Paris: Promoting Francophone Leadership

It’s 2022 and our cohorts are finally back in the field and back to cruising speed. We have the impression that we have returned to our roots, firmly grounded in one of our great foundational themes: Canada and the World.

On November 29, 2022, the Foundation signed a partnership with the Association nationale France-Canada in Paris. This is the beginning of a reciprocal relationship between our nations, networks, and our ways of knowing. From this meeting was born a commitment to organize joint activities each year with the goal of creating lasting links on both sides of the Atlantic. Here is a summary of our stay in the City of Light.
 

Wednesday, November 29

This day of reflection on solidarity and social economy begins with a roundtable discussion over breakfast on the theme Global Economies: International arbitration, human rights, and leadership. After a word from the Foundation’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Pascale Fournier, 2021 Scholar Raphaël Grenier-Benoît introduces Maitre Roland Ziadé, Senior Partner and Co-Head of International Arbitration with the Linklaters law firm and Maitre Anne Souléliac, a lawyer responsible for human rights at the Paris Bar. Each gives an impassioned presentation before Co-president and Co-founder of Groupe Germain and 2022 Mentor, Christiane Germain, closes the panel discussion.

The panel is followed by an open conversation on Leadership in Action: The Benefits of a Collaborative Mentoring Relationship, hosted by 2020 Mentor, Janice McDonald, and 2020 Scholar, Charlie Wall-Andrews.

It is an emotive evening with the signing of the partnership agreement between the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and the Association nationale France-Canada, which is immediately followed by a celebratory cocktail, then a dinner, in the presence of The Honorable Stéphane Dion, Canada’s Ambassador to France and Special Envoy to the EU and Europe.
 

Thursday, November 3

The day got off to a flying start with a private tour of the Louvre Museum in the company of the Secretary General of the Association nationale France-Canada, Caroline Montel-Glenisson. The participants then meet in the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), where they attend a round table with CCI President, Dominique Restino.

At the beginning of the afternoon, discussions continued at Action Tank, an organization dedicated to the development of innovative programs to reduce poverty and exclusion in France, supported by economically sustainable companies. A roundtable discussion is held on world economies, the social and solidarity economy, and action against poverty, with participants including Philippe Coquereau, Martin Hirsch, and Jacques Berger. 2022 Scholar, Alexandre Petitclerc, delivers the closing remarks.

The day ends with a cocktail and dinner on the Seine aboard a river barge, known as a péniche.

Friday, December 1

The theme Global Economies: Leadership and the hybridity of knowledge is on the agenda for our morning at SKEMA Business School, a school which, faced with a globalized economy where agility and innovation are essential, trains talent who create and act to transform industries, organizations, and wider society. The school’s Alumni and Patronage Director and Executive Director of SKEMA School of Management Canada Inc., Madeleine Martins, is introduced by David Eliot, 2022 Scholar. Dr Simon Chadwick, a researcher, writer, academic, and consultant working in global sport, also takes the floor.

In the afternoon, the group visits the Sorbonne Art Gallery with Professor and artist Yann Toma before a fascinating literary discussion around the work Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History by 2022 Mentor, Richard Thompson Ford.

The Professor of law and cultural critic presents an insightful and entertaining history of fashion rules from the Middle Ages to today. This mixture of cultural criticism, jurisprudence, history, and sociology adds a critical, qualitative methodology to the study of global economies, the theme of the 2022-2025 Scientific Cycle of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation’s Leadership Program in which Dr. Ford serves as a Mentor.

At dinner, 2022 Mentor, Régis Labeaume, who served as the 37th mayor of Quebec City from 2007 and 2021, officially closes the trip during a speech that lives up to his reputation as a fascinating and entertaining speaker.