Board of Directors 2008 - 2009 Executive Committee
Chair
Sarah Crawford
Vice-President, Public Affairs
CTVglobemedia
Vice-Chair
Jay Thomson
Vice-President, Regulatory and Policy
Canadian Association of Broadcasters
Vice-Chair
Suzanne Morin
Assistant General Counsel, Regulatory Law and Policy
Bell Canada
Treasurer
Jane Macnaughton
CFO/Vice-President Finance & Administration
S-Vox Trust
Members-at-Large
Wendy Newman
Senior Fellow, Faculty of Information Studies
University of Toronto
Arlette Lefebvre, M.D.
Staff Psychiatrist, Division of Child Psychiatry
Toronto Hospital for Sick Children
Secretary
Cathy Wing
Co-Executive Director
Media Awareness Network
Board Members
Warren Cable
Vice-President, e-Commerce
CanWest Interactive
Serge Carrier
Coordinator, Business Development
SOFAD
Rita Shelton Deverell
RJ Deverell Productions
Maria Di Perna
President
Canadian Association of Principals
Jacob Glick
Canada Policy Counsel
Google Inc.
Clarence Lochhead
Executive Director
Vanier Institute of the Family
Craig McTaggart
Director, Broadband Policy
TELUS Communications Company
Emily Noble
President
Canadian Teachers' Federation
Tom Perlmutter
Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson
National Film Board of Canada
Mark Sikstrom
Executive Producer
CTV News Syndication and CTV.ca
Carolyn Wilson
President
Association for Media Literacy
Observers
Ruth Bacon
Director, Canadian Culture Online - Content Policy and Programs
Canadian Heritage
Susan Johnston
Senior Policy Advisor, Telecommunications Policy Branch
Industry Canada
Claude Rocan
Director General, Centre for Healthy Human Development
Public Health Agency of Canada
Biographies of Board Members
Ruth Bacon (first appointed to MNet Board in May 2006)
Ruth Bacon is the Director of Content Policy and Programs at the Department of Canadian Heritage's Canadian Culture Online Branch. With a graduate diploma in Arts Administration, Ruth has over twenty years of Federal government experience. One of the new media policy and program pioneers at Canadian Heritage, over the last six years she has helped to create the strategy designed to ensure that there will be Canadian cultural choices in the interactive space. By facilitating Canada's public and private cultural organizations and new media producers in creating interactive digital cultural content, Ruth hopes to support the creation of both a healthy and viable New Media industry, as well as an environment where digital cultural content is available to Canadians when, where and how they want it.
Warren Cable (first elected to MNet Board in 2007)
Warren joined CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. in 2005 and currently leads a number of teams with responsibility for FPinfomart and Licensing in the B2B realm, as well as Local Sales, Training, and Online Directories in the company's Interactive Division. Under Warren's leadership, this diverse portfolio of businesses has enjoyed significant success.
Warren joined CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. directly from Toys'R'Us, where he held the role of General Manager for toysrus.ca. He and his team were responsible for the development and successful launch of the site in 2004, as well as the e-commerce strategy of the company internationally. Warren was also Director of Shopping and E-Commerce with AOL Canada, responsible for the strategy and implementation of e-commerce and retail programs. He was also the General Manager of Chapters.ca and has held progressively senior positions with The Body Shop Canada and The Bank of Nova Scotia.
Serge Carrier (first elected to MNet Board in 1997)
Serge is SOFAD's Coordinator of business development. From 2005 to 2007, he was COO of FacePrint Global Solutions, a biometrics solution provider in California. Until 2005, he was the vice president, Strategic Development, at CogniScience, one of Canada's foremost e- learning publishers. As CEO, from 1987 to 2002, Serge was responsible for developing Micro-Intel's educational software, in collaboration with ministries of education across Canada. Before starting Micro- Intel, Serge developed educational software and taught science and computer science at the high school and college levels.
Sarah Crawford (first elected to MNet Board in 2001)
Sarah Crawford is Vice President, Public Affairs for CTVglobemedia, directing the Company's corporate and divisional community and public relations, corporate social responsibility, and strategic social investment. She also leads the Company's diversity initiatives. Sarah is Chair of Media Awareness Network; a member of the National Executive of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) and Vice-Chair of the CBSC's Specialty Adjudication panel; a past Chair and current member of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB) Joint Societal Issues Committee (JSIC); and Chair of the CAB's Diversity in Radio Working Group. Sarah was an industry member on the Task Force for Cultural Diversity on Television, whose ground-breaking report was published in 2004, and was Chair of the CAB's JSIC Subcommittee on the Presence, Portrayal and Participation of People with Disabilities in Television Programming, whose report was made public and submitted to the CRTC in 2005. She has received a Gold Medal for her work in the areas of diversity and equity from the Human Rights and Race Relations Council. In 2006, she was recognized by Canadian Women in Communications with the "2005 Woman of the Year" Award, the organization's highest honour.
