Schedule

Registration and the breakfast buffet will be located in the hallway outside the Georgian Bay Ballroom.

Welcome to InSPIRE 2025! Join us for a conference opening and welcome from Dr. Nadiya Sunderji and Dr. Bernard Le Foll.

Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree Ph.D. Candidate in the History program and Assistant Professor at York University, Toronto. Currently, he is working on theories of the intergenerational and historical trauma of the Métis people. Jesse’s work involves reflections on his own previous struggles with addiction and homelessness. It has been recognized as having a wide impact on the scholarly community and the greater public. Thistle was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1979 he and his two brothers were removed from his family home and moved to Brampton, Ontario, to be brought up by his paternal grandparents. During his late teens and twenties, Thistle struggled with addiction and homelessness and served several brief stints in jail for petty theft. After an unsuccessful robbery attempt in 2006, Thistle turned himself into police custody and entered a drug rehabilitation program. In 2012 he entered the history program at York University. Thistle is a Trudeau Scholar, a prestigious award administered by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, a Vanier Scholar, and was awarded a Governor General's Silver Medal in 2016. He has won numerous other awards, including the Odessa Award in 2014 and the Dr. James Wu prize in 2015 for his paper "We are children of the river: Toronto’s Lost Métis History," and in 2019 became an Atlohsa Peace Award Honoree. In 2019, Jesse published his autobiographical and acclaimed book “From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless and Finding My Way,” which went on to be a #1 bestseller as well as nominated for Canada Reads. Jesse is the author of the Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada, published through the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. His historical research has been published in numerous academic journals, book chapters, and featured on CBC Ideas, CBC Campus, and Unreserved. Thistle is married to Lucie Thistle, and they have a daughter, Rose.

Keynote & Panel Presentations

Presenters will provide a brief overview of a project, program, best practice or policy focusing on digital mental health and substance use health.

Digital mental health and substance use health

Workshops will start with a brief presentation followed by interactive discussions or activities with the group, exploring ideas, tools or skills, and connections.

Innovations in mental health & substance use health
Moving upstream: prevention and promotion
Knowledge translation & mobilization

Workshops will start with a brief presentation followed by interactive discussions or activities with the group, exploring ideas, tools or skills, and connections.

EDI in mental health & substance use health research
Moving upstream: prevention and promotion
Collaborations & partnerships

Presenters will provide a brief overview of a project, program, best practice or policy focusing on criminal justice and forensic mental health research.

Criminal justice and forensic mental health research

Workshops will start with a brief presentation followed by interactive discussions or activities with the group, exploring ideas, tools or skills, and connections.

Bridging research and impact
Moving upstream: prevention and promotion
Collaborations & partnerships
Knowledge translation & mobilization

Presenters will provide a brief overview of a project, program, best practice or policy focusing on innovations in mental health and substance use health.

Innovations in mental health & substance use health

The lunch buffet will be in the hallway outside the Georgian Bay Ballroom.

Presenters will provide a brief overview of a project, program, best practice or policy focusing on bridging research and impact and innovations in mental health & substance use health.

Bridging research and impact
Innovations in mental health & substance use health

Presenters will provide a brief overview of a project, program, best practice or policy focusing on bridging research and impact.

Bridging research and impact

Presenters will provide a brief overview of a project, program, best practice or policy focusing on mental health and substance use health across the lifespan.

Mental health and substance use health across the lifespan

Join us for a poster presentation session! Presenters will provide a brief summary of their virtual poster for participants.

Workshops will start with a brief presentation followed by interactive discussions or activities with the group, exploring ideas, tools or skills, and connections.

Recovery- and trauma-informed practices and systems
Criminal justice and forensic mental health research
Mental health and substance use health across the lifespan
Knowledge translation & mobilization
Patient-centered approaches

Presenters will provide a brief overview of a project, program, best practice or policy focusing on patient-centered approaches.

Patient-centered approaches

A brief summary of Day 1 and closing remarks will be shared.