The fifth Head of Massey College, at the University of Toronto, where he is a Senior Fellow, Hugh was a former Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Special Senate Committee on anti-terrorism. He also served as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Mulroney, Associate Cabinet Secretary for federal provincial relations in Ontario under Premier William Davis, and as President of the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Montreal.

He was a Senior Strategic Advisor at the Aird & Berlis LLP law firm, and a Distinguished Fellow at both the Munk School of Global Affairs, and the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University. He graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in history in 1972. 

His public policy focus for many years focused on reforming income security in Canada with a Basic Income guarantee. His foreign policy focus as Chair of the NAO Council of Canada, and Co-Chair of the Democracy 10 International Strategy Forum, grouping the 10 major democracy countries in the defence and promotion of the two core freedoms: from fear and from want. He wrote seven books on public policy, and held honorary doctorates from the University of Ottawa and the Royal Military College. He was an Honorary Captain of the Royal Canadian Navy, and most recently, served as Canada's Special Envoy. He was a member of the Eminent Persons Group dealing with human rights and rule of law in Commonwealth countries. He also recently wrote the proposal published by Ontario for a pilot project on a Basic Income.

Hugh passed away on August 9, 2023. 

Victor Rabinovitch is an Emeritus Fellow of the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University. He is a frequent writer and speaker on issues of Canadian culture and identity. His current areas of interest are in cultural expression, community identity, history and memory, and public policy analysis. He is also the Board Chair of Opera Lyra, the professional opera company of Ottawa-Gatineau.

Dr. Rabinovitch is the President Emeritus of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, responsible for Canada’s largest museum (the Canadian Museum of Civilization – now the Museum of History) and the national museum of military history (the Canadian War Museum). During his eleven years as head of these national institutions, they dramatically expanded their range of exhibitions, audiences and artefact collections. The new War Museum was constructed, while extensive renewals also took place at the Museum of Civilization.

Before joining the national museums, Dr. Rabinovitch had served as an Assistant Deputy Minister in various federal government departments. His areas of responsibility included: operations of the Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan; international relations, enforcement and economic development at Fisheries and Oceans; and cultural policies and programs at the Department of Canadian Heritage (including film, broadcasting, publishing, copyright and museums). He had also been the first Executive Director of Workplace Safety and Health in the Province of Manitoba and, for four years, was the National Secretary for Health and Safety at the Canadian Labour Congress.

Dr. Rabinovitch was named CEO of the Year in the para-public sector by the Regroupement des gens d’affaires de la Capitale nationale in 2005. He was given the Award of Merit from the Association for Canadian Studies in October 2006 for his “outstanding contribution to the dissemination of knowledge of Canada’s history”, and he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for service in promoting Canadian history.

While his professional career has focused on government operations and policy-making, Dr. Rabinovitch writes and lectures internationally on issues of culture, history and policy. 

During his extensive career in the Ontario Public Service, David Lindsay served as Deputy Minister in half a dozen portfolios including Energy and Infrastructure, Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, Natural Resources, and Tourism and Culture. He also served as the Principal Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Premier of Ontario from 1995 to 1997 and was President and CEO of the Ontario Jobs and Investment Board from 1997 to 1999.

As the founding President of the Ontario SuperBuild Corporation, Mr. Lindsay oversaw provincial government infrastructure planning from 1999 to 2003. He has also served as President and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities and President and CEO of Colleges Ontario.  

Over the past 25 years, Mr. Lindsay has served as a director on the boards of many government agencies, cultural and not-for-profit organizations, and private businesses including the Ontario Innovation Trust, Ontario Realty Corporation, the Public Policy Forum, and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow of the Queen's University School of Policy Studies, Vice Chair of Ontario Parks Board, and sits on the Ontario Greenbelt Foundation Board.

(Updated August 2021)

Caroline Davis specializes in governance and financial management in the public sector and not-for-profit organizations. She is a Fellow of CPA Ontario, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in London before coming to Canada. She has a BSc with honours in chemistry from the University of Wales. 

