Maryse ALCINDOR

Maryse Alcindor was born in Port-au-Prince in 1950.She has a BA in Pedagogy from the University of Montréal (1966), a Master's degree in History from the University of Québec in Montréal (1978) and a license in Law from the University of Montréal (1980). She was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1981.

In 1987, Mrs. Alcindor was part of a police-minorities committee created by the Québec Human Rights Commission and in which she contributed to the transformation of the police service. In 1993,she established a partnership between the Québec Human Rights Commission and the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg for the creation of a joint summer university devoted to education on human rights and which is held annually in the capital of the European Union. In the middle of the 1990s, she wrote the striking report of the Truth and Justice National Commission of the Republic of Haiti.

In the 2000s, Mrs. Alcindor became the first black woman to occupy a position of Deputy Minister in the Québec public administration and, as such, to propose immigration policies and orientations for Québec.

Today, Maryse Alcindor remains active with various agencies devoted to international cooperation, like the Paul-Gérin-Lajoie Foundation. In 2010, she was named Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

Frédérique AST

Frédérique Ast is a Doctor of Law and jurist for the organization Défenseur des droits (formerly the Haute autorité de lutte contre les discriminations et pour l'égalité). She instructs the individual reclamations of victims and reports on the dossiers related to ail forms of discrimination (based on gender, origin, handicap, health, sexual orientation, religion, family situation).

Frédérique Ast has developed a special expertise in European and French law about discrimination, and namely religious discrimination. She is the author of numerous publications on those topics. Her last article is entitled "La contribution du droit de la non-discrimination au pluralisme religieux : regards croisés des juridictions européennes et françaises et de la HALDE" (in Duarte B., Manifester sa religion : droits et limites, Fév. 2011, L'Harmattan, Paris). She has also contributed, for the Council of Europe, to the creation of a methodological guide on intercultural competence in public services (to be published in 2011).She recently participated in a seminar organized by the Universities of Cadix and Bilbao about the implications of religious diversity on public policies in France, Québec and Spain.

She is also organizing a conférence on religious discrimination in Europe to be held next September in Paris.

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Gabriella BATTAINI-DRAGONI

Project Manager for Europe of Interculturalism 2011

Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni is the Council of Europe's Director General of Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport. Since 2005, Mrs. Battaini-Dragoni is the Council of Europe's Coordinator for Intercultural Dialogue. In this capacity, she has been responsible for the preparation of the Council of Europe "White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue" adopted on 7 May 2008 at ministerial level, the first document of its kind at international level, and the Council of Europe "Speak out against Discrimination" Campaign.

Mrs. Battaini-Dragoni is a frequently invited guest speaker at UN, OECD, OSCE, and EU meetings. For more information on the Directorate General of Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport, visit the website : LINK.

Ahmed BENBOUZID

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Ahmed Benbouzid is Director of Social Development at the Montréal Regional Conference of Elected Officers. He was President of the Advisory Committee on Intercultural Relations of Montréal (CARIM) from 1996 to 2000, a member of the Intercultural Council of Montréal and administrator at the Center for Research Action on Race Relations from 1999 to 2001. Mr Benbouzid represents the Montreal Regional Conference of Elected Officers at various regional instances including the Regional Council of Labour Market Partners (CRPMT).

Mr Benbouzid works mostly in the fields of local and regional development, immigration, integration, intercultural relations, development of employability, and entrepreneurship.

Pierre BOSSET

A member of the Bar, Pierre Bosset joined the Québec Human Rights Commission in 1985 where he has worked for 22 years. He is the author of numerous studies on human rights : the notion of indirect discrimination, freedom of speech and heinous propaganda, économic and social rights as "neglected issues" in the Québec Charter of Rights, the juridical planning of cultural and religious diversity, reasonable accommodation and neutrality of the state in religious matters. Me Bosset was, in particular, the author of official advices which received wide public attention, namely on the issues of the hijab in public schools and religion in the public space.

A Professor of Public Law at the University of Quebec in Montréal since 2007, Me Bosset teaches human rights and freedoms, constitutional law and public international law. In 2007-2008, he was a member of the advisory committee of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission.