Rita Shelton Deverell, C.M., Ed.D. (first elected to MNet Board in 2005)
Rita is an Independent Producer/Director/Writer /Performer of television and theatre for RJ Deverell Productions. Her drama series "Solo Flight International" debuts on OMNI, versioned in three languages, in 2007-08. In 2005 she completed her term as the Director of News and Current Affairs, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, where she mentored her Aboriginal successor. Deverell's career in journalism has been one of pioneering innovation and creativity. With an unceasing drive for social justice, she is one of the first Black women in Canada to be a television host and a network executive. A founder of Vision TV, the world's first multi-faith and multicultural network, she held several senior positions there as well as the network anchor job. In 2006 she was appointed the first CanWest Global Fellow in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. An inspiring mentor and teacher, Rita Deverell serves as a role model for young journalists and audiences alike.
Maria Di Perna (first elected to MNet Board in 2007)
Maria Di Perna has been an educator in the Province of Quebec for 32 years, as a teacher for 17 years, the majority of these years working with special needs students, and 15 years in administration. She is currently Principal of East Hill School with the English Montreal School Board. Maria holds a Bachelor of Education and a Master in Educational Administration, both from McGill University. Maria has been actively involved with her provincial association, the Association of Administrators of English Schools of Quebec (AAESQ), since its inception in 1998. She served as its President in 2004-2005 and ended her tenure as Past-president in June 2006. In 2003, Maria began her affiliation with the Canadian Association of Principals (CAP). She served several years as a Director with the association. During this time, Maria co-chaired the CAP 2006 national conference in Quebec City in May 2006. She was elected President-elect in May 2006 and will commence her one-year term as President in July 2007.
Jacob Glick (first elected to MNet Board in 2008)
Jacob Glick is Google's Canada Policy Counsel. He is part of a global policy team, working with academics, civil society, industry and government to keep the Internet awesome.
Jacob studied Political Science and Law at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining Google he was General Counsel and Director of Policy Development at the Canadian Internet Registration Authority. Jacob enjoys mid-90's bubblegum pop and is the starting centre fielder for one of the worst softball teams in Ottawa. His old Apple Newton MessagePad is buried in a drawer somewhere.
Arlette Lefebvre (first elected to MNet Board in 2002)
A child psychiatrist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, Arlette specializes in working with children with disabilities. She is also a professor of Child Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Arlette has been involved in media education for many years: she pioneered the use of the Internet to help to connect disabled children to their mentors, friends, and the broad community. She was the founding president of Ability OnLine, and also wrote Taking Your Kids Online: How and When to Introduce Children to the Internet. Her career has earned her many awards - the most recent being the 2002 Dr. Richard Ten Cate Professional Community Award, the Bloorview MacMillan Children's Centre's Circle of Honour Award, the Order of Ontario, and the Order of Canada.
Clarence Lochhead (first elected to MNet Board in 2008)
Clarence Lochhead is Executive Director of the Vanier Institute of the Family, a national non-profit organization established in 1965 and dedicated to promoting the well being of Canada's families through research and public education. Before joining the Institute in 2007, Clarence was Senior Researcher at the Canadian Labour and Business Centre, and Director of Research at the Canadian Council on Social Development. He has also served as a research consultant to several federal government departments, including Health Canada, Human Resources and Social Development, Citizenship and Immigration, and Status of Women Canada. Mr. Lochhead has researched and written in a wide variety of areas, including poverty and income security, work-family balance, child development, family formation, and immigration. Clarence holds a Masters degree in Sociology from Queen's University and a B.A. in Urban and Environmental Studies, Brock University.
Jane Macnaughton, C.A., MBA (first elected to MNet Board in 2007)
Jane joined S-Vox Trust (formerly Vision TV: Canada's Faith Network) in December 2001 as Vice President Finance and Administration. In this capacity she provides leadership in the areas of finance, information technology and administration. In 2003 Jane was promoted to Chief Financial Officer of the company. Prior to joining S-Vox Trust, Jane spent eight years as Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Command Post and Transfer Corporation, one of Canada's largest post-production companies. In addition to her role at S-Vox Jane teaches accounting part-time in the MBA programme at Schulich School of Business. She is also an active member of the Board of Directors of Bloorview Foundation and is a past member of the Board of Directors of Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation, Bloorview Childrens' Hospital, Canadian Women's Foundation, Canadian Institute of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and Past Treasurer and Board Member of the Toronto Learning Disabilities Association.
Craig McTaggart (first elected to MNet Board in 2008)
Craig McTaggart has been a member of TELUS Communications Company's Corporate Affairs team since 2004. He is currently Director, Broadband Policy with responsibility for Internet and intellectual property policy matters. Craig earned his doctorate in law under the supervision of Professors Hudson Janisch and Michael Trebilcock at the University of Toronto in 2004. An Ontario lawyer since 1997, Craig holds a B.A.(Hons.) in history from Queen's University, an LL.B. from The University of Western Ontario, and an LL.M. and S.J.D. from the University of Toronto. Craig is a recreational triathlete and lives in Ottawa with his wife and two daughters.
