CANADEM Team

CANADEM is proud of its dedicated and qualified team, who has been an integral part of CANADEM's growth and successes these past 14 years.

Claude Rochon

Claude Rochon MAP, started with the Montreal Police in 1966 and had a sterling career in police operations as well as in management of personnel and budgets. Over his 33-years with the police, Claude Rochon worked his way to the top of the MUC Police Department. In 1998 he held the position of Director. At the end of his police career, he started working on the international police scene. He as acted for the United Nations as senior advisor to the General Director of the National Haitian Police with the Mission Internationale Civile d’Appui en Haiti (MICAH) and as head of UNPOL unit for the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) . He acted as senior advisor to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), with Leaster B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Center and for CANADEM focusing on needs analyses, training, project evaluation monitor and project director for police matters. He has worked in Haiti, East Timor, Kosovo, Bosnia – Herzegovina, Albania, Croatia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Benin, Afghanistan and Nepal. Mr Rochon received extensive training at the Canadian Police College in Ottawa and at the National Executive Institute (FBI Academy) in the United States. He has also taught Police Management at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, at l’École de criminology de l’Université de Motréal and at le College Ahuntsic in Montreal.

Warren Allmand

Warren Allmand P.C., O.C., Q.C., B.C.L., LL.D., is an independent international human rights expert. He was President of Rights & Democracy (1997-2002) following a 33-year career as a Federal Member of Parliament for the Montreal riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Mr. Allmand held a number of Cabinet posts including Solicitor General (1972-76), Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (1976-77), and Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs (1977-79). A lawyer and member of the Bar in Quebec, Ontario, Yukon and N.W.T., he has been a practitioner and lecturer. Mr. Allmand holds a number of degrees, including a B.C.L. from McGill University and Honorary Doctorates of Laws from both St. Thomas University and St. Francis Xavier University. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1977 and has received numerous awards and honours, including appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000. He is a member of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group and is active in a number of community and other interest-based organizations.

Brettel Dawson

Brettel Dawson, Professor, LL.B.(Hons), LL.M., has been a faculty member in the Department of Law at Carleton University since 1986. Between 1994 and 1999 she held the position of Chair of the Department of Law at Carleton University, during which time she was extensively involved with program and curriculum development and implementation relating to human rights, criminal justice, and conflict resolution. Much of her research has focused on the area of equality law. Since 1999, she has devoted a portion of her time to the National Judicial Institute in Ottawa. Initially she was the Coordinator (then Senior Advisor) of Social Context Education, and is currently the Academic Director at the Institute. She works with both the domestic and international programs of judicial education. She is currently involved with projects in the Philippines and Ghana. Her other professional activities in conjunction with her academic position have focused on issues of equality. Between 1997-99, she was a member of the national External Committee of the Independent Policy Research Fund of Status of Women Canada (a $1.25 million fund for policy research of national relevance promoting gender equality).

Ron Gould,CM

Ron Gould, B.A., C.M., retired from Elections Canada in 2001 after 20 years as Assistant Chief Electoral Officer. Starting in 1984, when he was a member of the OAS and Canadian monitoring missions in El Salvador, he has participated in over 80 electoral missions in more than 50 countries. Mr. Gould has worked extensively in Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia and is considered one of the leading world experts on the organization of elections. Mr. Gould joined the Public Service of Canada in 1955 and worked for a variety of departments and agencies including Northern Affairs, the Public Service Commission, the Department of Transport, the Treasury Board and Secretary of State. where he was the Registrar of Canadian Citizenship. In 1997, he joined the Stockholm based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) on a half-time basis. Mr. Gould was awarded the Order of Canada in 1997. He was also the recipient of the Outstanding Service Award from the Canadian Council on Governmental Ethics Laws and the Medal of Honour from the United Nations Association of Canada. Mr. Gould has authored a book entitled "A Guide for Election Observers" and was one of three authors of "Strengthening Democracy: A Parliamentary Perspective", which was published in 1995. He has been President of the Council on Governmental Ethics. A graduate of the University of Toronto, he has followed additional studies at Laval University, Carleton University, McGill University, Queen's University, and at the Public Service Commission in Canada. He is now carrying on his international electoral work in his private capacity as an independent expert.

