Unmasking the Truth Speakers
2017
Tanya Fletcher, MC for our 2016 and 2017 Unmasking the Truth
Unmasking the Truth is delighted to welcome back the MC who won our hearts last year, journalist extraordinaire Tanya Fletcher. Tanya graduated from Mount Royal University with both her broadcasting diploma and journalism degree, then went on to CHAT-TV in Medicine Hat, CTV Lethbridge, and CTV Calgary. After a stint as a flight attendant for WestJet, Tanya returned to the news industry by working as a reporter for Energy TV, writer for Home to Home Magazine, and host of the Calgary Real Estate Show. It wasn’t long before Vancouver’s NEWS 1130 came calling; Tanya was welcomed as the radio station’s inaugural Weekend Managing Editor, then went on to become a senior on-air anchor for five years. Last summer, Tanya made the jump to the country’s public broadcast and now works at the CBC as a reporter and anchor – for both local and national – television and radio.
Bonnie Reilly Schmidt, Ph.D.
Former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, Bonnie Reilly Schmidt, has been on the front lines, so to speak, of women hitting the glass ceiling in Canadian law enforcement since she was hired by the force in 1977 – just three years after women were first admitted to the force. She was a plainclothes RCMP officer for 10 years, before returning to post-secondary studies. Today, she is an award-winning scholar with a Ph.D. in Canadian History.
Her ground-breaking first book Silenced: The Untold Story of the Fight for Equality in the RCMP was published in 2015. Bonnie has been a go-to source for media including the CBC, the Vancouver Sun and Global TV to talk about women in the RCMP.
Bonnie is also the beloved Director of Ministry Programs at NightShift.
Dr. Beverly Saul-Duke
Her passion for science and love of adventure has taken Dr. Beverly Saul-Duke to several different continents and through years of dedicated study in the field of medicine. Born in Guyana, South America, she is one of 10 siblings. Beverly successfully pursued a career as a pharmacist, got married and started a family. But she couldn’t ignore her untapped potential in medicine. By the late 1990’s, she completed post-graduate studies in the United Kingdom. Though this was a challenging time for her, she met success through perseverance and prayer.
Her adventurous spirit took her to the Canada, firstly to the prairies – Humboldt, Saskatchewan to be exact. That is, until a snowstorm blew her to White Rock, B.C., where Beverly practices as a family physician today.
Dianne Watts, MP
This is a woman of “firsts”, who pushed passed a few glass ceilings in her work as a popular public servant and a businesswoman dedicated to seeing healthy change come to her community. Dianne is the first, and current, Member of Parliament for the new riding of South Surrey/White Rock. She is the only Conservative MP in the City of Surrey, serving as the Official Opposition’s Critic for Infrastructure and Communities.
Many of us remember Dianne as the Mayor of Surrey, where she served three terms (2005 to 2015) as – you guessed it – the first female mayor. Under her mayoral leadership, Surrey was declared the #1 place in B.C. to invest, and the 4th best city in Canada by the Real Estate Investment Network, four years in a row. She is also known for her comprehensive plans to reduce crime and poverty in Surrey.
From 1996 to 2005, Dianne served as a Surrey City Councillor. She was honoured during that time at the first elected official in Surrey to become an honorary firefighter. Her diverse business career includes co-managing and consulting for an architecture firm and serving as CEO of a non-profit that helps start-up companies.
Dr. Patricia McEvoy
The quick way to describe the versatile and gifted Dr. Patricia McEvoy is “renaissance woman”. She has passionately pursued fields in medicine, fine arts and business. A visual artist who also practices medicine, Patricia completed medical school at the University of Alberta in 1994, with additional training in psychiatry.
She treated patients dealing with chronic, severe and persistent mental illness, from 1999 to 2006, when she worked at the Acute Adult Psychiatry Unit in the provincial asylum in Ponoka, Alberta. Here in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, Patricia worked at Delta Mental Health from 2006 to 2012. She has provided locum mental health and addiction services to communities in Northern Alberta since then.
Today, Patricia is semi-retired from medicine, but she continues to pursue her passion for the arts – she has started an indie record label, Higher Life Music, with her son.
