The Honourable Art Eggleton has served in public office for over 40 years, including Mayor of Toronto, Member of Parliament for York Centre, and holding three Cabinet positions.
In 2005, he was appointed to the Senate. He currently serves as Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology which, in 2009, completed a study on poverty, housing and homelessness entitled, In From the Margins: A Call to Action Poverty, Housing and Homelessness. He continues to focus on social justice and health care reform issues.
In 2012, he founded and is convenor of the All Party Anti-Poverty Caucus, a group consisting of Members of Parliament and Senators.
In 2015 he was appointed Chair of the Mayor’s Task Force on Toronto Community Housing.
Lee Cormie is professor emeritus of the Faculty of Theology, University of St. Michael’s College and the Toronto School of Theology, teaching, researching and writing in the areas of liberation, social justice, eco-justice, and peace theologies, Christian social teachings, and social movements (including especially ‘anti-globalization’ or ‘alter-globalization’ movements and the World Social Forum with its hope that ‘another world is possible’). He is also a member of the International Committee of the World Forum on Theology and Liberation since its inception in 2005. And he is currently working on a book on the shifting horizons of hopes and politics in the tumultuous dawn of the Anthropocene, a new epoch in the history of life on Earth.
Evelyn Forget is an economist and professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. One of her recent projects involved the re-discovery and analysis of data from the Mincome experiment that took place in Manitoba during the 1970s.
James Ginther is the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of St Michael’s College. He also holds the Sister of St Joseph of Toronto Chair in Theology. Born and raised in Toronto, Ginther gained a BA in History at Glendon College, York University and then a MA and PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. During his career has taught in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and now Canada when he was appointed as Dean in 2015. Dr Ginther’s teaching and research focuses on medieval Christianity, particularly the theological thought of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He also has published on theological method including medieval biblical hermeneutics and the relationship between science and religion of the Middle Ages. Additionally, he has engaged the digital humanities in his research and has executed a number of large funded research projects to build digital tools for advanced research.
Tim Hackborn is the Manager of Program Coordination and Community Engagement at Metropolitan United Church and sits on the Board of Nishnawbe Homes. Tim has been an active member of the Toronto Drop-In Network and its initiatives that include Measuring Success, the Drop-In review and the Drop-In training courses that were developed for frontline staff,
Rabia Khedr was recently appointed as a Commissioner with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Rabia is a founder of the Canadian Association of Muslims with Disabilities, Executive Director of the Muslim Council of Peel and CEO of DEEN Support Services. Rabia has served on many boards and committees including the Accessibility Standards Council of Ontario, Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario, Ontario Women’s Health Network and Federation of Muslim Women. Currently, she serves on the Mississauga Accessibility Advisory Committee.
Rabia has been recognized for her leadership and community contributions and most notably, received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
Mary Jo Leddy is the Founder of Romero House Community for Refugees,
Adjunct Professor, Regis College, University of Toronto, and a Senior Fellow, Massey College, University of Toronto. Mary Jo was the Founding editor of Catholic New Times, an independent national Catholic newspaper, a columnist for Toronto Star and a frequent radio and TV commentator. She has lectured on various topics nationally/ internationally. Mary Jo sits on a number of Boards including PEN Canada, Writers in Exile Committee, Massey College, and Keep the Promise Campaign Against Child Poverty.
Mary Jo has won numerous awards including The Governor General’s Bronze Medal, the Order of Canada, 1996, and the Clarkson Laureate in Public Service, Massey College 2014
Shaun Loney is an Ashoka Fellow (first in Canadian Prairies) and Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year (2014). He has co-founded and mentored 11 social enterprises, including BUILD Inc. (2011 Scotia Bank EcoLiving Green Business of the Year) – a social enterprise that has lowered utility bills at now over 15,000 low income households through insulating, high efficiency furnace installations and water retrofits. In 2013, he co-founded AKI Energy which provides business development and training to First Nations in geothermal energy so that they can start their own social enterprises.
Shaun is the author of BUILD Prosperity: Energizing Manitoba’s Local Economy and a new book An Army of Problem Solvers: Reconciliation and the Solutions Economy
Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of Wellesley Institute. He is an international expert on the social causes of illness, suicide and the development of effective, equitable health systems.
As a physician, researcher and policy advisor, Dr. McKenzie has worked to identify the causes of illness and in cross-cultural health for over two decades. He is an active, funded researcher of social, community, clinical and policy issues with nearly 200 academic publications including five books.
In addition to his post at Wellesley Institute, Dr. McKenzie is the Director of Clinical Health Equity at CAMH. He is a full Professor and the Co-Director of the Division of Equity Gender and Population in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.
