Lieutenant-General the Honourable Roméo A. Dallaire

O.C., C.M.M., G.O.Q, M.S.C., C.D., (Retired), Senator

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Read General Dallaire's biography

Dominic Cardy

Dominic Cardy was born in the UK in 1970; his family moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1971.

Elected in the constituency of Fredericton West-Hanwell in 2018 and sworn in as Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development he was re-elected and re-appointed in 2020, before resigning from Cabinet in October, 2022.

Mr. Cardy holds a B.A. in Political Science from Dalhousie University and worked for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and then for the Washington-based National Democratic Institute in increasingly senior managerial roles, living and working in countries across Asia and Africa before returning to Canada to serve as Asia-Pacific Director for the Forum of Federations.

Leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party from 2011-16, Mr. Cardy then served as Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Official Opposition before standing for office in 2018.

He is a member of the editorial board of a Canadian policy journal, Inroads, and has been a flying instructor since 1994. He lives in Fredericton.

Liam Maloney

Liam Maloney is an award-winning documentary photographer, educator and artist based in Montreal. His work has been published in TIME, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Mother Jones, Le Monde, The Globe and Mail and many others. His installations and photographs have been widely exhibited, from the Nobel Peace Centre to the MoMA.

Maloney is an Assistant Professor at Concordia University's Department of Journalism and an ICP faculty member. His research examines the intersection of technology and intimacy in contemporary conflict zones, where the experience of living through war is heavily mediated by smartphones, social media, propaganda and entertainment, algorithms and neural networks. Maloney is a strong proponent of innovative approaches to the medium that can enliven the industry, engage readers and encourage open dialogue, from immersive installations to the incorporation of digital investigation techniques to support field work.

Aphrodite Salas

Aphrodite Salas is a visual journalist who has worked across Canada and around the world. She began teaching at Concordia in the department of Political Science and is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Director of the Graduate Diploma Program. Aphrodite is also a workshop leader and Quebec Trainer for the Journalists for Human Rights Misinformation Project. She is a research associate at the Concordia University Acts of Listening Lab and a member of the national board of directors of the Canadian International Council. Her experience as a journalist is extensive. Aphrodite was a video journalist and assignment editor at CTV Montreal, senior anchor at Global Quebec and hosted her own current affairs radio program on 940 Montreal.  As a national correspondent, Aphrodite covered Parliament Hill in Ottawa for CityTV's Toronto and Vancouver stations. She was also a national correspondent for CTV News in Montreal, and was the network's transportation reporter in Toronto. As an anchor, Aphrodite has been on the desks of CTV Newschannel, CityTV's CP24, CKCO Kitchener and CFQC Saskatoon. Aphrodite started her visual journalism career producing short documentaries at the Reuters East Africa bureau in Nairobi, Kenya. She has also worked in India, England, the United States and sailed around the Pacific Ocean as part of an initiative of the Government of Japan. Her industry honours include four RTDNA awards for excellence in news reporting. Aphrodite holds an Honours BA from the University of Toronto and an MA in Public Policy and Public Administration from Concordia. 

Eric Meerkamper

Eric Meerkamper advises the MIGS team on global strategy and partnership development and projects related to emerging tech-related issues that intersect with human rights around the world.

Eric has worked for the past decade at the intersection of innovative technologies and global international development, digital citizen engagement, and human rights. Eric has collaborated closely with the World Bank, World Food Programme, UNDP, Freedom House, Harvard University, National Democratic Institute, Munk School for Global Affairs, among others on applying new technologies to critical issues including: gender-based violence, global LGBTQ rights, peace-building, violent extremism, refugees and migrants, persecution of ethnic minorities, mis/disinformation, democratic renewal, and global public health.

Eric holds an MBA from the Ivey Business School and a BA (Hons) International Political Science from Western University. He is the Co-Founder of the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto, and Past Chair of the Daily Bread Food Bank. Eric has Canadian and Swiss citizenship and speaks English, French, and Spanish.

