Rotary of the event
11 h 30 11 h 50
Arrival of guests and networking in the room.
12 h 01 12 h 04
Address by Gilles Marchildon , Vice - President of the Canadian Club of Toronto
12 h 04 12 h 05
Address by Her Honour Edith Dumont.
12 h 15 12 h 17
Address by Norman d Labrie, Rector of the Université de l'Ontario français, President of Francophonie Week.
12 h 18 12 h 25
Presentation of the PCFE by Sabine Soumare.
12 h 26 12 h 29
Address by Lynn Casimiro , President and CEO of La Cité College.
12 h 30 13 h 33
Speech by 2 students from Toronto French School.
12 h 35 13 h 30
Discussion between the panelists
13:20 questions from the audience
13 h 33 15 h 00
Coffee/dessert networking.
Biographies
Zahra Kamil Ali
Representative of the OIF for the Americas
Zahra Kamil Ali holds a degree in private law from Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg and pursued further training in public management at ENAP in Quebec and in public international law in the Netherlands. A specialist in peace, security, and electoral process management in post-crisis contexts, she held strategic positions at the Presidency of the Republic of Djibouti between 1996 and 2003, notably as legal advisor to the president and government commissioner to the Administrative Disputes Council.
From 2004 to 2020, Zahra Kamil Ali worked for the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), holding key positions in Addis Ababa and Paris, where she supported major political transitions and electoral processes in countries such as the Comoros, Madagascar, and the DRC. In September 2020, she was appointed Permanent Representative of the OIF to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, before becoming, in October 2022, OIF Representative for the Americas.
His Excellency Gorgui Ciss
Ambassador of Senegal
Appointed by President Macky Sall on July 12, 2023, His Excellency Gorgui Ciss represents the Republic of Senegal as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada. With a distinguished diplomatic career, he has served as Senior Foreign Affairs Advisor and was Senegal's Ambassador to Japan, with accreditation to Australia and New Zealand.
H.E. Ciss also served as Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of Senegal to the United Nations from 2015 to 2018, playing a key role during Senegal's non-permanent term on the UN Security Council in 2016-2017.
In his current role, he is accredited to the Right Honourable Mary Jeannie May Simon, Governor General of Canada, and resides in Ottawa. His Excellency Ciss continues to strengthen ties between Senegal and Canada, fostering cultural, economic, and political exchanges between the two nations.
His Excellency Patrick Van Gheel
Ambassador of Belgium
Patrick Van Gheel, Belgian Ambassador to Canada since August 2021, has also been the coordinator of the Group of Francophone Ambassadors in Ottawa since February 2023. His diplomatic career, which began in 1998 after obtaining a master's degree in law, has led him to various strategic positions. Notably, he held senior positions in the area of European Union and World Trade Organization (WTO) trade policy at the Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs on several occasions between 2012 and 2021. From 2015 to 2018, he served as ambassador to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti , based in Havana.
His international experience includes postings to the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the United Nations and the WTO in Geneva (2008-2012) and to the OECD in Paris (2004-2008). He also served as a diplomatic advisor in the office of the Minister of the Interior and as attaché at the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the European Union. Early in his career, he was attached to the Belgian Embassy in Ottawa in 1999, marking his first posting in Canada.
His Excellency Bafétigué OUATTARA
Ambassador of Ivory Coast
His Excellency Bafétigué Ouattara is a seasoned diplomat and expert in disarmament, international security, and international organizations (UN, AU, ECOWAS). He played a key role within the Ivorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, particularly on issues of arms control, counterterrorism, and governance. His diplomatic career began in 2004, and he successively held the positions of Research Officer, Deputy Director of International Security Affairs, and then Advisor at the Permanent Mission of Côte d'Ivoire to the UN in New York. From 2013 to 2015, as Deputy Permanent Representative, he was involved in managing the Ivorian crisis at the UN Security Council, contributing to the crisis resolution process and the lifting of international sanctions against his country.
After eight years at the UN, he returned to Côte d'Ivoire where he successively headed the departments of African International Organizations and of the Americas and Caribbean between 2016 and 2021. In January 2021, he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire to Canada and presented his credentials in September of the same year to the Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary J. Simon.
Moderator
Sabine Soumare
Chief Executive Officer, PCFE
Sabine Soumare is the Executive Director of the Diversity Institute’s (DI) Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEIH). In this role, she collaborates with ten WEIH regional centres and over 250 partners to build partnerships and share knowledge and best practices that strengthen the women’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Sabine is a bilingual communications professional with seven years of experience in diversity and inclusion, including active engagement with Francophone communities across Canada. With over 15 years of experience in communications, marketing, and public affairs, she also runs a consulting firm that provides strategic advice to institutions and non-profit organizations that support women, newcomers, and racialized communities. From 2015 to 2018, she served as Senior Communications and Stakeholder Relations Advisor to the Attorney General of Ontario and the Minister of Francophone Affairs.
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