Dr. McKenzie sits on the Boards of the United Way Toronto and the Ontario Hospitals Association. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and was recently appointed a commissioner to the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
Cheryl Bela McPherson is a community researcher and works primarily in
the Aboriginal community in Toronto. She is a member of the Haudenosaunee
Nations. She currently works at Ryerson University, York University and
Centennial College as an instructor of social work.
Chandra Pasma is an Ottawa-based policy analyst working on issues of income security, poverty, taxation, and gender and politics. She has worked in both politics and for non-profits. She regularly writes and presents on basic income issues. Chandra is the author of a paper comparing the costs and consequences of prison spending with a guaranteed annual income, an international review of “Basic Income Programs and Pilots,” and a critical analysis of the so-called work disincentive. Chandra is also the co-author, with Jim Mulvale, of “Income Security for All Canadians: Understanding Guaranteed Income.”
Dr. Andrew Pinto is a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist and family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital. Currently, he is a Scientist at the LKSKI St. Michael’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, cross appointed to the Faculty of Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He leads the Upstream Lab, which is focused on incubating interventions that address the social determinants of health, evaluating them rigorously and disseminating those that are successful. Current projects have emerged from collaborations with patients, community agencies, advocacy groups and health organizations.
Rabbi Shalom Schachter began his rabbinic training in the Lubavitcher Yeshivot in Montreal, Quebec and Kfar Chabad, Israel in the 1960's. Following the success of his legal career in the field of labour relations, social justice and human rights, he completed his rabbinic studies and received his ordination in July 2005 from ALEPH, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal.
Shalom serves on various professional and religious Boards and Committees. He is currently Vice President and Counsel on the Board of OHALAH, the Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal and is the Toronto Board of Rabbis representative on the Steering Committee of the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition.
Shalom was the litigant in the Supreme Court of Canada case that established the positive capacity of courts to extend the scope of human rights laws to groups that were previously excluded.
Dr. Lisa Simon is a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist who has worked with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit as an Associate Medical Officer of Health (AMOH) for 4 years. Her interests are in the areas of the social determinants of health, chronic disease and injury prevention, and child and reproductive health.
Dr. Simon has a long-standing interest in health equity, both locally and globally. Since 2015, she has taken leadership in the Ontario public health community in advocating for a basic income guarantee for Ontarians and Canadians.
The Honourable Hugh Segal, the fifth Master of Massey College, chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Urban poverty, as well as the Anti-Terrorism and Foreign Relations Committee during his eight and a half years in the Senate.
A graduate in History from the University of Ottawa, Hugh is a former President of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, chief of staff to the Prime Minister, and Associate Cabinet Secretary for federal provincial affairs in Ontario.
John Stapleton is a writer, instructor and Innovations Fellow with the Metcalf Foundation. He worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years in the areas of social assistance policy and operations and was Research Director for the Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults in Toronto. John teaches a popular course on public policy for community advocates and is extensively published in local and national media.
Valerie Tarasuk is a professor in the Dept of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto and a long-time researcher in the area of food insecurity. Most recently, she has led PROOF, an interdisciplinary research program established to identify effective policy interventions to address household food insecurity in Canada.
Kaylie Tiessen is an economist & policy analyst and works as a researcher at Unifor. She uses her experience and expertise as a force for change to build a stronger, more fair, higher functioning economy and society for everyone. She is committed to social, economic and environmental justice and is a consistent and active contributor to the growing movement to build these foundational elements into business models and public policies in Canada and around the world.
She researches labour markets, social progress and the value of public services and has covered the gamut of social policy issues - from tax policy to child care; from poverty to employment trends; from inequality to raising workers’ pay – she has relished the opportunity to develop and disseminate knowledge on a wide variety of issues affecting society.
Kaylie has a passion for system change and is committed to developing and acting on new ideas that shape public discourse and produce meaningful improvements over the long-term.
Ayesha Valliani does research and policy work on issues of Islam, gender, and law for the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office. She has worked on a number of research and civic engagement projects in Canada on issues of religion in the public sphere, is an active volunteer, and has lived in five countries. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto.
David Walsh Has an HBA from the Richard Ivey Business School and an MBA from the Schulich Business School. He has 40 years’ experience in commercial real estate and he operates a company that develops and invests in innovative commercial projects such as Carrot Common on the Danforth and the Gooderham Flat-Iron Building which he owned for 30 years. David has had a long-time interest in social justice, non-profit housing, and community economic development – his volunteer work has included positions as a board member of organizations such as the Social Planning Council, the Community Business Centre, the Agora Foundation, and the Learning Enrichment Foundation. David has been on the founding boards of the Daily Bread Food Bank, Homes First Society, Homeownership Alternatives, the Housing Development Resource Centre, the Urban Planning Trust and Seeds of Hope Foundation.