Linked Profile

Éloge C. Butera

Non-resident Fellow

Éloge C. Butera is an Associate Fellow with the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill's Faculty of law and with MIGS. He is a human rights activist with an active involvement in Canadian public life, with a strong focus on human security and transitional justice issues. Éloge has worked in the Canadian Parliament as a research and legislative assistant to Senator L.Gen. Roméo Dallaire (Ret’d) and as an articling student to Professor Irwin Cotler P.C., O.C., Member of Parliament (Mount Royal) and former Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada. 

In 2013, Éloge was inducted as an Honorary Witness to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, where he bears witness to the harm inflicted by Canada’s residential school system on generations of aboriginal Canadians. A survivor of the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda, Éloge has spoken to dozens of audiences across Canada about his experience during the genocide and the role that an informed citizenry can play in preventing future mass atrocities and genocides. 

Marty Castro

Marty Castro is the President and CEO of Castro Synergies, LLC, which provides strategic consulting services to corporations, entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations that seek to collaborate with and have a positive social impact on diverse communities. Mr. Castro was appointed by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in January of 2011. In March 2011, President Obama elevated Mr. Castro to the position of Chairperson of the USCCR, making him the agency's eighth Chair since the formation of the Commission, and the first Latino Chairperson in the over half-century history of the USCCR.

In December 2009, Mr. Castro was appointed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to Chair the Illinois Human Rights Commission. The Human Rights Commission is the State public body that arbitrates complaints of civil rights violations in housing, employment, public accommodations and financial credit. Mr. Castro is on the board of directors of the National Museum of Mexican Art; the only accredited Latino Museum in the United States. He also serves on the board of the Chicago Community Trust. Mr. Castro is also chair and co-founder of New Futuro, LLC. Mr. Castro is a former national board member of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and former chair of the Hispanic National Bar Association's U.S. Supreme Court Committee. Mr. Castro is also the former chair of the Judicial Nominations Commission for the Northern District of Illinois, by appointment of U.S. Senator Richard Durbin.

For his leadership and accomplishments, Mr. Castro has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the National Medical Fellowships' Humanitarian Award; the Hispanic National Bar Association's Cesar Chavez Humanitarian Award; the Edwin A. Rothschild Civil Liberties Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois; and the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Corporate Counsel, Chicago Chapter. Mr. Castro is the proud product of Head Start and affirmative action in higher education. 

@MartyCastro

Naomi Kikoler

Naomi Kikoler is the deputy director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. For six years she developed and implemented the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect’s work on populations at risk and efforts to advance R2P globally and led the Centre’s advocacy, including targeting the UN Security Council. An adjunct professor at the New School University, she is the author of numerous publications, including the 2013 Nexus Fund series on the emerging powers and mass atrocity prevention and the 2011 report Risk Factors and Legal Norms Associated with Genocide Prevention for the United Nations Office on the Prevention of Genocide and the Jacob Blaustein Institute. Prior to joining the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect in 2008, she worked on national security and refugee law and policy for Amnesty International Canada. She has also worked in the Office of the Prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement at the Brookings Institution, and she worked as an election monitor in Kenya with the Carter Center. She holds common law and civil law degrees from McGill University, an MSc in forced migration from Oxford University, where her thesis was on the Rwandan genocide, and a BA from the University of Toronto in international relations and peace and conflict studies. She is a board member of the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, a senior fellow at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and was called to the Bar of Upper Canada.

@NaomiKikoler

Fannie Lafontaine

Fannie Lafontaine [LL.B. (Laval University); LL.M. (University of Cambridge); Ph.D. (National University of Ireland Galway)] is a lawyer, full professor at the Faculty of Law at Université Laval and holder of the Canada Research Chair on International Criminal Justice and Human Rights. She is the Project Director of the SSHRC-funded Canadian Partnership for International Justice and founder and co-director of the International Criminal and Humanitarian Law Clinic, recipient of the "Tribute to social innovations" prize at Laval University. She is the author of the book Prosecuting Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes in Canadian Courts (Toronto: Carswell, 2012) and of many other publications in Canadian and international law and relations. She is the recipient of the 2016 Laval University Prize for Excellence in Teaching and has joined the 2017 cohort of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada. Before joining Laval University, she worked at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, at the Supreme Court of Canada and in NGOs and a law firm. She continues to act as expert for human rights organizations and since 2015, she acts as independent civilian auditor of a criminal investigation into criminal acts alleged to have been committed by members of different police forces against members of First Nations in Quebec.

