Welcome and Opening Remarks

Tania Saba

• EDI 2018 Conference Chair
• BMO Chair in Diversity and Governance and Professor of Industrial Relations, Université de Montréal, Quebec.

Professor Saba teaches Human Resource Management with a focus on international dimensions, employee relations and strategic management. Her research interests include managing diversity, international human resource management, globalization processes, development of international talent, new employment relations, HR management in the private and public sectors, older worker’s management, intergenerational differences and the organization of the human resource function.  Tania Saba has published extensively. Her research on aging and retirement has received awards on a number of occasions, including a citation in "Nature", a "Citation of Excellence Award" from Emerald Management Reviews, and the "Verity International" recognition from the Canadian Association of Administrative Sciences.

In addition to her professorial career, Tania Saba has held important executive and officer positions at the Université de Montréal. From 2008 to 2010, she became the first female director of the School of Industrial Relations. She served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and then Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and External Affairs at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences - Université de Montréal between 2010 and 2015. She acted, from 2015 to 2017, as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science.

OECD – Managing Diversity: Comparative Results

Thomas Liebig (By Videoconferencing)

• Senior Economist in the International Migration Division, OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, Paris.

Thomas Liebig is Senior Migration Specialist in the International Migration Division of the OECD’s Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs in Paris. Since joining the division in 2004, he has notably been in charge of the work on the integration of immigrants and their children. Among other projects, he led in-depth country studies on labour market integration in 13 OECD countries as well as international comparative work on the integration of children of immigrants, the integration of refugees, the socio-economic impact of naturalisation, discrimination against migrants, and the fiscal impact of immigration. He is also managing the joint EC-OECD indicators of immigrant integration and the series “Making integration work”. In addition, he authored or co-authored reviews on the management of labour migration in Austria, Germany, New Zealand and an ongoing review on Canada. He is also in charge of an OECD-wide project that aims at identifying good practices for getting the most out of diversity for businesses and societies at large. 

Thomas Liebig holds a doctorate and an MSc in Economics from the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). His dissertation, published in 2004, dealt with the international competition for highly-skilled migrants. He also holds an MSc in International Affairs and, following studies at the ESADE (Barcelona/Spain), a CEMS Master in International Business Management. Dr Liebig has extensively published and lectured on migration and integration issues.

Panel I: 

Progresses, Setbacks and New Challenges Facing Gender and Work

Wendy Cukier

• Founder and Director Diversity Institute, Professor in Information technology Management, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Ontario

Dr. Wendy Cukier is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy and Director of the Diversity Institute at the Ryerson University Ted Rogers School of Management. She recently completed a successful five-year term as the Vice President of Research and Innovation during which she increased research funding by 60 percent and helped build the innovation ecosystem. Previously, she was the Associate Dean of the Ted Rogers School of Management, Canada’s largest business school. A coauthor of the bestseller Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Java to Jurassic Park, she is an expert in disruptive technology and building innovation ecosystems. 

She founded the Diversity Institute to develop research-based strategies to promote inclusion with a particular focus on the intersection of issues such as gender, race, social economic status, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability and indigeneity. She has done pioneering work on diversity and inclusion focusing on developing “the business case” and applying innovation models to driving change beyond human resources. While committed to data driven analysis, she has also explored the lived experience of particular groups including Racialized Women, Somalian-Canadians, LGBTQ Black Youth and Muslim Women. 

Wendy chairs the Board of Women’s College Hospital, the Information and Communications Technology Council’s Diversity Committee, and serves on the board of a number of other organizations.  She is a recipient of the Governor General's Meritorious Cross, one of Canada’s highest civilian honours. She was named one of the University of Toronto';s 100 Alumni Who Shaped the Century, was selected in 2013 as one of Canada’s Top 25 Women of Influence and in 2010 was selected as one of 25 Transformational Canadians by The Globe and Mail, La Presse and CTV. She received the Black Business Professional Association's Harry Jerome Diversity Award, and in November of 2016, became a Fellow of the Canadian Geographic Society. More recently, the Canada Pakistan Business Council named her the 2017 Female Professional of the year. She holds a PhD, an MBA, an MA, and honorary doctorates from Laval and Concordia.

Hélène-Lee Gosselin

• Professor and Director, Institut Femmes, Sociétés, Égalité et Équité (IFSEE), Faculty of Business Administration, Université Laval, Quebec.

