Women of Distinction

As a criminal lawyer, Stephanie is a pioneer in Sudbury, being the sole woman in Sudbury practicing criminal defense when she began her career as a junior associate in 2002 and breaking another barrier when she opened her own criminal law practice in 2006. She is a member of Council of the Ontario Bar Association, the 2nd Vice President of the Sudbury District Law Association and is active in the Criminal Lawyer Association’s Women’s Committee, where she, along with other female counsel, promotes the retention of women in criminal law.

Stephanie is also a mentor for the Criminal Lawyers Association, setting aside 20 to 30 hours a month to meet with each mentee and assist in professional development. She volunteers her time to educate high school students through the mock trial program. As a defense lawyer, Stephanie has assisted many women who have come into conflict with the law, as a result of being victims themselves. She has had a direct impact on their lives by advocating for them and assisting them through the Court system.

An active contributor to community, Stephanie spent 7 years on the Elizabeth Fry Society Board of Directors, serving three terms as President, organizing two successful and much needed fundraising events and actively promoting the organization. As a member of the Board of Trustees of Science North, she sits on both the Fundraising and Science Programs committees.

She is generous with her time, supporting other women lawyers, defending clients who are often from vulnerable and marginalized segments of the population and being a devoted mother of 2. Stephanie is not only a role model for other lawyers, but also a model of compassion and a defender of the rights of those less fortunate. As of February 27, 2017 Stephanie has changed rolls from defense lawyer, to Assistant Crown Attorney with the Sudbury Crown Attorney’s office.

Since coming to Sudbury from Lebanon over 40 years ago, Maha has been a pillar of the community and an inspiration and support to new Canadians. With the ability to speak several languages (English, French and Arabic) and with expertise in cross cultural communication, Maha has been both a translator and cultural interpreter for sponsors and new immigrants, both formally and informally. She has worked as a translator for medical, educational, legal and social services in Sudbury, most recently on a volunteer basis.

As a mother of three sons and a grandmother, a worker at Sears and a school volunteer, she inspires her children to achieve academically and contribute to the community. Partnering with her husband, Imam Abdul-Hak Dabliz, at the Sudbury Mosque, Maha graciously welcomes groups and individuals to answer questions pertaining to religion and/or cultural expectations for Muslim Canadians. She has played a significant role in welcoming and settling new Canadians, most recently, the Syrian families who have arrived in Sudbury since December 2015.

Maha models strength and resilience for all women through her dedication and volunteerism. One notable example is the support she offered one young new-immigrant woman feeling fearful in a strange land, during the birth of her baby. Maha is a committed volunteer in the Islamic Association of Sudbury, the Sudbury Mosque, the Multicultural and Folk Arts Association of Sudbury and the Sudbury Interfaith Dialogue. In May 2010 Maya was presented with the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Volunteer Service Award for thirty years of dedicated volunteerism in the Islamic Association of Sudbury.

She was given the Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association Award to recognize her extraordinary fundraising efforts for the construction of the Mosque, although her main goal was to “have a place for newcomers”. She responds to expressions of gratitude and admiration with an insistence that what she does is “nothing special”. Yet others view her as a true humanitarian, an ambassador of global peace, a community builder and a compassionate friend to all.

After spending many years travelling the globe, Chrisanne returned to Sudbury in 2010 to study at Cambrian College in her chosen career of Graphic Design. Since graduating in 2014, she began work at 50 Carleton, a Sudbury based design firm and is currently in transition to a position at NORCAT (Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc.). But she has not kept her technological skill and knowledge to herself. She is an active participant and lead in the Sudbury Chapter – the first of its kind in Northern Ontario –  of Ladies Learning Code (a national not for profit organization providing resources for women, youth [and men] to build technology and learn computer skills).

Committed to meaningful work that makes a difference, she took part in many community initiatives while travelling, including the St. Lucia Trust Youth Group, a national organization focusing on the conservation of natural and cultural heritage. In Sudbury, she participated in the About Face project which photographed portraits and recorded the stories of some of those using the services of the Samaritan Centre in downtown Sudbury. The funds raised through the resulting exhibition were donated to the Samaritan Centre. She was part of the BitterSweet exhibit, in which Cambrian College Graphic Design graduates created posters illustrating positive and negative aspects of Sudbury. Chrisanne has also been an active Board Director for the Sudbury Design Society, involved in strategic planning and implementing events such as the design conference 3-Point Perspective.  An active contributor to the community, Chrisanne is well aware of the importance of digital literacy for women and youth. Much of Chrisanne’s work to improve women’s digital literacy, whether through public speaking, organizing workshops or educating, is unpaid.

Considered by her colleagues as brilliantly talented and award winning, Chrisanne is pioneering the way to digital literacy for women in a currently male-dominated field – a passionate role model for women and girls.

