Heather Bakken

Heather Bakken is WPFC president and is a fierce defender of press freedom and independent media. Heather is a media executive and certified digital communications strategist with more than two decades of experience in digital and broadcast news. She was an anchor for NewsWorld International and worked for CBC News in Toronto, Winnipeg and Regina. In private media she was the Publisher of iPolitics and Queen’s Park Briefing. Heather is currently a media and communications consultant.

Shawn McCarthy

Shawn McCarthy is an independent writer and senior counsel at Sussex Strategy Group. He retired in August 2019 from his role as national business correspondent with The Globe and Mail, where he once served as parliamentary bureau chief. He has taught political journalism courses at Carleton University. Shawn has served on the committee since 2009, and has been president since 2014.

Roy Christensen

Roy Christensen, treasurer of the CCWPF and one of the founders of the Committee, is a researcher and writer. He is a former Press Officer for the European Union Delegation to Canada.

Bea Vongdouangchanh

Bea is a communications professional with more than a decade of experience covering politics and public policy as an award-winning former journalist. She joined public affairs firm Compass Rose in April 2016 and is a former online editor and deputy editor for The Hill Times and editor of Power & Influence magazine.

Sue Allan

Sue Allan is the Canadian editor of POLITICO. A former president of the Canadian Press Freedom Committee, she has worked for Maclean’s, iPolitics and the Ottawa Citizen.

Guy Badeaux

Guy Badeaux (Bado) has been the editorial cartoonist at the French language daily Le Droit in Ottawa since May 1981. Winner of the National Newspaper Award in 1991, he is treasurer of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists and has served, since 2002, as president of the jury of the committee’s cartoon contest.

Dean Beeby

Dean Beeby is an Ottawa-based freelance journalist and author. He was previously a senior reporter in CBC’s parliamentary bureau, worked in Canadian Press bureaus in Toronto, Halifax and Ottawa, and specializes in the use of freedom-of-information laws.

Francine Compton

Francine Compton is the Executive Producer of APTN National News and the network’s current affairs shows InFocus and Face to Face. She spent three years in Ottawa as APTN’s bureau chief from 2016-2019 and prior to that she was the producer of APTN Investigates.

Lynn Desjardins

Lynn Desjardins is a freelance journalist based in Montreal. She has worked for 45 years in radio, television, and internet in the private sector and at CBC/Radio-Canada as a reporter, program producer/host and news anchor.

Alyson Fair

Alyson Fair is a media and communications consultant for Bluesky Strategy Group with more than 20 years of experience working on all sides of the media industry. Before joining Bluesky in 2019, she was part of the CTV National parliamentary news team and the senior producer for Power Play with Don Martin.

Howard Fremeth

Howard Fremeth is the Director of Communications at the Business Council of Canada. Howard holds a PhD in Communications from Carleton University where he still serves as an Adjunct Professor and teaches courses in professional communications and digital diplomacy. Previously, he served as Director of Media Relations and Content Strategy at NATIONAL Public Relations and Director of Communications at the Embassy of Israel in Canada.

Susan Korah

Susan Korah is an Ottawa-based freelance journalist. She has a Master of Journalism degree from Carleton University and writes for various publications including The Epoch Times, Convivium Magazine and Taste and Travel International. Her topics range from Canadian politics, international human rights, freedom of religion and expression to travel destinations and culture.

Kathryn May

Kathryn May is the Accenture Fellow on the Future of the Public Service, writing about the complex issues facing Canada’s federal public service for Policy Options, an online magazine. A long-time Parliamentary reporter, she spent 25 years covering the public service, public sector management and politics for The Ottawa Citizen, Postmedia and iPolitics.

Gord McIntosh

Gord McIntosh is an Ottawa public affairs and communications consultant, writer and media trainer.

Elizabeth McSheffrey

Elizabeth McSheffrey is an award-winning journalist from Ottawa and a current employee of Global News. She has worked in print, online, radio and television across Canada and East Africa and has been a passionate volunteer for Journalists for Human Rights.

Linsey Raschkowan

Linsey Raschkowan currently works as a Senior Account Manager for iPolitics Limited in Ottawa. She is a graduate of Ryerson University’s journalism program, where she focused predominantly on social change, print journalism, and research and fact-checking.

David Rodier

David Rodier is a lawyer with 25 years’ experience providing policy and communications counsel to senior leaders from the federal government, national non-governmental organizations and business world. He is Senior Vice-President, Corporate Communications at Edelman.

Janet Silver

Janet Silver has spent nearly 30 years working in news and current affairs across all mediums in Canada and the U.S. Prior to joining Syntax Strategic as Senior Director, Advocacy and Communication, Janet was the Managing Editor at iPolitics. Previously Janet was executive producer of Global Television’s Sunday morning program, The West Block, a writer/producer for CBC’s Power and Politics and news director for CTV2 Ottawa. She also spent 20 years in Washington, D.C. where she worked for the ABC Australia, Reuters, Fox News Service and various documentary companies as a freelance producer.

Hugh Winsor

Hugh Winsor is a former national affairs columnist for The Globe and Mail in the Parliamentary Press Gallery. He has also been a correspondent/producer for The Journal at the CBC, was a founding director at the North-South Institute and spent three years in Dar es Salaam teaching journalism and advising the Government of Tanzania on communications.

David Schimpky