Janet Zukowsky

Janet Zukowsky B.A. is a former senior public servant and diplomat who worked in a number of federal departments including Human Resources, Immigration, Treasury Board, Foreign Affairs, and most recently the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). She has experience in the areas of personnel, industrial relations, immigration, international development and trade. She served as Director of Immigrant Settlement during the Indo-Chinese Refugee movement, as Canadian High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (1990-1994), and as CIDA Vice President heading Canadian Partnership Branch (1995-2002) with the rank of Assistant Deputy Minister. She has led a number of Canadian delegations to U.N. agency conferences and was Special Envoy to four Caribbean states in 1998 for their support in Canada’s election to the U.N. Security Council. She is currently a Senior Associate of the Canadian Petroleum Institute and a member of several NGO boards and committees.

Carolyn McAskie

Carolyn McAskie B.A., O.C., was appointed May 2006 as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support and will facilitate the work of the new UN Peacebuilding Commission. Previously she was SRSG and Head of the UN Peacekeeping Operation in Burundi 2004-6, which followed her appointment (1999-2004) as ASG for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, serving as Emergency Relief Coordinator a.i. 1999-2001. She was a member of the Facilitation Team of the Burundi Peace Process in Arusha (1999) and also the Humanitarian Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the humanitarian crisis in Côte d'Ivoire (2003). Prior to the UN, Ms. McAskie had a 30- year career with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Her last positions were Vice-President for Africa and the Middle East Programmes and Vice-President of CIDA's Multilateral Programmes Branch, with the rank of Assistant Deputy Minister from 1993 until 1999. Earlier posts with CIDA include: Director-General IFIs; Director-General Multilateral Technical Cooperation (UN and Commonwealth); and in the Canadian High Commission in Kenya. She also served in the Commonwealth Secretariat in London as Assistant Director of Finance and Personnel (1975-1980), and as Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives (1986-1989).

Paul LaRose-Edwards

Executive Director

Paul has been working in the international community for 28 years and has been mounting and part of field operations since 1967. Much of his international time was in international human rights dealing with the politics of advancing rights. Paul has worked in mission-areas and countries such as Rwanda, Kosovo, Croatia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Afghanistan. He has been staff with NGOs such as Amnesty International, as well as the Canadian Government, the UN and the Commonwealth. He has worked as a consultant for an even larger grouping including the OSCE, EU and NATO. Paul's last diplomatic post was as Representative of the UN Human Rights Commissioner for Human Rights in Indonesia, and for four years he was the Commonwealth Secretariat's Head of Human Rights in London. A former Canadian Armoured Corps Officer and Royal Military College Graduate, his recent work with militaries include the Canadian Forces College and Peace Support Training Center, UK Staff College, and NATO civil-military training, doctrine and concept development. In his 1996 study for DFAIT of UN field operations, Paul recommended the creation of CANADEM, and apart from a leave of absence to go on staff with the UN in Jakarta, he has been with CANADEM ever since.

E-mail address: paul.larose-edwards@CANADEM.ca

Christine Vincent

Deputy Executive Director

Christine helped establish CANADEM in 1997 and has worked tirelessly to promote the vast expertise in the Civilian Roster since then. Holding a Masters degree in sociology with Ph.D. coursework, she has worked on immigration, refugee and humanitarian issues for over 20 years, much of the time focusing on women and peacebuilding. Prior to joining CANADEM, she was an evaluation consultant who counted Justice Canada, Citizenship and Immigration and other government departments among her clients. As a research associate at Carleton University's Research Resource Division for Refugees, she coordinated national communications and research projects promoting refugee settlement in Canada. She misses some of the hands-on work she did in the early days of CANADEM, but is enthusiastic about developing new initiatives to tap into CANADEM's Roster expertise.

E-mail address: christine.vincent@CANADEM.ca

Jeannine Richard

Front Office Manager

Jeannine joined the CANADEM team in September 2010, and has been an asset in streamlining CANADEM's administrative procedures and in building team cohesion. Jeannine brings to CANADEM strong administrative and communications abilities and solid organizational skills. She has worked in administrative support, sales and logistics for nearly 10 years, and has collaborated with Non-Governmental Organizations and Charities extensively. A University of Ottawa/Brock graduate in Dramatic Literature and Performance, Jeannine is involved in the performance arts in her free time.

