Stu Cowan

Sports Editor for the Montreal Gazette

5:30-6:15pm, SSMU Room 108

Stu Cowan, a Montreal native, has been part of the Montreal Gazette sports department for 30 years and has done many jobs during that time, starting off as the statistics (Scoreboard) page editor, before becoming a reporter, copy editor, slot man (responsible for laying out and overseeing the daily production of the paper), assistant sports editor and for the last 13 years has been sports editor.

He has experienced many changes over the years in the journalism business, including the shift to online. Apart from overseeing the day-to-day operation of the sports department, he also has a blog and writes a weekly column for the Saturday paper.

David Secko

Associate Professor of Journalism, Concordia University

5:30-6:15pm, SSMU Room 108

David Secko is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Concordia University (Montréal). He previously worked as a science journalist for The Scientist magazine and Vancouver’s Tyee. Dave now studies science journalism as a scholar and is the leader of the Concordia Science Journalism Project. Examples of his recent articles include the definition and testing of four models of science journalism (Journalism Practice 7(1), 62-80; Journalism Practice 8(6), 789-808), a qualitative metasynthesis of the experiences of a science journalists (Science Communication 34(2), 241-282) and a narrative analysis of online commentary after science stories (Journalism 12(7), 814-831). He won a University Research Award for his research contributions in 2011, the Dean’s Award for excellence as a new scholar in 2010 and was awarded the Hal Straight Gold Medal in Journalism from UBC’s School of Journalism in 2006. Dave was originally trained as a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia.

Christopher Curtis

Sports writer, Montreal Gazette

5:30-6:15pm, SSMU Room 108

After coasting his way through McGill’s history department for two years, Chris left university for a glamorous career mopping hot tar onto asphalt. Quickly realizing the error of his ways, he applied to Concordia’s journalism program but was promptly rejected for the second time in as many years.

Concordia journalism eventually let Chris in through the back door and—desperate not to return to a life of manual labour—he cleaned up his act. Journalism courses gave Chris a framework to learn the trade but it was at the university’s student newspaper (The Link) that helped him hone the skills he would need to make a run at the newspaper business.

After serving as Sports and News editor at The Link, Chris interned at the Montreal Gazette as a city reporter in 2011. He interned there again in 2012 and at Postmedia’s Parliamentary Bureau later that year before finding gainful employment at the Gazette in 2013.

Before getting paid to write about sports, Chris focused on First Nations issues and trying not to get arrested while covering the student crisis in 2012. He also covered federal, provincial and municipal politics and was among the first reporters in Lac Megantic after the fatal train derailment in 2013.

Andrew Cohen

Author and Commentator

5:30-6:15pm, SSMU Lev Bukhman, 2nd FLOOR

Andrew Z. Cohen is a best-selling author and an award-winning journalist whom the New York Times has called one of “Canada’s most distinguished authors.” In a career of 37 years, he has worked in Ottawa, Toronto, Washington, London and Berlin. He has written for United Press International, Time, Maclean’s, The Walrus, Saturday Night, The Financial Times of London, The New York Times, The National Post, and The Toronto Star, among other publications.

He has written seven books. While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World (2003), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction; in 2011, the Writer’s Trust of Canada named it one of the top 12 political books in Canada of the last 25 years. His other books include A Deal Undone: The Making and Breaking of the Meech Lake Accord (1990); Trudeau’s Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1998); The Unfinished Canadian: The People We Are (2007); Extraordinary Canadians: Lester B. Pearson (2008); and Lost Beneath the Ice: The Story of HMS Investigator (2013). His latest book, published in Canada and the United States in 2014, is Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy’s 48 Hours That Made History.

He has won two National Newspaper Awards and three National Magazine Awards. For 14 years he has written a column for The Ottawa Citizen syndicated nationally in Postmedia Newspapers. He is a weekly commentator on CTV News Channel, and appears frequently on CPAC-TV.

Born and raised in Montreal, Prof. Cohen has an undergraduate degree in political science from McGill University and graduate degrees in journalism and international relations from Carleton University. Between 1991 and 1993, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of International Studies at the University of Cambridge. In 2007-2008, he was a Visiting Fellow at the German Institute of International Affairs in Berlin.

He has worked for The Ottawa Citizen as a copyboy and police reporter; for United Press International in Ottawa as a parliamentary correspondent; and in Washington as a writer and editor. At The Financial Post, he was a senior writer, foreign editor, and columnist. Between 1997 and 2001, he was correspondent and columnist in the United States for the Globe, based in Washington. He covered the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the disputed presidential election of 2000, and the re-opening of civil rights cases in the South. Since 2001, he has been an associate professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, co-appointed to the School of Journalism and Communication and the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

In 2009, he was the founding president of The Historica-Dominion Institute (now Historica Canada), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Canada’s history and identity. He is a member of the boards of The Trudeau Centre, the Writer’s Trust Authors Advisory Committee, and the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy. He is a mentor and advisor to the Action Canada Fellowship Program. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. He is married to Mary Gooderham, a journalist, author and editor. They have two teen-aged children.

