Participants List – Global Issues Project Expert Roundtable on Water
Barlow, Maude
Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy organization, and the founder of the Blue Planet Project, working internationally for the right to water. She serves on the boards of the San Francisco-based International Forum on Globalization and Washington-based Food and Water Watch and is a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. Maude is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates, the 2005/2006 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship Award, the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”) for her global water justice work, and is the Citation of Lifetime Achievement winner of the 2008 Canadian Environment Awards. She is also the best selling author or co-author of 16 books, including Blue Gold, The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World’s Water and the recently released Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water. Maude was recently appointed Senior Advisor to Miquel d'Escoto, President of the UN General Assembly, to advance the right to water internationally.
Brandes, Oliver
Oliver M Brandes joined the University of Victoria’s POLIS Project on Ecological Governance in 2003 to lead the Water Sustainability Project and recently became the Associate Director. He holds a Masters in Economics from Queens University and a Law Degree from the University of Victoria. He also has a background in Ecological Restoration. Oliver has studied international relations while in Europe and was involved in various major environmental and community projects in Canada’s Arctic and throughout Central and South America. His work focuses on the ecological governance of water sustainability, sound resource management and ecological based legal and institutional reform.
Oliver Brandes is a core researcher on several Canadian Water Network water governance multi-year projects. He provides strategic water policy advice to numerous non-government organizations (NGOs) and all levels of government and has authored academic and more popular articles and major research reports, with At a Watershed: Ecological governance and sustainable water management in Canada released in 2005 and Thinking Beyond Pumps and Pipes: The top ten ways a community can save water AND money released fall 2006 being some of the most recent (all publications and reports available at www.waterdsm.org).
About POLIS and the Water Sustainability Project:-
The POLIS Project on Ecological Governance is a transdisciplinary centre for research and action established in 2000 by the Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law and Policy at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. POLIS’s mission is to cultivate ecological governance through innovative research, policy analysis and advocacy, legal reform, education and community action. The Water Sustainability Project (WSP) began in January 2003 at POLIS and focuses on cutting edger research on water law and governance with the goal of developing mechanisms to help reorient Canadian water management from an emphasis on supply development to stewardship and managing demand and conservation as priorities.]
Brooks, David
David Brooks is a natural resource economist whose main interest is the relationship between environmental protection and energy, water and mineral use. Much of his research has focused on sustainable alternatives for conventional energy and water policies including in the Middle East, particularly in Israel and Palestine.
Dr. Brooks was the founding director of the Canadian Office of Energy Conservation. He worked for six years with Energy Probe and Friends of the Earth Canada, later serving as President of the Board for Friends of the Earth Canada. He has also been an Ontario Hydro Board member. After leaving Friends of the Earth, Dr. Brooks spent several years as a senior consultant with Marbek Resource Consultants. From 1988 - 2002, he worked with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), latterly as Acting Director for Environment & Natural Resources Management. After retiring from IDRC, Dr. Brooks became, on a part-time basis, Senior Advisor on Fresh Water for Friends of the Earth - Canada. Most recently he has been directing a study of water soft paths in Canada and working with the Geneva Initiative on the fresh water components of an eventual final status agreement between Israel and Palestine.
Dr. Brooks studied geology at MIT (SB 1955) and Cal Tech (MS 1956) and economics at the University of Colorado (PhD 1963). He is author of Zero Energy Growth for Canada (McClelland and Stewart 1981) and Water: Local-Level Management (IDRC 2002). He is co-author of Life After Oil: Renewable Energy Policies for Canada (Hurtig 1983); Water: The Potential for Demand Management in Canada (Science Council of Canada 1988); and Watershed: The Role of Fresh Water in the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict (IDRC Books 1994). He has edited several books on resource issues and on water demand management including Water Balances in the Eastern Mediterranean (IDRC Books 2000). A recent issue of Alternatives Journal (33:4, 2007) focuses on the Canadian water soft paths work, the approach of this kind in the world.
