Nasreddine Ammar is an Economist with the Parliamentary Budget Officer. He has worked as a research assistant at Laval University’s Centre de recherche en économie de l’environnement, de l’agroalimentaire, des transports et de l’énergie (CREATE), and as an economist at the Quebec Ministry of Finance. Nasreddine has completed his PhD in Economics.
Mausumi Banerjee works as Director of Disability Policy at the Office for Disability Issues for Employment and Social Development Canada.
Daniel Béland is Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and James McGill Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. He has held visiting academic positions at Harvard University, the University of Bremen, the University of Nagoya, the University of Southern Denmark, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Professor Béland currently serves as Executive Editor of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and President of the Research Committee 19 (Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy) of the International Sociological Association. A student of comparative social policy, he has published more than 160 peer-reviewed journal articles and 20 books, including Universality and Social Policy in Canada (edited with Gregory P. Marchildon and Michael J. Prince).
Professor Neil H. Buchanan is the James J. Freeland Eminent Scholar Chair in Taxation and the Director of Global Scholarly Initiatives at the University of Florida. He frequently lectures and serves as a visiting scholar at universities around the world, most recently at the University of Cambridge, where he is also an External Trustee of the Cambridge Student Union. He is nationally and internationally known for his groundbreaking work on intergenerational justice, retirement security, constitutional issues in government budgeting, and a fundamental critique of orthodox economic theory. In recent years, Professor Buchanan has also become engaged with the question of whether the U.S. political system can survive as a functioning constitutional democracy.
W. Brent Cotter, QC, is a former dean of the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan. He obtained his bachelor of commerce degree with honours in marketing in 1971. In 1974, he obtained his bachelor of laws degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1977, Brent received his Master of Laws degree from Dalhousie.
From 1992 to 1997 Brent served as Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General for the Province of Saskatchewan. In July 1997, Brent was appointed Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs, as well as Deputy Provincial Secretary. Brent is a current member of the Law Society of Saskatchewan and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society.
In 2008, Brent was selected as the recipient of the CBA Saskatchewan Award for Distinguished Service. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes exceptional contributions and/or, achievements by members of the Canadian Bar Association, Saskatchewan Branch to: the legal profession in Saskatchewan; or jurisprudence in Saskatchewan or Canada; or the law or development of the law in Saskatchewan; or the benefit of residents of Saskatchewan in a law-related area.
Doron Dorfman is an Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School. His interdisciplinary research focuses on disability law and health law using doctrinal analysis and social science methodology. Dr. Dorfman’s scholarship explores how stigma informs the legal treatment of disempowered communities through a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods, including experiments, surveys, interviews, and observations. He teaches Torts, Health Law, Employment Discrimination, and Disability Law.
Dr. Dorfman’s scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in law reviews such as the Boston College Law Review, Illinois Law Review, UC Irvine Law Review, and the online companion to the Stanford Law Review, as well as in leading peer review journals as the Law & Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law, and the Journal of Law & Biosciences. His work has been cited by federal courts and the Israeli Supreme Court and has been featured on national media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and USA Today.
He has received multiple writing awards, including the national Burton-Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award, the Steven M. Block Civil Liberties Award, and the Colin B. Picker Prize. During his doctoral studies, Dorfman received the Gerald J. Lieberman Fellowship, awarded to students whose research accomplishments, teaching, and service demonstrated potential for becoming academic leaders.
Dr. Dorfman earned a B.A. in communication (2009), an LL.B. (J.D. equivalent, 2009) and an LL.M. (2010), all from the University of Haifa. He later earned a J.S.M. (2014) and J.S.D. (2019) from Stanford Law School. Before arriving at Stanford, he was a litigator at top law firms in Israel for four years while being actively involved in NGOs such as Kav La’Oved-Worker’s Hotline, where he gave legal advice to disadvantaged workers and asylum seekers.
Michelle Hewitt is a disability activist in the Central Okanagan, BC, and currently is co-chair of Disability Without Poverty, a grassroots movement working to eliminate disability poverty in Canada. Michelle was a school principal until 2008, when an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis brought that career to an end. As she now views life from a wheelchair, she is constantly struck by the inequities disabled people face. Unsatisfied with the status quo, she works to advance systemic change as a volunteer with a number of disability advocacy groups. Michelle realized the need to hone her activist arguments so initially took courses with the Disability Studies department of Ryerson University. With the fire for academia re-lit, Michelle is now pursuing her PhD at UBC Okanagan, where she is researching care options for working aged disabled people with advanced progressive illness. Typically, this all takes place from her bed, with the company of her Bernese Mountain dog.
