Newsletter - October 2022
Dear friends of the Foundation,
It is my great pleasure to share with you the Foundation’s latest activities and achievements. Since June, we have had the great honour of welcoming our new 2022 cohort, which is quite an eye-opening experience again this year! The gatherings and in-depth discussions have already given rise to memorable exchanges and we can only wish our Scholars, Fellows, and Mentors three successful years that will allow them to experience an exceptional journey towards committed leadership and the sharing of knowledge in the name of meaningful solutions to meet the major social challenges around the theme of Global Economies.
Despite the ups and downs of COVID-19, the past year has given us enough of a reprieve to offer a diverse program and to hold several large, in-person gatherings. This has also allowed us to chart, in-depth, the journey of our cohorts and the key values and concepts of our leadership program. I am delighted to share these great moments with you, which celebrate our community.
Of course, for the Foundation autumn means the launch of our Scholarship Competition for the 2023-2026 cycle, which will revolve around a new Scientific Cycle. It is always with much excitement and great pride that our entire team commits to pre-selecting exceptional candidates, who are then met by the members of the Application and Nomination Review Committee, chaired by Canada's Chief Science Advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer!
I invite you to immerse yourself in the dynamism of our community by reading this newsletter. I wish you a beautiful fall and hope that the back-to-school season lives up to your ambitions!
Sincerely,
Pascale Fournier
President and CEO
The 2023 doctoral Scholarship Competition is officially launched!
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is proud to offer, for the 21st year, its exceptional Scholarship program offering at least twelve doctoral scholars the means and skills required to transform their ideas into action and become true committed leaders, for the benefit of their respective communities and our society as a whole. Would you like to live this unique experience in the company of exceptional peers? If so, we want to get to know you better!
Apply here
The leadership of the greatest is matched only by the courage they show
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation's ambitious leadership development program is rooted in the conviction that the leaders of tomorrow will be those who can confront and welcome the multitude of points of view, the diversity of opinions, beliefs, and cultures, the plurality of values and perspectives, with respect and dignity for every human being. In a society in constant turmoil, the value of living together is inherent in the notion of commitment. These committed leaders will be able to direct their thoughts and actions, guided and supported by Fellows and equally ambitious Mentors, towards solutions to the greatest social issues facing our society.
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Much more than a Scholarship, a journey, and an experience
Within the Foundation’s Brave Spaces, this three-year journey will set Scholars on a path towards greater community engagement, introducing them to stimulating debates and venturing into unknown territory that allows a better knowledge of themselves and others. The Scholarship includes leadership training, academic resources, mentorship opportunities, and financial support up to $40,000 per year for three years. It also includes a generous annual allowance to cover learning one of Canada's two official languages and Indigenous languages, participation in our events, and travel expenses related to the democratization of knowledge in the public, private, and community sectors.
Roxana Akhmetova and Chanelle Robinson, 2021 Scholars,
in French immersion in Trois-Pistoles, QC
The next interdisciplinary Scientific Cycle for 2023
This theme comes at the confluence of disruptive changes around the world. This constantly changing international environment has been marked by the spectacular technological transformations of the last twenty years, the expansion of certain players on the international scene, as well as climatic upheavals, the COVID-19 pandemic, mass migrations and movements of refugees, the rise of authoritarianism in many countries, major political movements such as Brexit, rising global debt, growing economic disparities, religious conflicts, as well as the changing nature of war and security.
The shifting Sino-American dynamics, as well as the growing political instability and polarization in the United States, have permeated deeply into American institutions. While the concert of nations has recently opposed in a multilateral way the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the precariousness of political and economic cohesion has become a concern to nations everywhere in the world. These profound transformations in the world order have called into question the foundations upon which Canadian foreign policy rests, based on multilateralism, the promotion of democracy, human rights, and global trade.
Canada is now seeking to renew its role in the emerging global order. This scientific cycle therefore encourages reflection, dialogue, and the creative exchange of knowledge on Canada's strengths and opportunities that could help chart the course for modernizing and reinvigorating Canadian foreign policy and its leadership on the world stage.
New 2023 Application and Nomination Review Committees
It is with great appreciation that I wish to thank the members of the Application and Nomination Review Committee (ANRC) who so generously agreed to be an active part of the selection process in order to recommend our 2023 Scholars, Fellows, and Mentors to the Board of Directors. The Foundation wishes to highlight their commitment and exceptional contribution to the selection process.
