Ann Charney is a novelist, short story writer and journalist who has received awards both for her fiction and non-fiction, including two National Magazine Awards, the Chatelaine Fiction Prize, the Canadian Authors' Association Prize, and the Canadian Jewish Congress Award. She was also honored by the French government, which named her an Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters. She has published three novels, Dobryd, Distantly Related to Freud, and Life Class. Her work has been published in Canada and the US as well as in France, Germany and Italy.

Dan David is a former TV and radio journalist with CBC News, producer at TVOntario and VISION-TV, and founding Director of News at the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

Mr. David has also been a researcher/writer with the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba (AJI), the Royal Commission for Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), and the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO). He was a Commonwealth Fellow (South Pacific), earned two National Magazine Awards for literary journalism as well as the Prince and Princess Edward Award for Aboriginal Literature, and last year’s recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF). His writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, Windspeaker, NOW, and THIS Magazine.

Tahieròn:iohte Dan David is Bear Clan Kanienke:haka (Mohawk) based at Kanehsatà:ke, where he’s hammering away at finally finishing a novel.

Graham Fraser worked as a journalist in Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Washington, and Ottawa for the Toronto Star, The Gazette, and The Globe and Mail. He is the author of five books, including René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois and Sorry, I Don’t Speak French. Most recently, he edited The Fate of Canada: F.R.Scott’s Journal of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, 1963-1971. He served as Commissioner of Official Languages from 2006-2016, and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019. He divides his time between North Hatley, Val des Monts and Ottawa.

Julius Grey is a renowned lawyer with more than 40 years of experience and practice in several areas of law. He received his education from McGill and Oxford Universities and was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1974. He was a member of the Faculty of Law at McGill University from 1977 to 2002 and taught at the Université de Montréal and the Canadian Human Rights School in Charlottetown. He was president of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation from 1985 to 1988. In 1984, he published a text on immigration law in Canada. He continues to publish several articles on more technical subjects of law, but also on topics of general interest. In 2004, Me Grey received, for his entire career, the Barreau du Québec Medal, which is the highest distinction awarded by the Quebec Bar. 

Tomson Highway was born in a snowbank on the Manitoba/Nunavut border to a family of nomadic caribou hunters. He had the great privilege of growing up in two languages, neither of which was French or English; they were Cree, his mother tongue, and Dene, the language of the neighbouring "nation," a people with whom they roamed and hunted. Today, he enjoys an international career as playwright, novelist, and pianist/songwriter. For many years, he ran Canada's premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts, out of which has emerged an entire generation of professional Native playwrights, actors and, more indirectly, the many other Native theatre companies that now dot the country. Though he is based in Gatineau, Quebec, he keeps very much in touch with his northern Manitoba (and northern Saskatchewan, yes, right on the border).

Ann-Marie MacDonald is an author, playwright, and actor. She has co-created and performed original theatrical work such as This Is For You, Anna; Nancy Drew; Clue in the Fast Lane; The Attic, The Pearls, and the Three Fine Girls; and More Fine Girls. Her first solo-authored play, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), premiered at Nightwood Theatre and was honoured with the Chalmers Award, the Governor General's Award, and the Canadian Authors' Association Award. Her other plays include The Arab's Mouth, the libretto for the chamber opera Nigredo Hotel, book and lyrics for the musical Anything That Moves, Belle Moral: A Natural History, and, most recently, Hamlet-911.

In 1996, Ann-Marie published her first novel, Fall on Your Knees, which became an international bestseller and an Oprah's Book Club pick. It was also shortlisted for the Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Prize, the People's Choice Award, and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year. Her other novels include The Way the Crow Flies, Adult Onset, and Fayne, to be published in fall 2022.

Ann-Marie was the host of the CBC series Life and Times and Doc Zone. She was the inaugural Mordecai Richler Reading Room Writer in Residence at Concordia University, and she continues to coach students in the Acting and Playwriting Programs at the National Theatre School. In 2019, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her contribution to the arts and her activism and advocacy for LGBTQ2S+ rights. She lives in Toronto and Montreal with her family.

Dr. Dorothy Williams is an historian, author, educator, researcher, content developer, and media consultant.  She has authored three books, including Blacks in Montreal, 1628-1986: An Urban Demography. In 1997, The Road to Now: A History of Blacks in Montreal was released and remains the only chronological study of Montreal’s Blacks. Then in 1998, the translation of Blacks in Montreal, Les Noirs à Montreal, Essai de demographic urbaine, was released.

With a strong afro-centric perspective, Dr. Williams pens both popular and scholarly articles about Canada's Black history and culture. She conducts teacher training and professional and public presentations. Her company, Blacbiblio.com, designs popular and pedagogical materials to render Black history in Canada accessible to educators and youth.

Several honours have been bestowed for her decades of ground-breaking work. They include the Quebec government's Le Prix Québécois de la citoyenneté 2002 for "The Anne-Greenup Prize for the fight against racism and the promotion of civic participant." Others are: The Mathieu da Costa Award by the Black Coalition of Quebec, and The Impact Award by Black Family Magazine. Most recently, she was given the prestigious 2022 John G. Dennison Award "in recognition of her leadership and community engagement, and her research, scholarly publications, teaching, and public speaking engagements showcasing Canada's Black History." In 2023,  this vaunted national recognition was followed by the LAC Scholar's Award from the Library and Archives Canada because "she has expanded the country's cultural and historical heritage." Dr. Williams's career and impact was the subject of the inaugural exhibit of the Afro Musée, Quebec's first Black museum.