Presented to individuals of Caribbean-Canadian heritage, who have attained success in their field of endeavours.

Professor Michael S. Pollanen

Professor Michael S. Pollanen

Chief Forensic Pathologist

Michael S. Pollanen is the Chief Forensic Pathologist for Ontario, Canada and a Professor and Vice-Chair (Innovation) of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. He graduated from the University of Toronto with an MD (1999) and PhD (1995) and completed his residency in 2003. His duties include supervising and directing the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service (7000 autopsies/year), conducting autopsy (>2500 autopsies conducted to date), testifying in court (>250 court testimonies to date), and directing academic activities in forensic pathology at the University of Toronto. Professor Pollanen's main educational focus is training forensic pathologists and strengthening forensic capacity in the Global South.

He has been involved in case work or forensic missions in: East Timor, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Thailand, Jamaica, Iraq, and Bermuda. His current research interests include Nodding disease in Uganda and the pathology of torture. He has published over 90 papers in peer- reviewed journals.

Professor Pollanen is a member of the forensic advisory board of the International Committee of the Red Cross and is the immediate Past President of the International Association of Forensic Science (2015-17). He is a Founder of Forensic Pathology in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He is also a Deputy Chief Coroner in Ontario.

Mr. Wayne Purboo

Mr. Wayne Purboo

Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

As President, CEO and Co-founder of Quickplay, Wayne Purboo drives the development, management and execution of Quickplay's innovative strategy. Under his guidance Quickplay has developed award-winning technologies and forged critical partnerships with market leading content providers, video service providers, handset manufacturers and mobile service operators to drive the rapid growth of the company.

Prior to founding Quickplay, Wayne was Chief Technology Officer for Solect Technology Group. When Solect was acquired by Amdocs, Wayne was appointed to the role of Vice-President of Strategy. In this capacity he launched and was Editor-in-Chief of ABR, a quarterly research magazine focused on the future of Telecom with a worldwide circulation to thousands of industry professionals.

Wayne is on the Advisory Board of Virgin Unite, which is developing new approaches to social and environmental issues. He is also active on the boards of GlassBOX, Artscape, Cellwand, and the Toronto International Film Festival. He has been recognized as a Sick Kids' Leader by Sick Children's Hospital and as one of "Canada's Top 40 Under 40” by the Caldwell Partners. Wayne holds a Bachelor of Computer Sciences degree from McMaster University.

Professor the Honourable Renn Holness, O.J.

Professor the Honourable Renn Holness, O.J.

Consultant Neurosurgeon

UWI, Mona graduate and recipient of the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) from The UWI, Professor Renn Holness, has been selected by the Canadian Neurosurgical Society (CNSS) to receive The Charles Drake Medal, its Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of his outstanding career and significant contribution to Neurosurgery.

Professor Holness received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Annual Congress of the Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation Congress in Quebec City, June 21 - 24, 2016. The President of the CNSS, Ian Fleetwood, in communicating this signal honour to him referred to Holness' many leadership roles in Canadian Neurosurgery. Renn Holness attained the Gold Medal in the 1968 Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) Final Examinations, obtaining Distinctions in Obstetrics &Gynaecology and Pathology & Microbiology as well as Honours in Medicine and Surgery. He served as Professor and Head of the Department of Neurosurgery, Dalhousie University from 1987 to 1994 before serving as Director of The UWI Clinical Training Programme in Nassau Bahamas from April-October 2000.

Professor Holness was President of the Canadian Neurological Society, (1995- 1996) and Chairman of the Examining Board in Neurosurgery, Royal College of Physicians of Canada from 1997 to 2000. The Department of Surgery, Radiology, Anaesthesia and Intensive care extends congratulations to this outstanding graduate. Presently, Professor Holness gives back to his Alma Mater, in his capacity as Professor and Examiner in Neurosurgery in the DM (UWI) Neurosurgery Programme and teaches surgical residents and medical students at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.

Justice Michael Tulloch

Justice Michael Tulloch

Judge, Ontario Court of Appeal

The Honourable Mr. Justice Michael H. Tulloch is a judge on the Court of Appeal for Ontario, a position he has held since his appointment in June 2012 following nine years on the Superior Court of Justice.

Prior to Mr. Justice Tulloch's appointment to the Court, he was appointed an Assistant Crown Attorney in 1991 where he worked both in Peel and Toronto.In 1995, Justice Tulloch entered private practice, specializing in criminal law. He continued in this practice until his appointment to the Bench in 2003.

While in private practice, Justice Tulloch was also appointed a special prosecuting agent with the Federal Department of Justice. He also participated in a number of commissions including the Ontario Government Review on Civilian Oversight on Policing, the Review of the Ontario Legal Aid Plan, and the Criminal Code Review conducted by the Federal Attorney General and the Minister of Justice.

