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The Canadian Commission for UNESCO |
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Structure of the CommissionThe Commission’s Relationship with The Canada Council and the Federal GovernmentThe Canadian Commission for UNESCO is an autonomous organization operating under the aegis of the Canada Council for the Arts. The Canada Council for the Arts reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It is a national arm's length agency which fosters the development of the arts in Canada through grants, services and awards to professional Canadian artists and arts organizations. The Director of the Canada Council is a member of the Commission’s Executive Committee. The Commission benefits from the Council's autonomous relationship with government, which makes it an ideal forum where representatives of governments and civil society organizations can work together on issues of common concern. Executive CommitteeThe Executive Committee is the heart of the Commission. The Committee acts in the name of the Commission, setting out and approving the general policy and programme directions of the Commission. Its role is to identify issues of concern to UNESCO and Canada. The Executive Committee is made up of 17 individuals, including the Chairs of the three Sectoral Commissions and three members elected by the members of the Commission. Representatives from the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts also sit on the Committee. The President and Vice-President are appointed by the Executive Committee in consultation with the Canada Council for the Arts. They serve terms of two years which are renewable once. In addition, the Past President and the Secretary-General of the Commission sit on the Executive Committee. The President, Vice-President and Secretary-General constitute the Bureau. The Executive Committee broadly establishes strategy and policy by drawing on input from the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Commission, suggestions and concerns from its non-governmental members, and the expressed priorities of Canada’s federal and provincial governments. The Executive Committee: Other Members of the Executive Committee
President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCOAxel Meisen
Dr. Meisen currently holds the inaugural Chair in Foresight at Alberta Innovates: Technology Futures (formerly the Alberta Research Council). He has contributed 38 years of service to post-secondary education in Canada and abroad, rising to the position of President of Memorial University of Newfoundland (1999 – 2007), the largest university in Atlantic Canada. He spent the earlier part of his career at the University of British Columbia where he held the positions of Professor of Chemical Engineering and Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science, which includes Engineering, Nursing and Architecture. Dr. Meisen has played major roles in international projects funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in seven countries, including the development of a new humanities-focused professional university in Peru, the introduction of cooperative education programs into Latin America, and a mutual recognition agreement related to accredited engineering programs involving Canada, USA, Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Hong Kong. He is past President of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, has served on the Board of the Edmonton Opera Association, and was instrumental in the creation of a new opera, Ann and Seamus, that has been performed nationally and internationally by Shallaway, the acclaimed youth choir of Newfoundland and Labrador. Dr. Meisen was born in Europe and has lived and worked in Québec, British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Alberta. He currently lives in Edmonton.
Vice-President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCOChristina Cameron
In 2005, Christina Cameron took up her present position as a Professor in the School of Architecture and holds the Canada Research Chair on Built Heritage at the University of Montreal. Her current research focuses on documenting the origins and early implementation of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention and examining conservation approaches in Canada from 1950 to 2000. Christina Cameron has been actively involved in World Heritage as Head of Delegation for Canada (1990-2008), Chairperson (1990-2008) and Rapporteur (1989). She has shown leadership in the intellectual development of the World Heritage Convention, chairing international expert meetings on strategic planning, historic canals, a global strategy for a representative World Heritage List, cultural landscapes, working methods and a proposal to establish a World Heritage Indigenous Peoples Council of Experts. Prior to her appointment at the University of Montreal, Christina Cameron’s career as a heritage executive with Parks Canada spanned more than 35 years. As Director-General of National Historic Sites, she provided national direction for Canada’s historic places, focusing on heritage conservation and education programs. She also served as the Secretary to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada from 1986 to 2005. Her academic studies cover literature, art and architectural history as well as museum studies. In March 2008 she was honoured with the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service of Canada, the country’s highest recognition for public service. In 2008, Hostelling International established the Christina Cameron Youth Award in her honour. Christina Cameron has written extensively since the 1970’s on Canadian architecture, heritage management and World Heritage issues. She is Vice-President of the Advisory Committee for the Official Residences of Canada, a board member of the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts and a patron of the African World Heritage Fund.
