| Key Note Speakers |
| Moderator |
Biography |
Sabra Desai
Humber College |
Sabra Desai, is the Manager, Community Partnership Development at Humber College, where she has been a professor for more than 15 years. She works with Humber staff, community-based organizations and local schools to support current projects and develop new initiatives. Her focus is on facilitating access to postsecondary education for youth in marginalized communities and developing partnerships with not-for-profit organizations. Sabra has led many new initiatives including her work as Manager of Diversity Initiatives for Humber. Her work has always involved community development, and supporting social justice issues and ethnic diversity. This has been exemplified in the various articles and reports she has published over the past two decades.
She is a member of several North Etobicoke committees and has a long history of committing her time to volunteerism with various organizations. Sabra is a graduate of the University of Toronto.
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| The two key note speakers will provide an inspirational talk to empower all women to pursue leadership roles. Despite obstacles, and challenges they may face, women should seek to fulfill their aspirations. |
| Key Note Speakers |
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Jean Augustine
PC, BA, M.Ed., LLD (Hon)
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Hon. Jean Augustine was appointed as the first Fairness Commissioner for Ontario in March 2007.
She cares passionately about education and the challenges faced by newcomers to the province.
Ms. Augustine was born in Grenada and came to Canada in 1960. She attended the University
of Toronto, where she earned bachelor of arts and master of education degrees. She became an
elementary school principal with the Metropolitan Separate School Board in Toronto.
From 1988 until 1993, she was chair of the Metro Toronto Housing Authority.
Ms. Augustine was the first African-Canadian woman to be elected to the House of Commons.
She was elected in the riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore in 1993 and sat in Parliament until 2006.
During this time, she served as minister of state for multiculturalism and the status of women,
sat on several standing committees, and was a deputy Speaker. She also played a major role as
parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.
She has shared her expertise and enthusiasm with others as a member of several community
boards, including those of York University, the Hospital for Sick Children, the Donwood Institute
and Harbourfront Corporation. She is former national president of the Congress of Black Women
of Canada. Every year, she makes a better future for young women through the Jean Augustine
Scholarship, a fund that helps single mothers attend George Brown College and Centennial College
in Toronto.
In 2007, she was chair of the Ontario Bicentenary Commemorative Committee on the Abolition
of the Slave Trade Act.
Ms. Augustine has donated her archival and parliamentary materials to York University’s Faculty
of Education, thus creating the opportunity to establish an innovative academic position, the
Jean Augustine Chair in Education in the New Urban Environment.
She has been honoured by many organizations for her leadership and community involvement and has been awarded honorary doctor of laws degrees by the University of Toronto, the University of Guelph and McGill University. |
| Lunch Key Note |
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Constance Backhouse
Distinguished University Professor, University of Ottawa
Legal Scholar & Writer
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Constance Backhouse holds the positions of Distinguished University Professor and University Research Chair at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa.
She is internationally known for her feminist research and publications on sex discrimination and the legal history of gender and race in Canada. A legal scholar who uses a narrative style of writing, her most recent books and articles profile the fascinating ways in which women and racialized communities have struggled to obtain justice within the legal system. |
