British Columbia

Canadian.Unity.Council British Columbia Provincial.President:

Mr. James G. Matkin, Q.C.
Chief Executive Officer
Law Society of B.C.

James Matkin is internationally known for his work in public policy. He began his law practice on Wall Street in New York City before accepting a clerkship to Mr Justice Martland of the Supreme Court of Canada. As a Deputy Minister of Labour and then of Intergovernmental Relations in British Columbia for a decade, Mr Matkin helped formulate major policy reform in labour relations, wage restraint, international trade. He was involved in the patriation and amendment of the Canadian Constitution. He later worked for the Business Council of British Columbia where he represented 150 of Canada's largest companies in business-government relations. Mr Matkin has served as a director for an impressive list of companies and organisations including the Bank of Canada, ITT Canada and the British Columbia Workers Compensation Board. He is currently the Executive Director of the Law Society of British Columbia and is an active board member of several profit and non-profit organizations. Mr Matkin is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Governors

Mr. Owen Anderson, Ph.D.
Dr Owen Anderson is Managing Director of The Hawthorne Consulting Corporation, Inc., which specialises in government relations and strategic management. Formerly, he was Partner with BDO Dunwoody Chartered Accountants and Consultants. From 1969 to 1990 Dr Anderson served in a variety of executive positions with the Canadian Federal Government and the Government of Alberta. He is a Director of several Boards and author of several articles and two books, including The Unfinished Revolt (McClelland & Stewart, 1971), a best-seller on Canadian politics.

Mr. Peter Armstrong
President and CEO, Armstrong Hospitality Group Ltd.

Mr. Gary Bennett, BA, MA, CFP
Investment Consultant
Bennett Financial Services Corporation
Gary Bennett has taught the principles of economics, law, and financial planning to senior high school students for over 25 years. He is also B.C. president of the 'Encounters With Canada' program which, under the aegis of the Canadian Unity Council, sends over 500 B.C. high school students to the Terry Fox Canadian Youth Centre in Ottawa every year

For over 10 years Gary has been president of Bennett Financial Services Corp., counselling business clients in the formulation of effective business and financial plans. He has over thirty years' direct experience in property management and real estate development, is a director on the board of several private corporations, a former director on the board of St. David's - Abbeyfield Society, which built and continues to manage two non-profit seniors' homes in Delta, B.C., and also serves as a director of the Rotary Club of Kelowna. Mr Bennett is a graduate of UBC and a Chartered Financial Planner with the Canadian Institute of Financial Planning.

Madame Marie Bourgeois
Executive Director of the Société Maison de la Francophonie
Born in Montréal of Acadian and Irish ancestry, Marie Bourgeois has lived in British Columbia since 1974. She has served as the Executive Director of the Société Maison de la Francophonie in Vancouver since 1995, as well as on the Board of the Francophone School Board since 1997. As a member of the executive of several organisations over the years, Madame Bourgeois has played a role in the negotiations surrounding constitutional issues in Canada as well as the rights of francophones in Canada. She was nominated to the Ordre des francophones d'Amérique in 1998.

Mr. Russell Brink
Chairman, Applied Strategies Ltd.
Russell Brink is a Vancouver businessman and lawyer. He is Chairman of Applied Strategies Ltd, a business strategy and venture capital company. Prior to assuming his present position in 1980, he was the project manager in charge of the redevelopment of Granville Island.

Mrs. Rosann Cashin
Ms Cashin is a member of the Board of Governors of Pearson College of the Pacific; United World College; a member of the Quadrangle Society of Massey College, University of Toronto; and a Trustee of the Forum for Young Canadians. She has previously worked as a broadcaster with CBC and served as Special Advisor, Communications in the office of the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada; Communications Consultant; and as Chair of the Board of Governors of Snowden Centre for Development Support Communications with Memorial University of Newfoundland (CIDA-funded projects in Asia and Northern Canada).

Mr. U. Gary Charlwood
Mr Charlwood is the founder of Charlwood Pacific Group, a Vancouver-based company with interests in real estate and travel agency franchising. As the Chairman and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate (Canada) Ltd. since 1976. Gary oversees 325 franchised outlets across Canada doing $228 million in system-wide revenues annually. Gary founded the Uniglobe Travel (International) Inc. franchising concept in 1980 and holds the position of Chairman and CEO for the Vancouver-based organisation, which now includes 1,000 locations worldwide doing C$2.5 billion in gross sales annually.

