Panelists 2020

For 15 years now, Charles has been a fixture of the Aboriginal People’s Television Network. He was host of the award nominated youth show C’est parti mon tipi, he played lead roles in Sioui-Bacon and Mohawk Girls, he’s a regular presence as host of the Aboriginal Day Live event and hosts a brand new show called Sans reserve. Charles has worked as host/facilitator for many First Nation organisations and groups across Canada. He wasmain host for the unveiling of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report in June 2015. He was also host of the French version of the four-part documentary series, Le 8e feu (8th Fire), a series tackling a variety of contemporary First-Nation issues, produced and broadcast by Radio-Canada.

In 2015, Charles co-founded Menuentakuan Productions, an aboriginal theatre company invested in creating new paths of dialogue amongst aboriginals and non-aboriginals in Canada. As an author, he co wrote Muliats, the company’s first creation, and has translated various plays by indigenous authors such as Where The Blood Mixes by Kevin Loring, Reckoning by Tara Beagan and Andy Moro and alterNatives by Drew Hayden Taylor.

Patrick Lloyd Brennan holds a BFA in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University and has been an active member of the performing arts community for over ten years engaging in performance, choreography, research, and creative direction. As a cultural worker and arts administrator he has an extensive profile including Just For Laughs, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Helen Simard Choreography, Centaur Theatre Company, the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, and Quebec Drama Federation and ELAN, where he is currently Managing Director.

Patrick Lloyd has lent his policy, board and committee experience to organizations including Le Conseil québécois du théâtre, Canadian Arts Coalition, MainLine Theatre & the St-Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival, AIDS Community Care Montreal (ACCM), La Machinerie, English Language Arts Network (ELAN), and Parts+Labour_Danse where he is currently Board President. He has represented his community at numerous conferences as an invited speaker and guest, including Department of Canadian Heritage official language consultations, Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) Conferences, Pride Canada’s National Conference on LGBTTIQA2S issues, Business for the Arts’ Arts & Business Exchange (abx), and Youth Employment Strategy (YES Montreal) panels.

A Quebec jurist, seasoned communicator and community mobilizer, Jeansil holds degrees in Communications Studies, Religious Studies, Globalization, Common Law and Civil Law. As a biracial gay man of colour of Filipinx-Muslim and French Canadian heritage, his penchant for anti-oppression and anti-racism is rooted in lived experiences. He has contributed to non-profit management and leadership work in the fields of access to justice, sexual health, and policy change with respect to trans folks, migrants, and refugees, as well as people living with HIV. He currently sits as Philanthropic Foundations Canada’s Director of Policy & Communications, fostering strong national partnerships and a unified voice in demanding concrete action from the federal government for the benefit of the charitable sector and the wellbeing of all Canadians, particularly those at the margins.

For 50 years Ranee Lee has called Montréal, Québec home, where she enjoys a successful, multi-faceted career as one of Canada’s most popular jazz vocalists.  She is an award-winning actress, a songwriter, and a proud author of the children’s book Nana What Do You Say?, inspired by her song of the same title, from the 1994 release, I Thought About You. Ranee has recorded twelve albums on the Justin Time label, a proud discography of acclaimed recordings that feature some of the finest jazz musicians of our time among its sidemen.

Ranee’s impressive discography is filled with masterworks: “The Musical, Jazz on Broadway”, being one of them, was a successful marriage of jazz standards and the music of Broadway. In 1994 and again in1995, Ranee received the Top Canadian Female Jazz Vocalist Award presented by Jazz Report magazine.  She has been nominated for several Juno Awards and in 2010 – won the Juno for Vocal Jazz Album of the year for her recording “Ranee Lee Lives UPSTAIRS.”

Her latest release “What’s Going On” is an inspired and deeply moving collection of originals, standards and some surprises! Throughout her career Ranee has performed with many jazz notables, including Clark Terry, Bill Mayes, Herb Ellis, Red Mitchell, Milt Hinton, Oliver Jones and Terry Clarke, to name a few. Lee is no stranger to the road; she has toured with her own group in the United States and has played at many prestigious jazz festivals throughout Canada as well as Spain, France, England and Haiti.

For outstanding service to jazz education, at the twenty-first IAJE conference in 1994, Ranee received the International Association of Jazz Educators Award. As an educator, Ranee has been part of the University of Laval faculty in Quebec City and The Schulich School of Music of McGill University faculty for over twenty years. She was appointed as a Member Of The Order Of Canada and in 2007 was given an award for appreciation and contribution to the development of the McGill Jazz Program by the McGill Schulich School of Music.

Julie Tamiko Manning is an award-winning Montreal actor and theatre creator.  Selected acting credits include: Sin/ Zephon in Paradise Lost (Centaur Theatre), Marion in Team on the Hill (Blyth Festival Theatre), Annie in Jean Dit (Théâtre D’Aujourd’hui), Elena in Butcher (Centaur), Isabella Bird in Top Girls (Segal), Emilia in Othello (Scapegoat Carnivale/Segal), and Nancy in Oliver! (National Arts Centre).

Her first play Mixie and the Halfbreeds (with Adrienne Wong) is a vaudeville inspired play about mixed race identity in multiple universes. Her second play, The Tashme Project: The Living Archives, (created and performed with Matt Miwa) a verbatim one-act about the Japanese Canadian experience in the WW2 internment camps, recently completed a tour to Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa and was published with Playwrights Canada Press this past year.

Julie is currently working on her third play, Mizushōbai: The Water Trade, (commissioned by Tableau D’Hôte Theatre) about Kiyoko Tanaka-Goto, a Japanese picture bride turned ‘underground’ business woman in 1930’s British Columbia.

She is proud to be a mentor with Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program and Imago Theatre’s ARTISTA, a mentorship program for emerging female theatre artists. She is a member of the student taiko group Inazuma Daiko.