukark has been walking in a tension between two worlds, a defining note in her remarkable career. She writes and performs songs in both English and Inuktitut; her music – a timeless kind of pop music with lyrics that deal with subject matter of real depth and humanity – was embraced in Canada and internationally.

As Aglukark’ s songs climbed the charts, her stories and her candor about the struggles of the Inuit and Aboriginal communities, and her bravery as she opened up about her own anger and struggle, won her audience beyond that of most pop artists. Aglukark built a musical sound that often starts with the strength of the drum, and yet sounds completely contemporary. Her songs are driven by stories – she writes and sings about her people.

Aglukark has held command performances for HRH Queen Elizabeth, Prime Ministers Jean Chretien and Brian Mulroney, and Nelson Mandela, just to name a few. She has received three Juno Awards, the first-ever Aboriginal Achievement Award in Arts & Entertainment, the Canadian Country Music Associations Vista Rising Star Award, the Native American Music Award, and the Canadian Aboriginal Music Award, among others.

 

Measha Brueggergosman has emerged as one of the most magnificent performers and vibrant personalities of the day. She is critically acclaimed by the international press as much for her innate musicianship and voluptuous voice as for a sovereign stage presence far beyond her years. Ms. Brueggergosman appears on the world’s leading stages including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Roy Thomson Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw collaborating with the most esteemed conductors of our day. 

Ms. Brueggergosman lends her voice, passion, and energy to social and environmental causes as a Canadian good-will ambassador for three international organizations: African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF); Learning Through the Arts; and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Commitments to these organizations have taken her on a broad spectrum of missions – from primary schools in New Brunswick, Canada to internally displaced persons camps of northern Uganda.  

3.2 billion television viewers from across the globe came together to witness the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and all heard the lauded soprano’s epic performance of the Olympic Hymn.  The artist served as a judge for the inaugural television season of Canada’s Got Talent and has sung for numerous politicians, dignitaries, and monarchs.

 

Marie Chouinard is a dancer and choreographer. In 1978 Marie Chouinard presented her first work, Crystallization, which immediately established her as an exceptional artist driven by an infectious search for the genuine. After 12 years as a solo performer and choreographer, Marie Chouinard founded her own company in 1990, the Compagnie Marie Chouinard.

Marie Chouinard has lived in New York, Berlin, Bali and Nepal. Her travels, her curiosity, her eclectic studies and her understanding of various techniques allow her to explore the body in different ways. She has created more than 50 solo and group works. The works created since 1978 reflect the concerns of this surprising choreographer: her view of dance as a sacred art, her respect for the body as a vehicle of that art, her virtuoso approach to performance and the invention of a different universe for each new piece.

In Marie Chouinard’s alphabet, elements respond to one another as in a classical structure while integrating different cultural understandings of the body as infinitely intelligent. Her raw material is the dancers’ flesh, bones and muscles, the instinct and vital impulse of the human body whose intimate connections she exposes. As a carrier of meaning, each gesture becomes the “phoneme” of a thought imbedded in the body, while form reflects the dancer’s soul as it resides in organs, cells and energetic circuits. Celebrating the human body as a vehicle of life, Marie Chouinard and her contributors work together to create choreographic pieces that reveal a world of primal light, coded sounds and protean forms, through vigorous and incandescent movements.

 

Jordan Croucher (a.k.a. JRDN) was born in Halifax, but was raised in Toronto until the age of 10, when his family returned to Nova Scotia. In Toronto, he lived in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood, in the same building as King Lou of the Dream Warriors. The jazz rap pioneer introduced Croucher to hip hop culture at this time.

Jordon gained music experience by competing in Canadian Idol. He also worked with Halifax producer Trobiz and recorded mixtapes with the groups N.E.P and Triple Threat. In 2007, Croucher began to work with producer Classified who produced Croucher’s debut album No Dress Code in 2007. It earned Croucher the CBC Galaxie Rising Star prize at the 2007 African Nova Scotian Music Awards show, a nomination for Best Urban Single at the 2008 East Coast Music Awards, and an appearance on the CBC Television special, Barenaked East Coast Music. He toured across Canada with Classified and Maestro Fresh-Wes, and opened for Ne-Yo, Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Nas, and Juelz Santana.

IAMJRDN is the official debut album by JRDN and was released in 2010. Since its release the album debuted at number 13 on the Canadian R&B Albums Chart. Off his debut album, the first single “U Can Have It All” brought him to mainstream success by reaching number 20 on the Canadian Top 100 and the music video reached number 5 on the MuchMusic Countdown. The second “Like Magic” reached number 24 on the Canadian Hot 100 with its music video topping the MuchMusic Countdown. “Like Magic” has been certified Gold by Music Canada in 2012.

