Panelists (2019)
Faris Ahmed
Director, Policy & Campaigns
USC Canada
Faris leads USC Canada's policy work in close collaboration with global and national networks working on ecological agriculture, biodiversity and food sovereignty. He is an active member of the civil society networks of the Committee for World Food Security (CFS), the CBD Alliance and Food Secure Canada. Faris has worked at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Oxfam, South Asia Partnership, and as a photographer/writer covering environmental issues. He holds an MA in International Development Studies from the University of Toronto.
Bita Amani
Associate Professor
Queen's University, Faculty of Law
Professor Amani's research interests are in the areas of Intellectual Property Law (domestic and International), Regulating Genetics and New Technologies, Biopiracy and Protection of Traditional and Cultural Knowledge, Regulatory and Ethical Issues of Medical/Scientic Research and its commercialization, Globalization and Social Justice, International Law, Regulatory Diversity, and Torts.
Peter Andrée
Associate Professor
Carleton University
Peter Andrée is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University. He is also cross-appointed in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and in the Institute of Political Economy. Prof Andrée’s research focuses on the politics of food and the environment. He practices, and teaches, community-based participatory research methods. Prof. Andrée is co-editor of Globalization and Food Sovereignty: Global and Local Change in the New Politics of Food (University of Toronto Press, 2014) which examines social movements the world over seeking to build more sustainable and just food systems. He is also author of Genetically Modified Diplomacy (University of British Columbia Press, 2007), an analysis of the global politics of regulating genetically modified organisms.
Raffaele Aveta
Research Fellow of Comparative Private Law
Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Faculty of Law
Raffaele Aveta is a Research Fellow of Comparative Private Law at the Law Faculty of Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli (SUN) where he earned a PhD in Comparative Law. From 2013 he is Professor of Cultural Property Law.
He has given lectures at Ljubljana and Cuenca University. In the academic year 2006-2007, he taught “Multiculturalism and Comparative Law” at the Jean Monnet Faculty of Political Studies and for European and Mediterranean Postgraduate Training of the SUN, B.A. Course in Political Science. In 2005-2006 he carried out a teaching activity on contract, supplementary to the course of “Anglo-American Law” at the Law Faculty of the SUN and from 2006 to 2012 to the course of Comparative Private Law therein.
He is author of many works, including: “The due diligence concept related to the purchase of objects of historical and artistic interest” (2016). “The homosexual family. Outlines of Comparative Law”, Satura, 2013; “Unequal law and multicultural procedure. A comparative analysis in relation to the discrimination and ethnicization”, ESI, 2010.
Jamie Baxter
Assistant Professor
Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University
Jamie Baxter is an Assistant Professor at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. He writes and teaches in the areas of property, land regulation, food, and agriculture. Jamie holds degrees in economics and law from McMaster University, the University of Toronto, and Yale, and was a Canada-US Fulbright Scholar at the University of Kentucky.
Érika Bergeron-Drolet
Lawyer
Érika Bergeron-Drolet has a diverse intellectual property law practice that covers commercial intellectual property, trade-marks, advertising and entertainment law. She also regularly advises clients on regulatory issues related to food, including labelling, licensing and food safety. Erika has a law degree from McGill University (Montreal) and a Masters of science (Msc) in Law and Finance from Oxford University (England).
Sarah Berger-Richardson
PhD Candidate
McGill University, Faculty of Law
Sarah Berger Richardson is a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Law at McGill University. Her research focuses on the relationship between science and ethics in food law and policy. Sarah is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and completed her LL.M at Tel Aviv University, where she was a research fellow at the Manna Center in Food Safety and Security Fellowship. Previously, she was a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel and the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal.
Laurie Beyranevand
Senior Faculty Fellow for Food Law and Policy
Senior Fellow of the New Economy Law Center
Vermont Law School
Laurie Beyranevand is the Senior Faculty Fellow for Food Law and Policy at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) and an Professor of Law. She teaches Food Regulation and Policy and Legislation and Regulation and directs several grant funded projects for CAFS. She has served as the faculty advisor to the National Animal Law Moot Court Competition teams, and the ABA Negotiations and Client Counseling Teams.
Professor Beyranevand received a BA from Rutgers College in 1999 and a JD from Vermont Law School in 2003. She clerked in the Environmental Division of the Vermont Attorney General's Office and also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Marie E. Lihotz in New Jersey. Prior to joining the faculty at Vermont Law School, Professor Beyranevand was a Staff Attorney at Vermont Legal Aid where she represented adults and children in individual cases and class action litigation involving health law issues. In that capacity, she appeared in state and federal court, as well as before administrative adjudicative bodies, and served as an appointed member of the Human Rights Committee.
Professor Beyranevand is an appointed member of the Academic Programs Committee for the Food and Drug Law Institute, and formerly served as an Executive Committee Member of the Agriculture and Food Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools. She is admitted to both the New York and Vermont State Bars, as well as the U.S. District Court, District of Vermont.
Professor Beyranevand's research and scholarship focuses on the connections between food and health.
Kelly Bronson
Assistant Professor
University of Ottawa, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies
Kelly Bronson is an Assistant Professor in the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies at University of Ottawa. She is a social scientist researching political and economic decision-making on controversial technologies like precision agriculture and hydraulic fracturing. Her research aims to bring community values and environmental demands into conversation with technical knowledge in the production of evidence-based decision-making on technologies. She has published her work in regional (Journal of New Brunswick Studies), national (Canadian Journal of Communication) and international journals (Journal of Responsible Innovation, Big Data and Society).
