Canadian Bioethics Society
Société canadienne de bioéthique

CBS Administrator: Marylou Scott-Smith

canadianbioethicssociety@gmail.com

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Marylou serves as the Administrator for the Canadian Bioethics Society, and supports the Executive Board in its effort to build organizational capacities for the CBS.

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Board of Directors

 

President: Bashir Jiwani

Bashir Jiwani, PhD, is Lead Ethicist and Executive Director, Ethics and Diversity Services, at the Fraser Health Authority which serves one of Canada’s largest, fastest growing and most diverse regional populations.

 

Bashir leads a team that provides decision support in patient care and at the system-level, builds capacity to deal with complex, ethically challenging situations in contexts of diversity, enables access to language resources and builds partnerships for understanding and collaborating with diverse communities.

 

Bashir currently serves on the Drug Benefit Council for BC, the Expensive Drugs for Rare Diseases Committee for BC, the pan-Canadian Advisory Panel on a Framework for a Prescription Drug List and the Core Team for the Aga Khan University Thinking Group on Ethics, Stem Cell Science, and Regenerative Medicine.

 

Bashir received his BA in Philosophy from McGill University and his MA in Philosophy with a specialty in Bioethics from the University of British Columbia. He received a PhD in Public Health Sciences from the University of Alberta, Canada.

 

More information about Bashir and his work can be found at incorporatingethics.ca.

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Past President: Kevin Reel

Kevin is a Senior Ethicist with the Health Ethics Alliance at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He is a registered occupational therapist and Assistant Professor with the Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto and a faculty member with the Global Institute for Psychosocial Palliative and End-of-Life Care.

 

Kevin also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Practicing Healthcare Ethicists (CAPHE-ACESS) and Co-Chair of the Community Ethics Network. His research interests include end-of-life care, human sexuality and sexual expression, and evaluation of capacity for decision-making.

 

In his spare time, he likes to play with power tools and kitchen appliances...usually to separate ends.  

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Treasurer: Zachary Walbaum

Zachary has a B.A. (Hons) in Philosophy from Brandon University, a Master of Philosophy (Humanities), and a Master of Health Ethics from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

 

Zach works full-time for the Canadian Red Cross in Kelowna, BC as a Medical Equipment Advance Technician, and is also a member of the Interior Health Research Ethics Board. Zachary recently completed a Clinical Ethics Internship with William Osler Health System in Brampton, ON. His research interests include moral epistemology, personal identity, ageing-related issues, and end-of-life issues

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Conference Liaison: Daniel Buchman

Daniel Buchman is a Bioethicist and Independent Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, a member of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, and an Affiliate Scientist in the Krembil Research Institute at the University Health Network.

 

His primary areas of research interest include ethical issues related to mental health, substance use, and chronic pain, and he has a longstanding teaching interest in empirical approaches to bioethics. Some of Daniel's current research interests are in the areas of ethics of machine learning and big data in mental health, neuroethics, and psychedelic-assisted mental health care. He has published widely in bioethics, and in 2018 he Co-Edited the volume Pain Neuroethics and Bioethics.

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Communications Officer: Cory Labrecque

Cory Andrew Labrecque, PhD, is associate professor of bioethics and theological ethics, and the inaugural chair of educational leadership in the ethics of life at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at Université Laval in Quebec City, where he is vice-dean and director of graduate programs in theology.

 

He previously served as the Raymond F. Schinazi Scholar in bioethics and religious thought, director of Catholic Studies, and director of graduate programs in bioethics at Emory University in Atlanta. Cory earned a BSc in anatomy and cell biology, an MA in religious studies with specialization in bioethics, and a PhD in religious ethics at McGill.

 

Cory’s teaching and research examine how the Abrahamic religions—with a focus on the Roman Catholic tradition—approach ethical issues in medicine, biotechnology, and the environment. He is especially interested in the context of aging, end-of-life ethics, and understandings of personhood. He is vice-president of the National Committee for Ethics and Ageing (Quebec) and is corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

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Deputy Communications Officer: Amanda Porter

Amanda Porter is an Assistant Professor and Health Care Ethicist in the Department of Bioethics at Dalhousie University, providing clinical and organizational ethics support to the Nova Scotia Health Authority and the IWK. 

 

Amanda’s collaborative work is intended to build capacity and opportunity for thoughtful handling of ethically challenging situations that arise in everyday practice and decision-making. She holds an MA and PhD in philosophy from Western University.

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Social Media Officer: Monique Visser

Monique is an early career bioethicist who completed her Masters in Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and a 2-year Fellowship in Clinical Ethics with Alberta Health Services (AHS).  She is now an Ethicist with the Health Ethics Alliance supporting North York General Hospital and Oak Valley Health in Ontario.   