Secretary-General of the Canadian CommissionDavid A. Walden
Mr. Walden began his career as an archivist/historian with the National Archives of Canada. From 1984 – 1999, he held the positions of Secretary to the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board and Director of the Movable Cultural Property Program in the Department of Canadian Heritage. From 1985 – 2001, he was the Canadian representative on the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation. In 1996 and again in 1999, he was elected Chairman of this Intergovernmental Committee. In 1997, Mr. Walden led the Canadian delegation that negotiated the Agreement Between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Certain Categories of Archaeological and Ethnological Material. Mr. Walden has also been a member of many other Canadian delegations, including the Diplomatic Conference on the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (The Hague, 1999), the General Conference of UNESCO (Paris, 1999 – 2005) and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) High Level Meeting on Sustainable Development (Vilnius, 2005). He is currently a Canadian representative on the UNECE Steering Committee on Education for Sustainable Development. Mr. Walden has also served on numerous UNESCO Committees including as Vice-President of Commission I (General Questions and Programme Support), and the Legal Committee of the General Conference, and Working Groups on the Protection of UNESCO's Name and Logo, and Relations among the Three Organs of UNESCO. Mr. Walden serves as a member of the Management Committee of the Canada Council for the Arts and represents Canada on UNESCO’s 58 Member State Executive Board and the Board's Non-Governmental Organizations Committee. He is listed in the Canadian Who’s Who. Other Members of the Executive CommitteeAyman Al-Yassini
Ayman Al-Yassini is the Executive Director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. He has an extensive experience as professor and senior manager of key Canadian governmental and non-governmental agencies. Prior to joining the Foundation in late 2006, Mr. Al-Yassini was Member (Commissioner), Coordinating Member, and Special Advisor to the Deputy Chair at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) (1994-2006). He was also the Director of International Trade and Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Business Councils at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, with the primary responsibility for trade relations with Taiwan. At the Social Science Federation of Canada, he held the position of Executive Director, and prior to that he was the Director of Program Development at the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE). Mr. Al-Yassini is a graduate of Loyola College in Montreal, and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from McGill University, with a specialization in International Relations and Politics of Developing Areas. He taught for a number of years at McGill and Concordia universities in Montreal, and was a visiting professor at the University of Riyadh (King Saud University) in Saudi Arabia. He published on the relationship between religion and state in Islam, religion and development and religion and foreign policy. He participated as keynote speaker and presenter in national and international conferences and meetings dealing with human rights, immigration and refugee issues, race relations, and diaspora communities. He is a frequent media commentator on race relations issues.
David J. R. Angell David Angell has been Director-General of the International Organizations Bureau since September 2008 at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and of the International Organizations, Human Rights and Democracy Bureau since September 2009. He served previously as Director-General, Africa Bureau (2007-08); as High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Canadian Representative to the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on Darfur (2004-07); and as Director, Eastern and Southern Africa Division (2002-04). Since 2007, Mr. Angell has served concurrently as the Prime Minister’s Personal Representative for Africa in the G8. He served previously as Deputy to the Africa Personal Representative (2001-04) and, before that, as Director of the G8 Summit Africa Action Plan Office (2001-02) in which capacity he was a principal organizer of the 2002 G8 Summit at Kananaskis. Mr. Angell served at the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations (1996-2001) and as Alternate Representative on the UN Security Council (1999-2000). Previously, he was a member of the senior staff of the Northern Ireland peace process, on the International Body on the decommissioning of arms in Northern Ireland and, subsequently, in the Office of the Independent Chairmen of the multi-party negotiations. Mr Angell has also been posted to the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Mr. Angell completed his BA at Yale, an MA at the University of Toronto and an MPhil at the University of Cambridge. Mr. Angell is married to Kate Angell. They have two young children, Alexandra and Jonathan.
Marie-Claude Francoeur
Ms. Francoeur holds a degree in Applied Sciences from Laval University, as well as a Master’s in International Relations and a Master’s in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She also holds certificates in management from McGill University and in counter-terrorism from Israel’s Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy. Ms. Francoeur worked as a researcher and adviser at the Québec National Assembly. She then became chief of staff for the Minister of Labour. In this capacity she was responsible for coordinating the issue of minimum wage and standards in the clothing industry. She continued on as Chief of Staff for the Minister of Transport and Minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale region, playing a decisive role in Québec’s road safety policy, public transit policy and the creation of a “green” fund. She then served as an advisor with the Office of the Premier of Québec. She was appointed to her current position of Assistant Deputy Minister for Policy, Francophonie and Multilateral Affairs, at the Ministère de Rélations internationales in March 2009.
Yves Gagnon
Yves Gagnon is a professor and holds the K.C. Irving Chair in Sustainable Development at the Université de Moncton, along with being Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New Brunswick, the University of New Brunswick at Saint John and the École de technologie supérieure (Montréal). Prior to that, Mr. Gagnon held the position of Visiting Executive at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, he was founding President and CEO of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and he was Associate Vice-President of Research and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at the Université de Moncton. Regularly solicited as an external expert, he is actively involved in committees, organizations and Board of Directors devoted to technological advancement, the development of knowledge and public policies, and economic and community development.