Caroline served for seven years as Vice-Principal (Finance and Administration) at Queen’s University. Before that, she worked in the Government of Canada, her last position being Assistant Deputy Minister, Resolution and Individual Affairs at Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). She was also INAC’s chief financial officer for five years, was the ADM responsible for land and trust services, and was involved in negotiating comprehensive land claims in the north and the west of Canada. 

Since moving to Kingston, Caroline has volunteered with the United Way of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, and she chaired its board of directors in 2016-17. She is also on the board of United Way Centraide Canada, and for 2017-18 was Vice-Chair. 

In 2017, the Government of Canada appointed Caroline as a director of the First Nations Financial Management Board, an indigenous-run organization that provides services to First Nations seeking to strengthen their fiscal stewardship and accountability regimes.  Her appointment was renewed in March 2019.

Helen Cooper graduated from Queen’s with a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Mathematics, then worked for a year as a chemist at Procter & Gamble in Hamilton. With a yearning to see a wider world she signed up with CUSO for a two-year stint teaching in a girls’ boarding school in northern Tanzania. She then completed an M.Sc. at the London School of Economics in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics. Upon her return to Kingston with two young children she was elected as a municipal councillor in 1980. In the ‘80s she was also elected by the Queen’s University Council to serve on the Board of Trustees. She ran successfully to become Kingston’s first woman mayor from 1988 to 1993, then began a three-year term as Chair of the Ontario Municipal Board. In the early ‘90s Helen served as President of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario as well as a member of the Premier’s Council on Health Strategy and the Ontario Round Table on Environment and Economy. From 1997 to 2006, she served on the board of Cancer Care Ontario. From 2001 to 2006 she was a member of the Advisory Council of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. From 2006, Helen was a manager within the Ministry of Community and Social Services, most recently with program delivery for adult developmental services until her retirement at the end of 2014. She has subsequently indulged in a great deal of travel both in North America and abroad, including the long-held goal of completing Route 66 in the USA. Her current volunteer enthusiasms are the Queen’s School of Policy Studies where she is a Distinguished Fellow, the Aging Well at Home project for the Frontenac Lennox & Addington Ontario Health Team and the establishment of a national organization for Oasis Communities for Aging Well, a project led by the faculty of the Queen’s School of Rehabilitation Therapy.

After nearly 31 years as public servant and a decade at the Deputy Minister level, Malcolm Brown retired from the the federal Public Service on April 24th, 2019.  He is currently a Senior Strategic Advisor with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He is also sits on the Board of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, DC based think tank. 

Prior to his retirement he served as the Deputy Minister of Public Safety between 2016 and 2019.  In this role he led major policy and legislative initiatives in the areas of national security, cyber security, emergency management and corrections reform and ensured coordinated actions across the Public Safety Portfolio, which includes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Correctional Service of Canada and the Parole Board of Canada.

Malcolm Brown served as Special Advisor to the Clerk of the Privy Council on the Syrian Refugee Initiative between 2015 and 2016 supporting the selection, screening, arrival and settlement of more than 25,000 Syrian refugees.

Malcolm Brown was also the Deputy Minister of International Development from 2014 to 2015.  In this role he oversaw Canada’s international development agenda, and served as Canada’s Alternate Governor for the World Bank.

He was also appointed Executive Vice President of the Canada Border Services Agency in 2011 and Associate Deputy Minister of Natural Resources in 2009.

Malcolm Brown began his federal public service career in the Federal Provincial Relations Office in 1990. He then worked at Health Canada and later at the Privy Council Office where, among other senior positions. Between 2002 and 2009, he occupied assistant deputy minister-level positions with Human Resources Development Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), culminating with the position of Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy and Research, HRSDC. 

He also worked in the Ontario government in the Ministries of Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Malcolm Brown holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies from Queen's University and a Master of Arts in Political Science from York University.

Daniel (Dan) Brant is a member of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and resides on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory with his wife Roberta Greyeyes. He grew up on the reserve and attended the Indian day school on the reserve and attended high school in Belleville, Ontario. 