Abra Brynne
Director, Engagement & Policy
BC Food Systems Network
Abra Brynne grew up on a farm in Syilx Territory (south central “British Columbia”). She is a founding member of the BC Food Systems Network and has been involved in catalyzing healthy food systems in her home foodshed as well as across the province for almost 30 years. She focuses primarily on policy and the market end of the food supply chain. She is also dedicated to the ongoing process of decolonizing her worldview and praxis, assessing where Indigenous and Canadian governance systems collide, and seeking options to foster thriving Indigenous and colonial food systems.
Thomas Burelli
Assistant Professor
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
Thomas Burelli est juriste et doctorant en cotutelle à l'université d'Ottawa et à l'université de Perpignan. Il est diplômé en droit de l'environnement (LL.M – 2008), en anthropologie du droit (Master – 2009) et en propriété intellectuelle (Master – 2012). Il a participé à plusieurs missions de terrain dans l'outre-mer français (Nouvelle-Calédonie, Guyane et Polynésie française) sur le thème de l'accès et de l'utilisation des ressources génétiques et des savoirs traditionnels associés.
Ses recherches portent sur la circulation des savoirs traditionnels et sur les relations entre les scientifiques et les communautés autochtones et locales au Canada et en France. Il étudie en particulier les différents instruments et pratiques développées afin d'aménager les relations d'échange des savoirs traditionnels entre autochtones et non autochtones.
Richard Butler
Partner
Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP
Richard practices advocacy before all levels of court and tribunals, including civil litigation, administrative appeals and defence of environmental prosecutions. Richard provides advice and support to clients on all aspects of environmental law including regulatory compliance and approvals, spills response, contaminated land investigations and waste management.
Richard’s experience includes providing advice and support to several levels of food growers and the food preparation industry. Richard works with farms and produce providers to ensure they meet the legislative requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, including air quality, nutrient management and soil and fill guidelines. Richard also assists food production facilities to meet their waste goals and ensure compliance with federal Safe Food for Canadians Act.
Richard frequently works with clients in the food processing, land development, municipal, waste and waste water, and insurance sectors.
Richard is called to the Bar in Ontario.
Marsha Simone Cadogan
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Marsha S. Cadogan is a post-doctoral fellow with CIGI’s International Law Research Program. Her research at CIGI is focused on the interrelationship between geographical indications and trademark laws, as well as the global implications of GIs in preferential free trade agreements. Marsha’s research interests are in IP rights and international trade, IP rights and innovation and international law and development in a global context. Marsha has a PhD in intellectual property rights law from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. She is member of the board on Canada’s International Law Association and is called to the Bar in Ontario.
Vince Calderhead
Counsel
Pink Larkin
Vince Calderhead has been a lawyer since 1986. He recently joined Pink Larkin, a union side labour law firm in Halifax, where he has a pro bono practice restricted to strategic anti-poverty litigation.
Previously, he was a Senior Staff Counsel at Nova Scotia Legal Aid in Halifax where he litigated many social and economic rights cases since 1986. He has
internationally recognized expertise in the area of economic, social and cultural rights. He has represented anti-poverty groups before United Nations Treaty bodies on many occasions since.
Vince worked with members of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal (2009-10) on the re-drafting of the human rights provisions of that country’s constitution as well as in South Africa where he worked with a human rights organization on the protection of the constitutional right to a basic education.
Melissa Card
Associate Director of the Institute for Food Laws & Regulations, MSU
Adjunct Professor at Michigan State University’s College of Law
Melissa M. Card is the Associate Director and instructor for the Institute for Food Laws & Regulations. The Institute for Food Laws & Regulations provides a distance education program in international food law via the Internet. In addition, Melissa is an adjunct professor at Michigan State University College of Law. Previously, Melissa was an associate in the Food, Beverage & Hospitality and Litigation Practice Groups of Clark Hill PLC. She assisted food manufacturers on regulatory food and beverage law issues by ensuring companies comply with various federal regulations.
Nathalie Chalifour
Associate Professor
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
Nathalie Chalifour is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law and Co-Director of the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on the intersection between environmental law, the economy, and social justice. Her most recent articles focus on the constitutionality of carbon pricing policies, climate litigation, equality rights and the environment and sustainable food policy. She is the co-editor of three international books, including “Energy, Governance and Sustainability” and a collection on Environmental Taxation. She was a contributing editor of a looseleaf text on Brownfields in Canada for a decade. She is currently co-leading a five year SSHRC-funded project on Environmental Justice in Canadian Law and Policy. Prior to joining the Law Faculty, Nathalie was senior advisor to the President of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, and policy advisor for World Wildlife Fund and IUCN. She also taught at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. She holds a Doctorate in law from Stanford University (2005) and a Master in Juridical Sciences (1999) which she obtained as a Stanford Program in International Legal Studies Fellow and Fulbright scholar
Pierre Cloutier de Repentigny
PhD Student
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
Pierre Cloutier de Repentigny is a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law and a 2017 Trudeau Scholar. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Professor Heather McLeod-Kilmurray, analyzes the marine life protection provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea through the lens of critical environmental law. It seeks to uncover the pervasive liberal biases of the framework regime preventing a sustainable relationship between marine life and humanity.
Pierre benefited from a variety of environmental law and policy experiences over the past eight years. He first started by involving himself in the political process through his election in 2008 to the Young Greens Council of Canada. He then gained public service experiences through his work with the Public Health Agency of Canada, Environment Canada, and the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of the Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River. Most recently, Pierre had the chance to provide volunteer assistance to lawyers working on public interest environmental law cases. These practical experiences have complemented his academic training – at the University of Ottawa (LL.L. & LL.B.) and at the University of British Columbia (LL.M.) – and has given him a deeper understanding of the interaction of environmental issues and law.
