Hill Climbers
Who’s who on Veterans Minister McKnight’s team
Veterans Affairs and Associate Defence Minister Jill McKnight has a relatively slim, 10-member team supporting her at present, including director of policy Mike Hamm.
As reported by Hill Climbers at the beginning of June, Dilys Fernandes, a former deputy chief of staff and director of policy to then-sport minister Carla Qualtrough, is chief of staff to McKnight, who is one of 16 first-time federal ministers in the current cabinet.
Hamm is a former chief of staff to Kings–Hants, N.S., Liberal MP Kody Blois. Hamm carried the Nova Scotia Liberal Party’s banner in the riding of Kings South during the province’s November 2024 election, but ultimately placed third in the race, with the formerly Liberal seat flipping to the Progressive Conservatives who were elected to a majority. According to his party candidate profile at the time, Hamm comes from a “close-knit military family.” Hill Climbers understands his grandfather served, and died, in the Second World War.
Hamm is also a past director of research and legislative affairs for the Nova Scotia Liberal caucus, and a former aide to then-N.S. MLA Leo Glavine, including serving as Glavine’s chief of staff during the MLA’s time as Nova Scotia’s health and wellness minister. Hamm’s LinkedIn profile indicates he first became chief of staff to then-N.S. health and wellness minister Randy Delorey in 2018 before Glavine took over the role in 2020.
Reporting to Hamm is policy adviser Dana Shami. Up until this past spring, Shami had worked for then-Mississauga Centre, Ont., Liberal MP Omar Alghabra since the 2019 federal election. She also lent a hand to both Alghabra’s 2019 and 2021 re-election campaigns (he did not seek re-election this year). Shami is a recent recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal, for which she was nominated by Alghabra.
Colin Lalonde has been tapped as director of parliamentary affairs to McKnight. He brings plenty of experience to the role as a Hill staffer since 2016 when he was hired as deputy lobby co-ordinator in then-chief government whip Andrew Leslie’s office. Lalonde left Leslie’s team in January 2017 to instead work for then-deputy whip Filomena Tassi. Tassi was added to cabinet as minister for seniors in July 2018, and Lalonde subsequently joined her new ministerial office as a special assistant for operations and Ontario regional affairs. He later followed Tassi to the labour portfolio after she was shuffled in the wake of the 2019 election, with Lalonde becoming a senior adviser for parliamentary affairs.
Lalonde went on to again follow Tassi to a new portfolio—this time public services and procurement, to which Tassi was shuffled after the 2021 federal election—at which point he became director of operations. He stayed in the role after Helena Jaczek replaced Tassi as public services minister in August 2022, but exited in 2023 to become director of parliamentary affairs and appointments to then-heritage minister Pascale St-Onge—his most recent role.
On June 20, Riya Khanna started on the job as director of operations to McKnight. Khanna previously worked in then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office as an outreach adviser for almost a year and a half leading up to Trudeau’s official exit this past March.
A former assistant to now-Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai as the MP for Surrey Centre, B.C., Khanna has also worked as a special assistant in the Liberal research bureau. During the recent federal election, she played a key role in her former cabinet colleague, now-Liberal MP Fares Al Soud’s successful campaign in Mississauga Centre.
Iqra Ishtiaq is in place as a regional adviser for the West and North. Ishtiaq is a former constituency assistant who helped handle casework Qualtrough’s office as then-Delta, B.C., MP. She subsequently worked on McKnight’s successful campaign to succeed Qualtrough as the MP for Delta, and briefly worked in the constituency office under McKnight before moving over to the veterans team.
Abina Mohanarajah, meanwhile, covers Ontario regional affairs for the veterans minister. She joined McKnight’s team fresh from Queen’s Park where Mohanarajah had been working as an executive assistant for the last roughly year and a half.
Adam Rogers-Green has landed the role of director of communications to McKnight. Hailing from Toronto, he comes fresh from the private sector and was last working as a senior marketing consultant focused on the public sector for IT and business consulting firm CGI. He’s also a former product and later content marketing manager with Swift Medical, and previously spent a little more than three-and-a-half years working for Think Research, last as its director of public procurement.
Rogers-Green has campaign experience under his belt—including from April Engelberg’s (ultimately unsuccessful) 2022 run to represent Spadina–Fort York at Toronto city council—and has some experience from the provincial level as a former information management and Freedom of Information analyst with Ontario’s Ministry of Economic Development and Growth.
Faith Ross is executive assistant to the minister. She graduated from Carleton University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and government earlier this year, and volunteered for the Liberals during the spring election.
Finally, Jacob Hiseman is McKnight’s driver. Hiseman is a former infantry soldier with the Canadian Armed Forces between 2012 and 2023. He spent his first two years with the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (Duke of Edinburgh’s Own), and the rest with the 2nd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
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