Mohammed Hashim has worked as a labour organizer and human rights advocate for over a decade. He has dedicated his career to supporting equity, inclusion, and community empowerment. He is currently the Executive Director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Way of Greater Toronto. Mr. Hashim is also a founding advisor of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey is the Coordinating Minister of Parkdale United Church in Ottawa’s central-west end, serving his congregation and the wider community in that capacity for the past 22 years. Originally from Barbados, Rev. Dr. Bailey has academic degrees in social work, theology, philosophy of religion and ethics and culture, as well as experience studying and working in countries such as the USA, Kenya and Jamaica. He has also taught at the university level.

Rev. Dr. Bailey is a gifted communicator and a dynamic advocate for social, restorative/collaborative justice, racial reconciliation, interfaith collaboration, affordable housing, food security, and the importance of a vibrant spiritual life. He continues to provided leadership in his congregation’s on-going work of sponsoring and supporting refugees.

As a diversity and racial justice trainer, Rev. Dr. Bailey provides multicultural, anti-systemic racism workshops and training in schools, community agencies, Federal and municipal government departments, police services, service clubs and religious communities. His is a passionate and persistent desire to help curate a more just, gracious and beloved society. Rev. Dr. Bailey is also frequently invited to comment on radio, TV and various print media on significant social and religious issues.

As an active and engaged community advocate, Rev. Dr. Bailey is also a Board member on a number Boards, including the Ottawa Mission and Crime Prevention Ottawa. He has been awarded the Order of Ottawa as well as the DreamKeepers Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Life Achievement Award.

Ryan Chan is a social advocate who received his JD from the University of Toronto. Ryan is the project lead on online hate and social media at the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, where he frequently speaks about issues of race and racism concerning the Asian Canadian community, and works with government and community stakeholders to advocate for social media regulations using an anti-racism lens. Ryan is also on the board of directors of the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers and works as an articling student at Macdonald Sager Manis. He also previously worked as a consultant for the WWF-Canada.

The Honourable Irwin Cotler is the Founder and International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, member of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, international human rights lawyer, and counsel to prisoners of conscience. He is a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and longtime Member of Parliament.

Deborah Dobbins, a cultural and special education consultant, is a 3rd generation African American Albertan whose grandparents immigrated to Alberta in the early 1900’s from Oklahoma, Illinois, Missouri, Texas. She is the President and CEO of Shiloh Centre for Multicultural Roots (SCMR) a not-for-profit society that is grounded in a mosaic of rich, inclusive African American Canadian heritage dating as far back as pre-1910 whose mandate is to honour, educate, celebrate their community with the communities at large.

Deborah holds a B.Ed. from the U of A, an M.R.A. from the U.S. and has recently retired from a 34 + year teaching and administration career in Edmonton, Alberta.

Deborah Dobbins is a board member of Aspen Foundation for Labour Education (Edmonton) Education Committee she assists with the development of educational resources related to social justice, global education and labour educations. She also sits on Coalition for Creating Equity (Provincial and Edmonton Boards) Human Rights Commission of Alberta (Public Rep) and Shiloh Baptist Church board (the first noted Black Church in Western Canada: 1910 Edmonton). Deborah Dobbins works diligently to ensure that the historical journey of her people is acknowledged and becomes an integral part of educating Canada about systemic anti-black discrimination and the possible means to build on that foundation towards equity for all persons.

Dakshana Bascaramurty is a national news reporter for The Globe and Mail who writes about race and ethnicity. She won a 2013 National Newspaper Award in beat reporting for her coverage of changing demographics in the 905 region. Previously, she was a feature writer for Globe Life.

The Honourable Irwin Cotler is the Founder and International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, member of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, international human rights lawyer, and counsel to prisoners of conscience. He is a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and longtime Member of Parliament.

Robert (Bob) Watts is a much sought after expert in Indigenous policy, negotiations, training and conflict resolution.

