Gathering Speakers Details
Day One Overview
About the Day One MC
Neil Belanger (Maluu’m Amxsiwaa) - CEO, IDC/BCANDS
Neil Belanger is the Chief Executive Officer of Indigenous Disability Canada/B.C Aboriginal Network on Disability Society. Neil is a member of the Lax Se el (Frog Clan) of the Gitxsan First Nation. Neil has over 30 years of experience in Canada’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous disability and health sectors.
About the Key Note Speaker
Stephen Lytton - Actor, Activist, & Board President, IDC/BCANDS
Stephen George Lytton is a member of the Lytton First Nation. Stephen is a residential school survivor, having spent 13 years in St. George’s Residential School and is also a person who lives with a disability. Stephen is an accomplished actor, writer, and presenter who has presented across Canada to various groups regarding his personal experiences in residential school as an Indigenous person living with a disability. Stephen enjoys meeting new people, poetry, and creative writing.
About the Speakers: Accessibility Standards in Canada Panel
Haileigh Hay - Senior Accessibility Researcher, BCANDS
Haileigh Hay has been the Senior Researcher of the ‘First Nations Accessibility Standards: A Path Forward to Inclusion’ project at Indigenous Disability Canada since 2022. She is a Métis woman from Sooke, BC. In 2021, Haileigh graduated from the University of Victoria with a BSc. in Anthropology, specializing in Biological Anthropology. When she is not at work, you can find Haileigh creating multi-modal art.
Tsubasa Kozai - First Nations Health Authority
Tsubasa Kozai is a research analyst leading the Accessibility project titled “BC First Nations Perspectives on Accessibility” at the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA). Prior to joining FNHA, she gained extensive experience in clinical research, specializing in HIV/AIDS, HCV, and other STBBIs. Her work with patients in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) deepened her understanding of the healthcare system's impact on marginalized populations and the importance of equitable healthcare delivery. Drawing from the stories and experiences of marginalized individuals, Tsubasa continues to apply her expertise at FNHA, contributing to research projects aimed at improving the health and wellness of First Nations peoples and communities across British Columbia.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Science from the University of Western Ontario and a Master’s in Law in Medical Law and Ethics from the University of Edinburgh. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Stephanie Cadieux - Chief Accessibility Officer, Government of Canada
Stephanie Cadieux is a change leader, an advocate for diversity, accessibility, and disability inclusion and an entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in planning and leadership roles.
Ms. Cadieux has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia since 2009 and will retain that role until May 2, 2022, when her four-year appointment as the Government of Canada’s Chief Accessibility Officer will begin. She was the Minister of Children and Family Development from 2012 to 2017, and between 2010 and 2012, held various positions, including Minister of Social Development; Minister of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government; and Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development.
Prior to her engagement in provincial politics, Ms. Cadieux was the director of marketing and public relations for the BC Paraplegic Association from 2004 until 2009. She was also the provincial peer coordinator for this organization from 2001 until 2004.
Ms. Cadieux is a member of the disability community, using a wheelchair since the age of 18. Her lived experience allows her to have a deep understanding of accessibility issues faced by people with disabilities.
About the Speakers: Canada Disability Panel
Jeff Ferguson, Inclusion Canada
Coming soon!
Dr. Michael J. Prince
Dr. Michael J. Prince is Lansdowne Professor of Social Policy at the University of Victoria and the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Human and Social Development. From July 2018 to June 2024, he was the Board Chair of Community Living BC. As of this year, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission appointed him as the Expert Monitor of a five-year human rights remedy in the province of Nova Scotia, which aims to dismantle systemic discrimination against persons with disabilities.
About the Speakers: Expanding our Circle – Family Support Institute BC Panel
Patti Mertz - Director of Programs
Patti Mertz has extensive experience in senior leadership and is known for her ability to build and align organizational policies, procedures, and culture with strategic objectives. As Director of Programs at the Family Support Institute of BC, she oversees the pan-provincial workforce, which includes 200 volunteer peer mentors supporting families of children with disabilities. Her role includes data analysis, workforce development, program strategy, communications, and CARF compliance. Patti is a member of Race & Disability Canada – IDEA Practitioners and Professionals Network, and is passionate about integrating the principles of cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion into the organization’s work. She collaborates closely with FSI’s Indigenous Practice Advisor to support commitments to Truth & Reconciliation and anti-racism.
Laranna Scott - Indigenous Practice Advisor
Laranna Scott, ECE, SpNd, I/T, BA CYC, lives with gratitude on the shared traditional territory known as the Boundary. There, she honours and acknowledges all the Indigenous peoples and ancestors who lived there and cared for the lands in Grand Forks, BC. Laranna has Métis ancestry from her mother’s side and is a direct descendant of Ambroise Lepine.
Laranna is a proud mother of a child with complex support needs and a firm advocate for and believer in the power of early intervention. In 2017, Laranna was awarded the BCACCS Aboriginal Child Care Recognition Award, which honours Early Childhood Educators acting as exceptional role models.
Laranna has been a part of UBC’s Human Early Learning Partnership’s Aboriginal Steering Committee for the last decade and has worked in a variety of capacities for over 25 years in the child and youth care field. She has also been a volunteer Resource Parent with the Family Support Institute of BC since 2019 and employed as their Indigenous Practice Advisor since 2023.
Diana Elliott - IAC Elder & Co-Chair
Diana Elliott is retired from 35 years of working in Indigenous Early Childhood Development and Family Support Programs. Diana is Coast Salish from Cowichan Tribes in Duncan, B.C, and has equal roots in the Nuu Chah Nulth Territory from the Hupačasath First Nation in Port Alberni. She spent almost 20 years of her career as the Provincial Advisor to 57 Aboriginal Infant Development Programs (AIDP) throughout BC on reserve and in urban communities. Her passion has been to support families to raise their children through early learning in loving and nurturing homes. Through all her experience working with Indigenous children and families in First Nations, rural, remote and urban communities, she believes we will create healthy communities and prosperous economic development through our children as we support them in early and lifelong learning and achieving. She will continue to be a champion for Indigenous children and be a support and ally to the programs that support them.
Sheila Greive - IAC member
Sheila Grieve, ECE, BPE, BA, MAIS is grateful to the Snuneymuxw people on whose unceded traditional territory she currently learns, lives, and works. She is the daughter of the late Evelyn (Ducharme) Grieve and the late William Grieve. As a member of the Métis Nation, Sheila commits to the concept of Kaa-Wiichihitoyaahk, taking care of each other. She has low vision (legally blind) and is a professor of Early Childhood Education and Care at Vancouver Island University (VIU). Her research interest is land-based learning with a special focus on plants and our connections to plants; everyone has the right to thrive outside.
