Our Panel Members
Patty Krawec, Writer, Speaker and Bringer of Ruckus
Patty Krawec is an Anishinaabe/Ukrainian writer and speaker from Lac Seul First Nation. She served on the board of the Fort Erie Native Friendship Center for eight years and is a member of the Strong Water Singers. She is the cohost of the Medicine for the Resistance podcast and cofounder of the Nii'kinaaganaa Foundation, which collects funds and disperses them to Indigenous people and organizations. Her work has been published in Sojourners and Canadian Living as well as Rampant Magazine and Midnight Sun and she posts podcasts and essays with some regularity on her substack, pattykrawec.substack.com. Patty is the author of Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future and she’s working on her next book.
Patty has selected to support Nii'kinaaganaa through this event.
Gennile Thomas Smith, Founder and Executive Director, Halton Black Voices
Gennile Thomas is a Black Canadian womxn, activist, athlete, and mother, with a background in community organizing, labour studies and creative and visual merchandising. Raised in the Halton region, Gennile recognized a need for wellness and educational programs to develop essential resources for marginalized groups in her community. Fuelled by her passion for equity and social justice, Gennile founded Halton Black Voices in 2020, in an effort to develop policies and programs to address these significant needs in Halton. In her work, she aims to work inclusively with Halton residents, business groups and stakeholders to develop anti-racist programs for corporate and community groups. Gennile looks forward to deepening her connections with members of the Indigenous and 2SLGBTQQIA communities in all of her work.
Gennile has selected to support UNRWA through this event.
Chantelle Paiu, Ontario Palestinian Rights Association
Chantelle is Palestinian-Canadian, and a vocal activist for social justice. She is previous chair of the Ontario Palestinian Rights Association, and continues her dedicated work in local Palestinian advocacy within her new community in New Brunswick. With a career in the non-profit sector focused on environmental and food security issues, Chantelle is passionate about engaging youth, fostering curiosity, and tuning into compassion. She co-founded the Conscious Birth Collective, providing support for women during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, while also organizing events for women at all stages of life. Now a new mother, Chantelle finds joy in her family life while remaining committed to creating positive change in her community and beyond.
Chantelle has selected to support UNRWA through this event.
Dr. Chinniah Jangam, Author, Professor, Carleton University
Chinnaiah Jangam is an Associate Professor in the Department of History. He holds M.A. in History from the University of Hyderabad; an M. Phil. in Modern Indian History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a Ph. D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He was awarded the Felix Fellowship and Harry Frank Guggenheim Dissertation Fellowship for Doctoral Studies. Jangam was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University (2005-6), New York. His research focus is on the social and intellectual history of Dalits in modern South Asia. His first book, Dalits and the Making of Modern India, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. In his book Jangam presents Dalit perspectives on nationalism and argues that Dalits were equal participants in the imagination and the politics of the formation of independent India. Dalits argued for the abolition of untouchability and the ending of caste inequality, with its accompanying humiliations, as preconditions for independence. Dalits imagined a nation founded on principles of justice, liberty, equality, and human dignity. These eventually became the foundational principles of the Indian Constitution drafted under the guidance of B.R. Ambedkar, a Dalit.
Chinniah has selected to support the South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network (SADAN) through this event.
Leena Sharma Seth, Principal and Founder, Mending the Chasm
Leena Sharma Seth is the founder and principal of Mending the Chasm. She is a settler who is cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, and a child of Hindu, Punjabi (India), and Brahmin immigrants. Leena brings a set of lived and intersectional experiences to her work as a facilitator, strategist, and process designer in the equity, justice, inclusion and belonging space. Leena’s practice is grounded in the belief that equity work is sacred and that healing, wholeness, and embodiment are critical to creating a just and inclusive present and future.
With over twenty years of experience in various leadership roles, both in Canada and in Asia, Leena has worked in non-profit, consulting, education, philanthropy, and supplier diversity spaces.
Leena has a Masters in Conflict Analysis & Management from Royal Roads, achieved her Canadian Certified Inclusion Professional (CCIP) designation with the Canadian Centre for Diversity & Inclusion, has received her Pride at Work certification, completed the 4 Seasons of Reconciliation program via First Nations University, and recently completed an Embodied Social Justice Certificate with Transformative Programs (led by Rev. Angel Kyodo).
As a part of her personal commitment to this work, Leena has been working with fellow South Asians to examine tensions between the ways Brown bodies, caste-privileged bodies, and northern Indians are both privileged and impacted by systems of oppression, and also perpetuating anti-Black racism, and to work intentionally to disrupt anti-Black racism and to collectively heal from the harmful impacts of colonization, patriarchy and white supremacy.
Her work in community-building has been recognized by MP Karina Gould with the Sesquicentennial Citizenship award, the Women’s Centre of Halton - 150 Years of Exemplary Women award, and the 2021 Mayor’s Community Service Award, Burlington Chamber of Commerce.
Leena is raising two social justice warriors with her partner Sanjay and is proud to call Burlington, Ontario home.