Michèle S. Jean
Michèle S. Jean, Visiting Scholar at the Public Law Research Centre, Faculty of Law, Université de Montréal, was President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO from 2006 - 2010. Ms. Jean was previously Vice-President from 2002 - 2006. She is well known throughout Canada and internationally for her work as President of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) from 2002 to 2005. The IBC is a body of 36 independent experts appointed by the Director-General of UNESCO to follow progress in the life sciences and their applications in order to ensure respect for human dignity and freedom. The IBC’s work led to the adoption in 2005, at the 33rd UNESCO General Conference, of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. From 2000 – 2005, Ms. Jean held the position of Advisor, Program Development, Faculty of Higher Education, at the Université de Montréal. From 1998 to 2000, she was Special Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Health and Social Affairs) assigned to the Permanent Mission of Canada to the European Union in Brussels. In the years 1993 to 1998, Ms. Jean was Deputy Minister, Health Canada. From 1980 to 1982, Ms. Jean chaired the Quebec Commission of Inquiry on Vocational and Socio-Cultural Training for Adults (CITA). She then served as a consultant for the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris. In 1984, she was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister and Director-General of the Professional Training Division in the Quebec Department of Manpower and Income Security. In 1988, she became Executive Director of Employment Services in the Federal Department of Employment and Immigration and was named Associate Deputy Minister of that department in 1990. In 1992, she was appointed Under Secretary of State. One of Québec’s ten "Women of the Year" in 1979, she was named "Career Woman of the Year" by Montréal's O'Sullivan College in 1981. She is the author of several books and publications. Ms. Jean has participated in several international meetings and working groups on labour market training, adult education, health and aging in Argentina, France, China, Europe and Canada. In 1995, she was awarded an Honorary LL.D. from Concordia University.
Hamid Jorjani
Hamid Jorjani has several years of cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural academic and work experience. He has studied and conducted research on several continents. He is currently the President of International Research, Innovation and Development Inc. Prior to this he was the inaugural Director of International Research at the University of Ottawa. Before joining the University, Mr. Jorjani worked as a senior advisor in the International Relations Office of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), where he managed several files, one of which was associated with the coordination of Canada’s membership in 30 international scientific unions. In that capacity, he was also the secretary of the NRC Committee on International Science, Engineering and Technology (CISET). The CISET Committee worked closely with the International Council for Science (ICSU), UNESCO and some of the learned societies in Canada. Mr. Jorjani has planned, organized and participated in several bilateral Science and Technology (S&T) missions. He has also organized, chaired and co-chaired several international conferences and S&T related workshops. Mr. Jorjani has served as the executive of a number of professional associations. Currently, he is a Board Member of the National Capital Branch of the Canadian International Council (CIC).
Susan M. Knight
(Photo Credit: Ned Pratt) Susan Knight is a choral conductor and music educator of international repute. A relentless advocate for music education, she also serves as a consultant, keynote speaker, clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor. A socio-cultural entrepreneur, Ms Knight follows a philosophy that celebrates the value of the arts to society, yet seeks to transcend that intrinsic value with extrinsic application. In her artistic and cultural practice with young people, she intentionally works through the transformative power of the arts to create community, nurture cultural identity, promote leadership and consciously develop critical agents of change. Ms Knight is the artistic director of Shallaway (formerly the Newfoundland Symphony Youth Choir) which she founded in 1992. She also founded Festival 500 in 1994, a biennial international choral festival in St. John’s, which she initiated as a means of cultural affirmation and exponential economic renewal for Newfoundland and Labrador. She was invested in the Order of Canada in 2004, and the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2005, and holds an honorary doctorate from Memorial University. Susan Knight was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of the Canada Council for the Arts on September 15, 2006 for a three-year term. In May 2009, it was announced that her term was renewed for another four years.
Danika Billie Littlechild
Danika Billie Littlechild, B.A. (Hons.), L.L.B., L.L.M. Candidate (University of Victoria), is a member of the Ermineskin Cree Nation, located in Hobbema, Alberta. The main focus areas of her law practice include Indigenous governance, corporate governance, environmental law and international law. Her law office is located on her home reserve of Ermineskin Cree Nation. Danika is a member of the Board of Directors of the North-South Institute, a Canadian-based non-profit institute conducting research relating to international development. Danika has also worked with a number of other organizations, including Learning Through the Arts (The Royal Conservatory of Music), the Canadian Network for Arts and Learning, the Northern Alberta Alliance on Race Relations, the Canadian Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism, and the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women.
Angie Osachoff
Angie Osachoff (née Mapara) is the Regional Program Coordinator in Vancouver for Equitas, the International Centre for Human Rights Education, as well as a long time volunteer with YOUCAN and a member of the Royal Columbian Hospital’s gala planning committee. Angie has been a member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO since 2006 with the Youth Advisory Group and the Sectoral Commission on Education. She then took on the position of Advisor to the Youth Advisory Group (CCU). Angie graduated from Queen’s University in 2004, with two degrees; a major in political studies and an honours medial in development studies and political studies. Influenced by her family’s history in Uganda and India, Angie began volunteering with the Canadian Red Cross in Ottawa at the age of 12 which is where she spent many years. Angie has represented the Canadian Red Cross at conferences in Sweden and South Korea, and represented the youth of North and South America at the 27th Conference of the International Red Cross and Crescent Societies. In 2002, Angie created an award winning youth program at the Ottawa branch which she further developed into a provincial program that is still being used today. She also worked at the Jordanian Red Crescent Society, where she created their 5 year strategic plan. After graduating in 2004, Angie went to New York to work as an advisor to the Ambassador of the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies delegation to the United Nations. Over the past 15 years, Angie has been a passionate proponent of informal education. She has written and delivered workshops on Children and Armed Conflict, International Humanitarian Law, Race and Diversity and many others. She is also a skilled facilitator who currently works with YOUCAN, to develop their program in Vancouver and facilitate their workshops on peaceful conflict resolution and peace building. Angie is the recipient of the Canadian Red Cross Prix d’Excellence and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award.
Andrew Parkin
Andrew Parkin is the Director-General of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC). Mr. Parkin was previously Associate Executive Director and Director, Research and Program Development, of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, as well as Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Information on Canada. He completed a post-doctorate at Dalhousie University, his Ph.D. at the University of Bradford (U.K.), and his B.A. (Honours) at Queen’s University. Mr. Parkin has received several academic honours and has authored or co-authored numerous publications on Canadian politics and social policy.
Alain Pélissier
Alain Pélissier is currently the Commission's Chair of the Sectoral Commission on Education. Montréal (Québec)
Gordon Platt
Gordon Platt is Acting Director General, International Affairs at the Department of Canadian Heritage. Originally from Victoria, British Columbia, Gordon Platt has more than 25 years’ experience working in the cultural industries, both in the public and private sectors. He has a Bachelors Degree in Philosophy from the University of Victoria and a Licence magna cum laude from the Institut Supérieur de philosophie at the Université de Louvain, Belgium. He has worked at the magazines Canadian Art and Quill & Quire in Toronto, before being named National Director of the Canadian Book Marketing Centre, and then the Executive Director of the Association of Canadian Publishers based in Toronto in the 1980’s. Gordon Platt joined the federal government in 1989 in the Arts Promotion Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He subsequently spent a decade, starting in 1991, at the Canada Council for the Arts as Head, Writing and Publishing Programs. In 2003, he moved to the Department of Canadian Heritage as Director, Book Publishing Policy and Programs, and was Acting/Director-General, Book and Magazine Publishing Policy and Programs. In 2006, he took up the position of Director of International Policy and Programs at Canadian Heritage, and has worked in the International Affairs Branch since. His responsibilities have included Canadian Heritage participation in UNESCO and the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, international cultural trade policy, Memoranda of Understanding in culture with a number of countries, and Canada’s participation in TV5MONDE, the international francophone television network. During his time at the Canada Council, Gordon Platt oversaw the modernization of the writing and publishing programs, bringing in a number of innovative programs to foster greater audience development, access to programs from Aboriginal and culturally diverse Canadians, and new electronic media publishing. At Canadian Heritage, he has won two Deputy Minister’s Awards, one for People Management (2005), and the other for Service (2008), for management of the TV5MONDE program during Canada’s Presidency.
Robert Sirman
(Photo Credit: Martin Lipman) Robert Sirman was originally appointed Director of the Canada Council for the Arts for a four-year term effective June 26, 2006. In April 2010, he was reappointed for another four years to June 2014. After graduating from the University of Toronto with an MA in sociology, Mr. Sirman worked for over a decade in the Ontario Government, including five years in the province’s first Ministry of Culture. He then joined the Ontario Arts Council in 1980, where he served for 10 years as Director of Operations and Director of Research and Policy Planning. In 1991, Mr. Sirman was appointed Administrative Director of Canada’s National Ballet School. During his 15 years in that position, he stabilized the School’s finances and spearheaded an award-winning $100-million capital expansion program that tripled the School’s physical plant and re-animated the North Jarvis neighbourhood in which the School had operated since 1959. Since his arrival at the Canada Council, the Council has enjoyed a 20% increase in its ongoing government appropriation, undertaken the most extensive strategic planning process in its history, reorganized internally following a year-long organizational design review, and successfully completed its first special examination by the Office of the Auditor General. Mr. Sirman has served on a number of volunteer boards throughout his career, and in 2002 was librettist for James Kudelka’s full-length ballet, The Contract. In 2004 Mr. Sirman was featured by the Toronto Star as one of the city’s top 10 “leading lights” in arts and culture, and in 2005 was honoured by having a Toronto street – Sirman Lane – named after him. Mr. Sirman currently serves on the board of the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation in Toronto and is treasurer of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies (IFACCA) based in Sydney, Australia. |
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David A. Walden holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History and Political Science and a Master of Arts in Canadian Studies from Carleton University, Ottawa. 