Mary-Jo Barr

Senior Newsroom Manager, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

7:30-8:15pm, SSMU 108

Mary-Jo Barr is a journalist and senior newsroom manager with more than two decades of experience with Canada's top broadcasters. Most recently, she ran the CBC's local news operations in the Quebec region, including television, radio, and digital media. Prior to that, Mary-Jo worked with CTV, first in the local newsroom in Montreal as a lineup editor and later at network headquarters in Toronto as a live control room producer. Over her career, she's contributed to several RTDNA awards of excellence, including for breaking news coverage of the 2012 election night shooting at PQ headquarters and for digital innovation during Quebec's 2013 municipal elections. Mary-Jo earned an Arts degree in journalism and political science from Concordia University.

Sue Montgomery

Veteran reporter, Montreal Gazette

7:30-8:15pm, SSMU 108

Sue Montgomery has been a journalist for close to 30 years, most recently as the justice reporter at the Montreal Gazette. She covered the Velvet Revolution in the former Czechoslovakia, the independence of Namibia, the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and his funeral, the 2004 coup in Haiti and the 2010 earthquake in that country.

As justice reporter, she covered the murder trials of cardiologist Guy Turcotte, who killed his two children, and Luka Magnotta, who murdered Jun Lin.

She recently left the Gazette and is taking some time to pursue her other passions - photography, cooking and travel.

Linda Kay

Professor of Journalism, Concordia University

7:30-8:15pm, SSMU 108

Linda Kay is a professor of journalism at Concordia University in Montreal. She won the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in the Faculty of Arts and Science in 2007 and was named Femme de Mérite in Communications by the Women’s YWCA of Montreal in 2013. The first female sportswriter at the Chicago Tribune, Prof. Kay centers her research on pioneering female journalists in Canada. Her book, The Sweet Sixteen, (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012), focuses on the women who founded the Canadian Women’s Press Club in 1904 on a trip to the World’s Fair in St. Louis. A French translation of the book, Elles Étaient Seize, was published in 2015 by Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal. Prof. Kay is a Provost Fellow with a mandate to promote women faculty, and continues to contribute to newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets in Canada and the United States.

Dan Delmar

National Post contributor, talk-show host, political commentator

5:30-6:15pm, Trottier 0070

Delmar is a news nerd with roughly 15 years’ experience in print, radio, television and digital media. He has strong opinions and doesn’t shy away from controversy, as long as it’s constructive, measured and doesn’t disappoint his mother. He is a contributor with The National Post (and its Full Comment blog), as well as a talk-show host and political commentator with Montreal’s CJAD 800 (and occasionally with other Bell Media outlets like Newstalk 1010 Toronto and CTV News Channel). Before breaking political news, including Quebec’s “Pastagate,” Delmar studied journalism, cinema and marketing, beginning his career with Montreal’s The Suburban. He was later named managing editor of bilingual commentary journal The Métropolitain. He enjoys Polish vodka, pretentious cuisine and trolling cabinet ministers on Twitter.

Darren Becker

Director of Communications and Corporate, Vanier College

5:30-6:15pm, Trottier 0070

Darren Becker is a native Montrealer who graduated with a BA from Concordia University’s Journalism program.

Following a summer internship at the Montreal Gazette, Darren was hired to work at the newspaper in 1996. Over the course of five years he wrote over 1,000 articles for the Gazette on an array of subjects including general assignment reporting, civic affairs and cultural communities. He also wrote a weekly column for the newspaper.

In January 2001 Darren left the Gazette to work in the communications department for the Office of the Mayor of Montreal. Over a period of 12 years he worked as a Press Secretary, Senior Communications Advisor, Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Communications. His responsibilities included acting as a spokesperson for the city administration, preparing elected officials for interviews, formulating communications plans and corporate media campaigns as well as media relations.

In December 2013 Darren left the city of Montreal and is now working as Director of Communications and Corporate affairs at Vanier College where he develops college communications strategies and plans, directs college student recruitment strategy and activities, helps oversee the organization of major college events and leads strategic and operational planning activities of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.

Raffy Boudjikanian

Journalist, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

6:30-7:15pm, Trottier 0070

Raffy Boudjikanian is a journalist for CBC-TV, radio and online with CBC Montreal Investigates. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in journalism and political science from Concordia University, Boudjikanian got his start at The Chronicle, a weekly newspaper on Montreal's West Island. In 2010, Boudjikanian began at CBC and has been at the forefront of local and network stories -- from the Lac Mégantic train derailment and the "Maple Spring", Quebec's university tuition increase protests, to recent provincial election campaigns. He has also worked internationally in Rwanda, Chad and Turkey.

Lucinda Chodan

Montreal Gazette Editor-in-Chief

7:30-8:15pm, Trottier 0070

Lucinda Chodan is editor in chief of the Montreal Gazette and vice-president of editorial content for the eastern region of Postmedia.

Since her arrival in fall 2013, Chodan has overseen the launch of the Reimagined Montreal Gazette, a major transformation project that delivers different content to different readers on different platforms – print, web, tablet and smartphone.

Prior to her appointment in Montreal, Chodan was editor in chief at the Edmonton Journal and the Times Colonist in Victoria. In those roles, she led the transformation of print- focused newsrooms to 19/7 news platforms. Under her leadership, both newsrooms also focused resources on investigative reporting that was recognized at a provincial, national and international level.

Earlier in her career, Chodan served in several capacities at the Montreal Gazette, including deputy editor, readership development editor and arts editor. She began her career as reporter and wrote about music for the Gazette and for national and international publications. She won a National Newspaper Award and an NNA citation of merit as a reporter.