Digital Media at the Crossroads

Francesca Accinelli, Senior Vice President, Program Strategy and Industry Development at Telefilm Canada. For over 20 years Ms. Accinelli has been an unwavering champion of Canadian talent and content. Ms. Accinelli is known for her caring and transparent management style and her ability to build trusting relationships and partnerships. Ms. Accinelli has developed a unique expertise working in TV, film, digital media, promotions and communications with both English-and French-language markets in her many roles at Telefilm.

Her arrival at Telefilm in 2006 as Deputy Director of the English Market for the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) programs allowed her to quickly acquire an in-depth knowledge of the organization. In 2008, she was promoted to Director, English Market of this team and helped establish the administration of the Canada Media Fund programs at Telefilm.

In 2014, Ms. Accinelli took on a leadership role of National Promotions and Communications and a few years later, was appointed vice-president of these sectors with the added responsibility of International Promotions.

Throughout her time at Telefilm, Ms. Accinelli has taken on additional interim roles in Government Relations, Equity Diversity and Inclusion and Official Languages and more recently the interim Executive Director and CEO, expanding her perspective and knowledge of the industry and Telefilm's role nationally and internationally.

Chris Arsenault is the Chair of the Master of Media in Journalism and Communications Program (MMJC) at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, Western University.

He is an award-winning journalist and professor who has worked in the journalism industry for over 15 years and has built a unique and impressive portfolio as an international correspondent covering conflict, climate change, and natural resources on four different continents. Arsenault has worked for news outlets such as Al Jazeera, Reuters, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He received specialized training to report in hazardous environments.

Doug Barrett is a veteran of over 30 years in the Canadian media and entertainment industries. He is Adjunct Professor at Schulich School of Business where he teaches on Business and Strategic Solutions for Digital Media. From 2006 to mid-2013, he was the President and CEO of PS Production Services Ltd., a leading supplier of professional motion picture production equipment. For 20 years prior, Barrett ran one of Canada's most successful entertainment law practices at McMillan LLP, and was repeatedly listed by 'LEXPERT' as one of Canada's 500 Leading Lawyers. He has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Television Fund, and was a key founder of the Alliance Atlantis Banff Television Executive Program. Barrett's extensive list of board service includes the Banff Television Festival, the Feature Film Project of the Canadian Film Centre, and the Canadian Film and Television Production Association. He holds an MSc from the Newhouse School in Syracuse and an LLB/JD from Dalhousie.

Marla Boltman is the Executive Director of Friends of Canadian Media. She is a trusted and passionate leader in the Canadian media sector with more than 20 years of combined experience in policy and regulatory advocacy, content production, and entertainment law. Prior to joining FRIENDS, Marla was the Senior Vice President, Business Affairs & Operations at Halfire Entertainment. Before that, she served as the Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs and General Counsel at the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), where she provided broad-based legal and strategic business advice on various aspects of the independent production sector. Her robust experience also includes roles at DHX Media (now Wildbrain), the Canada Media Fund, the Canadian Film Centre and Alliance Atlantis Communications.

Michael Caldecott is a Partner in McCarthy Tétrault's Competition/Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group in Toronto. Clients seek Mike's advice to navigate complex competition and foreign investment processes to achieve their most important commercial objectives. Specializing in cross-border transactions and governmental investigations into business conduct, he combines analytical precision with a pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach.

Recognized by Chambers for Competition/Antitrust, Who's Who Legal as a Future Leader and Global Competition Review in its 2023 Foreign Investment Control - Top 40 Under 40 global publication, Mike provides clients with competition and foreign investment law advice across all aspects of their activities, including mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, investigations into unilateral and coordinated conduct, distribution and supply-chain arrangements, deceptive marketing practices and competition compliance programs. He has extensive experience in a wide range of industries, including in telecommunications, media and technology, consumer products, infrastructure and transport, pharmaceuticals and financial services.

Mike currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Mergers Committee of the Canadian Bar Association's National Competition Law Section; and is a past Chair of the section's Foreign Investment Review Committee. He has also sat on the leadership of the Joint Conduct Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of Antitrust Law. He is a frequent writer and speaker on competition law topics, including in particular on comparative approaches to competition and foreign investment policy and enforcement in North America and Europe. He is the co-author of the Canada chapter of GCR's Foreign Direct Investment Regulation Guide, and was the co-author of the UK chapter of Getting the Deal Through: Merger Control between 2015 and 2018.