David is a recipient of the Jane Jacobs Award for his community work.
In 2005, he was appointed to the Senate. He currently serves as Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology which, in 2009, completed a study on poverty, housing and homelessness entitled, In From the Margins: A Call to Action Poverty, Housing and Homelessness. He continues to focus on social justice and health care reform issues.
In 2012, he founded and is convenor of the All Party Anti-Poverty Caucus, a group consisting of Members of Parliament and Senators.
In 2015 he was appointed Chair of the Mayor’s Task Force on Toronto Community Housing.
Lee Cormie is professor emeritus of the Faculty of Theology, University of St. Michael’s College and the Toronto School of Theology, teaching, researching and writing in the areas of liberation, social justice, eco-justice, and peace theologies, Christian social teachings, and social movements (including especially ‘anti-globalization’ or ‘alter-globalization’ movements and the World Social Forum with its hope that ‘another world is possible’). He is also a member of the International Committee of the World Forum on Theology and Liberation since its inception in 2005. And he is currently working on a book on the shifting horizons of hopes and politics in the tumultuous dawn of the Anthropocene, a new epoch in the history of life on Earth.
Evelyn Forget is an economist and professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. One of her recent projects involved the re-discovery and analysis of data from the Mincome experiment that took place in Manitoba during the 1970s.
James Ginther is the Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of St Michael’s College. He also holds the Sister of St Joseph of Toronto Chair in Theology. Born and raised in Toronto, Ginther gained a BA in History at Glendon College, York University and then a MA and PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. During his career has taught in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and now Canada when he was appointed as Dean in 2015. Dr Ginther’s teaching and research focuses on medieval Christianity, particularly the theological thought of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He also has published on theological method including medieval biblical hermeneutics and the relationship between science and religion of the Middle Ages. Additionally, he has engaged the digital humanities in his research and has executed a number of large funded research projects to build digital tools for advanced research.
Tim Hackborn is the Manager of Program Coordination and Community Engagement at Metropolitan United Church and sits on the Board of Nishnawbe Homes. Tim has been an active member of the Toronto Drop-In Network and its initiatives that include Measuring Success, the Drop-In review and the Drop-In training courses that were developed for frontline staff,
Rabia Khedr was recently appointed as a Commissioner with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Rabia is a founder of the Canadian Association of Muslims with Disabilities, Executive Director of the Muslim Council of Peel and CEO of DEEN Support Services. Rabia has served on many boards and committees including the Accessibility Standards Council of Ontario, Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario, Ontario Women’s Health Network and Federation of Muslim Women. Currently, she serves on the Mississauga Accessibility Advisory Committee.
Rabia has been recognized for her leadership and community contributions and most notably, received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
Mary Jo Leddy is the Founder of Romero House Community for Refugees,
Adjunct Professor, Regis College, University of Toronto, and a Senior Fellow, Massey College, University of Toronto. Mary Jo was the Founding editor of Catholic New Times, an independent national Catholic newspaper, a columnist for Toronto Star and a frequent radio and TV commentator. She has lectured on various topics nationally/ internationally. Mary Jo sits on a number of Boards including PEN Canada, Writers in Exile Committee, Massey College, and Keep the Promise Campaign Against Child Poverty.
Mary Jo has won numerous awards including The Governor General’s Bronze Medal, the Order of Canada, 1996, and the Clarkson Laureate in Public Service, Massey College 2014
Shaun Loney is an Ashoka Fellow (first in Canadian Prairies) and Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year (2014). He has co-founded and mentored 11 social enterprises, including BUILD Inc. (2011 Scotia Bank EcoLiving Green Business of the Year) – a social enterprise that has lowered utility bills at now over 15,000 low income households through insulating, high efficiency furnace installations and water retrofits. In 2013, he co-founded AKI Energy which provides business development and training to First Nations in geothermal energy so that they can start their own social enterprises.
Shaun is the author of BUILD Prosperity: Energizing Manitoba’s Local Economy and a new book An Army of Problem Solvers: Reconciliation and the Solutions Economy
Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of Wellesley Institute. He is an international expert on the social causes of illness, suicide and the development of effective, equitable health systems.
As a physician, researcher and policy advisor, Dr. McKenzie has worked to identify the causes of illness and in cross-cultural health for over two decades. He is an active, funded researcher of social, community, clinical and policy issues with nearly 200 academic publications including five books.
In addition to his post at Wellesley Institute, Dr. McKenzie is the Director of Clinical Health Equity at CAMH. He is a full Professor and the Co-Director of the Division of Equity Gender and Population in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.
