In celebration of Pride Month, on June 11, 2025, Engineers Canada and partner TD Insurance hosted a webinar, “Allyship in Engineering: Amplifying 2SLGBTQI+ voices and driving positive change.” If you missed the conversation live, a recording is now available.
The webinar sought to answer the questions, what does active allyship look like? How can we meaningfully support our 2SLGBTQI+ colleagues?
The moderator and panellists represented professionals from across engineering, technology, trades, and finance to discuss the importance of allyship among colleagues in the workplace, particularly in the current global context that has seen a backlash against equal rights and companies that have withdrawn their support for Pride events, for example.
Moderated by Jove Nazatul (they/them), Project Coordinator with the Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (CCWESST), the webinar featured panellists Julia Duhamel (she/her), Senior Manager, Public Cloud Compute at TD Bank Group; Tim Joseph (he/him), Principal Engineer at JPI Mine Equipment & Engineering and Engineers Canada Board Director and 30 by 30 Board Champion; and Vanessa Raponi (she/her), Founder and Manager of EngiQueers and Manager, Manufacturing Engineer at Spin Master. Reflecting on their lived experience, the panellists discussed what meaningful support for 2SLGBTQI+ folks looks like in practice, and offered their insights on the role of allies and the actions that can be taken towards building more inclusive spaces.
Kim Bouffard, Engineers Canada’s Manager of Belonging and Engagement, and Jeanette Southwood, Engineers Canada’s Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, provided opening and closing remarks, respectively.