@flafontaine

Joe Landry

Joe Landry holds a PhD in International Conflict Analysis and Management from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University and was the recipient of the four-year SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, one of more than a dozen academic awards received throughout his studies. 

Joe's research interests include fragile and conflict affected states, third-party intervention, civil-war, forced migration, the security-development nexus, and transnational terrorism. He has published over 25 peer-reviewed academic journal articles and chapters in edited collections, as well as numerous policy-focused pieces in various outlets such as The Hill Times & Diplomat Magazine.

Joe is currently Senior Analyst and Bureau Coordinator with the Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOPs) at Global Affairs Canada, responsible for the coordination and development of the PSOPs 2019-2022 Strategy and for the priority country selection process. He also is an adjunct lecturer at Carleton University, teaching the fourth year "Capstone" courses in International Development and the International Public Policy. Finally, Joe has over six years of experience living and working overseas, including working as a university lecturer in Vietnam, a policy officer in Australia, a language instructor in South Korea, and a CIDA primary health educator in Tanzania.  

Education: 2018 PhD, International Affairs, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University (Ottawa, Ontario); 2010 Master in International Affairs, Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia); 2007, Bachelor of Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Northern British Columbia, (Prince George, British Columbia).    

Joe can be contacted at: joseph.landry@carleton.ca

Michael Petrou

Journalist, author and non-resident fellow at MIGS.

Michael Petrou is a two-time National Magazine Award-winning journalist and author who has reported from across Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. His latest book, Is This Your First War? Travels Through the Post-9/11 Islamic World, won the Ottawa Book Award for non-fiction. Petrou has a DPhil in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He is also a non-resident fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. Michael Petrou write for OpenCanada.

@michaelpetrou

Andrei Serbin Pont

Andrei Serbin Pont is an international analyst focused on foreign policy, human rights, conflict prevention, mass atrocity prevention, defense, security, and regional integration. He is a PhD student at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Madrid, Spain) where he is researching Latin-American normative contributions to the design of policies and mechanisms for the prevention of mass human rights violations. He holds a Master´s in International Relations with specialization in Peace, Defense and International Security from the San Tiago Dantas Program (Sao Paulo, Brazil), a Bachelor´s in Liberal Arts with orientation in Public Policy from UNSAM (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and graduated from the National Defense School (Buenos Aires, Argentina). He has experience working with civil society organizations and is currently holding positions as Research Director for a regional thinktank (CRIES - Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales) and as Expert Consultant at the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs (Cabinet of Ministers of the Presidency of Argentina). He is also an advisor to the Nexus Fund, ICRtoP Steering Committee member, columnist for Perfil and contributor at DEF, Forbes and Clarín.

Diego Osorio

Non-resident fellow

International advisor and Consultant, 18 years of public administration and international experience covering the UN, NATO, World Bank, Canadian diplomacy and private sector ventures. Diego has worked on institutional/social reconstruction, civil-military coordination and humanitarian issues in Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Timor Leste, Colombia Pakistan, Indonesia (Banda Aceh), Liberia and Iraq. He also served as Senior Peacekeeping Officer at DFAIT. Associate Fellow of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies at Université de Quebec a Montreal, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and Lecturer in Humanitarian Action, Reconciliation/Mediation, Post-Conflict recovery and urban conflict in universities in Canada and abroad

Education: 2009 MC/MPA Harvard KSG; 2001 U.Bern/Fribourg/Neuchatel.  Master in Trade Law and Economics; 1996, McGill University, BA Political Science/History.  

Contact: diego@osorio.ca    

Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Strauss

Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Strauss teaches and researches at the Berlin School of Economics and Law on the topics of police and security management, international human rights protection and international conflict management. Before being awarded the professorship, he worked for the OSCE and the UN for more than 20 years. His professional focus lays on assisting international organizations, governments, private companies and civil society in developing strategies, institutions and processes to monitor and respond to risk factors for crises, conflict and instability. Experience includes diverse geographic regions including North, West and Central Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe and the Balkans and headquarters in Geneva and New York. This geographical diversity has embraced countries in conflict, post conflict and peace building situations with different political and legal systems and cultures.