He has published La discrimination indirecte dans le domaine de l'emploi (Éditions Yvon Biais, 1989) and coedited many collective works, including Citoyenneté et droits fondamentaux : une citoyenneté limitée, fragmentée, illusoire ? (Éditions Thémis, 2000). With Professor Lucie Lamarche, he is preparing the publication of a collective work entitled Donner droit de cité aux droits économiques, sociaux et culturels :la Charte québécoise des droits en chantier.

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Gérard BOUCHARD

Chief Project Manager of Interculturalism 2011

A historian and sociologist, Gérard Bouchard is Professor at the Department of Human Sciences at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi. He is a Canada Research Chair and a member of the "Successful Societies" research program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

His main subjects of interest are collective imaginaries, myths, the symbolic foundations of the social link, the management of ethnocultural diversity, the Quiet Revolution. His publications include : La pensée impuissante : Échecs et mythes nationaux canadiens-français 1850-1960 (Boréal, 2004), La culture québécoise est-elle en crise ? (co-authored with Alain Roy, Boréal, 2007), Mythes et sociétés des Amériques (co-authored with Bernard Andrès, Québec Amérique, 2007), Fonder l'avenir : Le temps de la conciliation (co-authored with Charles Taylor, Rapport de la Commission de consultation sur les pratiques d'accommodement reliées aux différences culturelles, Gouvernement du Québec, 2008) and The Making of the Nations and Cultures of the New World. An Essay in Comparative History (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008).

Prof. Bouchard has published numerous other works and more than 270 articles. He has received many distinctions including the French Legion of Honour.

Dounia BOUZAR

Dounia Bouzar has a Ph. D. in Anthropology of religion and specializes in the reappropriation of Islam by the young people born in France and socialized in the republican school System. She was an educator at the Judicial Protection of Youth and a qualified member of the French Council of the Muslim faith. She is the author of many works, received a prize by the Academy of Moral and Political Science and was named a "European heroin" by the magazine Time for her innovative work on Islam.

In 2008, she founded with her daughter the Cults and Cultures Consulting Study Center. Its first two investigation reports (on the management of the Muslim fact in businesses and public services) were recently published by Albin Michel : Allah a-t-il sa place en entreprise ? and La République ou la burqa, les services publics face à l'islam manipulé. Eyrolles Editions hâve asked her to conceive a guide entitled Laïcité mode d'emploi explaining how to deal with 42 situations in businesses and the public sector. Since then, she has intervened in businesses and local communities to help establish criteria for the management of religious diversity and application of secularism in daily life.

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Emmanuelle BRIBOSIA

Emmanuelle Bribosia is Professor at the Institute for European Studies and at the Faculty of Law of the Free University of Brussels. Her teaching focuses on European law, international and European protection of human rights and the legal approach to discrimination. Since 2007, she is Director of the juridical department at the Institute for European Studies and of the advanced Master's program in European law.

As for her research, she has developed over the last ten years, in collaboration with Isabelle Rorive, a research pole on equality rights, non-discrimination and the legal approach to diversity. She is one of the co-promoter of the transdisciplinary concerted research action L'étranger et l'autre à l'épreuve des transformations normatives et identitaires en Europe (2006-2011). Her recent publications related to the theme of the Symposium include an article written in collaboration with Julie Ringelheim and Isabelle Rorive, Reasonable Accommodation for Religious Minorities :A Promising Concept for European Antidiscrimination Law ?, (Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, vol. 17, n° 2, pp. 137-161 ) and a thematic report entitled Towards a balance between right to equality and fundamental rights – À la recherche d'un équilibre entre le droit à l'égalité et d'autres droits fondamentaux (avec I. Rorive), (written for the European Network of Legal Experts in the Antidiscrimination Field, 2010,72 p.).

Ted CANTLE

Professor Ted Cantle has held a wide range of senior positions in public service at national and local level focusing, in particular, on urban regeneration and key social and environmental problems. He was Chief Executive of Nottingham City Council from 1990 to 2001 and has worked in health, housing, public works, media and environmental agencies.

In August 2001,Ted Cantle was appointed by the Home Secretary to lead the review of the causes of the summer riots in a number of UK northern towns and cities. His report - known as "the Cantle Report"- introduced the concept of "community cohesion" and was subsequently adopted by the Government. It was widely seen as a critique of the then policy of multiculturalism, based upon "parallel lives" or separateness and heralded a new framework for race and diversity based on interaction and positive values for diversity.

He is now Professor at the Institute of Community Cohésion (iCoCo), which is the UK's leading authority on community cohesion and is supported by a range of partners. iCoCo develops and promûtes good practice, provides guidance and conducts research and is sponsored by governmental and non-governmental departments as well as the business sector and other agencies. He was awarded the CBE in 2004 and is the author of Community Cohesion : A New Framework for Race and Diversity Published by Palgrave Macmillan (updated Edition 2008).

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Linda CARDINAL

Linda Cardinal is Professor at the School of Political Studies and Research Chair in Canadian Francophonie and Public Policy at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on the relationship between language and policy, the collective action of linguistic minorities, the debate on identity and citizenship in Canada and Québec and the history of ideas in Québec and francophone Canada. She has published numerous articles and edited many works on these topics.

She has recently edited a special issue of Politique et Sociétés on the theme Minorités, langue et politique (2010) and Le fédéralisme asymétrique et les minorités linguistiques et nationales (Prise de parole, 2008). She was President of the Quebec Society of Political Science from 2008 to 2009. She now presides the Language and Policy Committee of the International Association of Political Science.

Marie-Thérèse CHICHA

Marie-Thérèse Chicha (Ph.D. in Economics at McGill University) is Professor at the School of Industrial Relations of the University of Montréal. She acts as an expert in equality policy for the International Labor Office in Geneva. She is a researcher for the Immigration and Metropolis Center, the Center for Ethnic Studies of Montréal Universities (CÉETUM), and associate researcher for the Research Chair in Immigration, Ethnicity and Citizenship (CRIEC). She was invited as an expert in equality policy by various organizations and governments (France, Danemark, Belgium, Sweden, Morocco) as well as in relation to the EQUAL program in Portugal and Ukraine. In 2007, she was a Visiting Professor at the International Formation Center of the International Labour Organization in Turin.

She has published namely : Le mirage de l'égalité. Les immigrées hautement qualifiées à Montréal. FCRR. Toronto. 2009 ; Genre, migration et déqualification : des trajectoires contrastées. Étude de cas de travailleuses migrantes à Genève. Cahiers des migrations internationales no. 97. BIT.Genève (avec Eva Deraedt). 2009 ; Promouvoir l'équité salariale au moyen de l'évaluation non sexiste des emplois :guide de mise en œuvre. 2008. BIT.

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Yasmina CHOUAKRI

Yasmina Chouakri is in charge of the women section of the Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI).She is President of the Canadian Research Institute on Women (ICREF) and associate researcher at the Research chair on Immigration, Ethnicity and Citizenship (CRIEC).

Trained as a political scientist, she has been involved in the Québec and Canadian women movements for more than ten years as a militant and worker. Her contribution to the feminist and community milieu is related notably to the definition of factors of inclusion and exclusion of immigrant women from civic participation, the lack of funding for ethnocultural women's groups, the linking of immigrant and racialized women with the feminist fight, and the development of projects aiming at the empowerment of women, the fight against discrimination and racism.

She has also been a consultant on the issue of gender equality and was in charge of the Cultural Communities Women's Committee at the Quebec Women's Federation between 2003 and 2008.

Pearl ELIADIS

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Pearl Eliadis is a human rights lawyer based in Montreal. She is a law graduate of McGill and Oxford universities, with training in both common law and civil law. Her practice is limited to human rights and démocratie governance. Pearl Eliadis has been retained by the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), NGOs and international consortia on national human rights institutions, legal and judicial reform, and institution-building in China, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Tajikistan, Ethiopia and most recently, Nepal. She was senior advisor to two Rwandan commissions in the aftermath of the genocide from 2001-2004.

Pearl Eliadis is admitted to the Québec and Ontario Bar Associations and is a member of the human rights committees for both the Québec and Canadian Bar Associations. She is a recipient of the Canada 125 Comme-morative Medal, the 2006 Woman of Distinction (YWCA) and the 2009 Woman of the Year Award (Montréal Council of Women).

Pearl Eliadis has a special interest in women and children's rights and is past president of a Montreal-area women's shelter. She publishes and speaks regularly on human rights issues, has co-edited three books and authored many articles on immigration, human rights and Charter law.