Mr. Don DeVoretz, Ph.D.
Dr Don J. DeVoretz obtained his doctorate in Economics from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in 1968. He is the Co-Director of the Centre of Excellence on Immigration Studies and Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University. Dr DeVoretz has held visiting appointments and lectured around the world and is also an Adjunct Scholar with the C D Howe Institute, and a Senior Research Fellow with IZA (Germany). Dr DeVoretz's main research interests include the economics of immigration, with special emphasis on the employment, income and savings effects of Canadian immigration flows. His research findings have been reported in both professional journals as well as major print media.

Mr. M J G (Martin) Glynn
President & C.E.O.
HSBC Bank Canada

Mr. Joseph Gosnell, O.C., O.B.C., LL.D.
President, Nisga'a Lisims Government
Chief Gosnell was elected President of the Nisga'a Lisims Government in 1992, and was the lead negotiator for the landmark Nisga'a Treaty, which was initialled on August 4, 2026 in New Aiyansh. For his role in negotiating the landmark treaty, Chief Gosnell received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from Royal Roads University in Victoria on October 17, 1997. Chief Gosnell travelled to Europe and the United Kingdom in November, 1998, for a successful speaking tour and, on his return to Canada, Chief Gosnell entered the British Columbia Legislature on December 2, 1998, and presented a historic speech that initiated formal ratification debate on the Nisga'a Treaty. Chief Gosnell lives in New Aiyansh with his family. He is a member of the Gitlaxt'aamiks Ceremonial Dancers.

Mr. Kelly Ip
Until 1997, Kelly Ip spent 28 years both in Ottawa and Vancouver working for a number of Federal Ministries, most recently as Regional Manager of Citizenship & Immigration's BC-Yukon office. He is a founding member of the Chinese Canadian Committee on National Unity and, in 1999, led a delegation of Canadians of Chinese origin to visit Québec. Mr Ip is Past President of The Canadian Club of Vancouver, and has chaired and served as a member of a wide range of community organisations, including the Dr Sun Yat Sen Garden Society, the Seniors Advisory Council of Insurance Corporation of BC, the Chinese Advisory Committee of the United Way of the Lower Mainland, the Greater Vancouver Citizenship Council, BC Coalition to Eliminate Seniors Abuse, the United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society (SUCCESS).

Mr. Jess Ketchum
President, Ketchum Communications

Mr. Jerry L. Lampert
President & CEO, Business Council of British Columbia
Jerry Lampert is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Business Council of British Columbia which acts as an advocate and forum on issues affecting business -- including economic, environmental and labour policies, First Nations issues and skills training initiatives. Since joining the Business Council in 1993, Jerry has been successful in developing a number of important business coalitions on key government initiatives, including the highly effective BC Business Summit process. Prior to joining the Business Council, he was a principal in a government relations/public affairs consulting firm offering strategic and tactical advice to private sector corporations in their dealings with governments. For two years he was Director of the National Office of the Canadian Petroleum Association, representing major oil and gas explorers and producers.

Through the 1970s and 1980s he was active in Canadian politics at the provincial and federal levels, serving as Chief of Staff to two premiers and managing two successful provincial election campaigns in British Columbia. He also served as National Director and Campaign Co-Director of Operations for the national Progressive Conservative Party during the early eighties. Jerry graduated from Carleton University, Ottawa in 1969, with a B.A. in political science.

Mr. Stan Lanyon, Q.C.
Barrister & Solicitor
Prior to entering private practice as an arbitrator/mediator, Mr Lanyon was Chair of the Labour Relations Board of British Columbia, 1992 - 1996. Mr Lanyon graduated from UBC Law School in 1977, and practised civil and criminal law and later labour law until 1992. He acted as legal counsel for a large number of trade unions, including the BC Federation of Labour and the BC Building Trades. Mr Lanyon has been an adjunct professor with the Faculty of Law, UBC, and an adjunct professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Labour and Management Studies, Faculty of Commerce, UBC. Mr Lanyon was also Co-Chair of two 1998 Legislative Committees on Labour Law Reform. He has written and published numerous articles on labour law.