Amy Cohen
Daniel Coles
Lawyer
Owen Bird LLP
Dan is a litigation associate with Owen Bird Law Corporation in Vancouver, BC. In 2014 Dan founded Alcohol & Advocacy a CLAWBIE award-winning blog that engages with the changing landscape of liquor laws and policies in British Columbia and across Canada. In his practice Dan acts for manufacturers, retailers and distributors of alcoholic beverages. Dan graduated from the Schulich School of Law in 2011.
Mary Coulas
PhD Student
Carleton University, Department of Political Science
Mary Coulas is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University. Mary studies the food policy-making process undertaken by municipal, provincial, and federal levels of governance in Canada. Currently, she is focused on A Food Policy for Canada tracking the means of participation and stakeholder engagement, scanning of historical and current policy documents, and the development of multilevel food governance. As A Food Policy for Canada further evolves policy instruments, implementation, and means of monitoring policy success will also be analyzed. Mary’s research is part of the research knowledge sharing partnership ‘Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged’ (FLEdGE).
Jean-Luc Couture
Partner
Therrien Couture
Associé fondateur de Therrien Couture, Me Jean-Luc Couture œuvre principalement pour les entreprises des domaines agroalimentaire et technologique. Il se distingue dans les dossiers complexes en simplifiant les concepts impliqués et en préconisant une approche d'affaires et pratique.
Engagé auprès de sa communauté, il s’implique en siégeant sur le conseil d'administration de divers organismes à but non lucratif et de développement économique et agit régulièrement comme conférencier, notamment pour la clientèle agroalimentaire. Sa vivacité d'esprit et sa polyvalence font de lui un conseiller juridique et un leader efficace, apportant une plus-value significative dans toutes ses interactions, aussi bien avec les clients qu’avec les membres de son équipe.
Xavier Daignault-Simard
Senior Competition Law Officer
Competition Bureau Canada
Xavier joined Canada’s Competition Bureau in May 2017. He currently serves as a Senior Officer in the Bureau’s Competition Promotion Branch, where he is responsible for advancing a range of activities to promote and advocate the benefits of a competitive marketplace. Notably, Xavier led the Bureau’s advocacy efforts regarding mobile food industry regulations.
Prior to joining the Bureau, Xavier served in different roles at Natural Resources Canada between 2008 and 2017 where he notably worked to advance Canada’s approach to reviewing major resource projects.
Xavier holds a master’s degree in International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Politics from Laval University.
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Xavier s’est joint au Bureau de la concurrence du Canada en mai 2017. Il occupe actuellement un poste d’agent principal du droit de la concurrence au sein de la Direction de la promotion de la concurrence du Bureau, où il est chargé de faire progresser une série d'activités afin de promouvoir et de défendre les avantages d'un marché concurrentiel. Xavier a notamment été responsable d’un projet de promotion du Bureau visant la réglementation encadrant la cuisine de rue.
Avant de se joindre au Bureau, Xavier a occupé différents postes à Ressources naturelles Canada entre 2008 et 2017, où il a notamment travaillé à faire progresser l'approche du Canada en matière d'examen des grands projets de ressources.
Xavier est titulaire d'une maîtrise en études internationales et d'un baccalauréat en économie et politique de l'Université Laval.
Maneesha Deckha
Associate Professor
University of Victoria, Faculty of Law
Professor Deckha joined the Faculty of Law as an Assistant Professor in 2002 after practising at the Ministry of the Attorney General in Toronto and attending Columbia University, where she completed an LLM thesis on gender and cultural equality in criminal law. In addition to her appointmentat the University of Victoria, she has held the Fulbright Visiting Chair in Law and Society at New York University, has been appointed as a Scholar-in-Residence at Seattle University School of Law, and has worked as a Visiting Scholar at the Hastings Institute for Bioethics.
Professor Deckha's research interests include health law and bioethics, critical animal studies and animal law, feminist analysis of law, law and culture and law society. Her work has been published in Canada and internationally in legal and interdisciplinary venues including the McGill Law Journal, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, Medical Law Review, Harvard Journal of Gender and Law, Hastings Women's Law Journal, UCLA Women's Law Journal, Animal Law Review, Journal of Animal Law and Ethics, Stanford Journal of Animal Law and Policy, and Unbound: The Harvard Journal of the Legal Left. Outside of law reviews, she has been published in Hypatia, Sexualities, and Ethics & the Environment, among other publications. She has also contributed to several anthologies relating to feminism, cultural pluralism, and health law and policy.
Marie-Claude Desjardins
Assistant Professor
Université de Sherbrooke, Faculté de droit
Marie-Claude Desjardins is a Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sherbrooke (Canada). She is a Principal Researcher at the Legal Research Chair in Food Diversity and Security. She specializes in food security, sustainable development law and corporate social responsibility law. Her current research focuses on alternative forms of regulation as a way to ensure environmental protection and social development.
