View biographies of Speakers
David Beer attended the independence celebrations for Zambia, ’64, Zimbabwe, ’80 and Namibia,’90 as well as Freedom in SA in 1994. He was involved with the liberation movements and anti-apartheid work whilst based in southern Africa, and sometimes Canada. David founded the Canadian Voluntary Commonwealth Service (CVCS) at U of T, and served as a Youth worker in the Jamaica Youth Corps with CVCS – then CUSO. He worked in Cape Town and Johannesburg from 1994-2000 for the National Land Committee as an OD and planning officer, supporting landless communities to recover their land. Also lived and worked as an independent OD consultant in the NGO/ civil society area in SA, Botswana, Angola and Mozambique, 2000 to 2009.
David Gallagher holds an MSc (SOAS) in Sustainable Development, has travelled extensively, and has worked in International Development for over 30 years, mainly in the non-government sector – CUSO (Latin America), OXFAM (Africa and the Caribbean) and CARE (Balkans). In addition to his job as Executive Director of Aerosan, he also works as an independent consultant on programme development, participatory evaluation and institutional proposal writing.
Sulley Gariba is a development evaluation specialist and public policy analyst. He was Senior Policy Advisor to the President of Ghana (2012 to 2014). He studied and lectured in Canada for about 15 years, obtaining his Masters and Ph.D degrees in Political Science under Prof. Linda Freeman’s supervision. In June 2014, Carleton University, Ottawa, conferred a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on him, “..in recognition of his longstanding work and academic scholarship in international development, civil society practices, government policy and program development in Africa.” From 2014 to 2017, Dr. Gariba returned to Ottawa as Ghana’s High Commissioner to Canada. He is presently heading the Institute for Policy Alternatives www.ipaghana.com a policy think-tank and research organization based in Ghana.
Stephen Gelb is Principal Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London. He was an activist in the Canadian anti-apartheid movement between 1976 and 1984, and after returning to South Africa an economic adviser to COSATU, the mass democratic movement and the ANC between 1984 and 1994. He was an adviser to President Mbeki and the South Africa government on macroeconomic, foreign investment, and public expenditure policies between 1995 and 2012. He worked at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and taught economics, political science and development studies at universities in South Africa, Canada, the US and Switzerland. He has written extensively on South African economics and politics, and on foreign direct investment in South Africa, Myanmar, India and China, and in the garments, electronics, financial services and pharmaceutical industries.
Adrian Harewood attended McGill University in the late 1980s to the early 1990s. While there he was an active member of the Black Students Network (BSN) & Southern African Committee (SAC). Adrian has a BA in History and Political Science. He is the former station manager of CKUT-Radio McGill. Adrian hosted Literati, The Actors and The Directors on BRAVO and PBS. He has also hosted local and national programs on CBC radio and television including Metro Morning, Here and Now, The Current, As It Happens, counter spin, Power and Politics & All in a Day. Currently, Adrian is the co-anchor of CBC Ottawa News at 6.
Marshall Judith is an educator and writer who was a founding member of TCLPAC. She spent eight years in post-independence Mozambique where she worked in adult literacy programmes. She returned to Canada to do a PhD at OISE with a thesis on workplace literacy in Mozambique. She recently retired after twenty years with the Steelworkers Humanity Fund where her responsibilities included education programmes for USW members on global issues and coordination of Steelworker cooperation programmes in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. These included many worker exchanges in the mining sector, bringing together mineworkers with a common transnational employer .
Hon. Walter Mclean spent the first five years (1962-67) of his professional life in West Africa, based in Nigeria. The only MP who had lived and worked in Africa during his parliamentary years (1979 to 1993) and became the resident expert on Africa as a member of the Standing Committee of External Affairs and National Defense. Served as chair of parliamentary sub-committee on Development and Human Rights, and prepared a report to the Government on Canada’s Relations with Southern Africa. As a member of Cabinet (1984-86) Walter McLean had ministerial responsibility for human rights, immigration, and the status of women. He led the Canadian delegation to the Third World Conference on Women held in Nairobi in 1985 and undertook an official visit to Zimbabwe and Zambia to prepare for the visit of Prime Minister Mulroney to the Front Line States. In 1993, the Government of Namibia appointed Walter McLean Honorary Consul in Canada and in that role, he has escorted business delegations to Namibia and maintained close contact with the Namibian and South African governments.
Schram John BA (UWO) MA (Ghana) JD (Toronto) LLD (honoris causa) Ghana served as minister counsellor in the Canadian Embassy, South Africa; high commissioner to Ghana, Sierra Leone and Botswana; and ambassador to Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Angola and Zimbabwe. A senior fellow in the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen’s University since 2006 and an instructor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton. He leads graduate seminars at both Carleton and Queen’s on development policy in Africa. Awarded the Grand Medal of Ghana and an honorary doctorate from the University of Ghana, he holds a hand-written commendation from Nelson Mandela for support in the struggle against apartheid. Southall Roger is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand. His books include Liberation Movements in Power: Party and State in Southern Africa and Imperialism or Solidarity: International Labour and South African Trade Unions. His career includes lecturing in Lesotho 1975-80 and precarious academic labour at Carleton and Ottawa U early 1980s, before heading to South Africa in 1989.
Jim MacKinnon has worked in international development for over thirty years and with Oxfam Canada for twenty-five years. From 1998 to 2001 he was Oxfam’s Country Representative in Zimbabwe, based in Bulawayo. Jim returned to Ottawa in 2001 to resume his work as Manager for Southern Africa until 2012, then became Oxfam’s Manager for Program Development until he resigned in 2015. Between 2015 and 2017 he built his family home. Since then, Jim has been an international development consultant.
Zeib Jeeva is an international social entrepreneur, working in a variety of ways to support disadvantaged people. After decades of volunteering with IDRF (International Development and Relief Foundation), including as Treasurer and Vice Chair, he now serves as Chair of the Board of Directors. In his capacity as a humanitarian Zeib is attached to several charities and was also the founding member of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund Canada, He also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Licensed To Learn and serves on the Board of Mandela Legacy Canada as Treasurer. He formerly served on the Board of Reh’ma Community Services and has formerly also served on the Board of Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation. He is a recipient of the Order of Ontario and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal.