Welcome to the 34th Annual Testimonial Dinner & Awards

Vassy Kapelos is the host of Power & Politics, based in Ottawa. Prior to working at CBC, she was Ottawa bureau chief and host of The West Block on Global News. While covering federal politics, Vassy interviewed everyone from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. She’s covered and anchored multiple elections – both federal and provincial. Vassy has received several awards: Canadian Screen Award in 2020 for Best Live Production, Social Media and 2021 Leitch Lecture Award from the University of Alberta and University of Calgary’s faculties of Law.

The Honourable John Manley, P.C., O.C., joined Bennett Jones LLP as Senior Business Adviser in September 2019. He is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the Canadian Parliament from 1988 to 2004 as M.P. for Ottawa South. From 1993 to 2003, he was a Minister in the governments of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, serving in the portfolios of Industry, Foreign Affairs and Finance, in addition to being Deputy Prime Minister.

Chief Terry Paul is the Chief of Membertou, a position he has held for the past 38 years. During that time, Paul has guided his community and administration into one of the most efficient and economically flourishing Indigenous communities in the country. Chief Paul has achieved many notable accomplishments in his current role, as Chief and CEO of Membertou, including being named to one of Canada’s highest honours.

Dr. Clarissa Desjardins is the founder of Congruence Therapeutics, a biotechnology company working at the interface of computational and experimental drug discovery to design novel small molecules for diseases of protein misfolding. Previously, Dr. Desjardins was the founder and CEO of Clementia, a clinical-stage company focused on developing therapies for rare pediatric bone diseases. Clementia was a Nasdaq-listed company until its acquisition by Ipsen in 2019 for $1.3 billion.

Deepa Mehta is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose work is internationally renowned. Her emotionally resonating, award-winning films have played every major film festival, and been sold and distributed around the globe. Her films include the Elemental Trilogy: Earth, Fire and the Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee, Water; Bollywood/Hollywood; the epic adaptation of Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie’ three-time Booker Prize winning novel; and the award-winning Funny Boy, which won several Canadian Screen Awards.

Mark MacKinnon is The Globe and Mail’s Senior International Correspondent. He was internationally recognized for his 2016 story “The Graffiti Kids,” which followed the lives of the teenagers who inadvertently started the Syrian war. Mark has covered the arrival of Canada’s troops in Afghanistan, the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Russia’s war in Chechnya, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict. A seven-time National Newspaper Award winner, he is also the author of several books.

Autumn Peltier is an Indigenous activist, three times International Children’s Peace Prize nominee and Indigenous rights advocate. She is from the Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Canada. Known as the “Water Protector”, the teenage activist fights for water-rights for indigenous peoples. In 2019, at the age of 16, she was appointed Chief Water Commissioner by the Anishinabek Nation. In 2021, she was awarded a Planetary Health Award by Prince Albert II Foundation of Monaco.