Richard Cavanagh is the President and CEO of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund. Cavanagh is a seasoned professional with more than 20 years experience in the communications industries, and deep expertise in related public policy, project management, stakeholder relations and research. He has led and managed a number of important, original research initiatives on communications technology, accessibility and its future directions, and is considered to be among the leading experts in the field, both in Canada and internationally.

Allya Davidson is a multiple Emmy, RTDNA and Canadian Screen Award-winning journalist. She is executive producer of CBC News' flagship investigative documentary program, The Fifth Estate. The Fifth Estate, whose landmark 50th season launches Autumn 2024, is one of few Canadian programs to count both Emmys and Oscars as well Governor General's awards among its honours. Recent investigations into questions about singer Buffy Sainte-Marie's claims Indigenous ancestry sparked conversation around the world. The Canadian Federal police (RCMP) credited The Fifth Estate with garnering new leads after the show's probe of the Patel family's death at the Canada/U.S. border. An investigation into alleged state-sponsored killings of Canadian Sikh activists saw that episode restricted in India.

Allya has produced and directed over 20 documentaries and contributed to over 40. She has worked for some of journalism's most trusted brands including Channel 4 (UK), ZDF (Germany), Four Corners (Australia), PBS Frontline, VICE, CBC and CTV. Her work spans the worlds of television current affairs, feature documentaries and investigative journalism. She is passionate about mentoring racialized journalists and advancing equity in the field.

Her TV journalism career began in the UK, where Allya was a researcher on the three-part documentary series "Sudan: The Breakup" for Al Jazeera English and Arabic. She has an honours Bachelor of Arts in English and World Religions from Montreal's McGill University, and also studied film at the Sorbonne in Paris. Allya holds a Master's degree in broadcast journalism from City, University of London.

Dr. Sara Diamond is a member of the expert panel of the Canadian Centre for the Purpose of the Corporation (CCPC) and a Senior Advisor with Navigator based out of Toronto. Sara is a global strategist focused on creating an innovative and inclusive future with extensive experience in design thinking and strategic foresight. Sara's breadth of experiences in leadership, innovation and service will drive the work that she does with CCPC.

She has served as president of OCAD University in Toronto, Canada for fifteen years and is now President Emerita. Sara holds an ICD.D (Directors Designation) Institute of Corporate Directors and Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, a PhD in Computing, IT and Engineering from the University of East London, a Masters in New Media Arts from the University of Arts, London, and a Bachelor of Arts, Honours, History and Communication, Simon Fraser University.

Sara founded and led the Banff New Media Institute, a global digital think tank, research centre and incubator as a senior administrator at The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, and has created and supported start-up incubators including the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre, OCAD U's Imagination Catalyst and OCADU CO. She leads institutional transformation within digital media/ICT and diverse industry sectors, arts, and post-secondary institutions.

Sara brings over three decades of service on university, not-for-profit, and start-up boards; as chair of juries, associations and association executives, and advisory committees. She consults with governments, industry, boards and institutions on digital media and economies, AI adoption, design, public art, cultural sector, and inclusion policy. She is passionately committed to equity and respect for Indigenous knowledge and cultures. She is an inventor and lateral thinker; an internationally recognized artist, turned research and policy leader. She continues research in data analytics, and visualization and the relationships of human practices, culture, and technologies. Sara has been recognized for her service initiatives through several awards, for example, she was appointed to the Order of Canada C.M. and the Order of Ontario and received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for Service to Canada. She has received two digital media "pioneer" awards, an Inspiring 50 award for the Advancement of Diversity in STEM fields (Government of Netherlands and Senate of Canada); and was designated a Canada 150 leader, champion and luminary and one of Toronto Life's 50 Most influential in 2014.

Dr. Lorena Escandon is from Mexico (B. in Information Technology), and has lived in Sweden (M.Sc in Entrepreneurship), Spain and now Canada (Ph.D in Innovation Management). She speaks Spanish, English and French. Her courses are at the intersection of innovation, creativity, technology and entrepreneurship because those are her passions and research interests. She is trying to get people to work together and use technology to create new ideas and bring them to the market. She organizes workshops, bootcamps and special programs to get participants working together out of their comfort zone. She loves post-its, travel, coffee and walking her dog.

Erin Finlay is a partner with Stohn Hay Cafazzo Dembroski Heim Finlay LLP where she practises in the areas of entertainment law, copyright, privacy, broadcast regulatory and cultural policy. She provides a wide range of legal services and strategic direction to producers, artists, musicians, authors, publishers, trade associations, copyright collectives and cultural businesses in the development, production, exploitation and protection of film, television, publishing, music and digital media projects.

Erin has led the negotiation, drafting, and enforcement of multi-party collective licences, directed complex copyright tariff and CRTC broadcast regulatory and policy proceedings, and has appeared numerous times before the Copyright Board of Canada, the CRTC, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court of Canada and the House of Commons Standing Committees on Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada, as well as the Senate of Canada. Her expertise spans a range of legal, policy and government relations experience in the music, film and television production and publishing industries.

Before joining the firm, Erin was the Chief Legal Officer at the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), General Counsel and Director of Government Relations at Access Copyright and an associate practising in the entertainment law group at Cassels Brock. With more than 15 years' experience as both in-house counsel and in private practice, she brings a practical perspective to resolving complex issues and advocating for her clients in Canada's creative industries.

Dave Forget is the National Executive Director at the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC). Dave joined the Guild in 2015 as the Director of Policy, and it has been his mandate to promote the interests of over 7000 DGC creative professionals and the importance of Canada’s screen-based industries.

Prior to joining the DGC, Dave held a senior management position at Telefilm Canada where he was responsible for the organization’s business affairs, treaty coproduction certification and the administration of the Canada Media Fund programs.

Before joining Telefilm, Dave worked for over 20 years in film distribution. He began his career at Astral Films and then held management positions at 20th Century Fox, Alliance Releasing and was a founding partner of Vancouver-based Red Sky Entertainment Ltd.

Derrick Gray is an experienced audience measurement executive with global experience spanning two continents measuring a breadth of media using a range of technologies. He has worked across several different measurement methods and technologies, including census-like measurement through Tags, SDKs, and VIDs, panel-based measurement through portable meters and people meters, and sample-based measurement using diaries. He has a proven track record of building, mobilizing and leading multi-disciplinary teams and designing and implementing a vision and strategic business plan. His expertise lies in developing new measurement methodologies, audience information systems, and products in a quick and cost-effective way. He is regarded as an expert in the field with frequent speaking engagements at global conferences and advisory roles to government, as well as being recognized in the top 250 research professionals globally in 2022 by the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).

Lisa Henderson is Dean of the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University. From 1994-2019 she was Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she also served as Chair from 2009-13. From 2005-09, she was director of CISA, the Five College Center for Crossroads in the Study of the Americas. She is a radio producer by early training, co-founder of the International Communication Association's LGBTQ Studies Interest Group, and 2011 recipient of the Roy F. Aarons Award for outstanding contribution to GLBT education and research from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Her book Love and Money: Queers, Class, and Cultural Production (NYU, 2013) was a 2014 finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. New work considers artist/scholar collaboration and multi-modal research practice--how scholars use images, sound, music, code, and performance to create knowledge on campus and off.

Tara Henley is a current affairs journalist in Toronto, and the author of the national bestseller, Lean Out: A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life. She’s also the host of the Lean Out podcast, which has listeners in 150 countries and close to 5,000 cities worldwide.

Kathryn Ann Hill is the Executive Director of MediaSmarts, Canada's Centre for Digital and Media Literacy. Kathryn holds a Masters of Social Work (1992) from Carleton University, and a Master of Management (2003) from McGill University. Her commitment to social justice has resulted in a career of over 30 years of service in the voluntary sector, serving in senior leadership roles at both national and community-based organizations. Kathryn has contributed to research and articles, and has been a frequent presenter or panelist on issues related to media and digital literacy. She has served as an expert advisor and serves on the CBC Kid's News Advisory Committee. She comments frequently in the media on issues related to media/digital literacy.

Richard Koo brings more than 20 years of experience in audience research to his role as head of CMF’s analytics, strategic reporting, and foresight teams. His work at the CMF focuses on data equity issues impacting representation and thought leadership on future developments in the media industry.

Richard started his career at CBC Sports working on major broadcast properties, including Hockey Night in Canada and the Olympic Games. In his spare time, Richard is a multiple Boston Marathon qualifier, an international-level umpire with FISA World Rowing, a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee, and for eight years was the president of the International Olympic Academy Participants Association based in Athens, Greece.

Proudly hailing from Canada’s west coast, he holds a B.A. from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Science in Planning from the University of Toronto.

Howard Law writes the blog MediaPolicy.ca. He was a staff union representative for the Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild beginning in 1997 and then the Media Director at Unifor from 2013 to his retirement in 2021. He has a law degree and a graduate degree in history from the University of Toronto. His book on the Online Streaming Act Bill C-11 be published in 2024 by Lorimer.

Sally Lee is Executive Director of the Canadian Independent Screen Fund for Black and People of Colour Creators (CISF), the country's only dedicated production fund governed and operated by members of the Black and racialized communities it serves. CISF administers the Rogers-BSO Script Development Fund and has Certified Independent Production Fund status with the CRTC. With the passing of Bill C-11, Sally has been leading CISF's participation in the Commission's consultations towards a modernized regulatory framework. She has also served in leadership and management roles at the staff and board levels at the Reel Asian International Film Festival, CARFAC Ontario, the Toronto International Film Festival the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, the Toronto Arts Council, and the Coalition of Canadian Media Arts Distributors, among others.

Nicole Matiation is the Sector lead AV Production for Canada at Nordicity, an international consultancy in strategy, economics, and policy in the creative industries and cultural sectors.

has over 25 years' experience in executive positions leading cultural organizations and has chaired, and participated in, a wide range of not-for profit Boards and committees locally and nationally. As the Executive Director of the Strategic Policy Branch in the department of Sport Culture, Heritage and Tourism Manitoba, Nicole oversaw a team dedicated to research, analysis, and development of legislative, policy, and program options in the areas of creative industries, performing arts, heritage, public libraries, multiculturalism, and sport.

Over a period of ten years as the Executive Director of On Screen Manitoba, the provincial industry association, Nicole produced All Access, an annual AV industry conference with a program stream for each of the English- and French-language markets that brought together Canadian industry leaders, with national and international broadcasters and distributers for two days in Winnipeg, Canada. She led a five-year interprovincial bilingual cross-disciplinary industry development project bridging AV and IDM production in partnership with provincial industry associations across the prairies that resulted in several online industry development tools and other initiatives. Previous to that she co-founded and led le Centre des arts médiatiques pour jeunes : Freeze Frame: the Media Arts Centre for young People for over ten years.

Neal McDougall is Assistant Executive Director at the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC). Since 2013, Neal has advocated for Canadian screenwriters in policy proceedings before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), federal Parliamentary committees, and with funding bodies and elected officials. Prior to that, Neal worked in policy and program development at the Canada Media Fund. He has worked as a professional screenwriter himself and was an award-winning student filmmaker. Neal holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from York University, where he studied film and video production.

Angela Misri is a Toronto journalist and novelist who worked at the CBC for 14 years before becoming the Digital Director for The Walrus. She writes for various media groups including the Globe and Mail, CBC, The Walrus, and Global TV, and is the author of seven fiction novels.

Catherine Moore is Adjunct Professor of Music Technology & Digital Media in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music where she teaches about music entrepreneurship and digital media distribution. In both courses, the emphasis is on rapid change in digital and cross-media business and her research areas include new ways to measure digital media content and the sustainability of cities through multi-national music initiatives. Professor Moore is regularly quoted in the media about the music industry.

Catherine Moore has been a music critic since 1990 for American Record Guide, and works as a consultant under the name "Doors To Music". She taught at New York University from 1995 to 2016, and directed the Music Business Program for many years. She is a graduate of Bishop's University, the Conservatoire de Musique (Montréal), and the University of Liverpool (UK).

Mike Omelus joined APTN in October 2020 as the executive director of content and strategy. In this newly-created position, he oversees the network’s programming, scheduling and content creation departments and leads the global content and scheduling strategies for APTN’s broadcasting and online services.