Suzanne Morin (first elected to MNet Board in 2008)
Suzanne Morin received her law degree from the University of Ottawa. After clerking at the Federal Court of Canada, she was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1992. She completed the Regulatory Best Practices Certificate program offered by the School of Policy Studies from Queen's University in 1997.
Since her call to the bar, Suzanne has been working in the areas of privacy, copyright, telecommunications and electronic commerce generally, including spam, jurisdiction, child exploitation and offensive content. At Bell, she is involved with many associations including the Canadian Coalition Against Internet Child Exploitation (CCAICE), the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) and the Canadian Bar Association (CBA). Suzanne is currently a board member of the Standards Council of Canada.
Suzanne speaks frequently at Canadian and international conferences on various issues and is a co-author of the Canadian Privacy Law Handbook.
Wendy Newman (first elected to MNet Board in 2002)
Wendy is a Senior Fellow at the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, and also past-president of the Canadian Library Association. Her areas of expertise include leadership, advocacy, community networks, public libraries as a force for community economic development, and the "smart communities" movement - she has written on all those subjects. Wendy has sat on a number of government and community committees, such as the National Broadband Task Force, the Heritage Advisory Group of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Conference Board of Canada's Advisory Group on Connectedness. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Library Science from the University of Toronto.
Emily Noble (first elected to MNet Board in 2007)
Emily Noble is the president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO). Emily Noble, M.Ed., is serving her third term as the president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO). Noble has previously served as ETFO's vice-president (1998-2000) and first vice-president (2000-2002). For over three decades Emily Noble has been a teacher with the Algoma District School Board, where she has taught all grades from kindergarten to eight, as well as special education. She holds principals' qualifications as well as primary and special education specialist qualifications. Noble is a director of the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF) and a governor and fellow of the Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF). She is a member of the Ontario Federation of Labour's (OFL) Executive Board. She serves on the Executive Council of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). Noble received the CTF Roy C. Hill Award in recognition of her work in mathematics curriculum.
Tom Perlmutter (first elected to MNet Board in 2007)
Throughout his career as a filmmaker, writer and producer, Tom Perlmutter has been a fervent advocate of groundbreaking and socially engaged independent cinema. Before joining the NFB in 2001 as Director General, English Program, Mr. Perlmutter enjoyed a prestigious career in the Canadian film industry as the founding head of documentaries at Barna-Alper Productions, and partner in Primitive Entertainment. Mr. Perlmutter previously partnered with one of Canada's most noted documentarists, John Walker, on several award-winning documentaries. Prior to this, he was director of creative development for CineNova Productions and executive director of Alliance for Children and Television from 1993 to 1995. He has also worked as a writer and reporter, with a number of articles and publications to his credit
Claude Rocan (first appointed to MNet Board in 2002)
Claude serves as an ex-officio member of MNet's Board as the representative for Health Canada, where he is director general of the Centre for Healthy Human Development within the Population and Public Health Branch. He is responsible for a broad spectrum of issues, which collectively support health promotion and disease control and prevention programs. Claude previously held senior positions in the federal government with Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Privy Council Office, as well as in the Government of Saskatchewan's Intergovernmental Affairs Branch. He holds a Doctorate in Political Science from York University and degrees from Glendon College, York University (Bachelors of Arts) and McMaster University (Masters).
Mark Sikstrom (first elected to MNet Board in 2001)
Mark is Executive Producer of CTV News Syndication and CTV.ca. Previously, he was director of Regional News and New Ventures for CTV Inc., responsible for the network's online news services, such as CTVNews.com and 21c.ca. Before that, Mark was a national and foreign correspondent, reporting from Edmonton, Ottawa, Calgary, Winnipeg, Regina and Washington, D.C.
Jay Thomson (first elected to MNet Board in 2004)
Jay Thomson is Vice-President Regulatory and Policy for the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Previously, he was Assistant Vice President, Broadband Policy, for TELUS, where he was responsible for matters relating to Internet policy, broadcasting regulation and policy, and copyright. Prior to joining TELUS' Ottawa office, he was President of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers for over four years. He worked for ten years at the Canadian Cable Television Association where he was Vice President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs. Jay worked as a policy analyst in various departments within the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission where he also undertook his legal articles. A member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, he obtained a law degree from the University of Victoria (1985) and a B.A. from Acadia University in Nova Scotia (1980).
Carolyn Wilson (first elected to MNet Board in 2008)
Carolyn is the President of the Association for Media Literacy in Ontario, Canada and has received the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence for her work in media studies and global education. The award committee recognized Carolyn as a "tireless pioneer and advocate for media literacy and global education on the national and international levels".
Co-author of the best selling textbook, Mass Media and Popular Culture, Version 2, Carolyn has been invited to speak at conferences across Canada and around the world, hosted by such organizations as UNESCO and UNICEF. She has written numerous study guides for CHUM Television and CTVglobemedia, as well as curriculum documents and resources for the Ministry of Education in Ontario.
Carolyn is an instructor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.
Board Alumni