The 2023 ANRC
Chair of the 2023 ANRC Committees
Dr. Mona Nemer, Chief Science Advisor of Canada
ANRC Fellows and Mentors
ANRC Scholars
New 2022 cohort: a most successful community retreat in Jouvence
During a first community gathering beginning June 27, the new 2022 cohort of Scholars, Fellows and Mentors was welcomed at the Grand Quay of the Port of Montreal for a banquet dinner at which renowned guests eloquently shared their first thoughts on the theme of Global Economies.
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From top to bottom, left to right:
Ka’nahsohon Kevin Deer, David Parkinson, Isabelle Hudon, Martin Imbleau and Fabrice Vil
This event was followed by an immersive retreat from June 28 to 30 at the Centre de villégiature Jouvence, in the Eastern Townships. This environment was ideal for fostering a sense of community for the cohort. The workshops were jointly led by cohort members and Vienna Blum, an experiential learning designer and facilitator. This event showcased the enchanting landscape, with meeting rooms facing nature and pavilions beside picturesque Lake Stukely, an enveloping setting, ideal for experiences, dialogue, and meeting other people.
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The discussions were lively and intelligent, with questions abound and spirits lifted, on the part of the Scholars, Fellows, and Mentors. What a stimulating and enlightened cohort!
From financial disparities in global economies to gender inequalities, governance and corporate accountability in extractive industries, and opportunities to leverage new technologies to improve access to justice, there were so many challenges, paradigms and social issues to debate, document, and resolve. The leadership journey that is beginning will undoubtedly reflect the unprecedented richness of this cohort — the inspiring life trajectories that come together to better resolve the inequities facing the world today.
See some of the reactions from our community:
Alexandre Petitclerc, Scholar
“What I remember from the visit to Jouvence is the generosity, kindness and sincerity of those present. I came out of the stay with new friendships!”
– Alexandre Petitclerc
Mariame Ouedraogo, Scholar and Barbara Grantham, Mentor.
“The retreat at Jouvence opened my mind – and my heart – to the depth and breadth of the learning that the Trudeau Foundation makes possible. As a community of Scholars, Fellows and Mentors, we are learning from and with each other. Jouvence also provided a smooth entry for me to forge a relationship with Mariame, the Scholar I have the honour of working with in the coming year. While I am technically her “mentor”, I know I have a lot to learn from her - and this part of the PETF journey is now well underway.”
– Barbara Grantham
“Part of what attracted me to the Foundation’s Scholarship and Leadership program is the opportunity to belong to a community of leaders who want to listen, learn, and understand others. The 2022-2025 cohort assembles an impressively diverse set of interests and perspectives, and I have already begun to see the contribution of our exchanges to our collective growth after just a few months together. I am excited to keep up the momentum and to continue bringing my ideas and perspectives to the table.”
– Michelle Liu
“Completing a doctoral thesis and becoming an intellectual leader means learning to accept the ambiguity of the world around us. It is a privilege to accompany this magnificent cohort in their questioning of our preconceptions about global economies.”
– Jean-Frédéric Morin
Experiencing the plurality of perspectives through a leadership journey rooted in Brave Spaces, this is what we offer you!
In 2021-2022, we finally had the opportunity to meet one another, travel across the country, bring the cohorts together and, therefore, document, in sound and image, dozens of members of our extraordinary community and the many host communities that have welcomed us to share their knowledge, experiences, and cultures with us. We lived, we listened, we experienced, and we learned, as a group. Enriching meetings and workshops, an ambitious leadership program, committed and engaging Scholars, Fellows and Mentors. This is what we offer you, in testimonials or videos, to express and share our learnings and our experience of diversity, plurality of perspectives, and Brave Spaces.
Visit our website to see what we have imagined for you!
Watch the video of memorable film shoots and journeys across Canada, meeting others and ourselves, along the road leading our cohorts to engaged leadership.
Let's build Braves Spaces!
New partnership Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation – National France-Canada Association
Always on the lookout for opportunities for international collaboration and outreach for the Foundation and its members, we are very pleased to announce that following our exceptional partnership with the Global Fellowship Forum, which allows us to participate in its annual conference with other prestigious organizations and foundations from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, a brand new collaboration agreement has been concluded with an organization that has been at the heart of Franco-Canadian engagement for more than 75 years, the France-Canada Association.
and Executive Director Benjamin Boutin.
As part of its Jeunes Leaders France-Canada program, 2021 Scholar Lydie C. Belporo was selected to be part of this select group and to represent the Foundation and its Scholars. She will fly to France in the spring of 2023 for joint activities and exchanges that will focus, among other things, on leadership in the world. Congratulations Lydie!