Professor Lee-Gosselin devotes her career to study the everyday life of women, in organizations as well as equity and ethics issues they face. Since January 2010, she is the Claire-Bonenfant Chaired Professor in Women, Knowledge and Societies at Université Laval, Quebec. Her research is conducted in partnership with the community, and focuses on the place of women in governing bodies and boards of directors. She studied the cases of native and immigrant women entrepreneurs and women in non-traditional occupations. From 1997 to 2001, she was the Claire-Bonenfant Chaired Professor in the Status of Women at Université Laval. 

As a committed faculty member, she has been involved in the implementation of the Equal Access Program for professors at Université Laval, and as co-chair of the parity committee from 1991 to 2008. She was the representative of non-unionized employees and a member of the Partners Advisory Committee at the Pay Equity Commission. She is a member of several boards of administration, including the Board of the Agence du revenu du Quebec (2011-). She chaired the Board of Ethics and Professional Conduct of the Fédération des Caisses Desjardins (2001-2015). Since 2012, she has been a member of the Commission on Education and University Research of the Conseil Supérieur de l'Education, Quebec. She is a member of the Regroupement des féministes du Québec (ReQEF) since its creation and serves on its scientific committee.

Diane Lemieux

• CEO, Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ), Quebec

Committed and determined, Diane Lemieux took on her first battles in defence of women – in particular, victims of sexual assault – a cause she pursued as president of the Conseil du statut de la femme. She received the Prix de la Justice in 1991; the Prix IPSOS-ICO, as the person who contributed to the public trust (category: public sector), in 2015; and the Prix Elle, as recognition for her exceptional contribution to the advancement of women in the construction industry, in October 2016.

Diane Lemieux was a member of the Assemblée nationale du Québec for almost ten years. Her ministerial responsibilities in the governments of Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry took her into the fields of labour relations, employment, and culture and communications. She was the first woman to serve as House Leader.

After holding the position of vice-president, business development, at Vision Globale, a Québec film and television company, Diane Lemieux returned to public service as chief of staff for the mayor and president of the executive committee of the Ville de Montréal. 

Diane Lemieux has been CEO of the Commission de la construction du Québec since January 2011. She also sits on the board of directors of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and is Chair of the board of directors of TOHU.

Panel II: 

Progresses, Setbacks and New Challenges Facing Aboriginal People and Work

Suzanne Mills

• Professor and Graduate Chair in Labour Studies, Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Ontario

Suzanne Mills is Associate Professor and Graduate Chair in Labour Studies and Geography and Earth Sciences at McMaster University. She has over ten years of experience researching gender, Indigeneity and work in construction and resource industries in Canada’s provincial and territorial norths. Working in collaboration with Indigenous communities, Mills has drawn on the experiences of Indigenous workers to identify factors that aid or hinder Indigenous employment on resource development projects.  Mills has been the PI on two SSHRC-funded grants examining union engagement with Indigenous governments and the role of employment provisions in Impact and Benefit Agreements in Canada’s north. Mills is presently leading a research partnership with Unifor and the United Steelworkers, Canada, to examine the experiences of LGBTQ+ workers in southwestern and northern Ontario and the role of unions in promoting inclusion. Mills’ research has been published in national and international journals.

Audrey Murray

• President, Commission des partenaires du marché du travail, Government of Quebec.

Ms. Audrey Murray has been President of the Commission of Labor Market Partners (CPMT) since June 11, 2018. The CPMT is a unique forum for consultation that brings together the main actors in the Quebec labor market and has a network of more than 700 partners across regions, different labor sectors and under-represented groups in the labor market. The First Nations and Inuit Advisory Committee is a member of this network. They all have a common goal, to promote training-skills-employment matching and ensure the prosperity of Quebec. Together they advise the Quebec government on ways to improve the labor market and act by supporting many initiatives to achieve this end.

Prior to joining CPMT, Ms. Murray was Vice President, Customer Service and Development at the Quebec Construction Commission. She was responsible, among other things, for the implementation of policies aimed at integrating women, First Nations and immigrants into the workforce of the construction industry. She has also held a number of positions as a lawyer and researcher in human rights and administrative law.

Étienne Rivard

• Professor of Geography in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Saint-Boniface, Manitoba.

Professor of Geography in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Saint-Boniface, Étienne Rivard is a specialist on Métis, métissage and relationships between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples in Canada. Over the last few years, he has notably conducted research on the inclusion of aboriginal communities in territorial development and has engaged in a geographic reflection on the notion of cultural diversity.  He is also interested in the inclusion of Canadian newcomers in francophone minority contexts.

Tanya Sirois

• Executive Director, National Association of Friendship Centres, Quebec.