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Thomas FACCHINETTI

Mr. Facchinetti is Delegate for foreigner people in the State of Neuchâtel (Switzerland), head of multicultural cohesion office. He was born in 1961 in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Dual citizenship Swiss - Italian. Deputy of the city of Neuchâtel's Parliament since 1997.Hecompleted his social sciences training in Neuchâtel (socio-cultural "animation" law, sociology and psychosociology).

His main professional activities include : Head of Youth's organisation, cofounder and head of "Job service" (a specialized institution in the integration of young people into the labour market). He is a delegate of foreign people (State of Neuchâtel) since 1990 and Head of multicultural cohesion Office. One of the main activities of the Delegate of foreign people is mediation between the Neuchâtel State authorities and the foreigner communities or multicultural communities.

He assumes the leadership in the enforcement of one of the missions the State, which is multicultural cohesion through the foreigners' integration policy and prevention of racism.

Gilda FARRELL

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Gilda Farrell is Head of the Social Cohesion Development and Research Division of the Council of Europe. From September 1995 to March 2000, she was Associate Director and then Director of the LEADER European Observatory, a European Union initiative which received the mandate to analyze the positive practices in local and territorial development.

From August 1994 to July 1995, she worked as an expert in charge of the STRUDER program of the European Commission for Regional Development in the context of the expansion of the Union. Gilda Farrell has a Master's degree in Economies and Political Science from the University of York in Ontario, Canada and a Ph.D. in Economies from the Free International University of Social Studies in Rome.

Bergman FLEURY

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Bergman Fleury is specialized in education sciences. He has worked for a long period in schools and the formation of schooling personnel and administrators. At the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM), he was in charge of various dossiers related to education, interculturai relations and plurilingualism. His contribution to a number of academic studies focus mainly on the success of young people from ethnocultural minorities.

He is President of the Consultative Committee on Integration and Reasonable Accomodation created by the Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports. In November 2007, his report Une école québécoise inclusive : dialogue, valeurs et repères communs gave to the administrators of the school System an institutional framework to better apprehend cultural diversity and the integration of pupils from all origins. This report also proposes a model to improve the search of solutions for a better cohabitation.

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Lamine FOURA

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Lamine Foura is an engineer at Bombardier Aeronautics since October 2001. He contributed as a research assistant to the Research Group on Ethnoreligious Montréal of University of Québec in Montréal from 2005 to 2007. He collaborated to Télé-Quebec's tv program Bazzo.tv between 2006 and 2008.

He occupied various positions in the public sector. He was the Secretary General and co-founder of the Maghreb Congress in Québec ; since July 2002, he is hosting a radio show called Taxi Maghreb at Radio Centre-Ville ; between 2003 and 2009, he was the host of the television program La Caravane du Maghreb on Channel 14 (CJNT Montréal) ; from 2001 to 2002, he was a columnist for the television program Algérie Express on Channel 14 CH Montréal. From 2003 to 2008, he was a member of the Maghreb Table of the Québec Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities.

He acts as a resource person for the Québec Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities and Québec and Canadian medias when they need information about topics related to the arabo-muslim community in Québec. He is an active member of the Québec Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group.

François FOURNIER

Executive director of Interculturalism 2011

François Fournier has a Master's degree in Political Science and a Ph.D. in Sociology. He has worked as a researcher for the last twenty years. His work and publications include a variety of topics : parentality, vulnerable and stigmatized populations, bioethics, privacy and confidentiality issues related to health data, human rights, intercultural relations, racism and immigration.

In 2007-2008, he was a senior analyst for the Bouchard-Taylor Commission. Since 2008, he is working on issues related to immigration and models of integration for the Canada Research Chair in the Comparative Study of Collective Imaginaries. He is also interested in the study of antipluralist discourses in Québec and Western countries.

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Nicole GIRARD

Nicole Girard has extensive experience working on a wide range of citizenship and immigration issues. She is currently Acting Director General of the Citizenship and Multiculturalism Branch at Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Previously, she was the Director of Citizenship legislation and program policy.

Her experience leading policy development in areas as diverse as Enforcement, Stratégic Policy, Refugees and Citizenship and Multiculturalism Branches has supported legislative reform and regulatory change. Nicole contributed to the policy development, drafting and implementation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) from 1999 to 2002, and lead efforts to support implementation of changes to the Citizenship Act in 2009.

She has contributed to discussion of immigration, refugee and citizenship issues in Europe, U.S.A and Australia.

