Ottawa, Ontario - 26 May 2014
Permanent Members
Kevin Stewart MacLeod
Kevin Stewart MacLeod is a native of BoularderieIsland, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He studied at BostonUniversity (Boston, Massachusetts) and CarletonUniversity (Ottawa, Ontario), and received both an undergraduate degree in history/political science and a graduate degree in international affairs. He also pursued studies at l’Université de Bourgogne (Dijon, France).
Mr. MacLeod gained ten years of parliamentary experience as an administrative assistant in the House of Commons. For 22 years, he served with the Department of Canadian Heritage, most notably as Chief of Protocol. In this role, he was responsible for, among other duties, the organization and delivery of Royal Tours to Canada by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Members of the Canadian Royal Family. In 1992, Her Majesty invested Mr. MacLeod as a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) for personal service to the Sovereign. Subsequently, she promoted him to the rank of Lieutenant (LVO) in 2002 and, in 2005, to Commander (CVO) – the highest level of the Order available to Canadians – making him the only Canadian to have been promoted through all three ranks. During the 2005 Royal Tour, he served as Deputy Coordinator and then as Acting Canadian Secretary to Her Majesty.
Mr. MacLeod was appointed Usher of the Black Rod, Senate of Canada, on March 26, 2008. In addition to these duties, on March 31, 2009 he was further appointed Canadian Secretary to The Queen and Chair of the Government of Canada’s Diamond Jubilee Committee – three areas of responsibility that he continues to fulfill. In April 2010, he was also appointed by the Prime Minister to the Governor General Consultation Committee – a committee mandated to bring forward names for consideration for the appointment of a new Governor General. This process resulted in the eventual appointment of David Johnston as Canada’s 28th Governor General since Confederation.
Mr. MacLeod is the author of the bilingual historical novel “A Stone on Their Cairn/Clach air An Càrn”, about the lives of Scottish Highland settlers in rural CapeBreton. He also authored “A Crown of Maples/ La Couronne canadienne” - an overview of the Canadian Crown and constitutional monarchy in Canada, published by the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Mr. MacLeod served as a reservist in Her Majesty’s Canadian Forces for some 20 years. He is a member of the Senate of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
Robert Douglas Watt
Robert D. Watt was born in Picton, Ontario, and currently resides in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Watt holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from CarletonUniversity (Ottawa, Ontario).
Appointed Citizenship Judge in Vancouver in September 2009, he is a Canadian social historian who served as the first Chief Herald of Canada from 1988-2007 in the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General. Mr. Watt was previously Director of the VancouverMuseum, and the City of Vancouver Archivist.
Mr. Watt has served in several areas of heritage preservation and on the boards of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada, the International Academy of Heraldry, the B.C. Museums Association, and the Vancouver Historical Society. He was also president of the Bureau permanent des congrès internationaux des sciences généalogique et héraldique. He has written, published and lectured extensively in Canada and internationally on Canadian heraldry, Canadian social history and material culture, notably historic Canadian stained glass, museum and archival studies and genealogy.
Appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 2008, he is also an Officer of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John and received the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2011, he was appointed Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the 12th Vancouver Field Ambulance, a reserve unit in the Canadian Forces.
Jacques Monet
Jacques Monet was born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. After studying at the Collège Saint-Jean and at Loyola College in Montréal, he entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Guelph, Ontario. He received his B.A. from the Université de Montréal, his degrees in Philosophy and Theology at the Collège de l’Immaculée-Conception in Montréal, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Monet is currently the Director of the Canadian Institute of Jesuit Studies, a position he has held since 1988. He is also the Historian of the Archive of the Jesuits in Canada. He has taught at numerous colleges and universities across the country, and is involved in numerous boards and associations.
In 1966, Dr. Monet was ordained to the priesthood at the Church of the Immaculée-Conception in Montréal and made his final profession in the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) at Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre, Paris, in 1971.
Dr. Monet is a specialist in Canadian constitutional and social history as well as 19th century French-Canadian nationalism, in Church and in Jesuit history. He has published many scholarly articles and has also contributed to many books, including the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Encyclopedia.
For his work, he has received various awards and honours. He is a recipient of Her Majesty The Queen’s Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals, as well as the Governor General’s Gold Medal, among others.
Temporary Members
Georgette Roy
Georgette Roy was born in Shannonvale, New Brunswick, and currently resides in Fredericton. She is a graduate of ChatelaineBusinessCollege in Montréal, Quebec.
From 2010 to 2013, Ms. Roy served as a Citizenship Judge in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Ms. Roy is also the past Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Service New Brunswick, a Crown Corporation operating under the authority of the Service New Brunswick Act. She was appointed to the position in 2001 for a three-year term, and was re-appointed for a further three years in 2005. Prior to this appointment, she had been a sales representative for Jost Vineyards of Malagash, Nova Scotia.
From 1982 to 1994, Ms. Roy was the Executive Director of the N.B. Liquor Licensing Board, where she also acted as Secretary to the Board. Prior to this, she held positions in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of New Brunswick.
Ms. Roy is actively involved in her community where she does charitable work with the homeless shelters in Fredericton. She is a past member of the Kidney Foundation and of the YMCA Endowment Board. She is also the past President of the Epsilon Y’s Menettes, a YMCA group in Fredericton, for which she currently coordinates two projects.
Jean-Bernard Lafontaine
Jean-Bernard Lafontaine lives in Moncton, New Brunswick. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in French Literature, History and Political Science from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, as well as a Master's Degree of Arts in French-Canadian Civilization from the Université de Montréal.
From 1994 to 2009, Mr. Lafontaine held a variety of positions in the Department of Canadian Heritage, including Regional Executive Director, Atlantic Region; Director for New Brunswick; and Senior Advisor for the Atlantic regions.
From 1987 to 1994, he served by turns as Regional Director (New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Region) for the Department of the Secretary of State of Canada in Moncton, and Communications Advisor to the Secretary of State of Canada in Hull, Quebec.
From 1980 to 1985, Mr. Lafontaine held the positions of Information and Research Director, and then Director General in the Fédération des Francophones hors Québec in Ottawa.
He also served as Information Director for the Association des enseignants francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick from 1975 to 1980.
From 2007 to 2012, he sat on the board of directors of the Canadian Institute for Research on Public Policy and Public Administration of the Université de Moncton.
Since 2012, Mr. Lafontaine has served as Vice-Chair of the New Brunswick Foundation for the Arts, and is currently the Vice-Chair of the Fonds de l'avenir de la Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau Brunswick.
His accomplishments and commitment to the community during his professional career earned him a Public Service of Canada Award of Excellence in 2009 and the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 2002.