He is the former Interim Executive Director of the Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which examined and made recommendations regarding the Indian Residential School era and its legacy. Bob led the process, supported by an excellent team and many organizations from across Canada and internationally, to create the policies and processes in order to firmly establish the Commission.

Bob also served as the Chief of Staff to the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine, where he was a member of the team that negotiated the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class action settlement in Canada’s history. His public service includes Assistant Deputy Minister for the Government of Canada and Senior Executive in Ontario. Bob is a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and Fellow at the Harvard Law School where he researched and lectured on the role culture plays in conflict. Bob has had the benefit of excellent Indigenous mentorship and western learning which allows him to work well in both worlds. Some of his Indigenous learning has focused on medicine plants, traditional songs, traditional environmental knowledge and leadership. Bob has led the negotiations of co-management agreements, helped build strong corporate partnerships and has lead processes focused on strategic plans and community development.

In 2019 Bob served as Chief of Staff to National Chief Perry Bellegarde and played a key role in historic budget allocations and the passage of Bills C-91 and 92. Currently, Bob is the Vice-President of Indigenous Relations at the NWMO and an Adjunct Professor and Distinguished Fellow at Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario where he developed one the first graduate level courses on Reconciliation in the country.

Bob is a Board Member with the Consensus Building Institute, Cambridge MA and with the Indigenous Advanced Education and Skills Council. He is also the Chair of the Downie-Wenjack Fund and Chair of Reconciliation Canada. Bob is a recipient of the Indspire Award for Public Service and recently received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from McMaster University. He has taught, debated and lectured at a number of universities in Canada and the United States.

He is from the Mohawk and Ojibway Nations and resides at Six Nations Reserve, Ontario. Bob carries and honours his Ojibwe Spirit Name, Kinoozishingwak (Tall Pine) and is a member of the Bear Clan.

Ali Toghrol has served with the Ottawa Police Service for 16 years. He is the A/Sgt of the Ottawa Police Hate and Bias Crime unit. Ali has established the Hate Crime policies and investigative guidelines for the Ottawa Police Service. He has provided training to various agencies including CSIS, City of Ottawa Transit Special Constables, College and University security services and social service providers. He represents the Ottawa Police in the Provincial Hate Crime and Extremism Investigation Team and has regularly assisted Police services in Ontario and across Canada. He holds Diploma in Social Work, Bachelor’s degree in Policing and Masters in Terrorism and Security Studies.

Lynn Barr-Telford is the Assistant Chief Statistician of the Social, Health and Labour Statistics Field at Statistics Canada. Lynn holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from Carleton University and has several years of experience as a senior Executive with responsibility for large, complex statistical programs. The Social, Health and Labour Statistics Field provides accurate, timely and relevant information across a range of social subject matters to decision makers at all levels of government, to non-governmental organizations, to researchers and to the Canadian public. The portfolio includes a number of large survey and administrative data programs such as the Centre for Population Health Data; the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics; the Centre for Gender, Diversity and Inclusion; and the Centre for Labour Market Information, among others. The Field is also the home for Canadian Census content expertise.

Mustafa Farooq is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). A lawyer by profession, Mustafa completed his Juris Doctor at the University of Alberta and Osgoode Hall (York University) and later earned his Master of Laws (LLM) at UC Berkeley in California. He previously served as a senior political staffer to a provincial cabinet minister in which role he worked on various legislative and policy initiatives.

Mustafa was also a visiting scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School researching countering violent extremism policy in Canada. His book entitled Law, Politics, and Countering Violent Extremism (Routledge) is forthcoming.

He is a published writer and commentator in various news media and publications on issues related to Canadian Muslims, human rights & civil liberties, and public policy issues including Islamophobia and national security.