 

Kellylee Evans started singing as a member of the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir, but her initial career aspirations were anything but musical. She obtained degrees at Carleton University in legal studies and English literature, but her destiny took a different direction: she initially courted tennis, but a debilitating ankle injury cut short that career dream. Then along came bassist Lonnie Plaxico; impressed by her performance at a jam session at the Ottawa Jazz Festival, he encouraged her to record an album and enter the Thelonious Monk Jazz Vocal Competition in Washington.  

At once charismatic and sensual, Kellylee opens her pores to the action around her, constantly swaying and dancing, punching the air to match the downbeat of the drumsticks; strumming an imaginary guitar, losing herself in the melody and the movement, drawing you in with her hypnotic spell. It’s an insidious flair, this ability to entrance her audience so convincingly.

 

 

Richard Florida is the Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Global Research Professor at New York University, and the founder of the Creative Class Group, which works closely with governments and companies worldwide. Florida is perhaps the world’s leading urbanist, “as close to a household name as it is possible for an urban theorist to be in America,” according to The Economist. Esquire has included him on its annual list of “The Best and the Brightest,” and Fast Company dubbed him an “intellectual rock star.”

Florida is the author of several global best sellers, including the award-winning The Rise of the Creative Class (“one of the best business books of all time”—800-CEO-READ), and is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he co-founded and serves as Editor-at-Large for Atlantic Cities, the world’s leading media site devoted to cities and urban affairs. Florida appears regularly on CNN and other news broadcasts and is a regular contributor to the op ed pages of major newspapers and magazines. TIME magazine recognized his Twitter feed as one of the 140 most influential in the world.

Florida previously taught at Carnegie Mellon and George Mason University, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

 

Paul-André Fortier has made an immense contribution to contemporary dance in Quebec over the past 30 years as a pioneering creator, performer and teacher. He has created nearly 50 choreographies, solos, group pieces and site-specific works. A performer with a striking presence, this self-described “man who dances” challenges himself with spatial, time and technique constraints that push his own limits and those of his art. Inspired by the crossover of various artistic disciplines, he has collaborated with other leading artists, including Françoise Sullivan, Betty Goodwin, Rober Racine, Alain Thibault, Robert Morin and Malcolm Goldstein. Paul-André Fortier began his performance career in the 1970s as a member of Le Groupe Nouvelle Aire, dancing in some of the first works of his peers (Édouard Lock, Daniel Léveillé). In 2010, he was appointed Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. In 2012, he received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award and an appointement to the Order of Canada as Officer. At the age of 65, Paul-André Fortier is still performing his unique take on dance polished by maturity.

 

 

Paul Gross was born in Calgary and studied acting at the University of Alberta in Edmonton before pursuing his career as an actor and playwright. Before due South, which brought him worldwide acclaim, Paul’s appearances on the big and small screens included: Chasing Rainbows, Aspen Extreme, Cold Comfort, Getting Married in Buffalo Jump, Whale Music, XXXs and OOOs and Buried on Sunday. He played Brian Hawkins in the critically acclaimed miniseries “Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City“.

He has starred in Murder Most Likely; Men With Brooms (which saw his directorial debut and achieved the highest English Canadian box office in 20 years); mini-series Slings & Arrows; political dramas H2O and The Trojan Horse which he co-wrote; the TV series Eastwick; and, of course, feature film Passchendaele which he wrote, directed and starred in. He is a tireless supporter and promoter of Canadian culture and campaigns on behalf of the Canadian film and television industry.

 

 

 Peter Herrndorf is the President and CEO of the National Arts Centre. He worked as a television Current Affairs Producer and later as Vice President and General Manager of English radio and television at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was Publisher of Toronto Life magazine, and Chairman and CEO of TVOntario.

Peter Herrndorf is the former chairman of the international Performing Arts Center Consortium (PACC) and serves on the the Board of Directors of Luminato, Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Creativity. He was the Chair of the selection panel for the 2011 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artists Awards. He is a Member of the Honourary Leaders Council of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and a member of the Steering Committee for the Canadian Arts Summit. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Museum Foundation. He was the Founding President of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation; a former member of the Governing Council of the University of Toronto and the Board of the University of Ottawa; a former member of the University of Toronto Presidential Search Committee; past Chairman of the Stratford Festival; past Chairman of the Canadian Museum of Civilization; and past Chairman of the Canadian Stage Company. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Ontario College of Art and Design, was a Senior Visiting Fellow at Massey College, and served as a Distinguished Visitor in Journalism at the University of Western Ontario.

Peter Herrndorf is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Member of the Order of Ontario. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and English from the University of Manitoba, a law degree from Dalhousie University, and an MBA from Harvard University.

