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The Actra Fraternal Benefit Society Board of Governors
Thor Bishopric
Chair
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Thor Bishopric was first elected to the Board of Actra Fraternal Benefit Society in 1997 as the member representative from Eastern Canada. He is a member of both the Writers Guild and ACTRA, where he served as National President for six years.
Thor began his career at the age of 4 and has performed leading roles in radio dramas, MOWs, theatre productions, episodic TV programs and feature films. In the early 1990s, Thor began writing for television and has since written and adapted more than 140 produced scripts. Thor also works widely as a director, story editor, translator, lyricist and development consultant. To date, he has written, directed and or performed in over 1600 television programs, commercials, documentaries, radio programs, new media productions and feature films.
| David Ferry
Vice Chair
 | David Ferry is originally from St. John's Newfoundland and started his career acting in radio dramas there as an ACTRA member in 1967. David is an award winning actor on stage, film, radio and TV. He is also an award winning, internationally recognized, director in the theatre. He has recently edited two play collections for Playwrights Canada Press. He is a past National Chair of the Actra Performers Guild and is past Vice-President External of CAEA. He has also sat on the Insurance/RRSP and Finance Committees of both those associations and has served on several inter-discipline coalitions. David has been active in collective bargaining and sat on the first Ontario Ministry of Labour Committee drafting health and safety guidelines for the film industry. | Norm Bolen
President & CEO CMPA
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Norm Bolen is currently the President and CEO of the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), based in Ottawa. The CMPA represents Canada’s independent film, television and interactive producers.
Norm is the former Executive Vice President, Content, for Alliance Atlantis Communications. At Alliance Atlantis he had overall programming responsibility for thirteen Canadian specialty networks: Showcase, History Television, Slice, HGTV, Food Network Canada, BBC Canada, BBC Kids, Discovery Health Channel, National Geographic Channel, Independent Film Channel, Showcase Action, Showcase Diva and Fine Living Television. Norm was also responsible for Alliance Atlantis' web based and emerging new media content and all Broadcast Operations.
Prior to joining Alliance Atlantis in 1997, Norm spent 21 years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a journalist and executive. In his last position at the CBC he was the head of Network Television Current Affairs.
Norm is a current Board member and past Chair of the Banff World Television Festival Board, Co-chair of the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival and a Director of the National Screen Institute. Until recently, he was also a Director of mDialog, a web-based high-resolution video distribution platform that's optimized for the iPhone.
| David Atkins
Senior Advisor
 | David Atkins, M.A. (Law), FCA, is a Senior Advisor to the law firm Lang Michener, specializing in the financial services sector. David is a former senior partner with Coopers & Lybrand, chartered accountants. He is a director of several Canadian and American companies. He has published various papers and lectured on topics including corporate governance and financial reporting. He is past Chair of the National Ballet School and has been a director of Tarragon Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre and Prologue for the Performing Arts. | William Samples
Western Region
 | Born in Bombay and educated in India, Pakistan, England, Scotland and Canada, William Samples has lived in Vancouver for the past twenty years. He works in TV, film, voice-over animation, radio drama and on the stage, last summer working for "Bard-on-the-beach" in Macbeth and Dream. In addition, William reads novels and textbooks to tape for the visually impaired. | Peggy Mahon
Central Region
 | Peggy Mahon was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she studied music and began acting, teaching voice and singing professionally. For 20 years she has toured North America participating in theatre, performing in club tours, musicals, film, TV, radio, and broadcasting. For the past 12 years, Peggy has been repatriating services back to the industry by serving as the first Treasurer on the Board of PAL, as Treasurer of ACTRA Toronto, National Treasurer of the APG and for 5 years as a Governor at the Society. | Corrie Coe
CTV BellMedia
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Corrie Coe is the Senior Vice-President, Independent Production, Bell Media. Bell Media is Canada's premier multi-media company, owning CTV, Canada's largest private broadcaster, the A-Channel network, numerous specialty and digital channels featuring news, sports, factual, arts, entertainment, music, youth and fashion programming. A legal and business specialist in the Canadian film and television production industry for 20 years, Corrie previously held positions in both the public and private sectors including the Canadian Television Fund, the Ontario Film Development Corporation and at Smith, Lyons, Torrance, Stevenson & Mayer. A member of WIFT-T, the Academy and CWC, Corrie is also a past director of the Canadian Television Fund.
| Guy Gauthier
National Film Board
 | Guy Gauthier has been with the National Film Board since 1972 and was appointed Director, Human Resources in 1988 after having occupied the positions of Personnel Advisor and Chief, Staff Relations. For many years, he lectured on industrial relations at Université de Montréal. He is also Vice-President of a credit union, the Caisse d’Économie Desjardins de la Culture. | The Honourable Madame Marie-P (Charette) Poulin
Senate of Canada
 | Called to the Senate of Canada in September 1995, the Honourable Marie-P. Poulin is a member of the Senate Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration and a past member of the Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce.
Prior to her appointment, Senator Poulin was a deputy minister in the government of Canada and a broadcast executive. As founding Chairman and CEO of the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal, she established a new federal agency for self-employed workers.
As Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet at the Privy Council Office, she was responsible for overseeing all government communications and consultations. As Vice-President of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she held various portfolios: Human Resources and Industrial Relations; Secretary General to the Board; Regional Radio and Television Broadcasting Operations. Prior to her national experience at the CBC, she was founding Director of the Corporation's Northern Ontario French Services which included launching Sudbury's radio station "CBON" and establishing over 30 re-transmitter antennae in Northeastern and Northwestern Ontario. In the earlier part of her career, she worked as a program producer, researcher and university lecturer.