Dr. Brooks has been elected to The International Water Academy, based in Oslo, Norway. He is an active member of Peace Now, the largest Zionist peace group, which argues for a two-state solution for Israel/Palestine based on "a land of peace, not a piece of land." Dr. Brooks is a popular speaker on the need for demand-focused water policies for Canada and for the Middle East.
Bruce, James
After an extensive career, focussed mainly on water and climate, Jim Bruce currently serves as Chair of the Expert Panel on Groundwater of the Canadian Council of Academies. He is also Chair of the Public Information Advisory Group for the International Upper Great Lakes Study of the IJC, Chairs the Management Board of the Drought Research Initiative and is Canadian Policy Representative, Soil and Water Conservation Society. In previous periods he was, successively, founding Director of the Canada Centre for Inland Waters, Burlington, Ontario; Director General, Inland Waters and for 8 years Assistant Deputy Minister in Environment Canada. In the last half of the 1980s he was Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, where he assisted in establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In December 2007, he was part of the IPCC delegation to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from McMaster and Waterloo Universities.
Christensen, Randy
Randy Christensen is themanaging lawyer for the Vancouver office of Ecojustice Canada (formerly Sierra Legal Defence Fund) and has been with the organization since 1996. He is a member of British Columbia Law Society and the Washington and Oregon State Bars.
Randy’s practice includes a focus on water issues, access to information and public participation as well as selected areas of international, environmental law.
While at Sierra Legal, Randy has handled litigation concerning dam construction, water takings and water rights transfers, environmental assessment and fisheries issues. He has authored a number of reports and filed numerous complaints with domestic and international agencies on behalf of clients
Dembo, Ron
Dr. Ron Dembo is the Founder and CEO of Zerofootprint. Zerofootprint is an organization dedicated to a mass reduction in global environmental impact. We provide software and services to individuals, governments, universities, and corporations that measures and manages carbon footprint and engages employees and citizens worldwide in combating climate change. Prior to founding Zerofootprint, Dr. Dembo was the Founder, CEO, and President of Algorithmics Incorporated, growing it from a start-up to the largest enterprise risk-management software company in the world, with offices in fifteen countries and over 70% of the world's top 100 banks as clients. Algorithmics was consistently voted as one of the top 50 best managed companies in Canada. Dr. Dembo has also had a distinguished ten-year academic career at Yale University, where he was cross-appointed between the Department of Computer Science and the School of Management. Dr. Dembo has published over sixty technical papers on finance and mathematical optimization, and holds a number of patents in computational finance. Dr. Dembo is the author of three books: Seeing Tomorrow: Rewriting the Rules of Risk, co-authored with Andrew Freedman, published in April 1998; Upside Downside: Simple Rules of Risk Management for the Smart Investor, co-authored with Daniel Stoffman, published in March 2006; and Everything You Wanted to Know About Offsetting But Were Afraid to Ask, co-authored with Clive Davidson, and released in May 2007. In May 2007, Dr. Dembo was made a lifetime Fields Institute Fellow. This fellowship is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Fields Institute, its programs, and to the Canadian mathematical community. In July 2007, Dr. Dembo was inducted as a charter member of the Risk Who's Who.
Harries, David
David Harries, Ph.D., P. Eng., educated as a nuclear engineer, has worked in the public and private sectors as a military officer, as a consultant in personal and corporate security, and as a senior advisor and professor in heavy engineering, humanitarian aid, post-conflict/post-disaster response and recovery, executive development and university education.
He is based in Kingston, Canada. Active in research, curriculum development, teaching and facilitation of strategic foresight, civil-military relations, Asia Pacific security, and human security engineering, he pays particular attention to the dynamics of their interconnections.
Six years were spent based in Jakarta and Singapore and working throughout Asia. From 2004 to 2008 he ran one of three MA programmes at the Royal Military College of Canada and continues to teach a number of graduate courses there. As well, from the Canadian Defence Academy, he supports defence diplomacy projects including seminars and courses on civil-military relations in Canada and abroad.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of Canadian Pugwash, the Global Initiatives Project, and Proteus Canada, Executive Associate Director of Foresight Canada, and Assistant Coach of the RMC varsity rugby team.