In 2006 Mr. Justice Tulloch was asked by the Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School to chair a Review Panel of the Law School's Admissions Policy, after which the majority of the panel's recommendations were accepted and implemented by the Law School.

Over the years, Justice Tulloch has been very actively involved in post secondary education as well as numerous community organizations. He is a current member of the Board of Directors of the Osgoode Society on Legal History. Justice Tulloch is a former Lecturer and Don for York University, where he is an alumnus. He still sits on the Board of Directors for the Alumni Association. As well, he is an Academic Fellow of McLaughlin College as well as Vanier College, York University and a member of the Advisory Board to the Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School.

In 2011, he was also appointed a Distinguished Research Fellow for the Centre of Law and Policy at Ryerson University. Justice Tulloch is the recipient of two Honorary Doctorate Degrees, one a Doctor of Laws from the University of Guelph and the other a Doctor of Theology for Tyndale University and Seminary, as well as numerous other community awards. On the Superior court, Justice Tulloch was a member of Chief's Education committee and he was Co-Chair of two of the courts Judicial Education Conference for Fall 2010 and Spring 2011.

Justice Tulloch was also a treasurer of the Ontario Superior Court Judges Association; as well, he is the Vice-Chair of the Judiserve Committee, a national advisory body established to advise the Commissioner on Judicial Affairs on the technological usage and needs of Federally appointed judges across Canada. As well, Justice Tulloch is a member of the Judicial Advisory Committee on International Engagement (JUDICIE).

Ms. Kay McConney

Ms. Kay McConney

Businesswoman and Retired Diplomat

Described by She Caribbean magazine as a “dynamo moving the region forward”, Barbadian born Kay McConney has leveraged her multi-faceted talents to champion the interests of Barbados, the Caribbean and small vulnerable economies (SVEs) internationally. Kay’s distinguished service extended to international diplomacy, international development, and international trade. She served as a high-level diplomat at the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, Switzerland; and as a trade negotiator at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). As an international development consultant, her work on programmes of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was published by the European Commission (EC). She has served as an expert resource, leading capacity building consultancies for international development programmes in the Caribbean, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the United Nations Development Program (UNDP); and other international organisations.

She was the youngest Consul-General to be appointed by Barbados when she blazed trails in Canada as Dean of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Consular Corps, piloting such stellar initiatives as the Caribbean-Canadian Literary Expo (CCLE). CCLE brought together Caribbean and Canadian publishing companies and literary artistes from across fourteen Caribbean countries to open minds and build bridges for the development of the region’s literary industry. Over the past twenty years, Kay has been a champion for entrepreneurship development in the Caribbean region. She has collaborated on enterprise and youth initiatives sponsored by the Organization of American States (OAS); and in 2016 she was awarded for leadership by the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of Barbados - the country’s signature national programme for emerging entrepreneurs, which she spearheaded in 1995.

Currently, Kay McConney heads The Executive Minds, a company she founded in 2009. The Executive Minds specialises in strengthening institutional and individual capacities for 21st century environments, through training, coaching and consulting. TEM works with governments, non-profit organisations, private businesses and international development agencies. Its reach extends from Canada to the Caribbean, with a brand that combines neuroscience, systems thinking and strategic coaching. In the Caribbean and Latin America region, The Executive Minds has impacted some thirty organisations. In 2014, Kay collaborated with international best-selling author, David Krueger M.D., as a contributing author to his book, Successful Life Story Transformations: Using the ROADMAP® System to Change Mind, Brain and Behaviour.

Outside of work, voluntary community service keeps Kay anchored. In Canada, she has been a Training Facilitator for the Canadian Multicultural LEAD Organisation for Mentorship and Training for the past eight years. She serves on the Program Advisory Committee (PAC) of the Ryerson University-based, Lifelong Learning Institute’s Leadership By Design Program. She was an expert resource for York University’s (former) Global Leaders Retreat. South African Women for Women has honoured her for building cultural bridges beyond the Caribbean community with their Friendship Award. She was awarded for community leadership by the Barbadian community in Canada for the establishment of their premier event, which funds educational scholarships and sponsors health-care initiatives that benefit Barbados and the Caribbean.

Dr. Vivian Rambihar

Dr. Vivian Rambihar

Cardiologist and Community Activist

Dr Rambihar is one of the foremost thinkers in the world today, with ideas transforming medicine, health and society. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a globally renowned cardiologist, involved in teaching, research and practice in Toronto for 35 years. He has looked after many West Indians, including Dame Louise Bennett and Eric Coverly, who helped him with health promotion and in developing his ideas. This year marks 25 years of his pioneering contribution in diversity and health, and in chaos and complexity science, which Stephen Hawking says he thinks will be the science for the 21st century.

