Biographical Note
His professional background includes managerial positions in the public and private sectors as well as extensive experience in the community sector, where he helped set up and support advocacy and service groups, consumer and worker co-operatives and other social organisations.
He was active in community economic development (CED) in Canada for over 25 years, notably as Co ordinator of the first community development corporation in Québec and as Associate Director of the Canadian CED Network. For more than thirty years, he has been a researcher in this field and that of the social economy as well as in those of empowerment-focused intervention and community mobilisation and development, with works published in French and English. He has taught at the School of Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University as well as the Graduate Diploma Program in CED at Concordia University, an educational program he helped set up. He was an adjunct professor at Laval University and at the Université du Québec en Outaouais.
Over the years, Bill chaired the CED training institute based in Montréal and was a founding member of several organisations including the Québec Social Development Council, Québec solidaire (for which he was the candidate in his riding in the provincial elections of 2007 and 2008), Communagir and the Collectif des partenaires en développement des communautés.
As a person with multiple disabilities, Bill has also been involved in numerous social movements concerned with the rights of physically-challenged individuals.