Irena GUIDIKOVA

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

A graduate of Political Science and Political Philosophy from the Universities of Sofia (BG) and York (UK), she has been working at the Council of Europe since 1994. Her career has taken her from the Directorate of Youth and Sport where she developed and carried out a large research programme, through a transversal 3-year project on the future of democracy in Europe, the Private Office of the Secretary General where she was a policy advisor, to her present job as Head of Division of Cultural Policy, Diversity and Dialogue.

Her professional interests in ail of the above fields cover areas at the intersection of public institutions and society : public policies and social change, technological development and policy innovation, policy review and advice, strategy development and implementation.

Assia KADA

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Assia Kada has a degree in computer management. After ten years of teaching and voluntary implication in the defense of the working rights of poor and non-schooled women, she reoriented her career and, in 1990, followed a course in social intervention and intercultural research. She then worked for ten years as a social worker with immigrant women who are victim of domestic violence. As a consultant for the Center for study and research on Intercultural Relations she has been training workers from the health and social services sectors in intercultural communication and understanding.

In 1996, after a two-year training in ethnopsychiatry, she joined the transcultural team at the Jean-Talon Hospital (Montréal) where she was for more than ten years a co-therapist with families from ail origins who are coping with various problems.

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In 2000, she was appointed Director of the Tolerance Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mandate is to promote the respect for differences with the youth in Québec secondary schools. Thanks to the abundance of educational material it is diffusing, the Foundation is now recognized as a leader in the prevention of ail forms of discrimination, exclusion, violence and violent crimes. Since her nomination in 2000, Mrs. Kada has been working for the Foundation.

Aida KAMAR

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Aida Kamar received diplomas in philosophy and communication. She started her career in Lebanon, her country of origin, as a philosophy teacher and journalist (written and television) before devoting herself to larger matters, including francophonie, a dossier she supervised for the President of the Republic of Lebanon. She pursued that work in Québec where she moved in 1990 and received in 2004, by the National Assembly, the Order of La Francophonie. Her deep belief in an artistically and economically diverse Québec society guides and nourishes her career in Québec. In recognition of this commitment, she received the National Order of Québec in 2008.

A woman of engagement and passion, she believes strongly in the dialogue between people, cultures and generations. Her contribution to various Ministers was thus inspired by diversity and interculturality.

Aida Kamar is the founding President of Vision Diversité, a non-profit organization whose mandate is to mobilize people from the cultural, business and education sectors with the aim of making diversity a force of progress in Québec through different initiatives, economic and cultural, in order to prevent the wasting of graduates, artists and business people of ail origins in Quebec.

Will KYMLICKA

Will Kymlicka received his B.A. in philosophy and politics from Queen's University in 1984, and his D.Phil. in philosophy from Oxford University in 1987. His career has focused on how démocratic countries address issues of ethnic, racial and religious diversity, with a special focus on the theory and practice of multicultural citizenship in Canada. He is the author of six books published by Oxford University Press, including Multicultural Citizenship (1995), Finding Our Way : Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in Canada (1998), and Multicultural Odysseys : Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity (2007). He is also the co-editor of Citizenship in Diverse Societies (2000), and Multiculturalism and the Welfare State (2006).

He is currentlyt he Canada Research Chair in Political Philosophy at Queen's University, and a visiting professor in Nationalism Studies at the Central European University in Budapest. He is a frequent advisor to governments and international organizations. His works have been translated into 32 languages.

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Micheline LABELLE

Micheline Labelle is Professor of Sociology at the University of Quebec in Montreal and is the Research Chair on immigration, ethnicity and citizenship (CRIEC), which is a member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. She is also the Director of the International Observatory of Racism and Discrimination.

Her work focuses namely on policies about immigration and diversity (multiculturalism and interculturalism), Québec nationalism and the process of racialization. She recently published Contestation transnationale, diversité et citoyenneté dans l'espace québécois (with F. Rocher, 2004), Le devoir de mémoire et les politiques du pardon (with R. Antonius and G. Leroux, 2005), Immigration et multiculturalisme : les associations arabo-musulmanes face à l'État canadien et québécois (with F. Rocher and R. Antonius, 2009) and Racisme et antiracisme au Québec. Discours et déclinaisons (2010). She also carried out studies for the UNESCO'S International Coalition of Cities Against Racism.