Currently, Dan is proprietor of Daniel J. Brant & Associates (Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario) and most recently he was an adjunct assistant professor at Queen's University for the fall semester 2020 and summer 2021. He has also served as the Chief Administrative Officer, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, Ontario; CEO of Dreamcatcher Charitable Foundation (Ohsweken, Ontario); and previously as a sessional Professor at Algonquin College (Ottawa) and Confederation College (Thunder Bay).

Previously, Dan worked as a Special/Executive Assistant and Senior Policy Advisor to four federal Minsters and two Deputy Ministers for Indian Affairs, Government of Canada--now Indigenous Services Canada--and in various executive positions including CEO of the Assembly of First Nations (Ontario), CEO of NACCA, and Executive Director of the National Indian Brotherhood--now the Assembly of First Nations (AFN)--(Ottawa).

Dan completed a PhD at Nipissing University focussing on the impact of culture on Indigenous leadership. He previously completed a Master's Degree in Public Administration, Queen's University, a Master's Degree in Applied Science (Civil Engineering), University of Waterloo, and a Bachelor's Degree in Architectural Technology, TMU.

Among Dan’s many leadership and management roles with three different national Indigenous organizations, he was heavily involved in the national expansion of services and establishing many important corporate partnerships.     

As a professional, Dan is board member with AFOA Canada and Chair of the Education Committee; Board Chair of ‘Outside Looking In’ a non profit supporting Indigenous youth; and a member of the Departmental Audit Committee of two federal departments, Employment and Social Development Canada and Infrastructure Canada. He is also on the Board of Governors of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary and a national representative on the Indigenous Advisory Council for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Previous Board membership includes: Banff School of Management – Advisory Board; Native Economic Development Board (Federal Order in Council Appointment); Gignul Housing Corporation; Vice-Chair, Eastern Ontario Economic Development Board (Provincial Order in Council appointment); and Chair, First Nations Technical Institute.  

As a visionary, Dan has a gift for seeing the ‘art of the possible’, a creative mind in designing new approaches to solve problems; and a strong work ethic, and thanks his parents for teaching his family that ethics matter.

Margaret Biggs was President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) from 2008-2013. In this role, she was accountable for policy advice, partnerships, programming and performance management related to Canada’s international development and humanitarian assistance, including Canadian initiatives on maternal and child health, sustainable economic growth, and fragile and conflict-affected states. In this capacity, she also contributed to the horizontal management of major foreign policy priorities such as the whole-of-government mission in Afghanistan. Previously, Ms. Biggs served as Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet (Plans) and Assistant Secretary, Priorities and Planning, in the Privy Council Office. As an Assistant Deputy Minister she held positions responsible for social and labour market policy and for skills, learning and social development programs.

Ms. Biggs has an extensive background in federal-provincial relations and social policy and played a key role in the creation of Canada’s National Child Benefit. She started her career at the North South Institute. Ms. Biggs has represented Canada in numerous international fora and has served as Canada’s Alternate Governor to the World Bank, as International Executive Co-chair of the China Council on International Cooperation on Environment and Development, and on the Board of Governors for the International Development Research Centre. Ms. Biggs is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University.

Naomi Alboim is a Distinguished Fellow at the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University, where she was an adjunct professor for twenty years. She is also  the Senior Policy Fellow at the Canada Excellence Research Chair in  Migration and Integration (CERC) at Ryerson University. 

Previously, she worked at senior levels in the Canadian federal and Ontario provincial governments for twenty-five years, including eight years as Deputy Minister in three different portfolios. Her areas of responsibility included immigration, human rights, labour market training, workplace standards, culture, as well as women’s, seniors’, disability and indigenous issues.

Ms. Alboim is an active public policy consultant, advising governments and NGOs across Canada and abroad in Europe, the Caribbean, Ghana, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kenya. 

She continues to write extensively on Canadian immigration policy, and advises the federal and provincial governments, universities, colleges, regulatory bodies, and NGO’s on a variety of related topics including immigrant labour market integration and refugee issues..

Ms. Alboim is a recipient of Queen Elizabeth II’s Gold and Diamond Jubilee Medals and is a member of the Order of Ontario.