Mr. Ron J. MacDonald
President & CEO, Council of Forest Industries

Mr. J. Peter Meekison, O.C., Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta

Dr. Alex C Michalos, PhD, FPSC
Director, Institute for Social Research and Evaluation
University of Northern British Columbia
Alex C. Michalos (B.A., M.A., B.D., Ph.D., F.R.S.C.) is Director of the Institute for Social Research and Evaluation, and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Northern British Columbia. He is active in numerous scholarly and voluntary organisations, and has served, inter alia, as President of Academy II of the Royal Society of Canada, President of the International Society for Philosophy and Technology, President of the British Columbia Political Science Association, and as a member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (2002-). In 1996 the International Society for Quality of Life Studies gave him the Quality of Life-Social Indicators Educator Award for Extraordinary Contributions to Quality of Life Research, and in 2002 the Vincentian universities of the United States gave him the Vincentian Ethics Scholar Award for valuable contributions to fostering business ethics research. Most of his scholarly work has been concerned with improving the quality of life through basic research and applications of science and technology, and he is widely published in several languages. He has founded or co-founded and edits 5 scholarly journals.

Mrs. Tazeem Nathoo
Consultant
Tazeem Nathoo is an executive coach and human resources consultant. Prior to July 2002, she was a senior executive at VanCity for 10 years, including a year as interim CEO. Previously she was a senior manager in human resources at BC Hydro for 12 years, and she was also part of the HR management team at ICBC during the startup years. She serves on the board of directors for the BC Lottery Commission and on the board of the 2010 Bid. Other community involvement includes serving as Vice Chair of the Aga Khan Foundation, Canada and 6 years on the Board of Governors at SFU (including a year as Chair). Tazeem is a recipient of the YWCA Award of Distinction for management & professions.

Ms. Anita Olsen

Mr. T. Murray Rankin, Q.C.
Murray Rankin holds law degrees from the University of Toronto and Harvard Law School. He taught as a Professor of law with the University of Victoria for over 12 years before co-founding the partnership of Arvay Finlay, Barristers. He has been involved in public law litigation and complex negotiations for over 20 years. His areas of specialisation have included information law, administrative, aboriginal, and environmental law. He has written extensively on these subjects, and translated and edited a comprehensive text on administrative law and public administration, Dussault and Borgeat's Administrative Law: A Treatise. Mr Rankin is a principal of the Conflict Managers Group.

Mr. Patrick Reid, O.C., M.C., C.D.
Chairman, Rick Hansen Institute

Mr. Farouk Verjee
President, Chase Realty Corporation
Mr Verjee is President, Chase Realty Corporation, and has served as a past Chair of the Canada Place Corporation, as well as past National President of the Ismaili Muslim Community of Canada. Currently, Mr Verjee is the Vice-President of the federal Liberal riding association for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast and a member of the planning advisory committee of West Vancouver, and is a barrister at law with the Middle Temple Inn, United Kingdom.

Dr. Jean Watters, Ph.D.
On August 2001, Dr. Watters became President of Technical University of British Columbia (TechBC). As part of the Government restructuring, TechBC was amalgamated with Simon Fraser University in April 2002. Prior to joining TechBC, Dr. Watters was the president of Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. In the fall of 1998, he launched the successful bid to establish the Northern Medical School at Laurentian University, and was also the founding president of Collège Boréal. He is an international expert in the areas of high technology, management, governance, adult education and e-learning - fields in which he has published extensively.

Mr. Peter W. Webster
Chairman, Petwyn Investments Ltd.
Peter Webster is a business executive with over 30 years experience serving at the board of director level in corporate as well as volunteer capacities. A former member of the Canadian Olympic Alpine Ski team, he has participated on some 28 sports organizations and associations, from the North American Wildlife Foundation to the Canadian Association for Sport Heritage to the Victoria Commonwealth Games Society. He is a past Chair of the Douglas College Foundation and of the Justice Institute of BC Foundation. Currently, he is serving as the Chairman of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada Foundation. In 1995, Mr. Webster was the recipient of the Daryl Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award for service to British Columbia sports. He has also been awarded a Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal from the Government of Canada for exemplary service to Canada.