Mrs. Tanya Sirois is a member of the Innu First Nation from Pessamit. She holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Université Laval (2004) and a master's degree in public administration (2018) from the École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP). Mrs. Sirois began working with the RCAAQ as finance manager in 2009 until her appointment to the position of executive director in 2013. Mrs. Sirois also serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Friendship Centres and as member of the Board of Governors of the Université du Québec. She has more than 10 years of experience in administration, management, and governance.

Panel III:

Progresses, Setbacks and New Challenges Facing Visible Minorities and Work

Marie-Thérèse Chicha

• EDI Conference co-organizer
• Chaired Professor in Ethnic Relations and Professor of Industrial Relations, Université de Montréal, Quebec.

Marie-Thérèse Chicha (Ph.D Economics, McGill University) is a full professor at the School of Industrial Relations and the Ethnic Relations Chair at the Université de Montréal. Throughout her career, professor Chicha has fought discrimination and maintained an unwavering commitment to equity and equality for women. This passion led her to serve as chair of the expert advisory panel on the development of Quebec’s Pay Equity Act and as a member of the Federal Task Force in charge of reviewing pay equity legislation from 2001 to 2004. Marie-Thérèse Chicha has made a significant contribution to researching and documenting the systemic discrimination faced by women and visible minorities. In recognition of her contribution, she received in 2015, the Governor General’s Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case.

Since 2004, she has served as an expert on equality policies for the International Labour Office (Geneva) and has been invited by a variety of organizations and governments (France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, UK and Morocco) to serve as an expert on the topic of equality policies, and within the framework of the EU EQUAL program in Portugal and in Ukraine. Marie-Thérèse was a visiting professor at the International Labour Office Training Centre in Turin, Italy, She is the founder and head of the annual Summer School on Immigration, Integration and Diversity at the University of Montréal.

Professor Chicha has also put her expertise to work supporting the professional integration of immigrant women and has done a great deal to promote workplace diversity. She is member of different research groups and centres, such as the Centre d’études ethniques des universités montréalaises (CEETUM), the Centre de recherche en immigration, ethnicité et citoyenneté (CRIEC) and the Interdisciplinary Research Network on Discrimination and Inclusion. She has been recently invited to join the International Labour Organisation’s Network on the Future of Work

Marc-Edouard Joubert

• President, Conseil régional Montréal Métropolitain, Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ), Quebec.

Hired as a temporary employee with Canada Post Corporation in 1989, Marc-Édouard took the example of several experienced union stewards who taught him to fight for preserving fair working conditions.

He held the Union delegate position from 2004 to 2008 in the largest mail depot in Montreal (Bridge depot) – He was Elected to the union executive of the Montreal Local from 2008 to 2014. He was then elected as a regional union representative for the Montreal Metropolitan region from November 2014 to 2016. He is a member of three FTQ committees: Environment and Sustainable Development since 2008 and the Committee for the Integration of Immigrants since 2009.

On February 8, 2011, he was appointed as a delegate member to represent his Unit at the Council General Meetings. He was elected to the Board of Directors' Executive Director on October 9, 2012; and was elected to the position of Executive Vice President of the Board on June 11, 2013.

Marc-Édouard was elected Chairman of the Board on June 14, 2016.

Mustafa Ozbilgin

• Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Brunel Business School, London, co-Chair Management et Diversité at Université Paris Dauphine,Visiting Professor of Management at Koç University in Istanbul.

Mustafa F. Özbilgin’s research focuses on equality, diversity and inclusion at work from comparative and relational perspectives.  He has conducted field studies in the UK and internationally and his work is empirically grounded. His research is supported by international as well as national grants from the ESRC, EU, CIPD, ACE, ACCA, British Academy among others. His work has a focus on changing policy and practice in equality and diversity at work. He is an engaged scholar, driven by values of workplace democracy, equality for all, and humanisation of work.

He served as the editor-in-chief of the European Management Review (EMR). He has authored and edited 18 books and published over 200 papers in academic journals such as the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Learning and Education, British Journal of Management, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Resource Management, Human Relations, Gender Work and Organization, and Social Science and Medicine among others.

He has done research, consultancy and training at a large number of organisations including the House of Commons, Barclays Bank, The Bank West Australia, Halifax, the CIPD, the National Health Service, the NHS Employers, Tesco, the Probation Services, The UK Fire Service, the Economist Research Unit, the OECD, the WRVS, DTI, Rio Tinto, PwC, Linklaters and ACCA.

He served as the editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Management, the official journal of the British Academy of Management, for four years from 2010 to 2014.