Barbara Perry is a Professor in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at Ontario Tech University, and the Director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism. She has written extensively on social justice generally, and hate crime and right-wing extremism specifically. She has published several books spanning both areas, including Diversity, Crime and Justice in Canada, and In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crime. She was the General Editor of a five volume set on hate crime (Praeger), and editor of Volume 3: Victims of Hate Crime of that set. In 2019, she published Right-wing Extremism in Canada, with co-author Ryan Scrivens. Her work has been published in journals representing diverse disciplines: Theoretical Criminology, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Journal of History and Politics, and American Indian Quarterly.

Dr. Perry continues to work in the area of hate crime, and has made substantial contributions to the limited scholarship on hate crime in Canada, including work on anti-Muslim violence, antisemitic hate crime, hate crime against 2SLGBTQI communities, the community impacts of hate crime, and right-wing extremism in Canada. She is regularly called upon by policy makers, practitioners, and local, national and international media as an expert on hate crime and right-wing extremism.

Daniel Panneton is Manager of the Online Hate Research and Education Project at the Sarah & Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto. He is an award-winning heritage professional and curator who sits on the Board of the Toronto Ward Museum.

Mike Hager is a reporter at the newspaper’s B.C. bureau. Before joining The Globe and Mail, he reported for The Vancouver Sun.

Amira Elghawaby is an award-winning journalist and human rights advocate. She is currently the Director of Programs and Outreach at the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

Previously, Amira worked in the labour movement as well as in advocacy, promoting the civil liberties of Canadian Muslims at the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM).

Amira has also been involved with numerous initiatives to counter hate and promote inclusion, including as a founding board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, as a Champion of the United For All United Way-East Ontario initiative, and as a board member with the Silk Road Institute. She is serving a second term as a Commissioner on the Public Policy Forum’s Canadian Commission on Democratic Engagement. Amira is also a delegate of the 2022 Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference.

 Tom Cardoso is a member of The Globe and Mail's investigations team. Based in Toronto, he has been with The Globe since 2014. His work often combines creative freedom of information requests, data analysis and source development. His reporting on systemic racism in prisons was recognized in 2021 with awards from the National Newspaper Awards, Canadian Association of Journalists and Online News Association. Before moving to investigations, he covered gun policy, policing and Canada's correctional system while on the crime and justice beat.

Willow Fiddler is a national news reporter for The Globe and Mail, covering northern Ontario and Manitoba. Prior to joining The Globe, she was a video journalist for Aboriginal Peoples Television Network National News reporting in Thunder Bay. She is a three-time finalist for the Canadian Association of Journalists awards and the recipient of the 2017 Emerging Indigenous Journalist award. Ms. Fiddler is passionate about stories and issues that impact Indigenous people and communities, particularly in the North.

 Kanika Samuels-Wortley is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Carleton University. Dr. Samuels-Wortley's research explores the intersection of race, racism, and the criminal justice system in Canada. Current studies are examining how law enforcement officials respond to racialized peoples experience with racially motivated hate crimes and violent victimization. Dr. Samuels-Wortley has presented her research on systemic racism in policing in both provincial and federal inquiries including the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. Furthermore, her research has been featured in the Toronto Star as well as quoted in numerous national news reports including CBC National, CBC Radio, podcasts, blogposts, and literary journals. Recent publications can be found in Race and Justice, Crime and Delinquency, and the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Ian Bailey is a reporter with The Globe and Mail’s Ottawa bureau and author of the Globe’s daily Politics Briefing newsletter. He previously was with The Globe's Vancouver bureau, covering politics and general news. Prior to arriving at The Globe, he reported from Toronto and St. John’s for The Canadian Press. He has also covered British Columbia for the Canadian Press, The National Post and The Province. He was born in the U.K., raised in the Toronto area and graduated from York University and Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.

Samya Hasan is the Executive Director of the Council of Agencies Servicing South Asians (CASSA), a social justice umbrella organization that advocates on behalf of individuals, groups and organizations to meet the needs of South Asian communities and is committed to the elimination of all forms of discrimination from Canadian society. Samya leads various projects and advocacy groups such as the Anti-Hate Community Leaders’ Group to combat online hate and hate crimes in Canada, national research on gender-based violence, civic engagement campaigns, legal aid education for immigrants and refugees, health equity advocacy for racialized communities and COVID-19 relief and vaccine engagement Projects. Samya holds a Masters of Public Policy degree from the University of Toronto.   