 

Dany Laferrière, Writer was born in Port-au-Prince, Haïti, and raised in Petit Goâve. Laferrière worked as a journalist in Haïti before moving to Canada in 1976. He also worked as a journalist in Canada, and hosted television programming for the TQS network.

Laferrière published his first novel, Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer (How To Make Love To A Negro Without Getting Tired) in 1985. The novel was later adapted into a screenplay by Laferrière and Richard Sadler, earning a Genie Award nomination for best adapted screenplay at the 11th Genie Awards in 1990. The film adaptation of the novel starred Isaach De Bankolé and was directed by Jacques W. Benoit.

He writes his novels exclusively in French, although some have been published in English with translations by David Homel. The 2005 film Heading South (Vers Le Sud) was adapted from three of his short stories. In 2009, Laferrière won the prestigious Prix Médicis for his 11th novel, L’énigme du retour. Upon receiving the prize, he commented on its ability to open up a new readership in France, giving him visibility there. In the past Laferrière had always refused to be published in the fall, a season associated with the great literary prizes, but had been recommended to do so with “L’énigme du retour” by his editors. The novel follows Laferrière as he returns to his birthplace in Haïti, 33 years after he left it, upon learning of his father’s death in New York. The narrative is somewhere between prose and poetry, nearing Japanese Haiku structures in some sections.

 

Alain Lefèvre, is a Montreal pianist and composer who has played in around forty countries and tours repeatedly world-wide, performing to prestigious venues. Recipient of a JUNO Award (2010), a Prix Opus (2011), nine Félix (ADISQ 2001-2010), an André Gagnon Award (SPACQ), an AIB Award (2010) received in London, he was also chosen “Personality of the Year” (Arts, Literature and Entertainment) at the Excellency Gala of La Presse (2009). He has been guest soloist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Orchestre National de France, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the China Philharmonic, the Guangzhou Symphony, the Shanghaï Symphony, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the SWR (Stuttgart), the Oper Komische Orchestra in Berlin, the Stattskapelle Sinfonie in Weimar, the Hamburg Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the National Symphony in Washington, the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi, to name but a few. He has also worked with leading conductors such as Matthias Bamert, Franz-Paul Decker, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, JoAnn Falletta, Claus Peter Flor, Lawrence Foster, James Conlon, Bernhard Klee, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Vladimir Spivakov, and Long Yu. With “L’Enfant prodige” on Andre Mathieu’s life, he signed in 2010 his first motion picture as music director, composer and pianist. Named Officer to the Order of Canada, Lefèvre is also Chevalier to the Ordre National du Québec, and Chevalier to l’Ordre de la Pléiade.

 

Édouard Lock studied film and literature at Concordia University. He began his choreographic career at the age of 20, creating works from 1974 to 1979 for a variety of Canadian dance companies and institutions. He formed La La La Human Steps in 1980, and began choreographing full-length works, which soon attracted international attention. Since 1985, each work for La La La has toured internationally for up to two years.

He founded Lock Danseurs, the precursor of La La La Human Steps, in 1980, and started to work with dancer Louise Lecavalier, his muse and close collaborator for 18 years. In 1980 Lock’s Lily Marlène dans la jungle was presented at Montreal’s Théâtre l’Eskabel, then at The Kitchen in New York. The following year, he won the Jean A. Chalmers Award for choreography for Oranges, and was honoured with the same award again in 2001.

Lock has received commissions from the Dutch National Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theatre, Montreal’s Grands Ballets Canadiens and the Opéra de Paris. In 2001, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec and an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2006, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

 

Moshe Safdie is a world-renowned architect whose works are known for their dramatic curves, arrays of geometric patterns, use of windows, and key placement of open and green spaces. His writings and designs stress the need to create meaningful, vital, and inclusive spaces that enhance community, with special attention to the essence of a particular locale, geography, and culture. Safdie was born in Haifa, but moved with his family to Montreal in 1953. Safdie graduated from McGill University with a degree in architecture.

After apprenticing with Louis Kahn in Philadelphia, Safdie returned to Montreal to oversee the master plan for Expo 67. In 1964, he established his own firm to undertake Habitat 67, an adaptation of his McGill thesis. Habitat 67, which pioneered the design and implementation of three-dimensional, prefabricated units for living, was a central feature of Expo 67 and an important development in architectural history. He was awarded the 1967 Construction Man of the Year Award from the Engineering News Record and the Massey Medal for Architecture in Canada for Habitat 67.

In 1978, after teaching at McGill, Ben Gurion, and Yale universities, Safdie moved his main office to Boston and became director of the Urban Design Program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, until 1984. From 1984 to 1989, he was the Ian Woodner Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Harvard. Since the early 1990s, Safdie has focused on his architectural practice, Safdie Architects, which is based in Boston and has branches in Toronto, Jerusalem, and Singapore. Safdie has designed six of Canada’s principal public institutions including the National Gallery of Canada and Vancouver Library Square.

