Alex Neve is an adjunct professor in international human rights law at the University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University, and a Senior Fellow with the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He served as Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English Branch from 2000 – 2020. He is a lawyer, with a Master’s Degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. Alex is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

 

Anita MacLean is a retired Chartered Accountant. She is Chair of the Global Justice Working Group at the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa where she has organized many educational sessions on social/humanitarian issues, including human rights for Palestinians and Indigenous issues inviting leading indigenous leaders and thinkers.  She is also an active member of Amnesty International and Chair of the Community Services at Kiwanis Club of Ottawa West that assists disadvantaged children and youth.

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Anna Vogt is the Director of the Ottawa Office of the Mennonite Central Committee. She grew up in Dawson City, Yukon. She has previous experience working with MCC in Colombia where she accompanied displaced communities advocating for their rights as victims of Colombia’s armed conflict. She currently oversees all the work of the MCC Ottawa office, including its advocacy and education work around Palestine and Israel.

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Arthur Milner is a Canadian author and playwright. His Polish parents lost almost of their family in Poland and spent several years in a refugee camp in Frankfurt, Germany before coming to Canada. Arthur has been continually active in the Canadian theatre community, has written many plays and was Artistic Director of the Great Canadian Theatre Company. His play, Facts, toured Palestine and Israel in Arabic in 2013. He currently lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.

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Barbara Dumont-Hill, a First Nation Algonquin, was born on the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Reserve and has resided in her traditional territory ever since. She is Turtle Clan and has served as a grandmother with the 2015 Walking With Our Sisters memorial installation in Ottawa.

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Bruce Gregersen (Rev. Dr. retired) was a senior staff leader of The United Church of Canada responsible for the oversight of national and international programs. He has been involved in Middle East issues for several decades, travelling to the region numerous times and was lead staff in the development of the UCC Israel/Palestine report.  

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Chris Greenshields is a retired Canadian foreign service officer. He first travelled to the Middle East in 1971-72 as a student.  Worked in Kibbutz Erez across from Gaza.  After joining the foreign service, he served in Canadian missions in the region, including Cairo, Tel Aviv and Ramallah. 

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Chuck Shields is retired from a career of leadership roles with national and international health organizations. He is active with the Unitarian congregation in Ottawa and with the denomination nationally.

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David Halton is a retired Canadian journalist, having served as a foreign affairs correspondent in many places including Paris, Moscow, London and Washington. He was stationed in Jerusalem during the 1967 “Six Day War”. Before moving to Washington, Halton was the chief political correspondent in Ottawa for the CBC.

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Dr. David Lorge Parnas is a software engineer with a global reputation. Both his parents (both doctors) barely escaped the Holocaust by coming to the USA just prior to WWII. He has been invited to speak and teach at many universities around the world (including German, Israeli and Palestinian). He retired in 2008 and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

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David Mivasair is a retired rabbi with 30 years of service in synagogues and in spiritual care in Canada and the U.S.  David has lived in Israel for four different years beginning in 1971 and has visited twice in recent years with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. He was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree in 2016 by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and is an active member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada.

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David Viveash is a former Canadian diplomat. He was part of Canada’s Middle East Peace Process headquarters team (1991-1995) and Head of the Political Section at the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv (1995-1998). Subsequently, he served as Canada’s first resident Ambassador in Libya (2003-2006) and as Canadian Representative to the Palestinian Authority (2006-2008). Following his retirement, he returned to the region as Director of The Carter Center’s Field Office for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (2011-2013). 

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Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization. Best known for her work as a legal adviser and a participant in peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian organizations. She currently lives with her family in Ramallah, Palestine.

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Doug Dempster is a retired Major-General in the Canadian Armed Forces.  Afterwards he served as NATO Assistant Secretary General for Executive Management in Brussels and subsequently as head of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Executive Leadership.

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Faisal Bhabha is an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada and is the Faculty Director of the Canadian Common Law LLM degree program. He has published in the areas of constitutional law, multiculturalism, law and religion, disability rights, national security and access to justice. Previously, he sat as Vice-chair of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (2008-2011). 