 Anthony is a 16-year member of the RCMP with over a decade of experience in investigating ideologically-motivated crime. Joining in 2006, Anthony’s first posting was to Northern British Columbia, where he spent four years in general patrol, and had the privilege to serve diverse communities. In 2010, Anthony transferred to the "E" Division National Security unit, holding key roles on long-term investigative and intelligence projects. In 2017, Anthony promoted to NCO i/c of BC Hate Crimes, overseeing investigative support for hate crime investigations in British Columbia. Anthony’s current interests and expertise includes emerging trends in hate crime and Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism (IMVE) in Canada and abroad.

Detective Kiran Bisla is presently in her 20th year of policing with the Toronto Police Service. She is currently assigned to the Hate Crime Unit, as the Service’s Hate Crime Coordinator, a role which she has served for the past 11 years. During this time she has been involved in a number of highly controversial hate crime investigations at the municipal, multi-jurisdictional, and national level. Kiran has presented and participated in discussions on the topic of hate-motivated crimes nationally and locally to law enforcement at the Ontario Police College, Toronto Police College, and to government agencies and community groups on the topic of hate-motivated crimes. Kiran also represents the Toronto Police Service as part of the provincial Hate Crime and Extremism Investigative Team and regularly consults with members of other police services across the province on hate-related investigations.

Prior to her role with the Service’s Hate Crime Unit, Kiran worked in several police divisions across Toronto. Kiran holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from York University.

Elder Whabagoon is an Ojibway Elder who sits with the Loon Clan, a Keeper of Sacred Pipes, a member of the Lac Seul First Nation and a 60’s Scoop survivor. Whabagoon is a speaker, land defender and water protector. She is the First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean, with the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, Design and Forestry at the University of Toronto. Recently she curated the mural, umbe magada, with Que Rock, at 1 Spadina Crescent. Elder Whabagoon shares her teachings with Indigenous youth in a summer program Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag, a UofT Access program she co-founded four years ago. Whabagoon continues to co-lead as the program’s Elder, in the summer months. She is currently a faculty member with the Centre for Indigenous Theatre and often shares with other organizations across the City of Toronto.

In her spare time, she loves to paint, read, and spend time with her husband, Karl, of 24 years.

Marie-Claude Landry, was appointed as Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission in March 2015, marking a new phase in a career defined by community involvement. Native of Mont-Joli, QC, she obtained her Bachelor’s of Law from the Université de Sherbrooke in 1988, and founded her own law firm located in Cowansville, QC in 1993.

Ms. Landry’s desire to contribute to the well-being of her community has guided her towards many leadership positions, including President of the Centre de santé et de services sociaux La Pommeraie and President of the local Chamber of Commerce. She has worked to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable members of her community, in particular by providing support to the United Way of Haute-Yamaska, as well as Au Diapason, a regional center for palliative care. Ms. Landry has also presided over the administrative body of the pediatric center “Main dans la main”, inspired by the works of Dr. Gilles Julien.

In addition to her active law practice, Ms. Landry has held numerous positions of distinction, including bâtonnière of the Barreau de Bedford, member of the Barreau du Québec general council, and first President of the Disciplinary Tribunal in Federal Prison Institutions for the Quebec Region. In addition, Ms. Landry has served as member of both the Inquiry Committee for the Canadian Judicial Council, and the Review Committee of the Ordre des dentistes du Québec on recommendation by the Office des professions du Québec. From 1991 to 2001, Ms. Landry was member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

Always conscious of placing people at the heart of her actions, Ms. Landry, as Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, intends to continue protecting people in vulnerable circumstances by working with communities across Canada in a spirit of engagement and collaboration. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

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