Daniel Bernhard

Worth knowing

He knows why talented newcomers arrive in Canada and then leave, having put numbers to it through the ICC's research with Leger, and he has taken that evidence to House of Commons committees on citizenship and on broadcasting alike. Few people can move as fluently between immigration policy, Canadian media rules and the press.

Story

Daniel is a first-generation Canadian; his parents came from Chile in the 1970s during the military dictatorship. After a short stint in corporate consulting he committed to public-benefit work, advising and leading charities, foundations and government agencies across North America, Europe and the Middle East. At 32 he took over Friends of Canadian Broadcasting from its founder, spending three years arguing that foreign streaming companies should pay into Canadian content, including in the Toronto Star as the Broadcasting Act was being amended. In 2021 he moved to the ICC, where he now runs 6 Degrees, the forum on inclusion based in Toronto with hubs in Berlin, Calgary, Mexico City and Montreal.

Highlights

• CEO, Institute for Canadian Citizenship, since 2021
• Executive Director, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, 2018-2021
• Testified before House of Commons committees on citizenship and on broadcasting
• Degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge
• Qualified software developer; speaks English, French and Spanish