Terra Duchene
JD Candidate
University of Windsor, Faculty of Law
Terra Duchene grew up around gardening and organic, sustainable agriculture. Her community instilled in her a commitment to composting and for eating local food, and from this base, she developed a strong interest in the food system and the effects that the foods we eat have on the earth. At the University of Western Ontario she completed her Honours in Psychology and explored peoples' motivations for eating different food. In Dublin, she managed a health food store where she was able to learn about a "new" local food system and the different laws of that country. Recently, her travels took her to Italy, where she took a comparative law course that further triggered her thinking about comparing food systems and how Canada can learn from other jurisdictions. She is in her second year of law school at Windsor Law and is also part of the Campus Community Garden management team. She enjoys maintaining her hands-on commitment to working the soil in addition to her academic pursuits of working in the field of food law.
Jessica Dufresne
PhD Student
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
Jessica Dufresne est diplômée de l'École du Barreau du Québec. Elle est également titulaire d’un Baccalauréat en droit de l'Université Laval, et d’une Licence en droit obtenue aux universités de Strasbourg et Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, ainsi que d'une Maîtrise en droit international de l'Université du Québec à Montréal. Candidate au Doctorat en droit à l’Université d’Ottawa, ses recherches portent sur la sécurité alimentaire dans le contexte canadien.
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Jessica Eisen
SJD Candidate
Harvard Law School
Jessica Eisen is a doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School and a Visiting Researcher at Osgoode Hall Law School’s Institute for Feminist Legal Studies. Her research interests include comparative constitutional and equality law, feminist legal theory, animal law, and food law and policy. Her work has been published in the Journal of Law and Equality, the Animal Law Review, Transnational Legal Theory, the Canadian Journal of Poverty Law, Queen’s Law Journal, the Michigan Journal of Law Reform (forthcoming) and the International Journal of Constitutional Law (forthcoming).
Michael Fakhri
Professor
University of Oregon, Faculty of Law
Michael Fakhri teaches in the areas of international economic law, commercial law, law and development, and food and agriculture. He is currently working on questions of how Inuit seal hunting in the Arctic is defining the relationship between international trade law and concepts of sovereignty. He is a faculty member of the Environmental and Natural Resource Program where he co-leads the Food Resiliency Project. He is also a Conversation Leader with Oregon Humanities where he facilitates state-wide public conversations about meanings of fair and free trade
Matteo Ferrari
Assistant Professor of Private Law
University of Trento
Matteo Ferrari is assistant professor of private law at the University of Trento, Italy, where he teaches Food law and Wine law. He has been a Marie Curie Fellow at the Faculty of Law of the McGill University, where he taught Comparative Food Law. He has widely published in different areas of food law, including food safety, geographical indications and labeling. A list of his publications can be found at: http://www.lawtech.jus.unitn.it/index.php/people/matteo-ferrari.
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Patricia Fricker-Bates
Executive and Lawyer
Louisbourg Seafoods Ltd.
A resident of Sydney, Nova Scotia, Patricia joined the Executive Team at Louisbourg Seafoods Ltd. in February 2016 after almost 28 years with Nova Scotia Legal Aid. Patricia is a practising member of both the Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Barristers’ Societies. She also is an honours graduate of the political science program at St. F.X. University (1982) and the Bachelor of Education program (1992). She received her law degree from Dalhousie Law School in 1986 and returned to complete her Master of Laws in 1997-98. Patricia was appointed an Adjudicator of the Small Claims Court of Nova Scotia in October 2016 and recently was appointed to the Law Reform Subcommittee of the Canadian Bar Association. She offers pro-bono legal services for Supreme Court matters through the Civil Law Pro-Bono Legal Clinic which operates out of the Sydney Justice Centre.
Amelie T. Gouin
Associate
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Amélie T. Gouin is an associate in the Montréal office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. Ms. Gouin specialises in commercial litigation and practices mainly in the fields of competition law, advertisement and marketing, injunctions, extraordinary recourses, fraud, intellectual property and real estate law. Ms. Gouin also has a special interest for all litigation regarding false and misleading representations in the advertisement and marketing of products.
Amy Hétu
LLM Candidate
Université de Sherbrooke, Faculté de droit
Membre en règle du Barreau du Québec depuis 2015, Me Amy Hétu concentre sa pratique en droit de la consommation et en droit civil au sein de son entreprise l’Atelier de Justice Participative. Elle est étudiante à la maîtrise en Droit à l’Université de Sherbrooke où sa thèse portera sur le cadre juridique de l’étiquetage alimentaire au Canada et au Québec et la notion de consentement libre et éclairé lors de la formation d’un contrat. Me Hétu est également titulaire d’un baccalauréat en commercialisation et consacre quelques heures par mois à titre de juriste bénévole auprès de l’organisme Option-Consommateur.
Albert Hudec
Partner
Farris Vaughan Wills & Murphy LLP
Al Hudec is a senior corporate/commercial lawyer practising in Vancouver. He works regularly on legal issues relating to the British Columbia wine and liquor industries, including purchase and sale transactions, distribution and other industry agreements, and regulatory and trade issues.
Yves Jalbert
Spécialiste en contenu
Association pour la santé publique du Québec
Yves G. Jalbert est spécialiste de contenu à l’Association pour la santé publique du Québec depuis 2015. Il est responsable du dossier concernant les produits, services et moyens amaigrissants. Il détient un doctorat en santé communautaire de la Faculté de médecine de l’Université de Montréal. Il a travaillé à l’Institut national de santé publique du Québec et au ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux de 2005 à 2014 sur le dossier de la problématique du poids comme évaluateur. Il travaille en santé publique depuis plus de 20 ans.
Glenford Jameson
Lawyer
G.S. Jameson & Company
Glenford's practice is focused on corporate commercial and regulatory issues in transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity financing, and a broad range of business law contexts. He has significant industry experience in the food sector, relating to organizations that encounter a high degree of provincial/federal regulation and those that seek to challenge regulatory regimes under which food is produced and sold in Ontario and Canada. His clients include start-ups, not-for-profits, SMEs, and multinationals.