Mr. Art Wright
Senior Associate, Centre for Global Studies
University of Victoria
Mr Wright is a Senior Associate with the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria. His careers span three decades working with Canada's diplomatic service and the Canadian International Development Agency in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Mr Wright served as Canadian High Commissioner and Ambassador to Bangladesh and Burma (1979/82), to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (1987/90), and to Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola and Mozambique (1993/96). As CIDA's Vice-President for Asia (1982-86) he was instrumental in conceptualising and implementing Canada's bilateral development assistance programs. He has also served as a director of the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, the Foundation for International Training, Toronto, and as member of the Society for International Development, Rome, and the Overseas Development Council, Washington.

Judge William (Bill) Yee
Judge, Provincial Court of British Columbia

Honorary Governors
British Columbia

J. Kenneth Dakin
Corporate Director

Dorothy Giles
Mrs Giles is one of the originators of the Council's Canada Week celebrations in the 1970, and has been actively involved with the Council's Encounters with Canada program since its inception in 1982. She was also a founder of the Status of Women Council in British Columbia, a past president of Toastmistress, and the first president of the Liberal party's Women's Commission.

Merrill Leckie
(Past President of the Council)
Mr Leckie is a Past President of the British Columbia Chapter of the Canadian Unity Council. He has practised law in the areas of income tax, franchising and trade-mark, as well corporate and commercial law, with several legal firms (Swinton & Company; Cummings, Richards & Company; Watson Goepel Maledy). In 1989 became a Chartered Arbitrator. Mr Leckie retired as a lawyer, but continues his practice as a Trade-Mark Agent and Chartered Arbitrator.

William L. McEwen
(Former President, BC-CCU)
Consultant, Canada Harbour Place
Bill McEwen is a Director of Canada Place Corporation and Honorary Chairman of the Board of CML Global Capital Ltd. For over four decades he has been committed to volunteering, and has chaired and served as member of a wide variety organisations including the Interprovincial Junior Football League, the Canadian Amateur Football Association, the Ottawa Rough Riders, Hockey Canada, the Old Timers Hockey Association, the Vancouver Canucks, the Sports Federation of Canada, the National Advisory Council on Fitness and Amateur Sport, the Commonwealth Games Association of Canada, Lotto Canada Inc, and the Canada Games Council. He has also been an active member outside of sports organisations, including serving as Commissioner of the National Capital Commission, British Columbia Advisory Council of the Federal Business Development Bank, and has served as president and treasurer of the British Columbia Chapter of the Canadian Unity Council.

Brian W.F. McLoughlin, Q.C.
Barrister & Solicitor

Yukon

Canadian.Unity.Council Yukon
Provincial.President:

Mr. Kenneth McKinnon
Chancellor, Yukon College

Ken McKinnon was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and first arrived in the Yukon in 1956. A graduate in Political Science from the University of Manitoba, Mr. McKinnon was first elected in 1961 as the youngest Member in the history of the Yukon Legislative Assembly, where he served for four terms. Mr. McKinnon was subsequently appointed as Chair of the Financial Advisory Committee and later as Minister of Municipal Affairs, Highways and Public Works and Minister Responsible for the Alaska Highway Gas Pipeline. In 1986, he was installed as Commissioner of Yukon, a post he held for nine years. Mr. McKinnon was President of the first Arctic Winter Games and first Chair of the Yukon Anniversaries Commission.

Mr. McKinnon also served on the first Board of Directors of the Skookum Jim Friendship Centre and was appointed as one of the first Honorary Chiefs of the Yukon Native Brotherhood for his work on behalf of the Yukon First Nations in bringing their original claim to the Federal Government. He has also been appointed to many political, environmental and economic Boards and Commissions and is presently the longest serving Provincial / Territorial President on the Canadian Unity Council.

Governor

The Honourable Audrey McLaughlin, P.C.
The Honourable Audrey McLaughlin was the Federal Member of Parliament for the Yukon from 1987-1997, she served as Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada from 1989-1995, the first woman elected to lead a federal party in Canada. She retired from politics in 1997. Before entering politics, Ms. McLaughlin had a number of careers as a farmer, social worker, teacher, small business operator, and community worker. She has a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Toronto and an honorary doctorate from the same university awarded in 1995. In addition to the publication of a number of articles, her book A Womans Place, My Life and Politics was published in 1992. Ms. McLaughlin serves on a number of Boards and works as a consultant on a variety of issues in Canada and abroad.