Born in Guyana, he studied medicine at McMaster University after receiving the Guyana Scholarship, teaching math in Guyana and a BSc (University of Toronto). Since 1990 he has lectured on ethnicity and health, and chaos/complexity and health across the West Indies, including at many UWI Medical Reunion and Caribbean Cardiovascular Society Conferences.

As a pioneer in chaos and complexity science, he is the first to apply these ideas to medicine, proposing their use in solving complex world problems like peace, health, development, poverty reduction and climate change. He has publications as Letters in prestigious medical journals like Lancet, Heart and British Medical Journal, gave lectures at University College London and Cambridge University, UK, and was part of a global Think Tank at the Newton Institute of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University in 2000.

As a pioneer in diversity/ethnicity and health, he developed innovative ideas for reducing obesity, diabetes and heart disease, with a multilevel complexity "Health in All Policies" approach, including grassroots action and social occasions for health, going to schools, temples, churches and community centers to achieve change. He advocated widely for this, gave Keynote Lectures to the Black and South Asian Canadian communities recently, and wrote a landmark 50th Anniversary Editorial for the American Heart Journal on Race, Ethnicity and Health.

He is the founder of Global Heart, co-founder of Valentine's Global Heart Hour, and author of many books, including Tsunami, Chaos and Global Heart, available free online, with sections on improving health.

Recent awards include 2016 FCCS, Canadian Cardiovascular Society's highest award, 2016 Guyana (Canada) 50th Anniversary of Independence Award for Academic Excellence, 2016 McMaster University GTA Impact Award, 2015 UC, University of Toronto Alumni of Influence Award, 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and 2012 Top 25 Canadian Immigrants.

Dr. Paul Steinbok

Dr. Paul Steinbok

Dr. Paul Steinbok was born in Barbados and did his medical training at The
University of the West Indies in Jamaica. After an internship in Toronto and a
residency in Neurosurgery in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia,
Dr. Steinbok became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in
Neurosurgery in 1977. After completing a Medical Research Council of Canada
research fellowship to the University of North Carolina and Duke University
in North Carolina, he returned to Vancouver, and has been practicing as a
neurosurgeon in Vancouver since March 1979. Since 1985, he has limited his
practice to pediatric neurosurgery.

He has been Head of the Division of Neurosurgery and Chairman of the Pediatric
Neurosurgery Fellowship program at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver from July 1984 until December 2013. He is
the Medical Director of the Neurosciences program. Dr. Steinbok is a Professor at the University of British Columbia, in
the Department of Surgery. He has over 200 publications in peer reviewed journals and chapters in textbooks. His recent
research efforts have centered on investigating neurosurgical procedures for tethered cord syndrome in children with
urinary dysfunction, and he is leading a multicentered study in Canada and the U.S. to investigate this issue. He is also
the lead investigator in a multicentered Canadian study of thalamic tumours in children and a North American study of
eosinophilic granulomas in children. He is on the Editorial Board of Child’s Nervous System and is on the review panel
for many scientific journals.

He has been President of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN). He has been on the executive of
the Section of Pediatric Neurosurgery of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological
Surgery and the American Society for Pediatric Neurosurgeons. He has been invited nationally and internationally as
a visiting professor and as a guest lecturer. As a past Chair of the Education Committee of the International Society
of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Dr. Steinbok has taken a major interest in international education of neurosurgeons in the
field of pediatric neurosurgery. He has organized many international courses about pediatric neurosurgery in Argentina,
Singapore, India, Morocco, Colombia, Costa Rica and China.

Dr. Wesley J. Hall

Dr. Wesley J. Hall

Mr. Wesley Hall has over twenty years of experience in corporate governance
and shareholder communications. He founded Kingsdale Shareholder Services
in 2003 to provide clients with best-in-class services for communicating with
shareholders and managing investor-relations communications.

Prior to forming Kingsdale, Wes was Vice President, National Sales, for Georgeson
Shareholder Communications Canada, and a senior manager for a major Canadian
transfer agent. Wes also held the position of Assistant Corporate Secretary at CanWest
Global Communications Corp.

Wes is a founding board member of the Canadian Society of Corporate Secretaries
(CSCS). He remains committed to his involvement in and support of CSCS, and other corporate governance and investor
relations organizations. He is currently a director of SickKids Foundation, and Wellgreen Platinum Ltd. He is the former
Chairman of the Board of Difference Capital Financial, former Director of Equity Financial Holdings Inc., Longford
Energy and the Exempt Market Dealers Association of Canada.

Assisted by an expert group of industry professionals, Wes leads the Kingsdale team and guides his clients through
takeover bids, proxy fights and routine shareholder meetings. He is an industry expert in proxy solicitation, depositary,
corporate governance and other shareholder related initiatives. Wes has been sought out to lead some of the highest
profile deals and proxy contests in North America. They include Tim Hortons’ $12.5 billion merger with Burger King,
Pershing Square Capital Management’s campaign to replace the board of Canadian Pacific Railway, Petro Canada’s $19
billion merger with Suncor Energy, Xstrata PLC’s $19 billion bid for Falconbridge, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce’s $19
billion bid for Inco, and Barrick Gold’s $9 billion acquisition of Placer Dome, among many others.

Other accomplishments include the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 award for Ontario. In 2011,
Wes successfully completed the directors education program offered by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) in
partnership with the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto. He received the Institute-certified
designation, ICD.D.

Mr. Stephen Ames

Mr. Stephen Ames

Canadian Stephen Ames has enjoyed a decorated professional career. He is
a four-time winner on the PGA TOUR, highlighted by a dominating victory
at the 2006 Players Championship where he won by a record-tying six stroke
margin. Stephen is the first touring professional from his native country,
Trinidad and Tobago, to compete on the PGA TOUR. In addition to his
Players Championship victory in 2006, Stephen won the 2004 Cialis Western
Open and is a two-time winner of the Children’s Miracle Network Classic
(2007, 2009).

Off the course, Stephen is committed to children and developing junior golf in both
Canada and Trinidad through the Stephen Ames Foundation. Founded in 2005,
the Stephen Ames Foundation provides funding for junior golf programs and initiatives focused on the well-being of
children. Over the years, the Foundation’s mandate has been expanded to include children’s charities, hospitals, and
hospital foundations in Canada. Annually, Stephen also hosts the CJGA Stephen Ames Cup, a cultural exchange and
Ryder Cup style tournament featuring a team of Canadian junior players versus Team Trinidad and Tobago.

In 2014, Stephen received the highest honour in Canadian golf when he was welcomed into the Canadian Golf Hall
of Fame as its 74th inductee. He was recognized not only for his outstanding play and professional career, but for his
unwavering commitment to supporting and furthering the game of golf. Ames has also been honoured for his excellence
by the Trinidad and Tobago First Citizens Sports Foundation as the recipient of the Sportsman of the Year Award (2006,
2007), and also by the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago when in 2004 he was awarded the Chaconia Medal for long and
meritorious service to Trinidad and Tobago tending to promote the national welfare or strengthen the community spirit.

Stephen is currently competing on the Champions Tour, where this past season he amassed seven top-10 finishes,
including an impressive T6 finish at the season’s final event, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. He is the proud
father of two sons, Justin and Ryan, and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Mr. Cameron Bailey

Mr. Cameron Bailey

Cameron Bailey is the Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival®. He is responsible for the overall vision and execution of Festival programming, as well as maintaining relationships with the Canadian and international film industries. Toronto Life has twice named him one of Toronto's 50 Most Influential People.

Born in London, Bailey grew up in England and Barbados before migrating to Canada. Before taking up his current position at TIFF, he was a Festival programmer for eleven years, heading its Perspective Canada programme and founding its Planet Africa section.

For many years, Bailey was a writer and broadcaster on film. He reviewed for Toronto's NOW Magazine, CBC Radio One and CTV’s Canada AM. He presented international cinema nightly on Showcase Television's national programme The Showcase Revue, and produced and hosted the interview programme Filmmaker on the Independent Film Channel Canada. He has been published in The Globe and Mail, The Village Voice, CineAction!, and Screen, among others.

Bailey has curated film series for Cinematheque Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, and Australia's Sydney International Film Festival. He has also served on awards juries in Canada and internationally, including in China, the U.S., Turkey, Greece, South Korea, Burkina Faso and Tanzania, and has been a guest speaker at several Canadian universities, the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

In 1997, Bailey completed his first screenplay, The Planet of Junior Brown, co-written with director Clement Virgo. The film was named Best Picture at the 1998 Urbanworld Film Festival in New York, and nominated for a Best Screenplay Gemini Award. Bailey also completed a video essay, Hotel Saudade, shot in Brazil. The film made its U.S. premiere in 2005 at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Bailey currently sits on the Advisory Council for Western University's School for Arts and Humanities and for Haiti's Cine Institute film school. In 2014, he taught a course in programming and curation at the University of Toronto. He is also a board member of Tourism Toronto, and past co-chair of the Arts & Culture Working Group of Toronto's CivicAction. He is a former board member of the Ontario Film Development Corporation, and served on the Advisory Board of the Royal Ontario Museum's Institute for Contemporary Culture. In 2007, Bailey was a part of the delegation accompanying Canada's Governor-General Michaëlle Jean on her state visit to Brazil.

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