Glenford advises organizations on structure and organization, corporate governance, regulatory requirements, and compliance issues encountered by professionals in the food sector.
Glenford is highly active in the food policy / food security sector in Ontario and across Canada, through his positions as director, advisor, or executive member of various not-for-profits and charities. He co-organized the first food law conference in Canada and frequently volunteers with organizations that engage with food policy issues.
Glenford is particularly interested by the problems created through the intersection of food, technology, and regulation and he brings this passion to his practice, finding solutions to legal problems faced by his clients.
Prior to founding G.S. Jameson & Company, Glenford worked at a prominent mid-size business law firm in Toronto.
Christopher Kelly-Bisson
PhD Candidate
University of Ottawa, School of Political Studies
Christopher Kelly-Bisson is a PhD candidate in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. His research documents the incidents of farmland consolidation by financial entities in Eastern Ontario, and seeks to determine the historical-material and institutional structures that result in its occurrence. He is the lead researcher on the farmland preservation policy stream for the Farming and Farmland Network of Sustain Ontario. He is also a member of the Ottawa Food Policy Council. Christopher co-owns an organic market garden specializing in regionally adapted vegetable and herb seed production.
Irena Knezevic
Assistant Professor
Carleton University, Journalism and Communication
Irena Knezevic is an assistant professor in communication, culture and health at Carleton University in Ottawa. She studies the role that communication plays in food and health environments. From food labels to cutting edge digital technologies, communication is shaping food and health systems in increasingly complex ways. Irena’s work explores how these developments affect food and health policy, community initiatives, social interactions and everyday practices of individuals.
Jodi Koberinski
Master of Environmental Studies Candidate
University of Waterloo
Jodi Koberinski is enrolled as a Master's candidate at University of Waterloo investigating sustainability of Canada's pulses sector with Dr. Steffanie Scott and is mentored by Dr. Vandana Shiva, Dr. Shiv Chopra, and the late Cathleen Kneen.
Jodi Koberinski is a co-founder of the Dangerous Ideas Festival in Canada. Other recent projects include Praxis Project Permaculture-Inspired Art Festival in New Brunswick and the global Seed Freedom Campaign.
Camille Labadie
PhD Candidate
Université du Québec à Montréal, Département Des Sciences Juridiques
Camille Labadie est détentrice d’une Licence en Sciences historiques de l’Université de Strasbourg, d’un Baccalauréat en droit international et relations internationales de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, ainsi que d’une Maîtrise en droit international de l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Actuellement candidate au doctorat en droit, ses recherches portent principalement sur les réparations pour les dommages causés à l’identité culturelle, ainsi que sur la justice transitionnelle et réparatrice.
Nadia Lambek
SJD Candidate
University of Toronto, Faculty of Law
Nadia Lambek is an SJD candidate at the University of Toronto and a human rights lawyer focused on food system transitions and workers’ rights. Her current research explores efforts to institutionalize the right to food, the right to food sovereignty and peasants' rights. She regularly collaborates with civil society groups on projects to build more equitable, just and sustainable food systems. Before her SJD, Nadia practiced union-side labour law and served as an advisor to United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter. She is co-editor of Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law (Springer 2014) and is adjunct faculty at Vermont Law School.
Angela Lee
PhD Student
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
Angela Lee is a PhD student at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. Prior to commencing graduate studies, Angela completed her BA and JD at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests are interdisciplinary, encompassing environmental law, technology regulation, critical animal studies, and feminist theory. Her PhD work takes a critical perspective on an overly technocentric approach to solving complex global social and environmental problems, including those associated with food. She is the co-editor of a forthcoming volume on Food Law in Canada.
Marie-Eve Levert
Program Manager
USC Canada
Marie-Eve Levert recently joined USC Canada - the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security in 2017, a program that aims to increase the quality, quantity, and diversity of ecological seeds across the country.
She has been an active member of the Organic Value Chain Roundtable (OVCRT) since 2014, a forum between the organic industry and federal government. Marie-Eve previously worked as the Director of International and Regulatory Affairs at the Canada Organic Trade Association, working on the development of policy strategies in the interest of the organic sector.
Lauren Martin
Manager of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs
Canada Organic Trade Association
Lauren is the Manager of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs for the Canada Organic Trade Association. New to her role, she joins COTA after having spent a few years practicing municipal law. Lauren has always been passionate about sustainable food and agriculture and has experience with various aspects of the food system; her scope ranging from international down to local. As Manager of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs she applies her knowledge of the food system and her legal training to monitoring organic regulations and to advancing the goals of the Canadian organic industry.
Lynn McIntyre
Professor Emerita of Community Health Sciences
University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine
Dr. Lynn McIntyre is Professor Emerita of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She retired from her active faculty positon in November 2015 and is now 'free' to work on ways to reduce household food insecurity--inadequate access to food due to financial constraint. As a member of the PROOF research team, she has studied public policy formation and legislation on food insecurity using the Hansards of four jurisdictions within Canada.
Rob McKenzie
Lawyer
Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal
Robert is legal counsel to the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal (CART) whose mandate is to provide independent oversight, through the exercise of its review jurisdiction, of federal agencies' use of Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs) in relation to agriculture and agri-food. Robert previously worked for four years on the enforcement side of agricultural AMPs as an officer with the Canada Border Services Agency which enforces agricultural laws related to imports at ports of entry across Canada. Robert has also worked for the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and recently completed his Master of Laws degree with a focus of Charter issues as they apply to administrative tribunals.