Myrlande Pierre

• Sociologist - Associate researcher at the Center for Research on Immigration, Ethnicity and Citizenship at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Quebec

Myrlande Pierre is a specialist in immigration, intercultural relations and socio-economic integration of ethnocultural and racialized minorities. Her research focuses on issues of systemic discrimination in the labor market and intersectionality. She has published on Racism and Discrimination and on the issue of the socio-economic incorporation of young people from the second generation of Haitian immigration. Recognized for her expertise, she is regularly invited to numerous national and international conferences on topics related to the socio-economic integration of ethnocultural and racialized minorities. She has many years of experience and expertise in the development and analysis of public policies. In March 2017, she was appointed by the Department of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusion on a panel of experts to advise the ministry on issues of racism and systemic discrimination. In March 2018, Mayor of Montréal appointed her President of the Table on diversity, inclusion and anti-discrimination, City of Montreal.

Recognized for her social commitment, the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal appointed her as a member and then nominated her as vice-president of the Conseil des Montréalaises (2004-2008). As the regional representative of the Montreal delegation, she worked on the forums studying the Reform of Democratic Institutions of the Government of Quebec (2003). The issues of democracy, equity and equal opportunities are at the heart of her concerns. She has contributed to many publications on the subject.

In February 2018, she received the Medal of the National Assembly of Quebec. 

Panel IV: Progresses, Setbacks and New Challenges Facing People with Disabilities and Work

Suzanne Bruyère

• Professor of Disability Studies and Director of the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, ILR, Cornell University, NY.

Susanne M. Bruyère, Ph.D., CRC, is currently Professor of Disability Studies and Director of the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, Cornell University ILR (Industrial and Labor Relations) School, Ithaca, N.Y.  The Yang-Tan Institute is a research, training, and technical assistance center focusing on disability inclusion in employment, education, and community.  Dr. Bruyère serves as Institute administrative and strategic lead, and also as the PI/Co-PI of numerous research, dissemination, and technical assistance efforts focused on employment and disability policy and effective workplace practices for people with disabilities. She is the author/co-author of three books and over 120 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on workplace disability inclusion and related topics.  Susanne holds a doctoral degree in Rehabilitation Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association. 

Dr. Bruyère is a past president of the Division of Rehabilitation Psychology (22) of the American Psychological Association, the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA), the National Council on Rehabilitation Education (NCRE), and past Board Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Applied Disability Research and Information Network on Employment and Training (GLADNET), and the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).

Anne Hébert

• Executive Director, Office des personnes handicapées du Quebec (OPHQ), Quebec.

Ms Hébert has 30 years of experience at the OPHQ and is the Executive Director since 2015. She previously held the position of Assistant Executive Director for more than twelve years. Ms Hébert has led major projects, first in her role as a manager; but also as an advisor, an analyst, a promoter and a facilitator among important players helping to achieve the OPHQ’s mission.

Ms. Hébert played a key role in adopting proactive measures provided for by the Act to secure handicapped persons in the exercise of their rights with a view to achieving social, school and workplace integration that was passed in 2004. She also enabled the development, the drafting and the adoption of the Quebec Government policy entitled In its Own Right: For a Real Exercise of the Right to Equality.

In recognition of her achievements, Ms. Hébert received the ÉMÉRITE Management Award (Prix Reconnaissance de l'Alliance des cadres de l'État); apeer distinction conferred in 2013.

Saul Schwartz

• Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration, Carleton University, Ontario

Saul Schwartz is a Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University in Ottawa. Broadly speaking, his research involves the analysis of policies aimed at helping the poor.

With Stephanie Ben-Ishai of the Osgoode Hall Law School, he has written several papers on policies intended to help the poor deal with personal debt.  Another focus has been on student loan issues; his recent work with Jennifer Stewart on matters pertaining to students with disabilities is a part of that student loan research.

Panel V:

Progresses, Setbacks and New Challenges Facing Aging and Work

Yves Carrière

• Professor and Chair, Department of Demography, Université de Montréal, Quebec.

Yves Carrière is a professor in the Demography department at the Université de Montréal since June 2013. For most of the past thirty years, his research interest, both in the academic world and within the federal government, has focussed primarily on issues related to population aging. He has worked on the loss of autonomy among seniors in Canada, and their use of the family network and formal home care services to receive the assistance they need in their everyday activities. Between 2005 and 2012, while at Human resources and Social development Canada, he held positions of senior policy analyst and policy advisor on files related to population aging, older workers and retirement, standard of living of future retirees and the adequacy of the Canadian retirement income system.  The different positions he has held over the years have provided him with the opportunity to develop strong ties between the research and policy worlds. His most recent research focussed on past and future trends in retirement age and life expectancy at retirement. Recently, he has participated in round table discussions on the need or not to increase the age of full eligibility to retirement benefits within the Canadian public pension system.

François Lamoureux

• President, Conseil consultatif du travail et de la main-d’œuvre (CCTM), Government of Quebec.

Since September 2014, Me Lamoureux chairs the CCTM. Created in 1968, the CCTM (Advisory Committee on Labor and the Workforce) brings together the leaders of employers and unions associations in Quebec, and representatives of the Labor Secretariat. For more than 40 years, the CCTM has played a strategic role in actively supporting dialogue among community stakeholders in their efforts to overcome the challenges of the world of work.

Mr. Lamoureux began his career in 1988 as a litigator in the firm of Sauvé and Roy, lawyers. He was Director of Litigation from 1997 to 2009. Subsequently, he served as a Policy Advisor to the Executive Committee of the CSN (Confederation of National Unions)  from 2009 to 2014.

Mr. Lamoureux was a member of the Advisory Committee on Labor and Workforce to the CCTM from 2009 to 2014. He served on various subcommittees working with both employers' and labor organizations to build consensus in order to advise the Minister of Labor.

Under his direction, the members developed various views advising the Minister of Labor and leading to various bills, such as the Act to modernize theAct respecting the Collective Agreement Decree and the Act to amend the Pension Benefits Act mainly with respect to the funding of defined benefit pension plans.

He is currently pursuing, at the request of the Minister of Labor, major work on the modernization of the Act respecting Occupational Health and Safety as well as the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases.

Eddy Ng

• Manning Chair in Economics and Business and Professor of Organizational Behaviour, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia.

Eddy Ng is the F.C. Manning Chair in Economics and Business and Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.  His research focuses on managing diversity for organizational competitiveness, the changing nature of work and organizations, and managing an intergenerational workforce.  His work has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grants.  He has served as Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Theme Committee of the Academy of Management and the Gender and Diversity in Organizations division of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada.  He is Editor-in-Chief of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, and an Associate Editor of Personnel Review.  In his spare time, he serves on the board of a nonprofit arts organization.

Tania Saba

• Conference Chair
• BMO Chair in Diversity and Governance and Professor of Industrial Relations, Université de Montréal, Quebec.

Since 1996, Professor Saba teaches Human Resource Management with a focus on international dimensions, employee relations and strategic management. Her research interests include international human resource management, globalization processes, development of international talent, new employment relations, HR management in the private and public sectors, older worker’s management, intergenerational differences and the organization of the human resource function.  Tania Saba has published extensively. Her research on aging and retirement has received awards on a number of occasions, including a citation in "Nature", a "Citation of Excellence Award" from Emerald Management Reviews, and the "Verity International" recognition from the Canadian Association of Administrative Sciences.

In addition to her professorial career, Tania Saba has held important executive and officer positions at the Université de Montréal. From 2008 to 2010, she became the first female director of the School of Industrial Relations. She served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and then Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and External Affairs at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences - Université de Montréal between 2010 and 2015. She acted, from 2015 to 2017, as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science.

Closing Remarks

Joana Vassilopoulo

• Senior Lecturer in HRM at Brunel Business School, Brunel University London, (UK),  Senior Lecturer at the Erasmus Centre for Women and Organizations, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Netherlands), Visiting Professor at Dauphine University, Paris (France) and at the University of Wuppertal, (Germany).

Dr Vassilopoulou’s research focuses on race and gender equality at work, the notion of integration, highly skilled migrants, diversity management and talent management, from a critical and international comparative perspective.

Joana Vassilopoulou has an established academic and professional record in the field of diversity and inclusion, is frequently invited to deliver talks and she has organized and hosted the international Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) conference. She is also collaborating with the European Network against Racism (ENAR), Brussels (Belgium) by contributing to events and conferences.

Joana is an Associate Editor of the European Management Review (EMR) and the editor of the Xenophobia Monitor at EMR. Until 2018, Joana was a board member of the European Academy of Management (EURAM) and the UK National Representative of EURAM. She has published in edited collections and journals such as the European Journal of Industrial Relations, International Business Review and the International Journal of Human Resource Management.

As a certified trainer in Managing Gender and Diversity and HRM, she has developed and delivered trainings for organizations in countries such as, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, France and the United Arab Emirates.

She has a PhD from Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia and her Sociology diploma from the University Duisburg-Essen, Germany.