Future Canadian Leaders Awarded $20,000 Action Canada Fellowships

Fifteen exceptional young Canadians from across the country are the new 2006/2007 Action Canada Fellows.

They include Ottawa lawyer Benjamin Shinewald, Toronto federal prosecutor Jason Mitschele, Toronto physician David Kelton, Montreal composer Darren Fung, Toronto investment consultant Jane Ambachtsheer, Ottawa Supreme Court clerk Sana Halwani and Rick Nielsen, a Whitehorse entrepreneur who is chief of staff to the Yukon Premier.

Selected for their outstanding leadership initiative and commitment to Canada, each Fellow receives $20,000 and participates in Action Canada’s unique, 10-month program focused on leadership development and Canadian public policy issues. This year’s fellowship theme is Enterprise in Canada which includes a focus on economic and business development, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Fellows, all in their early career years, will take part in three, eight-day working conferences in Vancouver, Ottawa and Alberta. They will also work in groups on issues related to the fellowship year theme and then produce and present a report on their work at the final conference in Calgary.

Throughout the program, Fellows learn from the guidance of mentors who are current leaders in government, business, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions. Fellows undertake their fellowship in conjunction with their studies or career activities.

A national organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Action Canada is building leadership for Canada’s future by creating a network of informed, emerging leaders. It is a partnership between the private sector and the federal government.

The organization was co-founded in 2002 by Vancouver businessman and philanthropist Samuel Belzberg and Simon Fraser University president emeritus Jack Blaney in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage, Department of Justice Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

Action Canada is affiliated with Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in Vancouver, B.C.

Below is a complete list of Fellows. For more information and complete biographies please visit www.actioncanada.ca.

2006/2007 Action Canada Fellows

Jane Ambachtsheer is a principal of Mercer Investment Consulting in Toronto. She sits on the board of the Canadian Social Investment Organization, is Canadian advisor to the Carbon Disclosure Project and also volunteers with Oxfam Canada. A member of the International Corporate Governance Network, Ambachsteer was recognized by Global Proxy Watch as one of the global top 10 “Architects of Governance 2005”.

Caroline Charest , of Montreal, is a political aide with the Quebec Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Exports. Prior to this she was an economic and management analyst at SECOR Consulting. She is active with the Jeune Chambre de Commerce de Montréal, working on a committee whose goal is to raise the Montreal business community’s awareness of sustainable development.

Darren Fung is a Montrealentrepreneur who owns Stinky Rice Studios in Montreal. An accomplished Canadian composer whose works have been performed across Canada and at major international film festivals, he was awarded the PowerPost Award for Excellence in Music Composition at the 2005 Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax. An advocate for emerging composers, he is currently the youngest member of the board of directors for the Guild of Canadian Film Composers.

Sana Halwani , a University of Toronto law school graduate, has earned numerous academic accolades and also holds a master’s degree in biotechnological law and ethics. She is interested in health law and currently clerks for Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella in Ottawa.

Bart Kasowski , a Ph.D. student in the department of philosophy at the University of Montreal, plans a career as a professor of business ethics. He also works with Quebec real estate firm Aeroterm on new business development and public-private partnership projects.

Toronto physician David Kelton is dedicated to improving health with new technologies that have a patient-centred philosophy. He started ClinLink.com, a website which enables patients to participate in medical research. He is currently specializing in radiology at the University of Toronto.

Jake McEwan has a wealth of experience in managing the political and public dimensions that surround land planning and development. He is a managing partner with the First Principles Group of Companies Ltd., a Vancouver-based development and consulting company. McEwan has held a variety of government posts including chief political assistant to the B.C. Minister of Agriculture and Lands.

Jason Mitschele is a federal prosecutor for the department of justice in Toronto and is committed to equality and social justice for all Canadians. An advocate for equality for persons with disabilities, Mitschele sits on the International Development Committee of the Counsel of Canadians with Disabilities and recently participated in this organization’s advisory group on the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.

Whitehorse entrepreneur Rick Nielsen is currently the chief of staff to the Premier of the Yukon. A staunch advocate of trades training, he is a founding member of the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum and past chair of the Yukon Apprenticeship Advisory Board and the Inter-provincial Alliance of Apprenticeship Board Chairs.

Aaron Pereira is strongly dedicated to social activism. He has recently been working to develop the Community Bank, a new financial institution focused on financing Canadian social sector organizations. He is a co-founder and now a director of CanadaHelps and a former member of both the Washington-based e-Philanthropy Foundation’s ethics committee and of the federal government’s National Roundtable on the Social Economy. He lives in Toronto.

Emmanuelle Richez is a doctoral student in political science at McGill University in Montreal, where she is researching the impact of Supreme Court judgements on Canadian citizenship. She has worked as an aide to Quebec’s minister of intergovernmental affairs and democratic reform; as a page at the House of Commons and as a legislative assistant.

Benjamin Shinewald is currently participating in an Executive Interchange, serving as a senior analyst in the Economic and Regional Development Secretariat of the Privy Office in Ottawa. A Bay Street lawyer, he previously served as a law clerk in the Supreme Court of Israel and interned for the Hon. Martin Lee, chair of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong.

Alexis Wise is an entrepreneur and co-founder of LifeSpeak Inc., a national company providing work-life integration solutions to leading Canadian organizations. She also works as an independent consultant in the health care field. Wise previously worked as a consultant with the international management consulting firm Monitor Group. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Stéphanie Yates is pursuing a Ph.D. in political science at Laval University in Quebec City. Her professional career has included public relations and marketing for a multinational environmental firm, a one-year internship at the National Assembly of Quebec, work as a political attachée for the office of the Premier of Quebec and press attachée and vice-chief of office for the Minister of e-government in Quebec.

Rebekah Young was recently recruited by the federal Recruitment of Policy Leaders Programme to work on strategic policy in Ottawa with the Canadian International Development Agency. With an MBA from INSEAD, and a master’s degree in environmental assessment and evaluation, she has also worked for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and for Hatch, an international consulting company.