Robert est avocat avec la Commission de révision agricole du Canada (CRAC). La CRAC a pour mandat d'effectuer, par l'exercice de sa compétence de révision, une supervision indépendante de l'utilisation qui est faite des sanctions administratives pécuniaires (SAP) en matière d'agriculture et d'agroalimentaire par les organismes fédéraux d’application de la loi. Robert a également travaillé pendant quatre ans en application de la loi avec l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada, cette dernière ayant comme mandat d’appliquer les lois agricoles par rapport à l’importation au port d’entrées à travers le pays. Robert a aussi travaillé avec le Tribunal canadien des droits de la personne et a récemment terminé une maîtrise en droit avec une emphase sur les questions de Charte qui s’appliquent aux tribunaux administratifs.
Heather McLeod-Kilmurray
Associate Professor
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
Heather McLeod-Kilmurray was the founding Director of the Center for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability at the University of Ottawa and is a past Director of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. Her research deals with toxic torts, environmental ethics and legal process, the Canadian oil sands, environmental justice, the relationship between science and courts, and food law including GMOs and Industrial Factory Farming. She is co-author of The Canadian Law of Toxic Torts (Canada Law Book) with Prof. Lynda Collins. She has co-edited several books in the IUCN Academy Environmental Law Series (Edward Elgar) such as Climate Law and Developing Countries (Edward Elgar) and Biodiversity and Climate Change. She teaches Environmental Law, Climate Change and Legal Change, Torts, Legal Writing, and Administrative Law. She is also a part-time member of the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal.
Melanie McPhail
LLM Candidate
University of Western Ontario
Melanie McPhail is a Course Instructor at the University of Western Ontario in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Melanie graduated from the University of Western Ontario's Faculty of Law with her Juris Doctor in 2016, and is currently an LLM Candidate, expected to graduate in 2018. Melanie’s research interests include advertising restrictions and freedom of expression, cannabis legalization, and health policy and the law.
Sophia Murphy
PhD Candidate & Trudeau Scholar
University of British Columbia
From her home in Squamish, BC, Sophia Murphy's work is focused on agricultural trade rules, U.S. trade and agriculture policy, and the interests of developing countries in the multilateral trade system. Sophia has published many reports and articles, including analysis of the effects of international trade rules on development and food security, the impact of corporate concentration in the global food system, trade and poverty-related issues in the global biofuels sector, and a critique of U.S. food aid programs. Sophia has worked with IATP's Trade and Global Governance team since 1997. She joined the Institute from Geneva, where she had worked for two years with the United Nations Nongovernmental Liaison Service. Before that, she worked as a policy officer with the Canadian Council for International Cooperation in Ottawa. Sophia has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and a master's from the London School of Economics in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries. She is working on her PhD at the University of British Columbia in Resource Management and Environmental Studies with a focus on food sovereignty.
Nicole Negowetti
Clinical Instructor
Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic
Prior to joining FLPC, Nicole was Policy Director of the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on creating a sustainable, healthy, and humane food system by supporting transformative plant-based and cultured food technology companies. Nicole also served as an Associate Professor of Law at the Valparaiso University School of Law from 2011- 2016. As a law professor, her teaching and research focused on food law and policy, agricultural law, and sustainability. Nicole serves on the Food & Drug Law Journal Editorial Advisory Board and is a founding member of the Academy of Food Law & Policy. She is also a co-founder of the Northwest Indiana Food Council, whose mission is to build a just, sustainable, and thriving locally-oriented food system.
Nicole graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Hampshire Law School and earned a master’s degree in Peace and Development Studies from the University of Limerick, Ireland. Following graduation from law school, Nicole clerked for the Honorable Carol Ann Conboy of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
Roxanne Passos
LLM Candidate
Université de Montréal
Après un passage en pratique privée, les passions de Roxanne pour le droit de l'environnement ainsi que le droit agro-alimentaire l'ont ramenée sur les bancs d'école afin de compléter une maîtrise en droit à l'Université de Montréal. Avant son LLM, elle a obtenu un baccalauréat en droit (LLB) à l'Université d'Ottawa et a complété sa formation du Barreau. Roxanne travaille présentement sur un projet gouvernemental dont l’objectif est de guider les responsables de la qualité de l’eau dans l’adoption de stratégies de prévention et de traitement, notamment en proposant un encadrement normatif mieux adapté à la surcroissance des cyanobactéries. Ses principaux intérêts de recherche sont le droit de l’environnement, le droit public et administratif ainsi que la gestion des ressources et le développement durable.
Martha Paynter
Research Coordinator
Dalhousie School of Nursing
Martha Paynter holds a Master’s of Science in Health Research Methods from McMaster University and a Master’s in Development Economics from Dalhousie University focusing on regulation of pharmaceutical products. For eight years she worked in health systems management for Departments of Health in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. She is currently a research coordinator and student nurse at the Dalhousie School of Nursing, a member of the Halifax Breastfeeding Community of Practice Milk Bank Working Group, and a consultant for the IWK Health Centre regarding milk bank development. Martha has a deep personal and professional interest in human milk banking. She is a mother of two, with her youngest child having spent time in neonatal intensive care in 2011. She has donated litres of milk to the Northern Star Milk Bank in Calgary. This picture, of Martha and her baby Aggie in the snugli, was taken at the Rogers Hixon Ontario Milk Bank.
