ACTION POUR SURVIVANTS DE TORTURE ET TRAUMATISME DE GUERRE
ACTION FOR SURVIVORS OF TORTURE AND WAR TRAUMA
WHO WE ARE
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Hilaire Lemoine
Hilaire Lemoine (Treasurer) has a thirty-five year career with the Government of Canada, with more than 10 years as the Director General of Official Languages Support Programs at the Department of Canadian Heritage, and two years as Special Advisor for Canada to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, in the area of Education and language policy.
Hilaire joined the University of Ottawa in 2006 as Executive in Residence, working mainly at the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI), with the mandate to develop national and international collaborations in the areas of language teaching, research, language policies and language planning. As a member of OLBI, he was responsible for the negotiation of a Protocol of Agreement between the University of Ottawa and the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) of the Council of Europe. Through this Agreement, OLBI acts as the “Canadian Contact Point” for the ECML, assists in the dissemination of the works of the ECML and coordinates the participation of Canadians experts in projects and research activities of the Centre. Hilaire has also developed an on-going cooperation with the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (IOHE), an organization comprising of more than 300 institutions and national university associations, encouraging collaboration among universities of the Americas through the establishment of networks in areas such as internationalization, governance and democracy, women and work equity, governance and human rights. Through this partnership, OLBI was a co-founder in 2008 of the Inter-American Network for Language Development, and acts as Chair of this Network.
Hilaire acted as the principal Policy Advisor to the National Languages Project (2010–2015), a Canada-Sri Lanka development project, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD), to support, in a post-conflict environment, the development of equitable government services and opportunities to citizens in their language (Sinhala or Tamil), as a mean of promoting social cohesion, harmony and ongoing peace.
Hilaire spent 6 years as treasurer on the National Board of the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers, is a board member of the Orchestre de la Francophonie, and of the Fondation pour l’avancement du théâtre francophone au Canada. He is a proud representative of francophone minority communities in Canada and has the conviction that valuing diversity helps to reinforce the foundations of our country.
Emmanuelle Lambert-Lemoine
Emmanuelle Lambert-Lemoine (Vice-President) is an experienced artist and pedagogue. She holds a BEd from the University of Ottawa and is currently a music teacher at De La Salle High School. Emmanuelle is also a graduate of New York University where she completed her MA in Performance Studies, with a focus on popular education and social justice through the arts.
As a trained musician, theater artist and dancer, and a teacher of those art forms, she has worked extensively with different cultural groups—including children, youth, and women—in Canada, the US, Mexico, and Central America. Emmanuelle’s point of interest lies at the intersection of storytelling and collective creation as a tool for healing and working through trauma. She has had the opportunity to work with Mayan women who experienced extreme violence during the war in the 1980s. Together, they used theatre as a transformative tool to tell untold stories from the depth of personal and collective memory.
In more recent years, Emmanuelle has also been developing her own approach in working intuitively with teenagers using various forms of energy work, especially those who experience difficulties with integrating social situations such as the school system because of anxiety, lack of focus, extreme sensitivities, and low self-esteem.
Emmanuelle believes that creativity, joy and laughter hold an important role in the personal and collective healing process. Indeed, to quote Elaine Scarry in her work on pain and beauty, “a concern with beauty is in fact a concern with justice.” Emmanuelle is excited to discover with the community how creativity and beauty can be of service to heal and raise awareness on the issues of torture and war trauma.
Buuma Maisha
Buuma Maisha (Director of Research and Training) holds a Ph.D from the School of Psychotherapy, Counselling and Spirituality at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, ON. Buuma is an Assistant Professor and clinical supervisor at the university. From 2011 to 2016, Buuma worked as a clinical therapist for the Family’s Center for Treatment of Sexual Abuse in Gatineau, QC. Buuma is a member of the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, and, in 2013, opened his own private practice of psychotherapy for individuals, couples, and families in Ottawa. Additionally, Buuma works as a clinical and information counselor to members of the Canadian Armed Forces and their families through Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services (CFMWS).
