Jean Viel, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
In 1991, Jean Viel left his doctoral studies in political science to accept a position at the Secretary of State in Ottawa. In 1995, he joined Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to be part of the Metropolis Project Team. In 2005, he extended his expertise to be part of innovative social policy work in the Community Approaches and Initiatives Division of Human Resources and Social Development Canada. Four years later, he returned to CIC (IRCC) to continue contributing to the policy direction for the integration of immigrants in Francophone Minority Communities. Since 2009 and until 2018, Jean has held various positions such as Director and Assistant Director to support IRCC’s contributions to the Part VII of the Official Languages Act and on the Francophone Integration Pathway. For a few years, that also included being the Senior Strategic Advisor on Francophone Affairs to the Director General. In October 2021, he joined the Afghanistan Settlement Branch to lead on traditional stakeholder engagement, which includes providing policy advice and leading on stakeholder relations on Francophone communities’ contributions in the resettlement arena. Over the course of his career, Jean was recognized for his contributions through the Clerk of the Public Service Award for Excellence in Policy (1999), the HRSDC’s Deputy Minister’s Award for Excellence in Management (2006), the IRCC’s Deputy Minister’s Award (IRCC) for Exceptional Contribution (2019) and the Canadian Heritage Award for Official Languages under the ”Allied to Official Language Minority Communities” (2019) banner.