Anna Pippus
Director of Farmed Animal Advocacy
Animal Justice
Anna Pippus is an animal rights lawyer specializing in laws and policies that impact animals farmed for food, holding degrees in law from the University of Toronto and psychology from the University of British Columbia. She serves as director of farmed animal advocacy for Animal Justice and strategic advisor for We Animals. Anna frequently speaks and writes about animal rights issues in mainstream media, universities, bar associations, legal publications, governmental committees and meetings, and community events. Anna is a mother of two and an enthusiastic plant-based cook.
Talia Ralph
JD Candidate
McGill University, Faculty of Law
Talia is an editor, journalist, and 2nd year B.C.L./L.L.B candidate at McGill's Faculty of Law. She holds an Honours' degree in Multimedia Journalism from Emerson College and an M.A. in Food Systems from NYU. Talia is the co-founder and president of McGill's Food Law Society and has written about food policy for Eater, Forbes, VICE, and others. Most recently, she interned at Harvard's Food Law and Policy Clinic, where she advocated for progressive food waste policies at the local, state and national levels and drafted a report on indigenous food sovereignty.
Nandini Ramanujam
Associate Professor/ Executive Director and Director of Programs Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism
McGill University, Faculty of Law
Associate Professor Nandini Ramanujam is the Executive Director and Director of Programs of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill University's Faculty of Law. She also directs the International Human Rights Internship Program as well as Independent Human Rights Internships Program. She is the McGill representative for the Scholars at Risk Network and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Scholars at Risk Network, Canada section. Her research and teaching interests include Law and Development, Institutions and Governance, Economic Justice, Food Security and Food Safety, the role of civil society and the Fourth Estate (Media) in promotion of the rule of law, as well as the exploration of interconnections between field based human rights work and theoretical discourses. She received her Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University for her dissertation on Price Mechanism in Russia: Its role in the Old Planning and the New Markets. She holds a M.Phil and a M.A. in Economics with 1st class honours from Bhopal University.
Thibault Rehn
Coordinateur de Vigilance OGM
Thibault Rehn est un militant écologiste de longue date, cofondateur et désormais coordonnateur de l’organisme Vigilance OGM, qui coordonne la campagne Exigez l'étiquetage. Il s’intéresse aux problématiques liées aux OGM et aux pesticides ainsi qu’à la mobilisation citoyenne, qu’il considère essentielle afin d'obtenir une société plus juste et durable. Ingénieur de formation, il a travaillé plusieurs années à Greenpeace Québec comme responsable des bénévoles.
Josiane Rioux Collin
LLM Candidate
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
Naomi Robert
Research Associate
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Institute for Sustainable Food Systems
Naomi’s research and extension work supports the development of regional food systems as a key component of resilient, socially just and ecologically sound communities, and how local governments can foster food systems change. She received a B.Sc. from McGill and a Master of Land and Water Systems from the University of British Columbia. Naomi is an Articling Agrologist with the B.C. Institute of Agrologists.
Cecilia Rocha
Professor and Director
Ryerson University, School of Nutrition
Cecilia is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), and an Associate Researcher at the Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University. She participated in the development of the Toronto Food Strategy (2008-2010), was a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council (2005-2011), and was the Director of the project Building Capacity in Food Security in Brazil (2004-2010), funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. She is the author of a number of papers on food policy and programs in Brazil.
Jessica Rose
JD Graduate
Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University
Karen Ross
Équiterre
Karen Ross works at the national office of Équiterre, Quebec’s largest environmental NGO, on projects that advocate for pesticide reduction and stronger pesticide regulation in Canada. Karen has a PhD from the Department of Geography at Western University, with a focus on agriculture, rural development and trade, and has spent several years teaching in the Social Justice and Peace Studies program there. For the past decade, Karen has been engaged in community-based, policy and research projects focused on improving food security in Canada and internationally. Karen is co-owner and organic farmer at Cadence Ecological Farm in Ottawa.
Suzanna Sabourin
Associate Counsel
Gowling WLG
After a successful career in government and international relations in the telecommunications, broadcasting and insurance industries, Suzanne Sabourin returned to university as a mature candidate to study law in the French Common Law program of the University of Ottawa.
Suzanne is currently associate counsel in the Gowling WLG Food and Beverage Group of the Ottawa office where she practices primarily in food safety regulation, compliance and enforcement. In addition to advising on food laws and regulations, including the Safe Food for Canadians Act and the proposed Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, regulatory enforcement measures such recalls, corrective action requests and administrative monetary penalties, she assists clients with advertising, packaging and labelling, operational matters, importation, distribution and manufacturing. Suzanne interacts mainly with officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada as well as provincial and territorial regulators on behalf of her clients.
Prior to joining Gowling WLG, Suzanne was Director, Legal and Regulatory Affairs for the Canadian Meat Council, the national industry association that represents Canada’s $30 billion dollar meat industry. While at the Council, Suzanne was actively engaged in the consultations underpinning the regulatory modernization initiatives of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada on behalf of its members, Canada’s federally registered meat processors and their suppliers of equipment, technology and services. She also played a key leadership role in the CETA and TPP negotiations, the Regulatory Cooperation Council where she worked to streamline export requirements to the United States, and standards setting within the WHO/FAO Codex Alimentarius Commission. Suzanne was also a member of the government-industry working group that steered the WTO Country of Origin Labelling (COOL) dispute with the United States to a successful outcome for Canada.
Suzanne is an alumnus from the University of Ottawa. She obtained her B.A. and M.A. in Political Science in 1980 and 1983, respectively and her LL.B. in Common Law in 2008. Suzanne has been a member in good standing of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 2009.