She has been a member of the Québec Intercultural Relations Council (from 2002 to 2004) and of the governing board of the International Association of Québec Studies (from 2003 to 2009).

Frank LECHNER

Frank Lechner is Professor of Sociology at Emory University (Atlanta, USA). Born in Amsterdam, he moved to the United States in 1979 for graduate study at the University of Pittsburgh.

His recent work deals mainly with globalization. Relevant publications include World Culture : Origins and Consequences (2005 ; with John Boli), The Netherlands : Globalization and National Identity (2008), and Globalization : The Making of World Society (2009). With John Boli, he has edited The Globalization Reader (fourth edition, 2011). Among his other publications are papers on Dutch religion and soccer.

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Peter LEUPRECHT

Peter Leuprecht holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Innsbruck (Austria). From 1958to 1961, he served as an assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Innsbruck while also performing work at the Bar. He then worked from 1961 to 1997 as an official in the Secretariat General of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, where he acted as the Secretary of the Committee of Ministers from 1976 to 1980. He was appointed Director of Human Rights in 1980, before his election to the post of Deputy Secretary-General in 1993, a position he would leave before the end of his term due to disagreement with the dilution of Council of Europe standards.

He is the author of numerous publications in the field of international law and human rights, and has taught at the universities of Strasbourg and Nancy (France) as well as at the European Academy of Law in Florence (Italy). From 1997 to 1999, he was a visiting professor at both the Faculty of Law of McGill University and the Department of Juridical Sciences of the University of Québec in Montréal (UQAM), while acting as an advisor to the Canadian Department of Justice. Dean of the Faculty of Law of McGill University until 2003, Leuprecht is currently Director of the Montréal Institute of International Studies and Professor in the Department of Juridical Sciences at UQAM.

M. Leuprecht was awarded the Prix du civisme européen in 1991 and the Human Rights Award of the Lord Reading Law Society in 2001. From 2000 to 2005, he was appointed as the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia in 2000.

Marie McANDREW

Marie Me Andrew is a full professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Foundations, at the University of Montréal. She has worked extensively in research and policy development and evaluation in this field. From 1989 to 1991, she has been closely associated to the development and dissemination of the Policy Statement on immigration and integration Let's build Québec together.

From 1996 to 2002, she was the Director of Immigration and Metropolis, the Inter-university Research Centre of Montréal on Immigration, Integration and Urban Dynamics. From 1993 to 2004,Dr.McAndrewalso co-ordinated the Research Group on Ethnicity and Adaptation to Pluralism in Education (GREAPE). Since June 2003, she holds the Chair for Ethnic Relations and in June 2006, she was awarded a SSHRC Canada Senior research Chair on Education and Ethnic Relations.

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In June 2005, she received the Prix québécois de la citoyenneté Jacques-Couture pour le rapprochement interculturel, in recognition of the relevance of her involvement in research and dissemination for the development of public policies, better adapted to pluralism. She was also a member of the Consultative Committee on integration and reasonable accommodation in the school setting, established by the minister of Education of Québec in October 2006, and of the advisory board of the Consultation commission on accommodation practices related to cultural differences established in March 2007.

Geneviève NOOTENS

Member of the executive committee of Interculturalism 2011

Geneviève Nootens is Professor at the University of Québec in Chicoutimi and Canada Research Chair in Democracy and Sovereignty. She is a member of the Research Group on plurinational societies (GRSP), the Center for Research on Diversity in Québec (CRIDAQ) and the network Ethnicity and Démocratic Governance.

She has contributed to numerous collective works, including National Cultural Autonomy and its Contemporary Critics (Routledge, 2005) and After the Nation ? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). She has co-edited, with Alain-G. Gagnon and André Lecours, Les nationalismes majoritaires contemporains. ldentité, mémoire, pouvoir (Montréal, Québec Amérique, 2007). She has also co-edited, with André Lecours, Dominant Nationalism, Dominant Ethnicity : Identity, Federalism and Democracy (Peter Lang, 2009), and with RyoaChung, Le cosmopolitisme : enjeux et débats contemporains (Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 2010).

She is the author of Désenclaver la démocratie. Des huguenots à la paix des Braves (Montreal, Québec Amérique, 2004) and Souvraineté démocratique, justice et mondialisation (Liber, 2010). She also published in Nations and Nationalism and in Contemporary Political Theory.