She has received national and international recognition for her professional achievements and participation on the boards of various organizations over the years. | Pierre Racicot
CBC
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Pierre Racicot is the Past Chair of Actra Fraternal Benefit Society. He currently sits on the Audit Committee and the ad hoc committees dealing with Benefits and Investments.
Pierre retired from the CBC in 1995, after 34 years in the broadcasting industry where he held several senior positions including Vice-President, French Regional Broadcasting Operations at the time of his retirement. He also held the positions of Regional Director (French) for Ontario and the Outaouais; Regional Director, National Capital Region; Vice President, Human Resources; Assistant Vice President, Human Resources; Director of Industrial and Talent Relations, and Head of Labour Relations. He is a former President of Papicajo Productions, a television production company involved in the development and production of television programs.
He is currently President of Pierre Racicot & Associates, consultants in management, collective bargaining and community relations to the print and broadcasting industries. Pierre is a Trustee of the CBC Pension Plan and a Trustee of the American Federation of Musicians and Employers Pension Plan.
| Ferne Downey
ACTRA President
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A graduate of Dalhousie University's Theatre Dept, Ferne Downey has spent the past twenty-seven years working extensively as an actor in theatre, radio, television & film as well as producing shows with partner, Paul Ledoux. Dream earned her a DORA Award nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical in 2001. Since 1991 she has been active in governing ACTRA and advocating for performers' rights. Past service includes terms as President of ACTRA Toronto and multiple terms as VP Communications, as well as Jury Chair of the ACTRA Awards 2003. Since 1998 she has been Chair of the Entertainment Industry Coalition (EIC) and a PAL Canada Board member serving in the Research & Communications portfolio. As of 2004, she serves as ACTRA Treasurer and the ACTRA representative on the AFBS Board.
| Richard Hardacre
Councillor
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Richard Hardacre is an actor. A member of ACTRA, and of Canadian and American Actors’ Equity since 1976. An advocate for all cultural workers, he is the Past National President of ACTRA, the union representing over 21,000 professional performers in English-language recorded media in Canada.
Richard received his B.A. (English) from the University of Western Ontario, following initial studies in Honours Mathematics. He trained for the stage, graduating from Canada’s National Theatre School in Montreal, and with Uta Hagen at the renowned HB Studio in New York.
He has been an ensemble member of the Stratford and Shaw Festival Companies for several seasons. He has worked in theatre, film and television while living in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, New York and Los Angeles.
Among his film and television credits are numerous Canadian productions such as 'The Eleventh Hour', 'DeGrassi - The Next Generation', and the four 1980's ground-breaking series, 'Night Heat', 'Street Legal', 'ENG' and 'Due South'.
Throughout his terms of leadership as ACTRA's National President, Richard championed the on-going campaign for Canadian Drama, the rights of disadvantaged and Child Performers, and he helped lead ACTRA through the hard-won battle of the union's first-ever strike in it’s seven decade history.
He is an unrelenting advocate for Canadian culture, and has been involved in building the rights of fellow performers, writers and creators in both official languages since joining ACTRA's policy activism in 1995.
His work continues.
| Jani Yates
President of ICA
 | Jani joined ICA in 1998 and works extensively on membership relations and ICA initiatives. Having worked in both official languages in Montreal and Toronto, she brings 20+ years of diverse advertising experience and extensive involvement in various aspects of the industry. Concurrent with her position at ICA, she is an Executive Board Member of the Advertising Standards Canada and Chair of the CASSIES, and has served as Chair of the National Advertising Benevolent Society (NABS), and President of the Advertising Club of Toronto. | Sugith Varughese
Writers Guild of Canada
 | Screenwriter credits include series TV, "The Phoenix Team," "Fraggle Rock", "Mount Royal", "Blue Murder", “The Blobheads”. He wrote the narration for the Gemini-nominated documentary, "Show Girls" and co-wrote the Imax documentary "Lost Worlds: Life in the balance." His series of animated short film scripts for the NFB called "Talespinners" won a Writers Guild of Canada award for the first three scripts in the collection. He has been nominated for best writing ACTRA and Gemini Awards and won the York Trillium Award for Most Promising Writer – Television. In addition to winning once, he has been a finalist for a Writers Guild of Canada award five times. His CBC radio play “Entry Denied” was Canada's entry in the 2002 WorldPlay festival in Dublin.
As a writer-director graduate of the Canadian Film Centre, he made the first Centre short to be nominated for a Genie, "Kumar and Mr. Jones", which also won 3 international awards. His children's short films, "Mela's Lunch" and "The Secret Life of Goldfish" have won numerous awards and he has directed a number of innovative videos sponsored by major pharmaceutical companies. His latest short film, “Tongue Tied” has been invited to the Reel World Film Festival in Toronto in March, 2004.
As an actor, he has appeared in over 60 films, television programs, radio plays and on stage. He co-stars in CBC TV's Gemini-winning hit comedy, “An American in Canada” and was nominated as part of the cast for Best Ensemble in a comedy Gemini in 2003.
He comes to the ACTRA Fraternal Board of Governors representing the Writers Guild of Canada national council, on which he serves as an elected representative from the Central region. He also sits on the board of Home Options Alternatives, a funding agency for non-profit condominium housing and on the board of the condominium corporation where he lives in Toronto. He has a 1st degree black belt in Chito-ryu karate. |
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