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Ferry de Kerckhove is a former Canadian diplomat including High Commissioner to Pakistan, Ambassador to Indonesia and Egypt. Various positions at Global Affairs Canada including Director General policy planning and federal-provincial relations. Currently senior fellow and part-time professor, Ottawa University. 

 

Dr. Gerald Wright is currently Senior Fellow, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian International Council. He has a PhD from the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University.

 

Haig Sarafian is a retired Canadian senior diplomat. He had had several overseas postings in different capacities, including Bagdad, Tunis, Damascus as well two postings as Ambassador to Lebanon and Libya; in addition to different assignments in Canada his last one was Director of diplomatic protocol.

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Karen Walker is a retired consultant who worked in the areas of quantitative analysis, benefit cost analysis, regulatory impact analysis and program evaluation.  She visited Israel and Palestine on a “Come and See” tour.

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Maya Papineau is a Ph.D. Associate Professor of Economics at Carleton University in Ottawa. In addition to a longtime interest in human rights, her research interests lie at the intersection of environmental economics, energy economics, causal inference and applied econometrics

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Michael Lynk is a law professor at Western University in London, Ontario. Originally from Halifax, he practised as a labour lawyer in Ottawa and Toronto before becoming an academic. Between 2016 and 2022, he served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory. In this capacity, he delivered regular reports to the UN General Assembly in New York and the Human Rights Council in Geneva.  

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Michaël Séguin is a Ph.D. Assistant professor at Saint Paul University School of Transformative Leadership and Spirituality. His dissertation analysed Israeli settler colonialism and the representation of Palestinians. His current research and teaching focus is on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in higher education and non-profit organizations.

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Michel de Salaberry is a former Canadian senior diplomat, including many postings in the Middle East. He was ambassador to Iran, Egypt, and Jordan. He has also held diplomatic posts in Israel and Nigeria. He was a director of the National Council on Canada-Arab relations.

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Paul Tetrault, a retired labour lawyer from British Columbia. He is the author of “The Wall Must Fall”, published by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

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Paula Deek, is a Canadian of Palestinian origin living in Ottawa. She is a federal public servant.

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Peggy Mason is a former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament to the UN and an expert on the political/diplomatic aspects of UN peacekeeping. She served on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament and Chaired two UN Expert Groups on arms control verification and regulation. From 2002-2012 Peggy Mason was a Senior Fellow at The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University. She is currently the President of the Rideau Institute.

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Raja G. Khouri is the CEO of Khouri Conversations, the founding president of the Canadian Arab Institute, board member at Project Rozana (Canada), and a former 10-year commissioner with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He is Canada Committee member of Human Rights Watch, and co-founder of the Canadian Arab/Jewish Leadership Dialogue Group.

 

Richard Kohler is a retired Canadian senior diplomat. Among other posts he was Consul General of Canada at Sydney, Australia and Ambassador to the Federative Republic of Brazil. He later served in Ottawa as Chief of Protocol of Canada.  Subsequently, as part of the Province of Ontario Cabinet Office, he was Assistant Deputy Minister, International Affairs and Chief of Protocol.

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Robert Collette is a former senior Canadian diplomat. Highlights of his 18 years abroad include: Ambassador to Switzerland, Chief of Protocol for Canada, Sherpa for Francophonie; Ambassador to The Philippines; Head of Mission in Rome and Minister (Trade) in Beijing. In Ottawa, he was Director General, Investment, Science and Technology and Director, Trade and Investment for Africa/Middle East.

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Robert Massoud is a Palestinian-Canadian born in Jerusalem. In 2004, he founded Zatoun to import and sell fair trade olive oil from Palestine as a way to connect Canadians and Americans to Palestine.  Zatoun helps to provide farmers with a livelihood and to stay on their land. It has donated over $500,000 from proceeds to plant olive trees and support recreational and educational program to youth living in refugee camps.

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The Rev’d William Roberts (MDiv MBA) is ordained in the Anglican Church of Canada and has served in churches across Canada. He is also a former Alberta MLA. He began studying the Israel-Palestine issue in 1978 at Union Seminary in New York City doing a thesis on “Liberation Theology and the Palestinians’ for his Master of Divinity degree. From 2014 to 2016, he lived in Jerusalem as the interim director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre.

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