Originally from the war-torn eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Buuma arrived in Canada in 2005. His doctoral research is on treatment of victims of rape in times of war, in contexts where sexual taboos cause stigmatization for the victims. Buuma has travelled back and forth to his home country to provide skilful training on clinical counselling for victims of rape, in the context of sexual taboos. Trauma, especially torture and war trauma, continues to be among the leading interests of Buuma’s clinical and research work.
Benjamin Segobaetso
Benjamin Segobaetso (president) is a PhD student in the Ethics and Public Affairs program at Carleton University. He has Master’s Degree in Public Ethics from University of Ottawa -Saint Paul University in Ottawa and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Conflict Studies earned at the same universities. He is also a Licensed Paralegal with a background in journalism. Benjamin authored My Exile is a Protest, which was published by Zero Gravity Press in 2009, and he has published articles in notable Ottawa and western Quebec newspapers. He has held a legal assistant position at Gerami Law firm in Ottawa, where he specialized in refugee law, research, and legal writing.
During his paralegal studies program, he participated as a legal intern at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), where he was involved in refugee law research and comparative study projects on different European countries’ refugee determination and appeal systems.
He also observed Parliamentary Standing Committee and Senate meetings related to UNHCR’s mandate regarding Bill C-31, which is currently a statute that amended the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) of 2012. He has also acted as note-taker for UNHCR Representative to Canada, Mr. Furio De Angelis, during his presentation speech to the Canadian Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science & Technology deliberations on Bill C-31.
In 2014, Benjamin acted as duty counsel under the auspices of the West End Legal Clinic of Ottawa, representing clients at the Landlord and Tenant Board as a Licensed Paralegal.
Currently, Benjamin sits in the Saint Paul University Senate representing graduate students. He is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Regional Association of West Quebecers (RAWQ) and the AIDS Committee of Ottawa (ACO). He is also a former member of the County of Carleton Law Association (CCLA) and a former member of the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ) Ottawa Working Group.
Johanne Deschamps
Johanne Deschamps (Member-at-Large) received her diploma in Photovision from the Ontario College of Art (OCA, Toronto), in 1994. She then completed her B.A. with a major in Pastoral Sciences and a minor in Psychology in 2010 (St-Paul University, Ottawa) and followed through with her Masters in Counselling and Spirituality (graduated in 2012, also from St-Paul University) while raising her 2 daughters. She focused her attention on the issue of sexual trauma while working on her Masters, and was the proud recipient of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) – Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships for her research project on the effects of sexual abuse on the survivors’ spirituality in 2011. Johanne is currently pursuing a second Masters in Art-Therapy at the Université du Québec en Abitibi – Témiscamingue (UQAT). She is also a part-time professor at the school of Human Sciences and Spirituality (St-Paul University) and is a casual employee for the Family Information Line (Military Family Services). While working for the Department of National Defence (DND) within the Sexual Misconduct Response Centre (SMRC) last year, she became aware of the pressing need for therapy specifically tailored to Military Sexual Trauma (MTS). Johanne is now focusing her studies in Art Therapy on this issue with the goal of developing and implementing therapeutic group interventions for DND using visual arts.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
BOARD MEMBER ROLES
Benjamin Segobaetso: President
Emmanuelle Lambert-Lemoine: Vice-President
Buuma Maisha: Director of Research and Training
Hilaire Lemoine: Treasurer
Johanne Deschamps: Member-at-Large
ASTAWT is currently seeking volunteers.
If you are interested, please contact astawt@gmail.com
Dr. Manal Guirguis Younger, Ph.D
Clinical Psychology
Dean of Faculties of Human Sciences
and Philosophy
St. Paul University, Ottawa
Dr. Younger's research activities are in the areas of palliative care and homelessness. Dr. Younger has written and published several books, contributed book chapters, journal articles, book reviews, governmental reports and pedagogical materials.