Speakers

Discover Our Featured Speakers!

Visit this page regularly to discover new speakers as they are announced over the coming weeks.

Keynote Speakers

The Honourable Pierre J. Dalphond has been a Senator since June 2018. Born in Joliette, Quebec, he holds a degree in law from the University of Montreal and a master’s in philosophy from the University of Oxford. He served as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada, was a partner at the law firm McCarthy Tétrault (1984–1995), and served as a judge on the Superior Court of Quebec (1995–2001) and the Quebec Court of Appeal (2002–2014). He is senior counsel at Stikeman Elliott, a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Geneva), and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (London). He is recognized by Chambers, Lexpert, and Best Lawyers as a leader in arbitration, mediation, and commercial litigation in Canada and abroad. In the Senate, he has held various leadership positions and sponsored several bills. He serves on the leadership team of the Independent Senators Group, the largest of the Senate caucuses.

Kim Thúy left Vietnam with the boat people at the age of ten and settled with her family in Quebec. With degrees in translation and law, the writer has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer and restaurant owner. Kim Thúy has received several awards, including the 2010 Governor General’s Literary Award, and was one of four finalists for the Nobel Alternatif in 2018. In 2023, she was named Chevalière de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française. Her books, which have sold over 850,000 copies worldwide, have been translated into 31 languages and 43 countries and territories. Kim Thúy lives in Montreal and devotes all her time to writing.

Speakers on October 13

Speakers on October 14