Thaddeus Hwong is an associate professor at Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University. As a modest contribution to the public discourse about redistribution in this post-truth era, he explores the battle of ideas concerning the costs and benefits of the progressive ideals in fiscal policy. His redistributive justice aspirations form and shape policyquests
Laverne Jacobs is a full Professor at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. Her research centres on law and persons with disabilities, equality theory, and administrative law and justice. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to her research, using qualitative empirical research methods from the social sciences, including ethnography. Dr. Jacobs is the author of several books and articles and is currently working on her forthcoming book Disability, the Right of Access and the Law: from Litigation to Citizen Participation (Routledge, 2023). In 2021, she conducted a qualitative study on access to social security benefits for marginalized communities.
Laverne Jacobs founded and directs The Law, Disability & Social Change Project, a research and public advocacy centre at Windsor Law that works to foster and develop inclusive communities. She also currently serves as Co-Director of the Disability Rights Working Group at Berkeley Law’s Center for Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Income Security Advocacy Centre and the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice.
Tamara Larre is a Associate Dean Academic at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law. After graduating with an LL.B from the University of Saskatchewan, Professor Larre practiced tax law at a large law firm in Calgary and then obtained an LL.M from York University. Since joining the College as a faculty member in 2006, she has taught in the areas of taxation law, taxation policy, commercial law, trusts, and legal research and writing. Professor Larre’s research focuses on taxation law and policy, and she has published numerous articles in books and journals including the Canadian Tax Journal, the Supreme Court Law Review, and the American Journal of Public Health.
David Lepofsky is a visiting professor (part-time) at Osgoode Hall Law School and an adjunct faculty member of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He holds volunteer leadership roles in the disability community. He is chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance and the chair of the Toronto District School Board’s Special Education Advisory Committee.
Ravi Malhotra is a full professor at the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa and has served as the Vice Dean of Graduate Studies. He has presented and published widely on disability rights and has co-authored or co-edited a number of books including Exploring Disability Identity and Disability Rights through Narratives: Finding a Voice of Their Own (with Morgan Rowe). He is currently working on a book on the duty to accommodate workers with disabilities and its relationship to crip time and the philosophy of Cornelius Castoriadis.
Patrik Marier is Professor of Political Science at Concordia University and the Lead researcher the Vieillissements, exclusions sociales et solidarités (VIES), partnership research team. He was previously the Scientific Director of the Center for Research and Expertise in Social Gerontology (CREGÉS) of the West-Central Montreal CIUSSS (2013-21). His research focuses on the impact of aging populations on a number of public policy fields including pensions, labour, and social services and programs across comparative cases. He has published in leading international journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Governance, Policy Sciences and the Journal of European Public Policy. His new book, The Four Lenses of Population Aging: Planning for the Future in Canada’s Provinc-es (University of Toronto Press), explores the multiple challenges of plan-ning for an aging population.
Kevin Milligan is Professor of Economics in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia, Scholar-in-Residence with the C.D. Howe Institute, and Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Since 2011, he has served as Co-Editor of the Canadian Tax Journal. He studied at Queen’s University and the University of Toronto, receiving his Ph.D. in 2001. His published research in over 100 articles spans the fields of public and labour economics, with a primary focus on how the Canadian tax and transfer system affects decisions and wellbeing. In 2020-21, he served as Special Advisor (Economic Recovery) in the Privy Council Office.
Sophie Mitra is a Professor of Economics, Co-director of the Disability Studies Minor, and Founding director of the Research Consortium on Disability at Fordham University. Professor Mitra specializes in Applied Microeconomics, Development, and Disability and Health.
Cynthia Minh works at Disability Alliance BC as Director of the Tax AID and Access RDSP programs, which offers services that support people with disabilities to file their income taxes and access the Disability Tax Credit and Registered Disability Savings Plan. She holds an MA in English Literature from the University of British Columbia with special interest in Asian Diasporic Literature and intergenerational trauma. She sits on the board of directors for Plan Institute, is a community member on the Research Ethic Board for Emily Carr University, and is a member of the Disability Tax Fairness Alliance.
Professor Mosher joined the faculty of Osgoode Hall Law School in 2001 after teaching at the Faculties of Law and Social Work at the University of Toronto, where she was also the Director of the Combined LLB/MSW program. Between 2001 to 2005 and 2011 to 2013 she was the Academic Director of Osgoode’s Intensive Program in Poverty Law at Parkdale Community Legal Services. Professor Mosher is currently editor-in-chief of Osgoode’s Journal of Law and Social Policy and has served as the English language editor of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law. Her research interested include gender violence and legal interventions, access to justice for marginalized populations, welfare policy, poverty law, homelessness, legal aid, and clinical legal education
Michael J. Prince is the Lansdowne Professor of Social at the University of Victoria, a member of the Faculty of Human and Social Development as well as in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Among his publications are Absent Citizens: Disability Policy and Politics in Canada (2009), Changing Politics of Canadian Social Policy (2013, with James Rice), Disabling Poverty and Enabling Citizenship: Recommendations for Positive Change (2014), Struggling for Social Citizenship: Disabled Canadians, Income Security, and Prime Ministerial Eras (2016), and Universality and Social Policy in Canada (2019, with Daniel Béland and Gregory Marchildon).