In addition, the France-Canada National Association will be our host for the first community retreat of the 2023 cohort, which will be held in France in the summer of 2023. We thank them for this generous invitation. The Foundation is very proud of this first partnership with a French speaking country, a partnership that promises to be very fruitful for Scholars, for the Foundation, and for our entire community.
and Pascale Fournier, President and CEO, PETF
Two days of joint creation workshops for our Fellows and Mentors
How can the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Institutes for Engaged Leadership bring the themes of their scientific cycle in a place, community, and environment that inspires us to think creatively, while empowering Foundation Scholars to be engaged leaders in Canada and around the world?
This was the Foundation’s 2020, 2021, and 2022 Fellows and Mentors main objective during a workshop entitled Liberating Structures, a two-day learning and joint creation session led by Vienna Blum, designer and facilitator of experiential learning programs. A workshop that aimed to teach a series of experiential and collaborative learning methods and tools that foster the emergence of richer conversations, deeper reflection and greater engagement. They are said to be “liberating” because they are designed to be inclusive and participatory, while departing from traditional pedagogical models where the main emphasis is on the teacher-presenter.
" I am very grateful for this Liberating Structures training, facilitated by the incomparable Vienna Blum, who will no doubt serve me as a teacher and administrator, and also as a parent of young children! I learned several new techniques and strategies, all simple but very powerful, to quickly generate constructive thoughts and solve problems. Since these techniques are based on group participation and collective wisdom, the proposed solutions tend to enjoy strong support. It is very promising.”
– François Larocque, 2021 Fellow
In a climate of positive personal feedback and bringing members of the community closer together, Fellows and Mentors discussed, observed, and reflected on their respective experiences in order to develop participatory and innovative teaching that will not only be beneficial for our Institutes of Engaged Leadership but also a real gift for the role they play as public intellectuals and as engaged citizens!
We look forward to putting these new concepts into practice in our future activities and events with all Scholars, Fellows, and Mentors from each cohort and to continue working with the talented Vienna Blum!
Learning and Integration Collection from the 2021 Fellows and Mentors on Language, Culture and Identity
Language and languages are at the heart of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation’s 2021–2024 scientific cycle. We will pay particular attention in this cycle to the close links that can be made between language, culture and identity as we explore, in an interdisciplinary, and at times intersectional manner, issues and debates on this theme. As such, this theme challenges Scholars to address important questions at the intersection of language, culture and identity.
This includes profound questions about how modern society can better accommodate linguistic pluralism and identity politics associated with it. This subject also invites the question of whether other countries, which are also trying to recognize the importance of linguistic pluralism and its place in increasingly multicultural contexts, may learn from the language policy frameworks of countries such as Canada, South Africa or Spain.
The contemporary multidisciplinary issues related to language and languages are numerous. First, there is the need to preserve linguistic diversity. In Canada, we also encounter issues such as bilingualism, multilingualism and everything that is found in the spaces and interstices of what are called official languages.
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation sincerely hopes that this compendium of learning and integration of the Language, Culture & Identity scientific cycle, brilliantly informed by the individual but complementary views of Fellows and Mentors of the 2021 cohort, will allow our Scholars to deepen and broaden their reflection and enrich their upcoming 2023 Impact Conference!
We invite you to discover this collection, available here: Compendium on Language, Culture and Identity
Don't miss the Advisory Committee on Diversity’s podcast series!
If you haven't had a chance to listen to the conversations between Margarida Garcia and her guests, all members of the Advisory Committee on Diversity, we invite you to do so! This new Diversity series, produced with the support of the University of Ottawa, York University and University of Calgary, is a continuation of the “Brave Spaces” Podcast, which explores the concept of engaged leadership through the experiences of Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholars, Fellows, and Mentors and their guests. Through the plurality of perspectives it favours, the Diversity Podcast promotes dialogue beyond difference and establishes a real debate of ideas rooted in academic openness and critical thinking.
Eight episodes are available on the Foundation’s website and on most streaming platforms. Happy listening!
News from the Community
It is with great enthusiasm that we invite all members of the community to join us in congratulating the recipients of this prestigious recognition for their outstanding achievements in advancing knowledge and understanding of the past and present.
- Julia Christensen (2008 Scholar), Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists
- Steven Hoffman (2012 Scholar), Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
- Cynthia Milton (2019 Fellow), Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Humanities
- Jean-Frédéric Morin (2022 Fellow), Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists
- Jennifer Welsh (2008 Fellow), Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences