Hill Climbers
A roundup of Immigration Minister Diab’s team so far
New Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Minister Lena Metlege Diab has hired plenty of familiar hands to her ministerial office to date, pulling from the former teams of her portfolio predecessors.
As previously reported, Adam Carroll is chief of staff to Diab.
Second on the list of seniority in the immigration office is deputy chief of staff and director of policy Elizabeth Cheesbrough, a veteran staffer who’s returned to the federal political trenches after roughly two years away. Cheesbrough’s last known post on the Hill was as chief of staff to then-Treasury Board president Mona Fortier, who was shuffled out of cabinet in July 2023. Cheesbrough had been working for Fortier since 2020, beginning as policy director in Fortier’s office as then-middle class prosperity and associate finance minister, and followed the minister to the Treasury Board post after the 2021 federal election.
Under the Trudeau Liberal government, Cheesbrough also previously worked as a senior policy adviser to then-public safety minister Ralph Goodale. Between 2014 and 2018, Cheesbrough was an assistant to then-Toronto MP Adam Vaughan. Her history on the Hill dates back to the late 1990s, and her other past jobs over the years include serving as an assistant to then-Liberal MP Andy Mitchell during his turns as secretary of state for parks, secretary of state for rural development, and as minister of Indian affairs and northern development. She went on to work for Joe Volpe during his turns as then-human resources and skills development minister (where she worked alongside Carroll) and then-citizenship and immigration minister, and—after the Paul Martin Liberal government was defeated in 2006—as the then-MP for Eglinton–Lawrence, Ont.
Cheesbrough has since also been an assistant to then-Liberal MP Judy Foote, and a policy adviser in the Liberal research bureau.
Currently tackling policy under Cheesbrough’s direction are senior policy advisers Matthieu Saint-Wril and Isabelle Buchanan, as well as policy and operations adviser Akshala Surendranath.
Saint-Wril was previously a policy and Quebec regional affairs adviser in the immigration office, to which he was first hired as a Quebec adviser to then-minister Sean Fraser in March 2022. Before then, he’d been an assistant to Quebec Liberal MP Rachel Bendayan for a little more than two-and-a-half years. Bendayan briefly served as immigration minister between March and May of this year. Among other past jobs, Saint-Wril has also previously worked for MMTUM Inc., and for the law firm Wellstein Mora Rodriguez International where his work focused on research and communications.
Buchanan first joined the immigration office over the summer of 2023 when she followed her then-boss Marc Miller to the portfolio after that July’s cabinet shuffle. Buchanan had first been hired as a communications assistant to Miller as then-Crown-Indigenous relations minister in August 2022, and became a policy adviser after following him to immigration. Under Diab, she’s been elevated to “senior” status. In addition to her policy duties, Buchanan is currently also helping field media requests for Diab.
Surendranath was originally hired as a special assistant for operations to Miller as then-immigration minister in September 2023, and before that was executive assistant to then-trade minister Mary Ng.
Carrying the title of senior adviser to Diab is Arash Rahmani.
Like Buchanan, Rahmani followed Miller from Crown-Indigenous relations to immigration after the July 2023 shuffle. In Rahmani’s case, he’d been a regional affairs adviser for British Columbia to Miller as then-Crown-Indigenous relations minister since March of that year and became a senior operations and outreach adviser after following Miller to immigration. At the beginning of this year, Rahmani stepped in as acting operations director to Miller. Rahmani is also a past constituency assistant to B.C. Liberal MP Ron McKinnon.
Lisa Cheskes continues as director of case management to the immigration minister, a role she’s filled since 2016, starting under then-minister John McCallum, and continuing through Ahmed Hussen, Marco Mendicino, Fraser, Miller, and Bendayan’s turns leading the portfolio.
Prior to joining McCallum’s ministerial office, Cheskes had been his assistant as the then-MP for Markham–Thornhill, Ont., for more than a decade.
Working closely with Cheskes is another “Lisa,” Lisa Stewart, who has likewise reprised her role as an Ontario regional affairs adviser focused on immigration casework. Stewart was hired under then-minister Fraser at the end of 2022, and before then had been an assistant to then-Ontario Liberal MP Filomena Tassi since the end of 2015. Her CV also includes almost four-and-a-half years spent as an SEO specialist with the Hamilton-based tech company i2b Global Inc.
Also covering Ontario regional affairs—but without the casework focus—is Juan Sarmiento, a former constituency assistant to Ontario Liberal MP Judy Sgro who first joined the immigration office under Fraser in early 2022.
Philip T. Gebert is a regional adviser for B.C. and the North to Diab. Originally hired as a special assistant for operations and policy to then-minister Miller in the fall of 2023, Gebert had previously been an assistant to Miller as the MP for Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Soeurs, Que. He was named West and North regional adviser to Miller last year. Gebert has served as an officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and has been a fellow with Queen’s University’s Centre for International and Defence Policy since last fall.
Stefany Sorto covers the Prairies desk for Diab as a regional adviser. Sorto joined the immigration office under Miller around the same time as Gebert, in her case as a West and North regional adviser. Gebert stepped in to replace her last year when Sorto went on maternity leave. Sorto is also a former West and North regional adviser to then-labour minister Seamus O’Regan, and a past constituency assistant to then-Alberta Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault.
Wrapping up the minister’s team so far is special assistant Conor Noseworthy. Noseworthy has been working for Diab for the last nine years, first as her assistant as the Nova Scotia MLA for the provincial riding of Halifax Armdale, and more recently in her capacity as the MP for Halifax West, N.S., since 2021.
Altogether, that’s 12 staff total confirmed in Diab’s office to date, with further hires expected in the near future. Keep reading Hill Climbers for more updates.
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