Dr. McKenzie sits on the Boards of the United Way Toronto and the Ontario Hospitals Association. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and was recently appointed a commissioner to the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
Cheryl Bela McPherson is a community researcher and works primarily in
the Aboriginal community in Toronto. She is a member of the Haudenosaunee
Nations. She currently works at Ryerson University, York University and
Centennial College as an instructor of social work.
Chandra Pasma is an Ottawa-based policy analyst working on issues of income security, poverty, taxation, and gender and politics. She has worked in both politics and for non-profits. She regularly writes and presents on basic income issues. Chandra is the author of a paper comparing the costs and consequences of prison spending with a guaranteed annual income, an international review of “Basic Income Programs and Pilots,” and a critical analysis of the so-called work disincentive. Chandra is also the co-author, with Jim Mulvale, of “Income Security for All Canadians: Understanding Guaranteed Income.”
Dr. Andrew Pinto is a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist and family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital. Currently, he is a Scientist at the LKSKI St. Michael’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, cross appointed to the Faculty of Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He leads the Upstream Lab, which is focused on incubating interventions that address the social determinants of health, evaluating them rigorously and disseminating those that are successful. Current projects have emerged from collaborations with patients, community agencies, advocacy groups and health organizations.
Rabbi Shalom Schachter began his rabbinic training in the Lubavitcher Yeshivot in Montreal, Quebec and Kfar Chabad, Israel in the 1960's. Following the success of his legal career in the field of labour relations, social justice and human rights, he completed his rabbinic studies and received his ordination in July 2005 from ALEPH, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal.
Shalom serves on various professional and religious Boards and Committees. He is currently Vice President and Counsel on the Board of OHALAH, the Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal and is the Toronto Board of Rabbis representative on the Steering Committee of the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition.
Shalom was the litigant in the Supreme Court of Canada case that established the positive capacity of courts to extend the scope of human rights laws to groups that were previously excluded.
Dr. Lisa Simon is a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist who has worked with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit as an Associate Medical Officer of Health (AMOH) for 4 years. Her interests are in the areas of the social determinants of health, chronic disease and injury prevention, and child and reproductive health.
Dr. Simon has a long-standing interest in health equity, both locally and globally. Since 2015, she has taken leadership in the Ontario public health community in advocating for a basic income guarantee for Ontarians and Canadians.
The Honourable Hugh Segal, the fifth Master of Massey College, chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Urban poverty, as well as the Anti-Terrorism and Foreign Relations Committee during his eight and a half years in the Senate.
A graduate in History from the University of Ottawa, Hugh is a former President of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, chief of staff to the Prime Minister, and Associate Cabinet Secretary for federal provincial affairs in Ontario.
John Stapleton is a writer, instructor and Innovations Fellow with the Metcalf Foundation. He worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years in the areas of social assistance policy and operations and was Research Director for the Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults in Toronto. John teaches a popular course on public policy for community advocates and is extensively published in local and national media.
Valerie Tarasuk is a professor in the Dept of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto and a long-time researcher in the area of food insecurity. Most recently, she has led PROOF, an interdisciplinary research program established to identify effective policy interventions to address household food insecurity in Canada.
Kaylie Tiessen is an economist & policy analyst and works as a researcher at Unifor. She uses her experience and expertise as a force for change to build a stronger, more fair, higher functioning economy and society for everyone. She is committed to social, economic and environmental justice and is a consistent and active contributor to the growing movement to build these foundational elements into business models and public policies in Canada and around the world.
She researches labour markets, social progress and the value of public services and has covered the gamut of social policy issues - from tax policy to child care; from poverty to employment trends; from inequality to raising workers’ pay – she has relished the opportunity to develop and disseminate knowledge on a wide variety of issues affecting society.
Kaylie has a passion for system change and is committed to developing and acting on new ideas that shape public discourse and produce meaningful improvements over the long-term.
Ayesha Valliani does research and policy work on issues of Islam, gender, and law for the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office. She has worked on a number of research and civic engagement projects in Canada on issues of religion in the public sphere, is an active volunteer, and has lived in five countries. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto.
David Walsh Has an HBA from the Richard Ivey Business School and an MBA from the Schulich Business School. He has 40 years’ experience in commercial real estate and he operates a company that develops and invests in innovative commercial projects such as Carrot Common on the Danforth and the Gooderham Flat-Iron Building which he owned for 30 years. David has had a long-time interest in social justice, non-profit housing, and community economic development – his volunteer work has included positions as a board member of organizations such as the Social Planning Council, the Community Business Centre, the Agora Foundation, and the Learning Enrichment Foundation. David has been on the founding boards of the Daily Bread Food Bank, Homes First Society, Homeownership Alternatives, the Housing Development Resource Centre, the Urban Planning Trust and Seeds of Hope Foundation.
David is a recipient of the Jane Jacobs Award for his community work.
