SPEAKERS

Keynote Speaker

Erica Gavel

Canadian Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball Athlete

Erica Gavel is a Paralympic wheelchair basketball athlete from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Gavel played basketball at the University of Saskatchewan (2009-12) until a serious knee injury sidelined her from the game. However, her dreams as a basketball player did not end there. She went on to help Canada win a silver medal at the 2016 Parapan Games in Toronto and gold at the 2019 Parapan Games in Lima. She also represented Team Canada at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro where they finished fifth. Gavel was selected on the Canadian team ready to compete at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo before the games got postponed and is currently training for the Paralympics in 2021. Not only is Gavel a high performance athlete, she is also a current PhD candidate at the Ontario Tech University with research interests in environmental physiology and Paralympic performance. She was an assistant coach at York University, and was a coach and member of the Board of Directors at Ontario Basketball. She has also recently been elected vice-chair of the Canadian Paralympic Athletes Association.

Michael Landsberg

Founder of #SickNotWeak & TSN Broadcast Personality

Michael Landsberg is one of Canada’s best known personalities in broadcasting and is the former host of TSN’s popular 18-season talk show “Off the Record.” Landsberg is now the co-host of TSN’s First Up. Landsberg is also one of Canada’s most renowned and vocal mental health advocates. He is the founder of #SickNotWeak, a foundation dedicated to eradicating the stigma around mental health, and serves as both a resource and community for people living with mental illness and those who wish to support loved ones. Landsberg is an ambassador for Bell Let’s Talk, an initiative raising awareness for mental health. Darkness and Hope: Depression, Sports, and Me is Landsberg’s documentary which shows him opening up about his own journey with depression and interviewing special guests, like Clara Hughs, about their own battles. Darkness and Hope was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award, and Landsberg was personally honored with the organization’s Humanitarian Award. The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health also named Landsberg as one of its Champions of Mental Health. With the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Landsberg has extended his efforts to create Isolation Nation, a digital program dedicated to mitigating the dangerous effects of social isolation on mental health.