E-mail address: jeannine.richard@CANADEM.ca

Rob Shropshire

Toronto/Montreal Representative

Rob Shropshire joined CANADEM as its Toronto / Montreal Representative in 2011. Rob is responsible for contacting and meeting with potential funders who are interested in contributing to CANADEM’s international humanitarian service under the RAP-Fund. His work in social justice, human rights, and international development began in the 1980s through resettlement of refugees in Canada. Rob worked for 14 years with the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (an agency of the Anglican Church of Canada) as a Refugee Consultant, a Development Coordinator, and a Development Team Coordinator. He was specifically responsible for community development programs in Africa (the Great Lakes Region, the Horn, and West Africa), as well as in the Middle East. Rob joined Equitas – International Centre for Human Rights Education as Director of Programs in 2004, working on the strategic development, fundraising, and management of Equitas programs. Over the years, Rob has participated in several inter-agency / ecumenical organizations including the Africa Canada Forum, Kairos, the Canadian Council of Churches and the Canadian Council for International Cooperation. Rob has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, both from Queen’s University in Kingston.

E-mail address: rob.shropshire@CANADEM.ca

Hugo Ortega

IT Director

Hugo Ortega is Director of Information Technology division at CANADEM. As Director of Information Technology, Hugo provided direction and leadership for all aspects of Information Technology, including strategy & business alignment, project management, process improvement, development & deployment, vendor & contract management, collaboration tools, staff support and networks. He ensures maintenance of all CANADEM IT systems locally and remotely, and continuously looks to upgrading the IT network, following closely the development of new technologies. Hugo is currently involved in a project through the Canadian Governance Support Office (CGSO) in Afghanistan, where he is providing IT training to members of the Ministry of Justice of Afghanistan, and is providing support in the creation of a legal works database for the Afghan Ministry of Justice.

E-mail address: hugo.ortega@CANADEM.ca

Kevin McMahon

Roster Program Director

Kevin has been with CANADEM since 2004 and has been Roster Director since 2007. He oversees all aspects of recruitment, promotes the Roster, and is constantly looking for ways to streamline "the system". In January 2010, he was a member of CANADEM's in-country team that administered the bi-lateral Canadian electoral observation mission for the 2nd round Ukrainian Presidential elections. He has done numerous Expert searches, finding the ideal candidate for international missions all over the world, including Haiti, Afghanistan, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Before joining CANADEM, Kevin spent four years in Taiwan teaching English and traveling throughout Southeast Asia and China. He returned to Canada in 2003 to pursue a master's degree in international affairs at Carleton University, specializing in conflict analysis. Kevin speaks Mandarin and plays the viola and piano in his spare time.

E-mail address: kevin.mcmahon@CANADEM.ca

Fattana Atayee

Senior Program Officer

Fattana is an integral member of the CANADEM Roster team. When she joined CANADEM in May 1999, she brought with her many years of international education and UN experience in Afghanistan and Pakistan — with the World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Fattana primarily focuses on requests for humanitarian experts, but she also helped establish CANADEM's Afghan-Canadian Roster to provide a venue for Afghan-Canadians to help rebuild Afghanistan. This served as a model to develop rosters for other Canadian ethno-cultural communities to assist in rebuilding their countries of origin. As the most experienced Roster "matchmaker", Fattana has worked on just under 700 submissions, helping close to 200 Canadians find international work.

E-mail address: fattana.atayee@CANADEM.ca

Andres Lopez Hoyos

Deputy Director of the Roster Division

Andrés initially joined the CANADEM team in July 2006 to assist in establishing the evaluation division —CAN-Eval— and its roster of evaluation and monitoring specialists. Part of his work consists in developing and coordinating proposals for national and international tenders. Since 2008, he has worked fulltime in the Roster Division as the Deputy Director with three main tasks: (a) assisting the Roster Director, (b) matching candidates to engineering and evaluation positions, and (c) coordinating the RAP-Fund project. He has more than 7 years professional experience in managing development-related projects in Canada, Peru, Uzbekistan, Germany, and South Africa. Andrés holds a Master’s degree in Development Management from the Ruhr - Universität Bochum (Germany), a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of the Western Cape (South Africa), and a Bachelor's degree in International Business Administration from the Universidad San Martin de Porres (Peru).

E-mail address: andres.lopez.hoyos@CANADEM.ca

Dusan Jovanovic

Senior Program Officer

Dusan joined CANADEM in 2007 and currently works as Senior Program Officer responsible for matching legal, human rights and human resources experts to posts in different international organizations. Dusan also manages the screening and selection of Canadian election observers for the CIDA-funded International Election Observation Program. He recently deployed to Kyiv, Ukraine as a member of CANADEM's in-country management team for the 200-strong bi-lateral Canadian election observation mission for the 2nd round of the Ukraine Presidential elections in February 2010. He holds BA’s in Economics and International Relations, an MA in European and Russian Studies, as well as a Graduate Diploma in European Integration Studies.