David Harries has lived in 19 countries and paid between 1 and 20 visits to another 93.
Harrington, Cameron
Cameron Harrington is a Doctoral candidate in the department of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario. His dissertation examines how, through the process of securitization, water scarcity becomes an issue of presumed urgency and holds the potential to produce an existential threat. His research project falls within the broad realm of critical security studies, though it draws insight and inspiration from a wide range of disciplines including international relations, environmental politics, and political philosophy. He has been invited to deliver several lectures at Western, which have detailed the history and evolution of Liberal Internationalist theory, as well as the new "constructivist" turn in international relations. In 2006-2007 Cameron served as an executive member of Canada Student/Young Pugwash, and he has contributed two publications to the CSYP annual student journal. In addition, he has served as rapporteur for the Canadian Pugwash Group and helped author their 2005 report entitled "Creatively Advancing the Nuclear Abolition Agenda."
Hoffman, Robert
Co-Founder of WhatIf?Technologies Inc.
Hudon, Marc
Mr. Hudon is the director of the Great Lakes and St-Lawrence program on transboundary water issues at Nature Quebec, a non governmental environmental organisation that exists since 1983. He is President of the Saguenay river’s Priority Intervention Zone Committee (Comité ZIP Saguenay). A regional multistakeholder concertation committee active in restoring and preserving the Saguenay river, the largest tributary to the St-Lawrence river. He was president of Stratégies Saint-Laurent between 1994 and 2003; a Quebec national coalition active on the St-Lawrence river responsible for the involvement of the shoreline communities on the co-sponsored federal-provincial St-Lawrence Plan. Marc is also president of the Quebec Regional Advisory Council on oil spills – which is responsible to advise the fédéral Transports minister on the efficiency of the intervention regime. Marc retired from the Canadian Armed Forces in 1994 as Base environnemental officer in Bagotville, Quebec. He was active in the environmental sector thru numerous postings across Canada for 21 years.
He received the Commemorative medal during the celebration of the Canadian confederation 125th anniversary in recognition of his significant contribution to compatriot, community and to Canada.
Karunananthan, Meera
Meera Karunananthan is the national water campaigner at the Council of Canadians.
Kothari, Smita
Smita Kothari is a graduate student at Trinity College
Maas, Carol
Carol Maas, BEng Soc, MASc., PEng, Innovation & Technology Director, Water Sustainability Project. POLIS Project on Ecological Governance, University of Victoria, BC . She joined the POLIS Water Sustainability Project in late 2006, bringing her technical expertise in water and wastewater to the team. Carol completed her undergraduate degree at McMaster University in Chemical Engineering and Society specializing in water treatment modeling and the societal implications of engineering. She has since worked in the water and wastewater field for seven years in various capacities including consulting, research and development and process engineering. Prior to initiating graduate studies in Ontario, she worked as an Applications Engineer for Hydroxyl Systems in British Columbia Canada, specializing in biological wastewater treatment systems. In 2006, Carol completed her Masters of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo and now splits her time between directing the research and development program at Hydroxyl Systems and researching appropriate technologies for water treatment and conservation at the POLIS Project.
Maas, Tony
Tony Maas is WWF-Canada’s expert on freshwater policy, planning and management. He has been involved in freshwater issues for over a decade. He has authored a number of reports on water policy and has provided strategic policy advice to governments, business and NGOs. Most recently, he co-authored of Changing the Flow: A Blueprint for Federal Action on Freshwater, a publication by the Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW), a collaborative of Canadian water experts that he co-charis.
Prior to joining WWF-Canada, Tony Maas spent five years as a research analyst with the Water Sustainability project at the University of Victoria’s POLIS Project on Ecological Governance. He has studied Environmental Techonology at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, Environmental Science at Royal Roads University in Victoria, and water governance at the University of Waterloo. His work is inspired by the time he spends paddling Canada’s lakes and rivers with his wife Carol, and by his desire to share these experiences with his young son Esrael.