Permanent staff members

Kenza Bennis, coordinator

(Photo credit: Laetitia Jourdan)

A journalist for 20 years, Kenza Bennis has always been intensely interested in women issues and feminism. In Morocco, her country of origin, she co-founded one of the first women’s magazines (Femmes du Maroc), which fights for more rights for Moroccan women. After coming to Québec in 1998, she spent several years in charge of the society pages for Elle Québec magazine, before stepping out on her own and working for a variety of media as an independent journalist. In 2017, she published Les monologues du voile (Robert Laffont), an essay on the situation and perceptions of veiled Muslim women in Québec. As an active member of her community, she volunteers with a number of organizations and is a member of the board of directors for a women’s shelter.

Christine De Kinder, administrative secretary

An employee of the City of Montreal’s youth and intercultural councils since April 2013, in March 2014 Christine De Kinder added another role and became Secretary of the Conseil des Montréalaises. Prior to that, she spent four and a half years with Un itinéraire pour tous, an anti-poverty group housed in the Maison culturelle of Montreal North, a multi-ethnic neighbourhood, where she warmly welcomed youth and other members of the community and addressed their concerns. In previous employment, she provided bookkeeping and billing support to legal professionals. While writing a children’s story and a novel, she was inspired to embark upon a bachelor’s degree in written French, literary creation and screenwriting. She has written several screenplays, a novel, a play, a sitcom, a few essays and short stories. With her highly diversified experience, De Kinder brings a touch of creativity to her new milieu.