E-mail address: dusan.jovanovic@CANADEM.ca

Graham Bos

Program Officer

Graham began his work with CANADEM as an intern in the Roster department working on registrant files, and creating training videos for CANADEM staff and registrants. He is currently studying at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, working on his Master of Arts. Graham also holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies, World Religions and Economics from McGill University. He has taught in Beijing, performed research in Kenya and travelled extensively throughout Asia, Africa and Mexico. In his spare time Graham can be found kayaking.

E-mail address: graham.bos@CANADEM.ca

Alisha Todd

CANDEP Program Director

Alisha brings to CANADEM prior experience in project management, market research, elections, as well as financial and customer services. Since joining CANADEM in November 2005, she has played a key role in the deployment of numerous missions, including police officers for the CANPOL missions to Haiti and Darfur, election observers to Haiti, Ukraine, DRC, the Caucuses, etc, and various international experts to join missions throughout the world. Alisha is an experienced election observer herself, having recently participated in international observation missions in both Haiti and Ukraine, as well as conducting trainings on election observation. Alisha graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Latin American Studies.

E-mail address: alisha.todd@CANADEM.ca

Jillian Smith

Finance/Program Officer

Jillian is a University of Ottawa graduate, with a degree in Criminology and knowledge in Psychology. She also attended the Algonquin College Social Service Worker program. Jillian has worked on the financial and logistical aspects of many international projects managed by CANADEM such as the Secondment of police experts to EUPOL in Afghanistan, financial admin for the CIDA-Funded International Election Observation Programme, and logistics as well as financial management for the RAP Fund project. Through the Rapid-Onset Humanitarian Emergency-Experts Fund (RAP-Fund), she has most recently assisted in the deployment of a variety of experts to assist with the relief efforts in Haiti in response to the devastating earthquake in early January. Jill enjoys cooking, playing baseball, and is a roller derby extraordinaire in her free time. She is looking forward to the upcoming challenges and experiences that are coming her way.

E-mail address: jillian.smith@CANADEM.ca

Phoebe Smith

Program Officer

Phoebe began her career at CANADEM as an intern in the Roster division, but is now a member of the Deployment team. She completed an Honours Degree in Political Science at Saint Mary’s University and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in International Affairs at Carleton. Travelling is her passion and she has back-packed through much of Europe and North America. She plans to tour India in the near future. Phoebe enjoys the fast-paced environment at CANADEM and looks forward to learning about and contributing to the wide range of projects that come her way.

E-mail address: phoebe.smith@CANADEM.ca

Francois-Guillaume Lapointe

Program Officer

François-Guillaume first came to CANADEM in 2006 as a consultant helping CANADEM prepare to deploy 106 electoral observers to Haiti. He has now become a fixture in our Deployment department, sharing with CANADEM his worldly experience in electoral observations. François-Guillaume has lived on 4 different continents, has been to 30 different countries and speaks three languages fluently. He has completed a degree in Political Sciences, with a specialization in International Relations and Modern Languages at the University of Ottawa. In his spare time François-Guillaume has a passion for cooking, music and various team sports.

E-mail address: francois.lapointe@CANADEM.ca

Rose Cohoe

Finance Director

Rose Cohoe has studied at Algonquin College and is currently pursuing studies at Athabaska University. She has been CANADEM's Financial Director since May 2002 and has been successfully managing the finances for the continually growing CANADEM since then. She brings over 20 years of business experience in a variety of private industries. Rose enjoys the fast paced environment and looks forward to what the next challenges will be.

E-mail address: rose.cohoe@CANADEM.ca

Erin Newark

Finance Officer

Erin is a Carleton University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. She has extensive accounting experience as well as a strong background in customer service. Erin provides ongoing support to the financial department and is currently managing the finances for the Canadian Governance Support Office (CGSO) located in Kabul, and the Technical Assistance to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and Ministry of Interior (MOI) projects in Afghanistan. She enjoys the everyday challenges of working in an NGO environment and is eager to continue to work with the various CANADEM initiatives.

E-mail address: erin.newark@CANADEM.ca

Nicholas Kaminski

Financial Assistant

Nicholas is a University of Ottawa graduate with two Bachelor of Commerce degrees; one in Finance and the other in International Business. He has worked a variety of different jobs, giving him clear perspectives on different business and environmental settings. Through these endeavours he has collected many different financial and accounting skills and uses them to help manage the financial tasks given to him by Rose, Erin and Jill at CANADEM. He is happy to be working whithin his field as well as being able to say that he is part of something which is helping people all over the world.

E-mail address: nicholas.kaminski@CANADEM.ca