Vanita Sachdeva
JD Candidate
McGill University, Faculty of Law
Vanita has a master’s degree in Soil Science and worked as an agronomist in Canada and Kenya. She specialized in converting waste into different fertilizers. She helped lobby to change regulations to allow innovative soil amendments on edible crops. She is currently a 3rd year law student at McGill University, where she worked with the Quebec Environmental Law Centre and the Just Solutions Immigration Legal Clinic. She is a founding member of the Law Needs Feminism movement and organizes mentorship opportunities for women in law.
Lucy Sharratt
Coordinator
Canadian Biotechnology Action Network
Lucy Sharratt works in Ottawa as the Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, also known as CBAN. CBAN brings together 16 organizations including farmer associations, environmental groups and international development organizations, all of which have serious concerns about the application of genetic engineering in food and farming. Lucy previously worked as a campaigner and researcher on this issue at the Sierra Club of Canada and the Polaris Institute. Lucy also coordinated the International Ban Terminator Campaign which secured a strengthened global moratorium on genetically engineered sterile seed technology.
Valerie Tarasuk
Professor
University of Toronto, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Valerie Tarasuk is a Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Her research extends to Canadian food policy and population-level dietary assessment, but her primary focus has been household food insecurity. Her work in this area has included several studies to examine the effectiveness of community-based responses, including food banks and charitable meal programs. Most recently, she has led PROOF, an interdisciplinary research program funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and designed to identify effective policy approaches to reduce household food insecurity in Canada.
David Travers, QC
Barrister practicing from 6 Pump Court Chambers London & Visiting Professor in Business Accountability, University of South Wales
David Travers QC is a barrister practicing in England and Wales from 6 Pump Court Chambers in the Temple in London. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2010.
For over three decades the core elements of his practice have been Consumer law in general and food law in particular, as well as Health, Safety and Environment. He is recognised in the leading UK directories as a leader in these fields as well as having been named for his work in Health and Safety
by the US based ‘Best Lawyers’. On a number of occasions he has been named Food Barrister of the year, Regulatory Barrister of the year or Consumer Barrister of the year. David was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Food Hygiene and Technology for his work in the sector.
In addition to practise at the Bar, David is Visiting Professor in Business Accountability at the University of South Wales (formerly at Newport Business School) and the author of two books and numerous articles. He has lectured in Europe, and North and South America including lecturing on Product Recall at the International Bar Association Annual Conference in Washington DC. He
lectured at Belo Horizonte in Brazil on Food Fraud and its impact on international trade in the light of the Carne Fraca scandal. He has made appearances on BBC radio’s flagship consumer programme
‘You and Yours’
David is a Chevalier of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.
Sabrina Tremblay-Huet
PhD Candidate
Université de Sherbrooke, Faculté de droit
Sabrina Tremblay-Huet is a doctoral candidate in law at the University of Sherbrooke. She is a research assistant for a project on labelling of food products of animal origin within the context of the Legal Research Chair in Food Diversity and Security. Her research interests are international legal theory, human rights and animal law
Renata Watkin
PhD Candidate
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
Renata P. Watkin is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa. She holds an LLB from the University of Ottawa (2010), a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Carleton University (2001) and has lectured on international trade law at Carleton University for several years. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Renata Watkin was a diplomat specializing in international trade. She has been drawn to the area of geographical indications as a function of her international trade experience and her studies as a wine specialist, having been granted the Wine and Spirit Advanced Certificate with distinction by the London-based Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET).
Amanda Wilson
Postdoctoral Fellow
Lakehead University, Centre for Sustainable Food Systems Research and Engagement
Amanda Wilson is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Lakehead University, working in partnership with Food Secure Canada. Her work is focused on community academic collaboration in the context of national food policy processes, as well as supporting knowledge mobilization and capacity building in the areas of new farmers and northern food. She has a PhD in Sociology from Carleton University, and has worked with several NGOs in research, project management and community outreach. She first became involved in food systems work through five years co-managing an organic small-scale vegetable farm in Ottawa. Outside of work, she is a passionate social justice organizer and an avid gardener. She also teaches sociology at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa.
Sara Zborovski
Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright
Sara Zborovski practises regulatory, commercial and intellectual property law. She assists companies regulated by Health Canada in obtaining market access and in all areas of compliance. Ms. Zborovski has experience in a wide range of matters involving the innovative pharmaceutical and biotechnology, natural health product, medical device and food and beverage industries.
Ms. Zborovski advises clients on product classification, clinical trials, market authorization and market access strategies, including clinical trial applications and agreements, product licence strategies, market access strategies (including assistance with the Common Drug Review and formulary listings) and establishment licensing and GMP programs. She also assists companies regulated by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board.
On the compliance side, Ms. Zborovski assists clients in developing SOPs and compliance policies, ensuring compliant packaging and labelling (including label reviews) and provides strategic advice on advertising and marketing programs (including assistance with pre-clearance agencies and representing companies in disputes before the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board and Advertising Standards Canada). She also advises clients on federal and provincial privacy laws, particularly as these relate to healthcare, and federal and provincial access to information and freedom of information matters.
Ms. Zborovski also works with clients in all industries on matters relating to product safety, including crisis management, advocacy before the inspectorate and product recalls.
Ms. Zborovski has particular experience with Federal Court review of regulatory decisions, lobbying and the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations. She is an active member of the Canadian IP and advocacy communities, a regular contributor to a number of publications and an active blogger on food safety and other regulatory matters.