Ólöf Thorhildur ÓLAFSDÓTTIR

Mrs Ólöf Thorhildur Ólafsdóttir is Director of Education and Languages at the Council of Europe. She started her career in 1982 after she obtained a doctorate in French history and literature with a thesis on political literature in the third Republic. From 1982to 1987, she taught comparative literature and French literature at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. In January 1988, she joined the Secretary of the European Council as an Administrator of the Division of Cultural Heritage. From 1990to 1993, she was the Secretary of the Committee on Culture, Education and Media of the European Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

In 1993, she was appointed Head of the Division for Equality between Women and Men at the Directorate general for Human Rights. She held that position until the summer of 2002 when she joined the Directorate of Education and Languages as Head Chief of the Division for Education on Citizenship and Human Rights. In October 2002,she was promoted as Chief of the Service of Curricular and Extra-curricular Education within the same Directorate, of which she is the Director since December 1^st 2010.

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Stephan REICHHOLD

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Stephan Reichhold is the Director of TCRI (Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes) since 1998. He is responsible for the coordination and development of a national umbrella group of 140 local agencies working for refugees, immigrants and non-status people in Québec. Through cooperation and vigilant criticism, he gives active input on the conception and elaboration of government programs and policies regarding immigration and integration.

From 1978 to 1988, he has collaborated on a regular basis as a trainer and researcher with the Franco-German Youth Office (Bonn), the European Youth Center (Strasbourg), Arbeit und Leben (Düsseldorf), Culture et Liberté (Paris), Internationale Begegnungsstatte Jagdschloss Glienicke (Berlin), Wannseeheim (Berlin) and Greenpeace Germany (Hambourg).

Since 1998, he is a permanent member of the Orientation committee of the Québec Metropolis Center -Immigration and Metropolis (part of the Metropolis canadian network). From 2002 to 2010, he was a member of the Québec Intercultural Relations Council, and is now part of the direction committee of the Research Chair on immigration, ethnicity and citizenship at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

Patricia RIMOK

Patricia Rimok is President of the Québec Intercultural Relations Council (CRI) since October 2003.The Council is a research and consultation governmental organization. Its main role is to advise the Minister of Immigration and Cultural communities on ail questions relative to intercultural relations, the integration of immigrants and diversity.

Recent initiatives under her presidency include an advice on daycare centers (L'accessibilité aux services de garde : une partie prenante de l'intégration des familles immigrantes au Québec), an advice on media and advertising (Une représentation et un traitement équitables de la diversité ethnoculturelle dans les médias et la publicité, un Avis sur la prise en compte et la gestion de la diversité ethnoculturelle) and a report on a survey about diversity in Quebec businesses (Rapport du sondage EDIT-Entreprises diversifiées et talentueuses mené auprès des entreprises québécoises, de juin à novembre 2008).

Patricia Rimok received diplomas in Communication and Political Science from McGill University and University of Montreal.

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François ROCHER

François Rocher is Professor and Chairman of the School of Political Studies at University of Ottawa. For more than 15 years, he was Professor at the University of Carleton where he also supervised the School of Canadian Studies. His work focuses on the general topics that underlay the dynamics of Canadian politics, namely the constitutional debate, the relationship between Québec and Canada, Canadian federalism, policies for the management of ethnocultural diversity and sociopolitical manifestations of Quebec nationalism.

He published recently Guy Rocher. Entretiens (2010) and co-authored (with M. Labelle and R. Antonius) Immigration, diversité et sécurité : les associations arabo-musulmanes face à l'État au Québec et au Canada (2009). He was also the co-editor of many works, including Essential Readings in Canadian Government and Politics (2010) (with P.H. Russell, D. Thompson and L.A. White), Politics in North America. Redefining Continental Relations (2007) (with Y. Abu-Laban, R. Jhappan), Contestation transnationale, diversité et citoyenneté dans l'espace québécois (2004) (with M. Labelle) and The Conditions of Diversity in Multinational Democracies (2003) (with Alain-G. Gagnon and M. Guibernau).

