Hill Climbers
Who’s who in Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Alty’s office
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty is heading into the start of the new Parliament with a 14-member team, which includes Sherry Smith as both deputy chief of staff and director of policy.
As reported by Hill Climbers in June, Seth Pickard-Tattrie is chief of staff to Minister Alty.
Smith has been overseeing policy for the federal Crown-Indigenous relations minister since 2023, having first been promoted to the title by then-minister Gary Anandasangaree shortly after he took over the portfolio that July. She’s now added deputy chief of staff to her cap in the office under Alty.
A former operations manager with the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba, Smith’s name first appeared in these pages in 2017 when she was a Western regional affairs adviser in then-Indigenous services minister Jane Philpott’s office. Smith went on to work as a senior regional adviser for the Prairies to then-Indigenous services minister Marc Miller, and followed Miller to the Crown-Indigenous relations portfolio when he was shuffled after the 2021 federal election, becoming a senior adviser.
Also currently focused on policy in Alty’s office are senior policy adviser Jeelan Syed, senior policy and British Columbia regional adviser Liam Olsen, and policy and Prairies regional adviser Tracy Karuhogo.
Syed comes from the former national revenue minister’s office where he’d been working since the end of 2022, beginning as a policy adviser to then-minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. He stuck with the office after Liberal MP Élisabeth Brière took over as minister last December, and was most recently a senior policy adviser. Syed is also a past assistant to Quebec Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi.
Olsen brings roughly three years of experience working in the federal environment minister’s office. First hired as executive assistant to the chief of staff to then-minister Steven Guilbeault in January 2022, Olsen became a regional affairs adviser for B.C. and the Prairies roughly one year later—his most recent role.
A former constituency assistant to B.C. Liberal MP Jonathan Wilkinson, Olsen has also been busy as president of the Young Liberals of Canada since 2023. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was a youth director for Carney’s leadership campaign at the beginning of this year, and worked on youth outreach for the national Liberal campaign during this spring’s federal election.
Karuhogo was hired to Alty’s office last month, and was most recently working as a policy analyst with Manitoba’s Department of Advanced Education and Training. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Manitoba last year, and that summer did a public affairs internship with First Lake Solutions, a government relations firm. Karuhogo’s LinkedIn profile notes she’s a past president of the University of Manitoba’s Students’ Union, a former secretary of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, and that she founded the Black Girl Talk Collective last year, among other things.
Vince Haraldsen is director of litigation to Alty. A longtime Liberal staffer, Haraldsen previously did the same for Anandasangaree as then-Crown-Indigenous relations minister, and before then was director of parliamentary affairs to Carolyn Bennett as then-mental health and addictions minister, then-Crown-Indigenous relations minister, and as then-Indigenous and northern affairs minister.
Haraldsen’s years on the Hill include working in Bennett’s office as then-MP for the then-named riding of St. Paul’s, Ont. He’s also been chief of staff to then-Liberal environment minister David Anderson, and then-minister of state for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario Joe Comuzzi.
Danielle Boyle is director of operations in the Crown-Indigenous relations office.
Until recently, Boyle had been working in the cabinet offices of Liberal MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor since 2022, starting as manager of economic development in Petitpas Taylor’s office as then-official languages and Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency minister. Boyle went on to be manager of operations to Petitpas Taylor as then-veterans affairs minister, where she was later promoted to director of operations, and was most recently director of operations to Petitpas Taylor as then-Treasury Board president. Prior to 2022, Boyle was an officer manager and executive assistant to then-public safety minister Bill Blair, and before then was an executive assistant in the offices of then-health ministers Philpott and Petitpas Taylor.
Greg Noseworthy is senior legal adviser and operations manager. He was first hired to the Crown-Indigenous relations office in 2023 as an Atlantic regional adviser to then-minister Anandasangaree, and is also a former Atlantic adviser to then-public services and procurement ministers Filomena Tassi and Helena Jaczek. Prior to being hired by Tassi, Noseworthy worked as an estate planning lawyer with Noseworthy Legal Services in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Also covering regional desks in Alty’s office is Waleed Saleem, who’s in place as a regional adviser for Ontario and Quebec.
Saleem previously worked in the Crown-Indigenous relations office under then-minister Anandasangaree, who hired Saleem as an Ontario regional affairs adviser in the fall of 2023. In September 2024, Saleem exited to become press secretary to then-diversity, inclusion, and persons with disabilities minister Kamal Khera—his most recent job.
Saleem spent this year’s election helping one of his former ministerial colleagues, now-Liberal MP Fares al Soud, get elected in Mississauga Centre, Ont. He’s also a past Ontario adviser to then-justice minister David Lametti, and a former assistant to Anandasangaree as the MP for the then-named riding of Scarborough–Rouge Park, Ont.
Harrison Paul continues as director of parliamentary affairs in the Crown-Indigenous relations office, and as such oversees parliamentary affairs adviser Quinten Beelick.
Paul previously filled the same role in the office under Anandasangaree. His first brush with the portfolio came in early 2020 when Paul was hired as a special assistant for Atlantic regional affairs and assistant to the parliamentary secretary to then-minister Bennett. (Anandasangaree was Bennett’s parliamentary secretary at the time.) Paul subsequently followed Bennett to the mental health and addictions portfolio after the 2021 election, becoming a senior parliamentary affairs adviser there before leaving to join Anandasangaree’s team in 2023.
Beelik is an ex-assistant to now-Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai as the MP for Surrey Centre, B.C., and first joined the Crown-Indigenous relations office under Anandasangaree as a legislative assistant in June 2024. Beelik is a former junior project support officer with Global Affairs Canada, a past House of Commons page, and, according to his LinkedIn profile, spent this year’s federal election helping Liberal MP Julie Dzerowicz get re-elected as the MP for Davenport, Ont.
Patrick Vaughan is director of communications to Alty. He last did the same for Khera as then-minister for diversity, inclusion, and persons with disabilities, having been promoted from deputy director to director outright at the start of this year. A former assistant in Khera’s office as the then-MP for Brampton West, Ont., he was hired as a communications adviser and stakeholder relations in her office as then-seniors minister in January 2023, and was first promoted to deputy director of communications almost six months later.
A fresh face to cabinet offices, Alec Wilson has been hired as press secretary to Alty. Wilson worked on communications for now-Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland’s Liberal leadership campaign at the start of this year, and is a former communications officer with War Child Canada.
Finally, Akshanaa Rathakrishnan is executive assistant. She’s a former research student with Norton Rose Fulbright, and an ex-program facilitator with the Centre for Leadership and Innovation. Rathakrishnan’s LinkedIn profile indicates she hails from Goodwood, Ont., the real-life site of multiple town landmarks in the fictional Schitt’s Creek.
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