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During her fellowship with AHS Clinical Ethics, Monique supported a busy consultation service and made significant contributions to several team projects including professionalization and addressing moral distress within the organization. Monique independently completed a quality assurance project for a Moral Distress Debriefing Tool which has since been distributed widely.  She presented this QA work at both the CBS-SCB and the ASBH conferences in 2021.

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Monique is trained and practices as a Registered Nurse. During her five years’ experience at the bedside her work took her across Canada and to Saudi Arabia.  Monique’s healthcare background provides her with a perspective on healthcare which enriches her approach to health ethics.

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Monique brings a strong communications background to the role of Social Media Officer. She has honed her capacity to communicate ethics concepts to broad audiences through her participation in Toastmasters International. Monique was also Vice President Public Relations for her Calgary Toastmasters club. In this role she posted to the club’s social media sites and received social media training on representing a large organization online. Monique also maintains an engaging personal social media presence, which will translate well into building a strong CBS-SCB social media presence through a variety of platforms.

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Fundraising Officer: Tristana Martin Rubio

Tristana Martin Rubio is a PhD(c) in Philosophy at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, alumna of Yale University's Centre for Bioethics, and the university appointee serving as the ethicist at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. She works at Concordia's Centre for Research on Aging. Prior to this, she worked at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute, Montreal, Quebec and served as a member of the Bioethics Committee at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre.

 

Tristana's research explores experiences of aging at the intersection of embodiment, time, culture and society and the different ethics responses elicited by them. 

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Diversity Officer: Moji Adurogbangba

Moji is currently the System-Level Ethicist at Fraser Health Authority in British Columbia. She promotes and advances ethical decision-making through the consultation process, developing and reviewing policy guidelines and strategies.

 

Moji was educated and worked as a Dentist before obtaining a Master of Public Health in Nigeria and a Master of Arts in Bioethics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She then earned a Fellowship in Clinical Ethics at the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. She has worked as a Clinical Ethicist for over ten years in two Ontario locations before moving to British Columbia. Moji’s passion for Social Justice, excellence in Public Health, Clinical and Organizational ethics spans all her work.

 

Her areas of interest include exploring the ethics of prioritizing scarce health care resources and identifying, articulating, and addressing ethical implications of organizational decisions on patients, health care providers, and the community.

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Membership Officer: Victoria Seavilleklien

Victoria Seavilleklein is a member of Alberta Health Services (AHS)’ Clinical Ethics Service, and is the Clinical Ethicist for the central part of the province.

 

She holds a PhD in Philosophy (specializing in Bioethics) from Dalhousie University, an MA in Philosophy from the University of Calgary, and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Victoria. She completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical and Organizational Ethics from the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto and a Doctoral Fellowship in Ethics of Health Research and Policy in a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Strategic Training Program, jointly held between Dalhousie University and the University of British Columbia.

 

She is a Clinical Lecturer with the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre at the University of Alberta and a regular guest lecturer at Red Deer College.  Victoria’s role includes ethics consultation, education, policy review, and support for organizational initiatives. She is particularly concerned with matters of social justice.

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New Initiatives Officer: Katherine Duthie

Katherine Duthie is member of the AHS Clinical Ethics Service, and is the Clinical Ethicist at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. 

 

Katherine’s educational background includes a BSc in Biology (minor Philosophy), an MA in Philosophy, and a PhD in Public Health with a focus on the intersections between clinical and organizational ethics.  She completed her residency in clinical ethics at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.  In addition to her AHS role, Katherine is a consulting ethicist with the Fraser Health Authority and the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Healthcare.  She is also a member of the Health Research Ethics Boards of Alberta Cancer Research Ethics Committee, and is an Assistant Clinical Professor with the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre at the University of Alberta.  

 

Katherine’s research and professional interests include harm reduction, values-based decision-making methodologies, and health technology assessment.

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Partnerships and Community Relations Officer: Catherine Fullarton

Catherine Fullarton is a Faculty Fellow at the University of King's College in Halifax, NS, and a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Emory University (Atlanta, USA).

 

She has a Master's degree in Philosophy from Ryerson University (Toronto, ON), where her work focused on phenomenology and embodiment.

 

Her current research considers phenomenology, Aristotelian virtue ethics, and ethics of care to propose a model of empathic virtue, with specific interest in the role of empathy in patient-physician relationships.

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Undergraduate Student Member-at-Large: Lea Love

Lea is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto studying bioethics and global health.

 

She is an executive member of multiple clubs and teams at U of T, including Canadian Feed the Children. Lea has worked closely with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to provide piano lessons for blind and vision impaired youth, and volunteers at local flu clinics and charity organizations. She is particularly passionate about reducing global disparities in medicine and healthcare, supporting First Nations communities in Canada, and reproductive rights in the bioethics field.