When colleagues and clients speak of Christine, they use terms like “caring”, “humble”, “compassionate”, “generous”, “joie de vivre”, “role model”. As a Rehabilitation Practitioner at the Canadian Mental Health Association, she is highly revered. But her work extends beyond the offices of CMHA. She was instrumental, with the Greater Sudbury Police Service, in forming N.O.A.H (New Opportunities for Hope) Hub, a partnership of community agencies helping individuals focus on themselves and what they want from life. She has played a role in establishing the P.A.S.S. program at Sudbury Secondary School which gives students the opportunity to receive counselling rather than being sent home with a suspension.

Her volunteer work in the community includes fundraising and organizing efforts for: Hike for Hospice, Relay for Life, Take Back the Night March, Board member and vice-president for Better Beginnings, Better Futures, a prevention program for high-risk communities operating in the Flour Mill/Donovan. Her assistance in fundraising for N.O.A.H.’s Space helped keep their doors open. Greater Sudbury Police Service recognized Christine’s dedication with Our Shared Commitment Award in 2015.

Christine is also a mother and student, currently studying Law and Justice at Laurentian University. As one colleague put it: “accolades . . . expressed by the people that she has supported speak volumes about the remarkable impact Christine has made through . . . her acts of generosity and compassion. . . . If anyone deserves to be recognized for their advocacy, empowerment and passion for helping others in need it is definitely Christine.”

Chantal’s outstanding work as a speech pathologist has led her to become one of youngest Directors at Laurentian University, where she helped found and currently directs the Orthophonie (Speech and Language Pathology) program. She also sits on the Board of Directors for OSLA (Ontario Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists) and RIFSSO (Regroupment des Intervenants francophones en santé et en service sociaux de l’Ontario), maintains a blog and website (www.botte-boot.com ) of resources, tips and handouts regarding children with language impairments and/or learning a second language and has provided free workshops to Anglophone and bilingual parents of children learning French as a second language. She has presented her ground-breaking research, on bilingual children learning French in a predominantly English community, at regional, national and international levels and has been recognized with the 10 Top Researchers Award for the Faculty of Health at Laurentian University in 2016.

Aside from academic and professional work, Chantal has been part of the Sudbury Women’s Volleyball league, volunteer coach at the Walden Cross Country Ski Club and is a Laurentian Masters’ Swim Club member. Her work in the community includes being part of the Caring Family program with Big Brothers/Sisters Sudbury.

On top of all this, Chantal is a dedicated mother of 3, who is actively involved in her children’s extracurricular activities: serving on the executive of the Sudbury Synchro Club; filling several positions on Helene Gravel and Jean Ethier Blais French Public School Parent Councils. Her dedication, hard work and positivity have inspired colleagues, students and her husband, Kevin, who wrote so glowingly about her accomplishments in his nomination of Chantal for a Women of Distinction award.

Jessica has been an ongoing promoter of arts, culture and healthy living in Sudbury through her work with the city’s Leisure Services, Children’s Services and, currently, at the Greater Sudbury Public Library. Her innovative work at the library has led to a the lending of snow-shoes, tennis racquets and fishing rods, opportunities for library members to attend Sudbury Theatre Centre productions, the Seed Library project to encourage local gardening,  not to mention a weekly column in the Sudbury Star called “A Good Read”. A mother of two, Jessica has also been active in the Westmount School Parent Council, coached her oldest daughter’s soccer team and has sat on the Board of Larch Street Kids Day Care Centre.

A graduate of Cambrian College’s Public Relations program and a Communications student at Laurentian University, she is also a personal trainer who has taught aerobics to seniors at the YMCA on her lunch hour. She is an avid runner, participating in several local runs and marathons, and is currently training to run a full marathon, hopefully this year.

Her social commitment extends beyond her local community to building houses in Kingston, Jamaica and using her paintings to fundraise for Project Kandwar, a non-profit initiative to help the needy in India. A recipient of the YMCA Community Service Award, Jessica has also participated in the United Way’s Young Leaders On Board program with the Sudbury Basin Environmental Network Initiative, as a youth mentor through the Health Unit’s Go Girls! Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds program and a Board member on both the Rainbow Routes Association and Wordstock Literary Festival. 

On top of all her activities, Jessica is a committed mother, who has brought her children to work with her when she works evenings.  She is described, by those who know her and have worked with her, as optimistic, amazing, caring and full of creative energy.

Committed to giving voice to northern Ontario stories, Heather Campbell and Laura Stradiotto founded Latitude 46 Publishing in 2015, publishing fiction and non-fiction work at a time when no other local publisher existed. Located in Sudbury, along the 46th parallel, their 2016 focus was on publishing female writers to reflect the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote in Canada.

Latitude 46 has also been critical in supporting Wordstock Sudbury, Literary Festival, which has brought Canada’s literati to Sudbury and to local schools where they can inspire students to see themselves as writers. By publishing debut works and prioritizing the publication of women authors, Latitude 46 has put the writing of Northern women on the map nationally. It provides support, exposure and marketing expertise that has allowed these authors to pursue writing careers locally. Laura and Heather are described as champions for equality and literacy as well as big hearted supporters to their authors. They are risk-takers, opening a publishing house when many have lamented the future of books. The success of Latitude 46 is a model, for women, of what is possible when entrepreneurship and grit meet creativity.