 

Samian, a recording artist and Indigenous rights advocate, is originally from Pikogan, a small Aboriginal community in the city of Amos in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Samian (Samuel, in the Algonquin language) has a voice that speaks to the history of several centuries; the Métis rapper recites his poetry with the soul of the warrior … with a dark side, but not without light – I live, this is why I believe – evoking the past in the name of future generations, a happy future called for by the courage of the new generation, a nation of brothers united.

Revealed by Wapikoni Mobile project – a traveling training, audiovisual and musical studio designed by Quebec filmmaker Manon Barbeau – through which he recorded several songs and made a few videos, Samian took part in the initiative at various cultural events in Quebec and France. The 2004, Samian befriends with three rappers and joined on stage for the first time in an improvised manner to the launch event of oral love, then for the tour of Quebec that followed.

Inspired by authentic about and fascinated by his musical universe, where urban rhythms combine with the Algonquin – a legacy of his grandmother with whom he traces the history of his people and learns the mother tongue – and traditional instruments Native Americans, young people from a Samian intervening more and more in demand. A role he enthusiastically endorses multiplying commitments, particularly with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the National Film Board and APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network).

 

Lynda Thalie offers a hybrid music born of the harmonious blending of instruments and musical sounds of the world. Her signature voice and musical style have immediately given her a unique place in the Canadian arts community. Portrayed as a singer-songwriter who marries the rhythms of North Africa and the Middle East to Western sounds, Lynda Thalia has rallied critics who recognize her art reflects the contemporary diversity of Québéc.

For several years, the Algerian artist has reaffirmed her universal appeal generating enthusiasm from thousands of people on four continents. In 2006, she toured (over 70 shows) and delighted audiences in theaters and festivals across Quebec. The show received four nominations at the prestigious ADISQ and harvest album nominated as “Album of the Year – World Music” and a nomination Gala SOBA (Sounds of Blackness Award). In February of the same year, Thalia was invited to Toronto to perform at the Hall of Fame gala for Canadian songwriters.

 

Wes Maestro Williams (a.k.a. Maestro Fresh-Wes) is one of Canada’s most successful and influential Hip Hop artists. He was selected to be the guest speaker for the former Governor General of Canada’s Summit on Urban Arts when Her Excellency visited Vancouver, BC. Wes has received two Juno Awards and his albums have reached gold and platinum status. His signature song “Let Your Backbone Slide” remains the only Canadian Hip Hop single to ever go gold.

After establishing himself as one of Canada’s top musical artists, Wes decided to expand his résumé, took acting classes and pursued another artistic career. With each role his reputation grew stronger and stronger. He is one of Canada’s premier multi-media personalities. Already a Juno Award-winning recording artist and Gemini Award nominated actor, Wes is also the author of the critically-acclaimed book, Stick to Your Vision. Endorsed by the former Governor General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, as a plan for action, the book shows individuals how to define their vision, how to achieve it, and what to do once they are there.

Wes has always been community-oriented and has made a serious impact on the country in many different capacities. He continues to support several charitable organizations such as War Child, Save The Children, Covenant House, Special Olympics, Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS), and The African AIDS Society.

 

René Villemure is a philosophy trained Ethicist and a Trend Spotter. He founded the Quebec Institute for Applied Ethics in 1998, and Ethikos in 2003. He was the first ethics specialist in Canada to discuss ethical management when no one would know such terms as “governance”, “corporate social responsibility” or “sustainable development”. René thought these topics were crucial, fundamental and inevitable and they could not remain unheard of, or be the privilege of a few experts or so called “specialists of the current trend”. 

At the heart of his approach, René Villemure has brought forward and made accessible ethical issues since 1998 through the Quebec Institute for Applied Ethics and, since 2003, with Ethikos for the international division. Since the middle of the years 2000, the topics discussed in Quebec and Canada gained territory to include those of the Purple Economy, of corruption and of ethical infrastructures development in emerging countries. The growing presence of ethical issues at the international level was precursor to launching the following ethics programs in 2012: Ethics Without Borders, Socially Exemplary Organizations, and the Determination of a Brand Ethical DNA. The ethics view point of René Villemure is sought by governments, public and private management of large organizations in America, in Europe and in Africa. 

René has indeed written more than forty ethical reports or inventories, and wrote just as many Values and Mission Guidelines statements. In the same period, he trained over 40,000 people on ethical questions in more than 400 organizations in America, in Europe and in Africa. The advice given goes from support to decision making to definition of laws, politics, guidelines, standards and codes. The advice also suggests drafting of Missions, Ambitions and organizational values.