Mike has spent more than half his career in senior leadership roles, most recently as vice president of national news and newsgathering for Global News, and also served on the senior leadership teams of Shaw Communications and Corus Entertainment.

Prior to Global, Mike spent five years as executive producer at CTV’s Business News Network (now BNN Bloomberg), and held several key roles during a 21-year career at The Canadian Press, including general news director (broadcast), senior parliamentary correspondent and Washington correspondent.

Jennifer Podemski is celebrated for her dynamic roles as an actor, director, producer, and writer. Her career took off with a notable performance in Bruce McDonald's "Dance Me Outside," which cemented her status in the industry. Driven by a passion for increasing Indigenous representation, Jennifer co-founded Big Soul Productions in 1999, becoming Canada's first, full service, Indigenous-owned film and television production company. In 2005, she branched out independently and launched Redcloud Studios Inc., where she continued to build capacity for Indigenous people within the screen sector. As a producer, Jennifer has been at the helm of numerous impactful works, including Moccasin Flats, Empire of Dirt and most recently, the critically acclaimed limited series Little Bird, listed by Playback as Canada's Best Series of 2023.

In 2020, she founded The Shine Network Institute, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering Indigenous women in the industry, through training, advocacy, and mentorship.

Jennifer's unwavering dedication to her craft and her commitment to fostering inclusivity and representation have made her an influential figure in Canadian entertainment. Her impact resonates not only through her exceptional body of work but also through the doors she has opened for future generations of Indigenous artists and storytellers.

Kristian Roberts has significant expertise in economic policy, research, and writing, with a particular interest in digital media, emerging technologies, and their impact on economies around the world. He has a deep understanding of the film and television production industry and the regulation and public policy that underpins it.

Kristian has led projects for clients such as Ontario Creates and New Media Manitoba, conducting extensive primary data collection exercises to provide strategic advice for sustained industry growth.

Moyra Rodger is an award-winning producer, entrepreneur, and industry innovator. She is the founder and CEO of Magnify Digital, a global leader in audience development strategy, training, and technology for the cultural industries.

Magnify Digital began as a service agency, offering a turn-key solution for media companies looking to outsource their audience building activities. Today, Magnify Digital also delivers training under the Magnify Academy banner. Our flagship innovation, ScreenMiner™, is a first-of-its-kind software solution that aggregates audience data from multiple sources and visualizes it so users can build and track audiences.

The company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with team members based in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Seattle, and Brazil. Clients include a who's who of media organizations, celebrity talent, financiers, and funders from LA to London, Bogota to Dubai.

Recognized as a thought leader in the areas of discoverability, audience engagement, and cross-platform content, Moyra moonlights as a speaker and business mentor.

John Rowley is a leading Canadian composer and music supervisor for film and television. He is known for his work on numerous projects including the award winning series “Pretty Hard Cases” (for which John received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Original Music, Comedy), “Mary Kills People”; “Little Dog”; “Letterkenny”; “Corner Gas: The Movie”; “Rookie Blue”; “The Phantoms” (for which John also received a Canadian Screen Award nomination) and the Woody Harrelson starring feature film “Defendor”. “Final Assault”, a piece John composed for “Defendor”, was used to introduce the Toronto Blue Jays’ starting lineup at home games at the Rogers Centre throughout the 2013 season.

John studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School, going on to article with the Toronto law firm Fraser Milner Casgrain and being called to the Ontario Bar in 2001. John received a BA (Hons) (English) from University of King’s College/Dalhousie University and received a diploma in Recording Arts Management from The Harris Institute For The Arts. In 2002 John interned at Six Shooter Records. John founded J. Rowley Music in 2004. John has also spent time on the other side of the licensing desk, as a manager of sync Licensing at Peermusic Canada, representing Peermusic’s extensive music publishing catalogue for placements in film, television, advertising and videogames. John has taught courses at Sheridan College on the business of music for emerging audiovisual composers and currently serves as Vice President of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada. John is a founding member of the Guild of Music Supervisors Canada and is also a member of the Canadian Federation of Musicians.