Céline SAINT-PIERRE

Project Manager for Quebec of Interculturalism 2011

Céline Saint-Pierre is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Québec in Montréal where she taught from 1969 to 1991, and held the position of Vice-principal of Research and teaching from 1992 to 1996. She then became President of the Québec Superior Council on Education (1997-august 2002),supervised the Fernand-Dumont Chair on Culture (INRS-UCS, 2002-2004) and was Vice-president of Innovation and Transfer at CEFRIO (2005-2008).

She has been a member of numerous commissions and advisory committees for the Government of Québec : the Council on the Status of Women (1985-1989), the Commission des États généraux sur l'éducation (1995-1996), the Committee of experts on the financing of continuing education (MELS et MSSS, 2003-2004), and the advisory committee of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission (CCPARDC, 2007-2008).

She is now a member of numerous governing boards and advisory committees for academic institutions and local organizations in the fields of education, social development and circulation of knowledge.

[18]

Emilio SANTORO

Emilio Santoro was born in Parma (Italy) in 1963. He is associate professor of Philosophy and Sociology of Law and teaches immigration law in the Faculty of law of Florence University. He is a member of the scientific committees of several national and international journals.

He obtained his PhD in political and social science at the European University Institute. He has been Visiting Fellow in various English and American Universities and is managing many international research agreements of the University of Florence, mainly with Brazilian universities. He has been Scientist in Charge for three projects funded by the European Union (on European Citizenship and the Social and Political Integration of the European Union ;"Human Rights Facing Security" "Crime Repression Costs in Context").

He founded and is the director of L'altro diritto ONLUS, a documentation centre on prison, marginality and deviance, which supervises legal counsel for the inmates in ail the main prisons of Tuscany, and counsels on immigration matters for local government bodies (about two hundreds Tuscan municipalities). His publications are mainly related to the sociology of punishment, the rule of law, law and globalization, the government of multicultural societies, individual autonomy and immigration law.

Leslie SEIDLE

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Leslie Seidle is Research Director for the Institute for Research on Public Policy's (IRPP) Diversity, Immigration and Integration program. He previously held senior positions in the Government of Canada, including director general of Strategic Policy and Research, Intergovernmental Affairs in the Privy Council Office (1996-2002). He was Research Director (Governance) at IRPP (1992-96) and Senior Research Coordinator for the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing (1990-91).

He is the author of Rethinking the Delivery of Public Services to Citizens (IRPP, 1995) and numerous articles on immigration issues, electoral and constitutional reform, public management and political finance. Dr. Seidle has edited/co-edited twelve books, including Belonging ? Diversity, Recognition and Shared Citizenship in Canada (IRPP, 2007) and the comparative study Reforming Parliamentary Democracy (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003).

[19]

Michel VENNE

Member of the Steering board of Interculturalism 2011

Michel Venne is founder and Director of l'Institut du Nouveau Monde (INM). He is a fellow of Ashoka, an international organization gathering 2000 social innovators from around the globe.

In 2007, he was appointed by the Government of Québec as Vice-president of the research group (Castonguay) on the funding of the public health care System. From 1990 to 2006, he occupied as a journalist various positions (parliamentary correspondent, editorialist, director of information, and columnist) for the daily newspaper Le Devoir (Montréal).

In recognition of the quality of his work in written journalism, he was awarded the Judith-Jasmin prize in 1993 and the Michener Award in 1997. He has published numerous books, including Souverainistes, que faire ? and Les Porteurs de liberté, and has edited many collective works including 700 idées citoyennes pour un Québec en santé Justice, démocratie et prospérité - L'avenir du modèle québécois ; and Penser la nation québécoise.

Jean-Paul WILLAIME

Jean-Paul Willaime was born in 1947 in Charleville (France). He received his Doctorate in Religious studies in 1975 and his Doctorate in Sociology in 1984. After teaching at the University of Strasbourg, he has been, since 1992, the Director of studies at l'École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sorbonne (Paris). He is a member of the research team Groupe Société, Religions, Laïcités (EPHE-CNRS), and has supervised the European institute of Religious Studies from 2005 to 2010.

His publications : Sociologie des Religions (third éd., 2005) ; Europe et religions. Les enjeux du XXI^e siècle (2004) ; Religion and Education in Europe. Developments, Contexts and Debates (éd. with R. Jackson, S. Miedema, W. Weisse, 2007) ; and Le retour du religieux dans la sphère publique. Vers une laïcité de reconnaissance et de dialogue (2008).