An active volunteer, Prince has been a board member of a community health clinic, a legal aid society, a hospital society and hospital foundation, the BC Association for Community Living, and the social policy committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. He served on the Advisory Committee on Children and Youth with Special Needs, to the Representative of Children and Youth for British Columbia, and was a director at Inclusion BC. Since 2018, he has been the board chair of Community Living BC, a provincial Crown corporation providing supports and opportunities for adults living with developmental disabilities.
Samuel Ragot is a senior policy analyst and advocacy advisor at the Quebec Intellectual Disability Society. In the last 6 years, he has worked on several major policy pieces, including the creation of the Basic Income Program in Quebec and the reform of the province’s guardianship system. Samuel also acted as senior policy analyst and researcher at the Institute for Research and Development on Inclusion and Society (IRIS), working on the development of better social policies for people with an intellectual disability and their families across Canada. He is a member of Inclusion Canada’s Income Security Committee and is contributing to the community consultations efforts on the Canadian Disability Benefit.
Samuel is a PhD, Social Work candidate (McGill), and a political science and bioethics graduate. In his PhD research, Samuel aims to create a policy toolkit to reform financial security programs for people with disabilities across the country.
Jennifer Robson is an Associate Professor at the Clayton Riddell Graduate Program in Political Management at Carleton University. She has published research on a wide range of issues in Canadian public policy including the measurement of poverty, Employment Insurance, tax policy and administration. Prior to her academic work, she spent 15 years working in the federal government and the voluntary sector. She is a fellow of the Public Policy Forum and a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s COVID-19 Task Force.
Wayne Simpson is a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba and a Research Fellow in the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. His areas of specialization include labour economics, urban and regional economics, applied microeconomics, quantitative methods and social policy. He is the author of Urban Structure and the Labour Market: Analysis of Worker Mobility, Commuting and Underemployment in Cities and Is Basic Income Within Reach? Building the Case Amidst Progress and Poverty and co-author (with D. Hum) of Income Maintenance, Work Effort and the Canadian Mincome Experiment and Maintaining a Competitive Workforce. He has published more than 60 refereed articles in economics and policy journals as well as numerous technical and research reports, book chapters, and other articles. He received the 2014 Mike McCracken Award for Economic Statistics from the Canadian Economics Association and the 1999 John Vanderkamp prize for the best article in Canadian Public Policy. His recent research interests includes balanced budget legislation, social assistance, and redistributive tax policies.
Professor Weber’s main professional interests are disability rights and complex tort litigation. He is the author of Disability Harassment (NYU Press), Understanding Disability Law (Lexis-Nexis), Special Education Law Cases and Material (Lexis-Nexis) (with Sarah Redfield and Ralph Mawdsley), and Special Education Law and Litigation Treatise (LRP Pubs.). He frequently speaks on disability law issues at national and international programs. He began his career as a staff attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago and then worked as a clinical fellow at University of Chicago Law School. At DePaul, he has served as associate dean and acting dean of the College of Law. He has received the College of Law Outstanding Teaching Award, the DePaul University Excellence in Public Service Award, the College of Law Excellence in Scholarship Award, the DePaul Spirit of Inquiry Award, and the Center for Disability and Elder Law Distinguished Service Award. He was named Vincent dePaul Professor of Law in 2004.
Xiaoyi Yan is Director of Budgetary Analysis. She leads the PBO’s analytical work on government budgets and Electoral Platform Costing.
Prior to joining the PBO, she worked in various policy departments and agencies including the last 6 years at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada as Director of Policy Research. She also worked at Health Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, Canada Revenue Agency and Statistics Canada in various capacities responsible for research and analysis. She served as a member and National Correspondent for Canada at the OECD’s Expert Group on Migration from 2015 to 2018 and taught Economics for many years in universities in Canada and China.
Xiaoyi holds a PhD in Economics from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Bonita Zarrillo is a Canadian politician and is the Member of Parliament for Port Moody—Coquitlam elected in the 2021 Canadian federal election. Zarrillo is a member of the New Democratic Party. She is a member of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. In her community she is known to be a voice for equality. Zarrillo drives systemic change that puts people first. Before coming to Ottawa, she spent 3 terms as a municipal city councillor advocating for working people and supporting the needs of the most vulnerable in the community. She championed buy-local, challenged pipeline corporations, and completed a successful housing affordability strategy that generated the most rental housing starts in the region. Bonita gets things done.