Richard Stursberg is the former President of PEN Canada. He is a communications executive who has been around the media business for a long time. He was President of the Canadian Cable Television Association, Cancom, Telefilm Canada and head of English services at the CBC. He currently runs a boutique consulting practice whose clients have included: Telus, Rogers Media, the Canadian Film Centre, Torstar Media and Allegro Capital. His controversial book, The Tower of Babble, was named one of the best books of 2012 by the Globe and Mail.

Currently serving as chancellor of Trent University, Stephen Stohn is also a founding partner in the entertainment law firm Stohn Hay Cafazzo Dembroski Heim Finlay LLP; chair of Orange Lounge Recordings; and a director of ISAN Canada, the Canadian Retransmission Collective, and the Producers Audiovisual Collective of Canada.

He is a longtime executive producer of the television franchise Degrassi, amongst several other series. For nearly twenty years, Stephen was a director and then chair of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) and executive producer of The Juno Awards, Canada's national music awards show.

A member of the Order of Canada, Stephen has been nominated four times for Primetime Emmy Awards, was inducted into the Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame in 2011 and is a winner of the Peabody Award. He has received 28 nominations for Canadian Screen Awards (formerly the Gemini Awards) and won 14 times. He and his wife Linda Schuyler recently received a Star on Canada's Walk of Fame on behalf of Degrassi.

Stephen's industry experience includes being a partner for 10 years in McCarthy Tétrault. He is the author of Whatever It Takes: Life Lessons from Degrassi and Elsewhere in the World of Music and Television (Dundurn Press).

Dr. Carolyne Sumner is the Executive Director of DM@X. She is currently an Assistant Professor and Cross-Cultural Exchange Advisor at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music, and has recently completed her PhD in Musicology from the same institution. Her doctoral thesis investigates the gatekeeping activities of a network of musicians and music administrators who governed the cultural institutions crucial to the dissemination of Canadian art music during the mid-twentieth century, and evaluates the subsequent challenges posed by the implementation of a national cultural policy in Canada upon their activities during the postcentennial era. Since the beginning of her academic career, Carolyne has presented her research at professional conferences including The Canadian University Music Society and the American Musicological Society, and her work has been published in Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique (SQRM), Intersections, and American Music.

Nathalie Théberge is the Vice-Chair Broadcasting at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Nathalie has over 20 years of experience promoting Canada’s creative industries, distinguishing herself in the fields of culture and copyright. Prior to joining the CRTC, she was Vice-Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Copyright Board of Canada, where she directed the work done by the Board. Her extensive experience was also gained in several executive positions held at Canadian Heritage, where she was at the forefront of driving cultural and copyright measures in several major trade negotiations, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as well as agreements with South Korea, Japan, and the European Union. She also led the development of Canada’s Creative Export Strategy. At the international level, Nathalie led the International Network for Cultural Policy, representing Canada as the national contact point for UNESCO’s 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, a position she held from 2010 to 2018.

Tonya Williams Named 2024 100 most influential Black Canadians for three years in a row Emmy nominated Tonya Williams will be one of the 2025 Canada Walk of Fame Inductees. She is also the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards Changemaker Recipient, the 2023 Visionary Award Recipient of the Legacy Awards. She is an actress and producer who has worked in the industry for the last 50 years. She is widely known for her 19 years starring on The Y&R as Dr. Olivia Winters. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Reelworld Screen Institute, Reelworld Film Festival+Summit. Tonya founded Reelworld in 2000 to address the lack of opportunities, access, and inclusion in Canada for Black, Indigenous, Asian and People of Colour in the screen industries.

Stephanie Willsey is Chippewa from the Rama First Nation and from the marten clan.

Stephanie is an associate at McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Toronto. She maintains a broad litigation practice including class actions, media, and professional liability matters. Stephanie regularly works on behalf of First Nations communities and individuals. Stephanie has appeared as counsel before several levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

In 2023, Stephanie completed a secondment as Senior Legal Counsel at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. She has a passion for Indigenous media and connectivity.

In addition to her legal practice, Stephanie commits significant time to both local and global Indigenous initiatives. Stephanie serves on the board of the Indigenous Bar Association, provides pro bono legal advice at the PBSC Indigenous Human Rights Clinic, and mentors Indigenous high school students through the Martin Family Initiative Indigenous Mentoring Program. Stephanie has also served as a delegate at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and EU Working Group on Indigenous Populations.